Wikipedia

Santosh Subramaniam

Santosh Subramaniam (spelt Santhosh Subramaniyam onscreen)[2] is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film directed by Mohan Raja and produced by Kalpathi S. Agoram. The film stars Jayam Ravi and Genelia while Prakash Raj, Geetha and Sayaji Shinde play supporting roles. It is a remake of the Telugu film, Bommarillu (2006). Genelia and Raj reprise their roles in the film, which revolves around a father and son relationship; the father dotes on his son, who resents the same. The son's choices and his ambitions to achieve something in life are subdued by his father.

Santosh Subramaniam
Theatrical poster
Directed byMohan Raja
Based onBommarillu
by Bhaskar
Produced byKalpathi S. Aghoram
Kalpathi S. Ganesh
Kalpathi S. Suresh
StarringJayam Ravi
Genelia
Prakash Raj
Narrated bySathyaraj[1]
CinematographyD. Kannan
Edited byMohan
Music byDevi Sri Prasad
Production
company
Release date
  • 11 April 2008 (2008-04-11)
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

The film entered production in July 2007 and in addition to being shot in India, was also shot at the South Island of New Zealand. The film's soundtrack was composed by Devi Sri Prasad, who retained most of the tunes he composed for Bommarillu.

Santosh Subramaniam was released on 11 April 2008 during the Tamil New Year festival. The film was positively received and commercially successful; critics praised the performances of Ravi, Genelia and Prakash Raj. The film won the third prize for the Best Film at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards of 2008. It was nominated for four awards at the 56th Filmfare Awards South, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress, but did not win in any category.

Plot

Subramaniam is a rich businessman managing his own construction company. He lives with his wife Shanthi and sons Sanjay and Santosh. Subramaniam cares for his family a lot and excessively dotes upon his children. Santosh, the younger son, does not like this as he wants to be independent and free from his father's guidance and control. But Santosh acts normally to avoid hurting his father. Santosh has in mind that both his career and wife should be of his choice only and not of his father. Subramaniam wants Santosh to assist him in managing the company but Santosh dreams of starting a new company on his own and does not prefer to work in his father's company. Meanwhile, Subramaniam arranges Santosh's wedding with Rajeshwari, daughter of his friend Ramamoorthy. Santosh is shocked as he has no other option rather than agreeing for this wedding.

One day, Santosh meets Hasini, a college student and is immediately attracted seeing her childish attitude and jovial nature. Santosh slowly befriends Hasini and both fall in love, but he does not have the courage to inform about his love to his father. Santosh gets spotted along with Hasini by Subramaniam and now he reveals his love affair. Subramaniam is furious upon hearing this as Santosh is already engaged to Rajeshwari. Subramaniam asks Santosh to bring Hasini to his home and make her stay with them for a week so that he will make Santosh understand that Rajeshwari is the better bride for him. Santosh agrees, believing that Hasini will impress Subramaniam. Hasini lies to her father Govindan that she is going for a college trip and leaves for Santosh's home.

Everyone at Subramaniam's home view Hasini indifferently seeing her talkative nature compared to Subramaniam's family members who are more mature and not so talkative, especially Subramaniam. Santosh asks Hasini to try impressing his family members, fearing Subramaniam might not accept for the wedding. Slowly, Hasini starts befriending Santosh's mother and sisters and gets close with them. Hasini informs them about Santosh's behaviours such as alcohol consumption, going out at night to meet her, and his plans of getting a bank loan to start his own company which were not known to Santosh's family before.

Santosh is shocked knowing that Hasini has revealed all his mischievous activities and berates her often for being childish. Hasini worries and decides to leave Santosh's home even before the one-week time given to her. She apologises to everyone in Santosh's home and says that she is not the one fit for him and his family. Santosh is worried seeing this but has no option rather than staying calm as even Subramaniam did not like Hasini.

The next day, an argument erupts between Santosh and Subramaniam during which the former becomes emotional and shouts that he has lost so many small things in life because of Subramaniam. But he preferred to stay calm as he does not want to hurt his father. Subramaniam realises his mistake and apologises to everyone saying that he always wanted to take care of his family members so well but had never thought that they are sacrificing a lot to make him happy.

Santosh meets Rajeshwari and apologises to her. He also makes her understand his situation. Rajeshwari convinces Ramamoorthy that she will get a better groom than Santosh. Meanwhile, Subramaniam goes to meet Hasini and apologises to her. Hasini says that her father is angry on her for lying and she will have to obey her father now. But Govindan does not like Santosh as he has seen him before drinking with his friends in road. Subramaniam says that he will send Santosh to Govindan's home for a week so that he will better understand his character. After numerous comic incidents between Govindan and Santosh, the former finally agrees for Santosh and Hasini's wedding.

Cast

Production

Despite early indications that the same team that worked on the 2006 Telugu film Bommarillu—including director K. Vijaya Bhaskar and producer Dil Raju—would remake the film in Tamil, the pair said they were not interested.[3] Raju was willing to sell the remake rights and held twenty previews in Chennai for potential buyers.[4] Editor Mohan, under his home company Jayam Combines, outbid Prakash Raj, who wanted to remake the film with Vishal in the lead role.[5] Others outbid included Vijay,[6] K. Bhagyaraj for his daughter, Saranya,[6] and A. M. Rathnam for his son Ravi Krishna.[6] Mohan handed the director's role to his first son Raja, and the lead role to his second son Jayam Ravi. The film would become Raja's fourth consecutive remake of a Telugu film.[a] Bhaskar stated that he chose not to work on the remake because he had "invested too much time and energy in its original".[10]

The remake, titled Santosh Subramaniam, had its launch on 16 July 2007 with the attendance of all the lead actors.[11] For the inauguration function, 300 invitations by word of mouth were made.[12] The invitation for the launch featured many successful father-son duos from various fields,[12] such as Sivaji Ganesan and Prabhu, Sivakumar and Suriya, and Sathyaraj and Sibiraj.[13] Genelia D'Souza was chosen to play the female lead Hasini, reprising her role from the original film.[12][14] Prakash Raj, who also acted in the original film,[15] was chosen to reprise his role as the protagonist's father.[16] Former cricketer Sadagoppan Ramesh made his acting debut in this film, playing Santosh's elder brother. Raja approached Ramesh because he felt he resembled Ravi.[17][18] Anu Hasan makes a special appearance as a woman who Santosh converses with at the beginning and end of the film.[19] She said she accepted the role because "I have always believed that there is no small role, only small actors".[20]

Raja stated that the film would feature a "huge house" that was constructed at a cost of ₹5 million (US$60,000) and a bus with "state-of-the-art" facilities, which was bought for ₹1 million (US$12,000), and that they would be memorable highlights of the film.[21] Two songs were shot at the South Island of New Zealand. An advantage of shooting in New Zealand for the film's crew was that they had 16 hours of sunlight on any given day. Some sequences were even shot around 9:30 pm under "blazing sunlight".[22] One song depicting the marriage of Premgi Amaran's character was shot in several temples "in and around Kumbakonam" in Tamil Nadu.[22] According to Raja, the film was inspired by his own life: "My friend took the essence of my story and made the Telugu blockbuster, which I then remade in Tamil".[23]

Soundtrack

For the film's music and soundtrack, Raja renewed his association with Devi Sri Prasad,[b] who reused all used his tracks from the original film except for "Bommani Gesthe", which was replaced with "Yeppadi Iruntha En Manasu".[25] Siddharth, the lead actor in the original,[26] sang the number "Adada Adada Adada", making his debut as a playback singer in Tamil cinema.[27][c] The audio of the film was released on 23 March 2008, three weeks before the film's release.[29][30]

Rediff.com rated the album 3 out of 5, and stated that "listening to Santosh Subramaniyam music really gives 'santhosham' (transl. happiness) ".[31]

Track listing[32]
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Senthamizh Pesum Azhagu Juliet"Pa. VijayRanjith, Andrea Jeremiah5:13
2."Adada Adada Adada"Na. MuthukumarSiddharth4:10
3."Kadhaluku Kanngal Illai"KavivarmanDevi Sri Prasad5:20
4."Love Theme"—Sumangali0:51
5."America Yendralum Aandipatti Yendralum"VivekaNaveen, Premgi Amaren, Manikka Vinayagam, Pushpavanam Kuppusamy, Priya Himesh5:30
6."Uyire Uyire Piriyadhey"Na. MuthukumarSagar4:38
7."Yeppadi Iruntha En Manasu"VivekaTippu, Gopika Poornima4:34

Release and reception

Santosh Subramaniam was released on 11 April 2008 during the Tamil New Year festival.[33] Despite being released during the season of the Indian Premier League, it took a big opening and enjoyed a theatrical run of one hundred days due to positive critical reviews and favourable word of mouth.[34][35]

The reception in the United Kingdom, comparatively for a Tamil film, was equally successful, entering the UK box office at number 40.[36] The film collected £10,067 in its first week of opening and earned a cumulative gross of £24,962 in its three-week box office run.[37]

Critical reception

Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff gave the film a rating of two and a half out of five; she called the film a "classy remake of the Telugu blockbuster Bommarillu (Toy-house), the movie is a love-story but it strives to be something even more". She stated that Ravi "performs with his usual flair", D'Souza's character "appears a little too good to be true, at first. But her character grows on you", and praised Prakash Raj's performance, saying that the role "was a cakewalk" for him.[38] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu praised the music, locations and the main cast's performances, and wrote that in the film, "dull moments are rare, enjoyable ones aplenty".[16]

Sify said D'Souza's portrayal is "the soul of the film" and its "biggest strength"; the reviewer called Ravi's performance "mature" and Prakash Raj's "outstanding".[39]

Accolades

Award Category Nominee Outcome Ref.
56th Filmfare Awards South Best Film Santosh Subramaniam Nominated [40]
Best Director M. Raja Nominated
Best Actor Jayam Ravi Nominated
Best Actress Genelia D'Souza Nominated
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Award for Best Feature Film (Third prize) Santosh Subramaniam Won [41]

Notes

  1. ^ All of Raja's previous Tamil films featured Ravi, and were remakes of Telugu films. Jayam (2003) was a remake of the same-titled 2002 Telugu film,[7] M. Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi (2004) was remade from Amma Nanna O Tamila Ammayi (2003),[8] and Unakkum Enakkum (2006) was a remake of Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005).[9]
  2. ^ Raja and Devi Sri Prasad had previously worked together in Unakkum Enakkum.[24]
  3. ^ He had sung the Telugu version of the song in the original.[28]

References

  1. ^ Santosh Subramaniam (motion picture) (in Tamil). AGS Entertainment. 2008. From 00:09 to 00:12.
  2. ^ Santosh Subramaniam (motion picture) (in Tamil). AGS Entertainment. 2008. From 01:24 to 01:28.
  3. ^ "The man behind Telugu hit Bommarillu". Rediff.com. 6 September 2006. Archived from the original on 30 August 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2008.
  4. ^ "Dil Raju to remake Bommarillu in Tamil". Idlebrain.com. 20 March 2008. Archived from the original on 28 June 2010. Retrieved 26 May 2008.
  5. ^ "Vishal bags Vijay's film". Behindwoods. 15 March 2007. Archived from the original on 23 April 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2008.
  6. ^ a b c "Bewitched by 'Bommarilu'!". Sify. 19 August 2006. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2008.
  7. ^ Rangarajan, Malathi (27 June 2003). "Jayam". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 31 March 2012. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  8. ^ "M Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmi Tamil Movie Review". IndiaGlitz. 4 October 2004. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  9. ^ "Something Something Unakkum Enakkum". Sify. Archived from the original on 8 April 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  10. ^ Srinivasan, Sudhir (30 January 2016). "I want to make appa proud". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  11. ^ "Events – 'Santosh Subramaniam' Movie Launch". IndiaGlitz. 16 July 2007. Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  12. ^ a b c "Jayam Ravi to act in 'Santosh Subramanian'". Cinesouth. 14 July 2007. Archived from the original on 25 November 2007. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  13. ^ "Yet another 'Jeyam' Ravi-Raja combination". The Hindu. 17 July 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  14. ^ ""Oh no, I can't do" – Genelia". Behindwoods. 29 May 2008. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  15. ^ "The man behind Telugu hit Bommarillu". Rediff. 6 September 2006. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  16. ^ a b Rangarajan, Malathi (18 April 2008). "The 'Jayam' jamboree: Santosh Subramaniam". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 12 June 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  17. ^ Lakshmi, V. (17 May 2010). "Perfect Shot". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 16 July 2018. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  18. ^ "Sadagoppan Ramesh: From cricketer to actor". Rediff. 12 August 2011. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  19. ^ "Santosh Subramaniam — Movie Review". Behindwoods. 5 December 2007. Archived from the original on 23 April 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
  20. ^ Subhakeerthana, S (26 September 2017). "Action Hasan". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 11 December 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  21. ^ "Siddharth sings in 'Santosh Subramaniam'". IndiaGlitz. 27 November 2007. Archived from the original on 16 July 2018. Retrieved 16 July 2018.
  22. ^ a b "'Santosh Subramaniyam' songs in New Zealand". IndiaGlitz. 2 April 2008. Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  23. ^ Mani, Bhargavii (31 October 2015). "The striker". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 3 May 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
  24. ^ "Something Something Unakkum Enakkum Music Review songs lyrics". IndiaGlitz. 12 July 2006. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  25. ^ Karthik (24 March 2008). "Santosh Subramaniyam (Tamil – Devi Sri Prasad)". Milliblog. Archived from the original on 19 September 2024. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  26. ^ Rangarajan, Malathi (31 August 2007). "Another from Telugu". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 19 October 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2007.
  27. ^ "Noted lyricist Na Muthukumar passes away". The New Indian Express. 14 August 2016. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  28. ^ "Movie Preview : Bommarillu". MusicIndiaOnline.com. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007. Retrieved 16 October 2007.
  29. ^ "'Santosh Subramaniam' audio release on Sunday". IndiaGlitz. 20 March 2008. Archived from the original on 3 June 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  30. ^ "'Santosh Subramaniam': Audio Launch". IndiaGlitz. 25 March 2008. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  31. ^ "Music review: Santosh Subramaniyam". Rediff.com. 31 March 2008. Archived from the original on 24 February 2011. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  32. ^ "Santhosh Subramaniyam (2008)". Raaga.com. Archived from the original on 10 January 2014. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  33. ^ "'Santosh Subramaniam' releases today". MSN. 11 April 2008. Archived from the original on 13 April 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2008.
  34. ^ "'Santosh Subramaniam' going strong & steady". IndiaGlitz. 8 May 2008. Archived from the original on 5 June 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  35. ^ "'Santhosh Subramaniyam' A 100 days and going strong". IndiaGlitz. 28 July 2008. Archived from the original on 30 January 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  36. ^ "Weekend of April 11, 2008 – April 13, 2008". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 June 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  37. ^ "Weekend of April 18, 2008 – April 20, 2008". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 June 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  38. ^ Srinivasan, Pavithra (12 April 2008). "Santosh Subramaniam is a masala entertainer". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2008. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  39. ^ "Santosh Subramaniam". Sify. Archived from the original on 11 April 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2008.
  40. ^ "56th Idea Filmfare Awards Nominations". Reachouthyderabad.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  41. ^ "Rajini, Kamal win best actor awards". The Hindu. 29 September 2009. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2013.

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