Saamy

saamy

Movie Poster
Directed by Hari
Produced by K. Balachander (Presenter)
Pushpa Kandasamy
Written by Hari
Starring Vikram
Trisha
Vivek
Kota Srinivasa Rao
Ramesh Khanna
Music by Harris Jayaraj
Cinematography Priyan
Edited by V. T. Vijayan
Production
company
Distributed by Lakshmi Venkat Sai Films
Release dates
 1 May 2003 (1 May 2003)
Running time
 161 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
Box office ₹31 crore (US$4.6 million)[1]

Saamy(The God)is a 2003 Indian Tamil action film written and directed by Hari. The film has Vikram, Trisha and Kota Srinivasa Rao in the lead. The film's music was composed by Harris Jayaraj. Upon release, the film was highly successful at the box office. It was remade in Telugu as Lakshmi Narasimha starring Nandamuri Balakrishna, in Kannada as Ayya Starring Darshan and later in Hindi as Policegiri starring Sanjay Dutt.

Like other films directed by Hari this film also specialises a particular city and this time it is Tirunelveli. Saamy along with Kaakha Kaakha started a trend of police films in Tamil such as Bheeshmar, Gambeeram, Anjaneya and many others. Kota Srinivasa Rao made his debut in Tamil as a villain in this film.

Plot

Aarusaamy (Vikram) is the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Tirunelveli who efficiently brings the city under control. Aarusaamy arrives at Tirunelveli after being in exile for some years after being wrongly accused of bribery by corrupt politicians. In an early scene in the film, he eats idli with beer and performs some drunken antics, which had a negative impact on the viewing public. At the outset, he pretends to be a corrupt cop by accepting bribes from the very influential Annachi. Later Saamy starts to rebel against him and the rest is about how he succeeds in overcoming the corrupt politicians.

Aarusaamy's father (Vijayakumar) who wanted to become a cop was unable to become due to corruption and takes care of agriculture for his living. But he wanted to make his son a cop. Vikram too passes the IPS examinations in merit, but was asked for bribe. His father mortgages his properties and makes him get the desired job. Being an honest cop, Aarusaamy is honoured with transfers all over Tamil Nadu due to political pressure. Finally, in Trichy, he is accused of bribery by a politician and he gets suspended. It takes him six months to prove himself and he is posted in Tirunelveli now.

In Tirunelveli, he adapts a new policy of adjusting with the local goons so that he can serve the people in an effective way. Perumal Pichai (Kota Srinivasa Rao), is an underworld don who has the total control of Southern Tamil Nadu, both in politics as well as rowdyism but he is less known in the media. He bribes Aarusaamy so that he will not disturb his business because both Perumal Pichai and Aarusaamy belongs to his caste. Saamy also accepts it but requests him to make some changes which he in turn accepts. As a result, the city is under the control of Law and Order. He is always accompanied by "Punctuality" Paramasivam (Ramesh Khanna), who is an inspector.

Saamy falls in love with a college-going Brahmin girl, Bhuvana (Trisha Krishnan) and they get engaged. Bhuvana's father, (Delhi Ganesh) is a straightforward government officer who never got bribe and leads a noble life. Saamy and Bhuvana meet each other when Saamy goes in search of a home for rent to Bhuvana's home. Bhuvana misinterprets Saamy and Paramasivam as thieves and locks them in a room.

The ruling party has called for a one-day strike all over the state and Perumal Pichai is handed with the responsibility of Tirunelveli on the eve of Pongal festival. But Saamy takes steps to maintain law and order and the strike becomes a failure. This makes Perumal Pichai angry. He was waiting for a chance to take revenge on Saamy and they attack the market on the day of Saamy's marriage since all the policemen would be attending the wedding. Besides this, Saamy also 'seals' the petrol bunk (gas station) of Perumal Pichai because the workers at the petrol bunk assaulted a woman and others when they challenged very less distribution of petrol than being promised. This incident was the last straw that broke the camel's back and started the revolution of Saami against Perumal Pichai.

This incident marks the start of direct clash between Saamy and Perumal Pichai. Both challenge to get rid of the other in 7 days time. Perumal Pichai uses his influences and gets Saamy transferred but Saamy is given a time of 7 days to take charge. Saamy also loses his father in a bomb blast in his home which was targeted to kill him. He plans accordingly and takes revenge on Perumal Pichai by the eve of 7th day.

Cast

Production

After directing Thamizh, Kavithalayaa Productions called Hari to direct a film for them since Hari assisted few of their films.[2] The film was titled as Saamy, Vikram and Trisha were selected to play lead pair. Telugu actor Kota Srinivasa Rao was selected to play negative role making his debut in Tamil.

The film's shooting schedule took place at Karaikudi, Some fight scenes were shot at the busy lanes in Karaikudi where Vikram chased some rowdies, The fight scene was shot for five days, with Priyan canning the shots and Super Subbarayan choreographing the fights.[3][4] Vikram worked on his body for the film, sporting a thick waist to show notable differences from his other police film, Dhill and also put on eight kilograms.[5]

Soundtrack

Saamy

Front CD Cover
Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Released 2003
Genre Film soundtrack
Length 25:27
Language Tamil
Label Star Music
Ayngaran Music
An Ak Audio
Producer Harris Jayaraj
Harris Jayaraj chronology
Lesa Lesa
(2003)		 Saamy
(2003)		 Kovil
(2003)

The soundtrack album and background score were composed by composer Harris Jayaraj.Lyrics were written by Thamarai, Na. Muthukumar & Snehan and upon release the soundtrack received positive reviews from critics. Due to its popularity on the music charts Harris Jayaraj was nominated for the Filmfare Best Music Director award.

Tamil Tracklist

No. TitleLyricsSinger(s) Length
1. "Thirunelveli Halwada"  SnehanPalakkad Sriram 04:36
2. "Idhuthaanaa"  ThamaraiK. S. Chithra 05:19
3. "Kalyaanam Thaan Kattikittu"  SnehanKK, Yugendran, Srilekha Parthasarathy 05:02
4. "Pudichirukku"  Na. MuthukumarHariharan, Komal Ramesh, Mahathi 05:03
5. "Veppamaram"  Na. MuthukumarTippu 05:27
Total length:
 25:27

Telugu Tracklist

All lyrics written by Siva Ganesh. 

No. TitleSinger(s) Length
1. "Thapeswaram Kajaaraa"  Naveen 04:36
2. "Ayyayyo Ayyayyo"  Koushik, Shravya, Komal Ramesh 05:03
3. "Yedalona Yedalona"  Harini 05:19
4. "Pelli Pelli"  Tippu, Srilekha Parthasarathy 05:02
5. "Vepachettu"  Tippu 05:27
Total length:
 25:27

Release

Critical reception

Sify wrote:"The patchy storyline merely serves as a pretext to spark off several skirmishes and bombastic dialogues. Ultimately it is Vikram who dominates this action movie. In fact he is the mainstay of the picture [sic] Director Hari packs in a sting, but Saamy is strictly for the no holds barred action addicts".[6] Bizhat called it:"taut, fully engaging actioner".[7] Hindu wrote:"Kavithalaya's "Saami" should follow the "Dhil", "Dhool" line. Vikram's daredevilry and macho appeal ought to go down well with the masses. His presence of mind and intelligence are bound to make an impression on those who expect something more".[8]

Box office

Saamy was released approximately in 100 screens in Tamil Nadu. The film had a huge opening as it was a summer vacation for the Tamil audiences. Theatres in Chennai had almost 100% occupancies and the film recovered all its budget within 4 to 5 days.[9]

Remakes

The film was remade into Telugu as Lakshmi Narasimha with Balakrishna and Asin in lead roles though the original version was dubbed and released in Telugu as Swamy IPS.[10] It was also remade in Bengali as Barood (বারূদ) with Mithun Chakraborty, in Kannada as Ayya with Darshan and in Hindi as Policegiri by the notable director K.S.Ravikumar with Sanjay Dutt and Prachi Desai.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Krishna Gopalan (29 July 2007). "The boss, no doubt". Business Today. Archived from the original on 25 September 2014. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  2. ↑ "'Sami is Vikram's film'". Rediff. 2003-03-13. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  3. ↑ "samy". Cinematoday3.itgo.com. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  4. ↑ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2003-02-03. Archived from the original on 2003-02-03. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  5. ↑ "`I am a director's actor'". Frontlineonnet.com. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  6. ↑ "Movie Review : Saamy". Sify. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  7. ↑ HostOnNet.com. "BizHat.com — Saamy Review.". Movies.bizhat.com. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  8. ↑ "Saami". The Hindu. 2003-05-09. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
  9. ↑ "Numero Uno". The Hindu. 2003-05-26. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  10. ↑ http://www.sify.com/movies/lakshmi-narasimha-ahead-news-telugu-kkfvNPjejia.html
  11. ↑ "Sanjay Dutt to play cop in remake of Tamil film 'Saamy'". Mid-day.com. 2012-08-01. Retrieved 2013-06-11.

External links

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