Singam

For other uses, seeSingam (disambiguation).

Singam
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hari
Written by	Hari
Produced by	K. E. Gnanavel Raja
Starring	Suriya Anushka Shetty Prakash Raj
Cinematography	Priyan
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan
Music by	Devi Sri Prasad
Production companies	Reliance BIG Pictures Studio Green
Distributed by	Sun Pictures
Release date	28 May 2010(2010-05-28)
Running time	159 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹15 crore
Box office	est.₹90–100 crore

Singam(transl. Lion) is a 2010 IndianTamil-languageaction filmdirected byHariand produced byK. E. Gnanavel RajaunderStudio Greenin association withReliance Big Picturesand distributed bySun Pictures.The film, which is the first installment in theSingamfranchise,starsSuriyaas the lead role in his 25th film, withAnushka Shetty,Prakash RajandVivekin supporting roles.

Singamwas released on 28 May 2010 and became a commercial success at the box office. It was remade inKannadaasKempe Gowda,inHindiasSinghamand inPunjabiasSingham.It was followed by the sequelsSingam IIandSi3.

Plot

Duraisingam "Singam" is an honestSIof Nallur, a small village inThoothukudi districtinsouthern Tamil Nadu,assisted by his bumbling colleagueYettuErimalai. He belongs to Nallur with his father Soundarapandi, having a respectable status in the village. His family business isprovision stores,and Singam wants to join it, but he joined the police due to Soundarapandi's wishes. He resolves most of the problems in his village withnon-violenceand mutual counselling. He uses force only when the situation demands it, thereby gaining much reputation and love from the villagers.

Mahalingam, an industrialist inChennaiand friend of Soundarapandi, arrives at the village with his daughters Kavya and Divya. Singam initially thinks of Kavya as a prankster when she is about to prank her cousin by wearing a tiger costume. While roaming around the village, Singam accidentally slaps Kavya, but later apologizes to her. Kavya gets moved by this and slowly falls in love with him. After some hilarious incidents, Kavya professes her love to Singam. Initially taken aback, Singam soon reciprocates Kavya's love. Mayil Vaaganam, aChennai-based gangster infamous for extortion and kidnapping, is required to travel to Nallur to sign a conditional bail after having forced a builder into committing suicide.

Mayil instead sends one of his allies to do the formalities, enraging Singam. Singam demands that Mayil sign the bail in person. Humiliated, Mayil reaches Nallur, but is unable to take any revenge on Singam, fearing the immense love and devotion of the entire village towards Singam. Using his political contacts, Mayil gets Singam transferred to Chennai to teach him a lesson. Unaware of Mayil's hand behind his transfer, Singam joinsThiruvanmiyurpolice station. His co-worker SI Ravi hates Mayil for his crimes, but is unable to take any action because of Mayil's political powers. Singam's senior Rajendran is on Mayil's payroll and takes care in concealing and eliminating evidence of Mayil's crimes from the law.

Thepolice commissionerdoes not help Singam as there is unavailability of evidence against Mayil. Rajendran warns Singam to stay away from Mayil's case. Unable to take on Mayil in his stronghold, Singam wants to return to his village, but is stopped by Kavya, who encourages him to fight against Mayil and end his crime network. Being mentally tortured by Mayil, Singam arrests Mayil's brother Vaikuntam in a fake case of illegally smugglingalcohol.He thwarts off Rajendran in full view of the public when Rajendran, bounded by his duties to Mayil, tries to protect the henchmen. Mayil kidnaps Divya for ransom. Singam rescues her with unexpected help fromHome MinisterRamanathan.

Singam successfully traces the origins of the kidnapping racket to Mayil and also gets promoted toACPof the specially-formed Anti-KidnappingTask Force.Mahalingam, who was hostile to Singam following an altercation with Soundarapandi back at Nallur, softens up and agrees to give him Kavya's hand in marriage. The entire police force, including the police commissioner and Rajendran, are now on Singam's side and help him to fight Mayil. They manage to kill Mayil's henchmen in an encounter at a hospital and begins to target everyone and everything related to Mayil. In retribution, Mayil starts targeting everyone close to Singam, including Kavya, but is saved by Singam, and Ravi, who is hacked to death by Mayil. To escape from getting arrested, Mayil kidnaps the daughter ofKarnatakaHome Minister.

Mayil falsely tells Singam that he is going toPondicherrywith her, but he is actually going toNelloreinAndhra Pradeshto put the police off the track. However, Singam manages to pursue them tillGudurnearNellore,where he rescues her and kills Mayil in anencounter.After that, Singam resigns his job publicly in a felicitation function organised for him, where he is seen with Kavya heading back to Nallur. Singam is stopped briefly by Ramanathan, who offers an undercover mission, to which he willingly agrees, setting up the plot forSingam II.

Cast

• Suriyaas ACP S.Duraisingam,Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (formerly Inspector and Sub-Inspector)
• Anushka Shettyas Kavya Mahalingam, Singam's love interest
• Prakash Rajas Mayil Vaaganam
• Vivekas Head ConstableYettuErimalai, Singam's colleague
• Adithyaas Vaikuntam, Mayilvaganam's brother
• Vijayakumaras Home Minister Ramanathan
• Nizhalgal Ravias ACP Rajendran
• Radha Ravias Soundarapandi, Singam's father
• Nassaras Mahalingam, Kavya's father
• Sumithraas Kalyani Soundarapandi, Singam's mother
• Janaki Sabeshas Bharathi Mahalingam, Kavya's mother
• Priya Atlee as Divya Mahalingam, Kavya's younger sister
• Yuvaranias Dhanalakshmi, Singam's sister
• Delhi Kumaras Kavya's grandfather
• Manoramaas Kavya's grandmother
• Ajay Ratnamas K.Sekar IPS Commissioner of Chennai
• Bose Venkatas Sub-Inspector Ravi
• Manobalaas Mayil's lawyer
• Kaajal Pasupathias Police Officer
• Panduas Maarichaamy
• Thyaguas Harbour Shanmugam
• Crane Manoharas Palani
• Besant Ravias goon in theater
• Bharathi Kannan
• Subash Chander as Vengai Swami
• Vanaja as Sumathi
• Cell Muruganas Mumbai Rowdy
• Soundhar
• Suryakanth
• Nandha Saravanan as Mayil Vaaganam's henchman
• Jayamani
• Jayakanthan
• Karnaa Radha
• Vengaiya Balan
• Sakthivel
• Bobby
• Rathan Mouli as Jaishankar
• Vishwanthas Lover
• Kadhal Saravanan as Farmer

Production

Development

AfterSuriyahad finishedK. S. Ravikumar'sAadhavan,discussions regarding his subsequent project, notably his 25th film, were held. Initially, reports emerged that it was going to be directed byPrabhu Deva.At the launch of his filmSevalin May 2009, however, directorHariannounced officially that he would direct Suriya's 25th film titledSingamand that he had finished penning the script.Becoming Suriya's third film with Hari followingAaruandVel,it was announced that the project would release in July 2010.Suriya's cousin, K. E. Gnanavel Raja was announced as the producer.

Casting

Devi Sri Prasadwas chosen as the music director, thus becoming his third venture with Suriya. Suriya was revealed to play a police officer in the film, the second time in his career afterKaakha Kaakha.Anushkawas chosen to play the female lead after her second Tamil filmVettaikaaran.Priyan was chosen as the lead camera man and V.T. Vijayan as the editor.

Filming

After completingSeval,Hari joined the cast and crew to start the filming in 2009. The shooting began inThirunelvelidistrict and was carried on in southern parts ofTamil Nadu.A scene from the song "Stole my Heart" was shot in Muscat Park that was choreographed byBrinda.Afterwards, some scenes where shot inKarnataka.The main scenes were shot inThiruvanmiyur,Chennai.During December, Hari announced that the film wouldn't have a formal audio launch as per his previous films and that the shooting would get over quickly.The trailers were released on 24 February.Sun Picturesacquired the distribution rights,andSony Musicbought the music for a hefty price.

Soundtrack

Singam
Soundtrack albumby Devi Sri Prasad
Released	9 May 2010
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Sony Music
Producer	Devi Sri Prasad
Devi Sri Prasadchronology
Namo Venkatesa (2010) Singam (2010) Manmadan Ambu (2010)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Behindwoods	*

The film's soundtrack, released on 9 May 2010, was scored by Devi Sri Prasad, marking his third collaboration with Suriya afterMaayaviandAaruand with Hari for second time afterAaru.

No.	Title	Lyrics	singer(s)	Length
1.	"Naane Indhiran"	Viveka	Benny Dayal&Manicka Vinayagam	5:33
2.	"En Idhayam"	Na. Muthukumar	Suchitra&Tippu	4:34
3.	"Stole My Heart (Unplugged)"	Hari	Shaan	2:19
4.	"Stole My Heart"	Viveka	Shaan,Megha	3:37
5.	"Singam"	Na. Muthukumar, Megha	Devi Sri Prasad	4:21
6.	"Kadhal Vandhale"	Viveka	Baba Sehgal&Priyadarshini	4:22

Release

The film was released worldwide on 28 May 2010 released in 850 screens worldwide.

Reception

Critical reception

Behindwoodsgave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Hari has" concocted and packaged his masala contents in the right proportion and has served a tasty dish. "Sifygave 3/5 stars and wrote "Singam is a predictable entertainer that follows the age old formula, which might appeal to viewers who finds comfort in mass masala entertainers."Rediffgave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Singam is an unapologetic entertainer and has Suriya in every frame. Lovers of commercial potpourri will definitely get their money's worth."Indiaglitzwrote thatSingamwas the king of the masses, who love action and commercial films. "Bhama Devi Ravi ofThe Times of Indiagave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Even with a sleepy narration in the first 30 minutes or so,Singamis worth a watch. "

Box office

Singamwas the third highest grossing Tamil film of the year in Chennai, collecting more than₹5.38 crore there.InMalaysiaand the United Kingdom, the film collected $1,471,508 and $12,956 respectively.

Remakes and dubbed versions

Singamwas remade in multiple different languages; inHindiasSingham(2011),inKannadaasKempe Gowda(2011) and inPunjabiasSingham(2019).

It was dubbed inTeluguunder the titleYamudu,and was released on 2 July 2010. Despite theHindiremake, the film was dubbed in Hindi under the titleThe Fighterman Singham.

Sequels

Main article:Singam (film series)

The film's success lead to two sequels:Singam II(2013) andSingam 3(2017).

Awards

Filmfare Awards South

• Winner ofBest Choreography–Baba Bhaskarfor "Kadhal Vandhale"
• Nominated for Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil - Suriya

Legacy

Santhanam and Soori parodied Suriya's character inVellore Maavattam(2011) andVaruthapadatha Valibar Sangam(2013), respectively.The famous line in the film, "Ongi Adicha Ondra Tonne Weight" (If I punch you, you will feel one and halftonnesof weight) was used in "The Punch Song", a song from the film,Aaha Kalyanam(2014).

External links

• SingamatIMDb