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Laabam
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Wikipedia article
'Laabam' is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by S. P. Jananathan. It stars Vijay Sethupathi and Shruti Haasan with Jagapathi Babu, Sai Dhanshika, and Kalaiyarasan in pivotal roles. Ramji was hired as cinematographer, while D. Imman is the music composer. Principal photography for 'Laabam' commenced on 22 April 2019. The film was released theatrically on 9 September 2021. It received mixed to negative reviews from critics and audiences and became a box-office bomb.
This would be Jananathan's final film as a director and a posthumous release.
Plot
Pakkiri (Vijay Sethupathi) returns to his native place after an exile and straight away takes on the village head Vanagamudi (Jagapathi Babu). With the support of the locals, he becomes the president of the village and decides to give agriculture a new touch with his techniques. The rest of the story is about how Pakkiri manages the local goons with the help of Clara (Shruti Haasan) and comes out victorious.
Cast
Production
The film is directed by S. P. Jananathan, who made a brief comeback into direction since working for 'Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai', which released in 2015. Principal photography for 'Laabam' commenced on 22 April 2019. Vijay Sethupathi was cast as in a male lead role to play a social activist.
Jananathan died on 14 March 2021 during the post-production stage, thus making 'Laabam' his final film as a director.
Soundtrack
The music was composed by D. Imman, collaborating with Vijay Sethupathi for the fourth time (after 'Rummy', 'Rekka' and 'Karuppan') and Jananathan for the first and only time. The audio rights were acquired by Lahari Music and T-Series.
*Yaazha Yaazha - Shruti Haasan
*Yaamili Yaamiliya - Divya Kumar
*Clara My Name Is Clara - Sunidhi Chauhan, Kpy Naveen
*Seruvom Seruvom - CLEO VII, Srinisha Jayaseelan
*Uzhaippom Thozha - Sreenidhi, Narayanan Ravishankar
Critical reception
'The Times of India' wrote, "The film's narrative is quite fractured. Rather than moving from one incident to the other, here, it moves from one issue to the other at a rapid pace giving us a false sense of momentum." 'The Hindu' called it "more a visual representation of a protagonist in a television programme [..] than a film.". Also some of the scenes are not logical at plain sight - Jagapathy babu climbing stairs, going to first floor and then using lift to go up to another floor. But in another shot, the whole building has only 2 floors. And during climax the farmers come to reap a paddy field which had just started growing. And not to mention the most crude way they kill Vanangamudi, when a simple bullet shot could have taken care of it. In all, just another masala film with half baked shots.
Home media
The film is available on online streaming platform Netflix.
References
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