Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2009
Peranmai
Buy Peranmai now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Peranmai' is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language action adventure film, co-written and directed by S. P. Jananathan for his venture and produced by Ayngaran International Films, it stars Jayam Ravi and Roland Kickinger, with Dhansika, Saranya, Vasundhara Kashyap, Varsha Ashwathi and Liyasree in the female leads. While Ponvannan, Vadivelu and Urvashi, prominent actors from the Tamil industry, played supporting roles in the film.
The film revolves around a tribal forest guard who works for the welfare of his tribe and spreads awareness among them. Whilst, on a team bonding mission with five college girls, who initially mistreated him due to his caste, they stumble on a group of foreign mercenaries who are planning to stop India's scientific progress by destroying a rocket launch by using missiles. The bonding of team and defeating the potential threat forms the crux of the story.
The film opened to audiences worldwide on 16 October 2009, coinciding with Diwali. The core plot of the movie is loosely based on the 1972 Russian movie 'The Dawns Here Are Quiet'.
Plot
Dhuruvan is a trainer at an NCC camp for women cadets. Being from a scheduled caste, he is constantly degraded by his superior Ganapathiram for his caste and rough persona, and framed for committing inappropriate acts by other cadets, but the warden sympathizes for him. He selects five girls Jennifer, Ajitha, Kalpana, Thulasi, and Susheela who are the most insolent and disobedient girls in the troop for an expedition, intending to provide them with better training. As an attempt to make a practical joke, the girls post a complaint to Ganapathiram claiming that they did not feel safe with Dhuruvan and that he was responsible for whatever happens to them and keeps it in the complaint box. Meanwhile, the expedition begins, and while Dhuruvan is caught up in some procedures at the forest checkpost, the girls buy condoms and other inappropriate items and start the jeep, nonchanlantly driving it and running it down the slope of a hill. After losing the vehicle, the troop decides to stay in the forest for the night and go by an alternate route the next morning. The plot thickens when Kalpana describes two white men with advanced armaments in the Indian forest heading towards the direction of the Indian satellite research station in the forest. Dhuruvan plans that if the white men want to sabotage the space mission, they would reach the banks of Toonghum Lake within five hours. He knows a better route to go to the safe place in the opposite bank within four-and-a-half hours. He tells the girls to go back and inform the ranger about them, but the girls disagree and go with Dhuruvan. They reach the opposite bank and to their shock, they find 16 men with full military gear.
Dhuruvan guesses that the men must be out to sabotage the space mission and makes plans to defeat the operation of the foreign mercenaries. He sends Ajitha back to inform the officials, and the rest join him in the operation. But when she goes to inform about the terrorist group to the Army camp, she gets trapped into the quicksand and dies. He manages to lodge their troop ahead of mercenaries by his navigation acumen. Later, he deliberately obstructs the movement of mercenaries by cutting the trees to distract them. Anderson, who heads the foreign terrorist group, decides to stay back until a clear notion from the opposite side. He deploys two of his men to investigate the situation. However, Dhuruvan successfully kill the two men. Anderson sends another three men Thompson, George and Edwin to the opposite side to find out what happened to the two men whom he had sent; on the other hand, Dhuruvan's troops are eagerly waiting for them to collect their armaments. Dhuruvan kills George and Edwin but Thompson manages to escape. When Anderson finds that he has lost four men of his group, he decides to kill whoever is obstructing him move further.
Dhuruvan's troops cleverly plant the land mines they acquired from one of the five men they killed. As per their expectation, one of the terrorists steps on a land mine and dies. This scares the terrorists, and they decides that Anderson and one another man Benny would go hunt for the land mines while the rest would set up a camp there. That night, Dhuruvan and his troops break into their camp and seize one of two boxes that the terrorists carry around with them, expecting it to contain information about the air missile after killing two of the terrorists. By the morning, Anderson finds the two of his men dead and is enraged at Dhuruvan.
On the other side, Ganapathiram finds the complaint letter and gathers his team and goes to the forest checkpoint to find out what happens. The storekeeper tells him what happened and that condoms were purchased. Ganapathiram then frames Dhuruvan as a psychopathic pervert among the public and to the district collector. Assuming Dhuruvan kidnapped the girls, Ganapathiram and his officers destroy Dhuruvan's community and their homes, and exile them from the area while degrading their lower caste status. He eventually finds Ajitha's body in the quicksand of the river and assumes that Dhuruvan raped and killed her. The collector issues a shoot-at-sight order for Dhuruvan.
Dhuruvan and the girls kills most of the terrorists except Anderson, Benny, Thompson, Collin and two other men at the counter missile sight. After finding their secret signal, Anderson manages to kill Susheela and hang her from a tree. The girls and Dhuruvan gets heartbroken at the sight of a dead Susheela and buries her with an NCC tribute. The girls kills Thompson and the two men except Anderson, Benny and Collin. Benny finds Dhuruvan and the girls. He trashes Benny and makes him to lure Anderson after which Dhuruvan kills Benny with the girl's help. He goes in search of Anderson, while the girls go to stop the missile launch. While Dhuruvan goes to find Anderson, Ganapathiram catches Dhuruvan and tries to shoot him, but Dhuruvan escapes. Ganapathiram later realizes the situation when he sees the corpses of the terrorists and realizes that Dhuruvan killed the terrorists. Ganapathiram reveals the situation to the collector and arrogantly tells the collector: "My team is enough. I will put over their dead bodies in front of you".
At the climax, Dhuruvan and Anderson fights face-to-face, and the girls kills Collin and tries to disarm the counter missile from firing the space rocket. After an intense fight between the men, Dhuruvan manages to kill Anderson. Dhuruvan finally reaches the site of the missile launch and helps the girls. He increases the time set of the rocket by 25 seconds and changes the direction of the missile. The Indian space rocket launches from the station and speeds up into the atmosphere. After 25 seconds, the counter missile diverted from its direction explodes into the desolate forest. The troop prides themselves for being successful on their mission, but feel bad for Dhuruvan as his bravery will never be recognized due to his caste. In the end, Ganapathiram is awarded by the Indian government for his "bravery", while Dhuruvan is back at the camp site training another set of new NCC cadets. The girls bid a tearful goodbye and Dhuruvan tells the new cadets to state the oath of NCC.
Cast
*Jayam Ravi as Dhuruvan
*Roland Kickinger as Anderson
* Svilen Kamburov as Benny
*Dhansika as Jennifer
*Saranya as Ajitha
*Vasundhara Kashyap as Kalpana
*Varsha Ashwathi as Thulasi
*Liyasree as Susheela
*Ponvannan as Ganapathi Ram
*Vadivelu as Soosai
*Urvashi as Victoria Madam
*Trotsky Marudu as Scientist
*O. A. K. Sundar as Collector
Production
Casting
The film was initially written by S. P. Jananathan with Kamal Haasan in mind, but his refusal prompted the director to sign Jayam Ravi.http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-news/aug-07-03/13-08-07-kamal.htmlJayam Ravi underwent physical training for the role of a forest officer in this film. He plays a one-man army in this film similar to that of Sylvester Stallone in 'Rambo'.
Actors Dhansika, Vasundhara Kashyap, Saranya, Varsha Ashwathi and Liyasree played the lead female roles.
Soundtrack
All lyrics were written by Vairamuthu
#"Kaattu Puli Adichu" by Kay Kay and Jassie Gift
#"Kaadu Kaalai Katta" by Madhu Balakrishnan
#"Yera Thala" by Sadhana Sargam
#"When The Boys" by Sonia Irabar and Sianed Jones
#"Thuppaaki Penne" by Pop Shalini, Megha, Febi and SuVi
Critical reception
Sify wrote " Here is a definitive movie with a moral framework, and commitment along with a stunning and realistic climax" and also praising Jayam Ravi's acting.
Release
The satellite rights of the film were secured by Sun TV. The film was given a "U/A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.
References
Buy Peranmai now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 2009