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Star (2001 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Star' is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Praveen Gandhi and produced by Vijaykrishna. The film stars Prashanth and Jyothika while Raghuvaran, Vijayakumar, and Praveen Gandhi play other pivotal roles. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by A.R. Rahman, while the film is edited by M. N. Rajan.
Plot
Murthy (Prashanth) earns his living taking the blame for the mistakes of other people, and so the jail is his second home. Dhanushkodi (Raghuvaran) has sworn to kill ex-collector Ramanathan's (Vijayakumar) son Santhosh (Praveen Gandhi), and so, Ramanathan has transferred Santhosh to Mauritius while telling the world he has run away. Wishing to save his son, he hires Murthy to act like him, hoping Dhanushkodi would kill him instead of his actual son. Murthy too accepts the gig since his lover Preeti (Jyothika) is Ramanathan's niece. In the climax, Santhosh supports Dhanushkodi for killing his father, but Dhanushkodi kills Santhosh. The film ends with Murthy taking the blame for killing Santhosh and surrendering himself to the police.
Cast
* Prashanth as Murthy
* Jyothika as Preeti
* Vijayakumar as Ramanathan
* Raghuvaran as Dhanushkodi
* Praveen Gandhi as Santhosh
* Manivannan as Preeti's father
* Nizhalgal Ravi as Sundaram
* Chinni Jayanth as Software Sagalmass
* Ramesh Khanna as Jail broker
* Srividya as Vidya
* Hema Chaudhary as Preeti's mother
* Raj Kapoor as Badri
* Anu Mohan as Sub-inspector Rathnam
* Balu Anand as the Police inspector
* Pandu as Sub-inspector
* Madhan Bob as Ramanathan's assistant
* Mayilsamy as a Police constable
* Crazy Venkatesh as Dhanushkodi's henchman
* Neelu as Advocate
* Omakuchi Narasimhan as Convict
* Sukran as Nagaraj
* Vellai Subbaiah as Sivaraj
* Naga Kannan as Convict
* Scissor Manohar as Thief
* Chelladurai as Convict
* Arulmani as Dhanushkodi's henchman
* Sahadevan as Computer centre worker
* Mahadevan as Computer centre worker
* Laxmi Rattan as Rich man
* Vijay Ganesh as Thief
* Sivanarayanamoorthy as a Police officer
* Soundar as Auto rickshaw driver
* Mumtaj in a special appearance
Production
The success of 'Jodi' (1999) prompted director Praveen Gandhi to collaborate with Prashanth and Simran again in a project called 'Star', but Simran soon dropped out. Praveen moved on to relaunch the film with Ajith Kumar in the lead and producers Vijayam Cine Combines. Praveen began pre-production work and cast Nagma in a proposed item number, but was later dropped from the project after falling out with Ajith. Vijayam Cine Combines moved on to instead make 'Dheena' (2001) with Ajith, selecting debutant AR Murugadoss, an assistant of Praveen, as the project's director.
Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211206/2VNPda9o-wA Ghostarchive] and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20210617231342/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VNPda9o-wA Wayback Machine]:
After their successful association in 'Ratchagan' and 'Jodi', Praveen Kanth wanted Rahman to provide the music yet again, but the composer was short on time, so Rahman compromised to reinvent tunes earlier composed for films like 'Thakshak' and 'Earth' for the project. Prashanth and Jyothika were later confirmed as the lead pair, though Praveen Gandhi's sudden decision to act in the film irked Prashanth and his father, who threatened to opt out of the project, before the issue was mediated.
The introduction of Jyothika's character was filmed on the streets of Chennai. The team then went on a shooting stint to Kurinji village at Gobichettipalayam and during the time there provided Rs 2 lakhs to help renovate a temple, which had been closed for twenty years.
Release
Critic Malini Mannath gave the film a negative review adding that "an artist can rarely rise above a bad script, consequently Prashanths attempts to infuse some life through fight scenes and dance numbers turn futile" and that "Jyotikas expressions are becoming repetitive.". The critic concluded that had "ruinously shoddy script" and "the directors attempt to enter into the acting arena, and play one of the crucial characters in the film adds insult to injury". Another critic added that the film would not give a boost to Prashanth's career as he had anticipated stating that it was a "below average movie". Another reviewer described that "the messy screenplay in the second half ruins the story that admittedly has enough potential for romance, laughs, sentiments and action".
The failure of the film ended the partnership between Rahman and Praveen Kanth, with the composer refusing to score the music for the director's next venture, 'Thullal'. Plans were made in 2003 to remake the film in Telugu as 'Mahendra', but the venture never took off.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu, Piraisoodan and Palani Bharathi. Due to lack of time, Rahman could not accept the film, but the director sought permission to re-use some songs from his previous Hindi album, 'Thakshak' and one song from 'Earth'. The director followed the same approach in his previous film 'Jodi'. Singer Karthik made his playback debut with this soundtrack.
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References
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