''Vilai'' ( ''Price'') is a 2010

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by G. Kamaraj. The film stars

Saravanan Saravanan is a Tamil male given name. Due to the Tamil tradition of using patronymic surnames, it may also be a surname for males and females. It is one of the names of the Hindu god Murugan. It may refer to: *Saravanan (actor) * M. Saravanan (p ...

Bharani Bharani (Devanagari: भरणी) is the second nakshatra in Hindu astronomy, corresponding to 35, 39, and 41 Arietis all together. In Jyotiṣa, Bharani is ruled by Shukra (the planet Venus). Also, it is classified as a Cruel or Active n ...

, Udhayathara and newcomer Ritu Soni, with Fathima,

Charmila Charmila (born 2 October 1974) is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema. Apart from movies in Malayalam, she acted in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada movies. She completed almost 38 films in the Malayalam film industry. Earl ...

, Shathiga, Krishnamoorthy, Gemini Balaji, Rajasanthuru and Devaraj playing supporting roles. The film, produced by M. Sathia and S. Babu, had musical score by

D. Imman Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran (born 24 January 1983), better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film music composer and singer, predominantly working in Tamil cinema. His first film as music director was ''Thamizhan'' in 2002. Since then he has comp ...

and was released on 27 August 2010.

Plot

The jobless Nandhu and his sister Vandana live in a village in

Madurai Madurai ( , , ), formerly known as Madura, is a major city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, which is ...

with their parents. Nandhu and Vandana are constantly squabbling like kids. One day, Nandhu gets into a fight to save his friends and Vandana denounces him to the police thus he is arrested. Their father who got fed up with their dispute arrange his daughter marriage but the topper Vandana wants to continue her studies. Nandhu opposes his decision and he convinces her of studying higher studies in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. Nandhu and Vandana come to Chennai, and a call taxi driver kidnaps Vandana. Meanwhile, the

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

girl and the daughter of a prostitute Mani are kidnapped in the same way. The three are abducted by a gang of traffickers along with other girls and plan to sell them. The Deputy Commissioner of Police Shanmugavel comes to his rescue and promises him to find his sister. The two travel together between cities, Shanmugavel eventually arrests one of the traffickers and he reveals everything about their prostitution network. Mirchi Maya is a ruthless female don in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

and the leader of the entire trafficking business. In Andhra Pradesh, they meet DCP Venkatanarayanan who he is pessimistic about the fate of Vandana but he decides to help them anyway. In the meantime, Mani and the Srilankan Tamil girl committed suicide to save their dignity. In the past, Shanmugavel lived happily with his wife and little daughter. The local don Farooq Bhai wanted to take revenge on Shanmugavel who accidentally killed his daughter. Farooq Bhai abducted his daughter and sold her to a prostitution network. However, in spite of these efforts, Shanmugavel could not find her. To save Vandana, DCP Shanmugavel goes to her brothel and poses as a client. He then selects Vandana but Mirchi Maya already knew about his identity. At that time, the police arrived at the place and ask Mirchi Maya to surrender but she reveals that she is Shanmugavel's daughter and shoots herself in front of her father. The abducted women including Vandana are saved.

Cast

as DCP Shanmugavel *

as Nandhu * Udhayathara *Ritu Soni as Vandana *Fathima as Mirchi Maya *

as Shanmugavel's wife *Shathiga as Mani * Krishnamoorthy *Gemini Balaji as Riaz *Rajasanthuru *Devaraj as Farooq Bhai *

Bhanu Chander Bhanu Chander (born 31 May 1953) is an Indian actor, director and producer known for his works predominantly in Telugu and Tamil cinema. He is the son of veteran music composer Master Venu. His paternal family hails from Machilipatnam and ma ...

as DCP Venkatanarayanan (guest appearance)

Production

Director G. Kamaraj, who directed the gangster film ''Perusu'' (2005), directed ''Vilai'' who was inspired by a real-life story and told the story of a prostitution racket that kidnapped and sold women against their will.

was selected to play the lead role alongside veteran actors

and

while Udhayathara, Ritu Soni, Shathiga and Fathima played the female lead. The film was primarily shot in

and

Soundtrack

The film score and the soundtrack were composed by

. The soundtrack features 4 tracks. The audio was released on 23 May 2010 in Chennai. Directors

Samuthirakani P. Samuthirakani (born 26 April 1973) is an Indian actor and film director who works predominantly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. He worked as an assistant to director K. Balachander, in '' Paarthale Paravasam''. He won the National F ...

Vetrimaaran V. Chitravel Vetrimaaran (born 4 September 1975) is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who primarily works in Tamil cinema. He is known for his unique filmography with major commercial success and highly critically acclaime ...

V. C. Guhanathan ''V.'' is a satirical postmodern novel and the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published on March 18, 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohe ...

K. Bhagyaraj Krishnaswamy Bhagyaraj (born 7 January 1953) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor, composer, film producer and politician active mainly in Tamil films. He has also written and directed Hindi films and TV serials. As an actor, he has ...

and A. L. Vijay attended the audio launch.

Release

The film was released on 27 August 2010 alongside five other films.

Critical reception

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naidu ...

said, "it misses the emotional punch, the script never really allows us to get involved or empathise with the plight of the girls. On the flip side, it is appreciable that the director has chosen a socially relevant theme, and that he has resisted slipping in sleaze, or any overt skin show". S. R. Ashok Kumar of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' praised the cast and wrote, "director G. Kamaraj handles the scenes deftly and with sensitivity. However, he could have looked into the slow pace of the first half".

Sify Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology (ICT) company providing telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation integration services, and ...

stated, "the film is too long winded and moves at a snail pace. There is also too much mush and melodrama, towards the climax ".

Box office

The film took a below average opening at the

box office.

References

{{reflist 2010 films 2010s Tamil-language films 2010s Indian films Indian drama films Films shot in Chennai Films shot in Madurai Films scored by D. Imman 2010 drama films