Veera (1994 film)

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Veera
Veera 1994 poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Suresh Krissna
Screenplay by Panchu Arunachalam
Based on Allari Mogudu
by P. Satyanand
Produced by Meena Panchu Arunachalam
Starring Rajinikanth
Meena
Roja
Cinematography P. S. Prakash
Edited by Ganesh–Kumar
Music by Ilaiyaraaja
Production
company

P. A. Art Productions
Release date

14 April 1994

Running time
164 minutes[1]
Country India
Language Tamil

Veera (transl. Hero)[a] is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film[2]

directed by Suresh Krissna and written by Panchu Arunachalam. It is a remake of the
Telugu film Allari Mogudu (1992) and stars Rajinikanth, Meena and Roja with
Janagaraj, Senthil, Vadivukkarasi, J. Livingston, Mahesh Anand, Vinu Chakravarthy,
Ajay Rathnam, Vivek and Charuhasan in supporting roles. The film is about a man who
marries twice because of circumstances beyond his control and is forced to live a
double life to cover his tracks.

Krissna initially refused to remake Allari Mogudu because he disliked it but agreed
after Rajinikanth told him their next film after Annaamalai (1992) should be
different to avoid comparisons. The screenplay of Veera was written to be
substantially different from the original; it was tailored to Rajinikanth's style
and had logic added to the scenario. Arunachalam, who made script changes, received
sole screenwriting credit. The film was produced by Arunachalam's wife Meena,
photographed by P. S. Prakash and edited by Ganesh–Kumar.

Veera was released on 14 April 1994 during the Puthandu holiday. The film received
mixed reviews from critics and audiences were disappointed because they expected a
film like Annaamalai. Ticket sales improved within a few weeks of its release and
Veera became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres.
Contents

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
3.1 Development
3.2 Filming
 4 Themes
5 Soundtrack
6 Release
6.1 Critical reception
6.2 Box office
7 Legacy
8 Notes
9 References
10 Bibliography
11 External links

Plot
The film follows a nonlinear narrative. The events are told in chronological order.

Muthuveerappan, an idler from Karamadai, falls in love with Devayani alias Devi,
the daughter of Carnatic musician Krishnamurthy Shastri. To lure her, Muthu
pretends to learn music from Shastri. One day, Devi overhears Muthu discussing his
plans to seduce her with his friends, and confronts him. Chastened, Muthu
concentrates on his music and later wins over Devi. They marry in secret but before
they can make this official, Rathnavelu, son of the village landlord, tries to rape
Devi. Muthu saves her by subduing Rathnavelu. Enraged, the landlord insults Muthu's
mother, tells her about a loan owed to him by Muthu's late father and threatens to
evict her if the loan is not paid within a week. Muthu goes to Madras to earn
money.

In Madras, Muthu tries to enter a music competition to win the prize money. He
meets tabla player Ravikanth, who gives him the stage name Veera. Both make
repeated attempts to enter the competition but are unsuccessful. Muthu saves the
competition promoter's owner Viswanathan's daughter Roopakala from Harichandran, a
gangster. With Roopa's help, Muthu is able to perform at the competition with
Ravikanth, and wins the prize money. Muthu returns to Karamadai and repays the
loan, clearing his mother's debt. He learns Devi's house had been destroyed by a
flood; the bodies of Devi and her father were not found. With Devi presumed dead,
Muthu's mother tells him to return to Madras so that he can start afresh.

After Muthu and his mother arrive in Madras, he gets a full-time job in the music
industry as Veera. Viswanathan appoints him as the new company manager after firing
the previous manager Chandran for selling pirated cassettes. Roopa, having fallen
in love with Muthu, wants to marry him. Muthu initially refuses because he misses
Devi but his mother persuades him to marry her. After her marriage, Roopa and
Viswanathan go to the United States as the latter needs a heart surgery there. One
day, at his recording studio, Muthu finds Devi alive and well. She survived the
flood but was left with amnesia; her memory was restored when she heard Muthu
singing on the radio so she went to Madras in search of him. Muthu decides not to
tell Devi about his marriage to Roopa.

After Roopa and Viswanathan return, Muthu tries to tell Roopa about Devi but
decides not to after she tells him about how her friend, at Roopa's suggestion,
murdered her lover for infidelity. Devi and Muthu go to a temple to formally marry
on Devi's demands, and Ravikanth is tasked with preventing Roopa from going there
but fails. Roopa arrives at the temple; Ravikanth helps Muthu to hide his marriage
to Devi from Roopa and vice versa. When Roopa sees her husband leaving with Devi,
Ravikanth lies that Muthu and Veera are different men. As a result, Muthu is forced
to live a double life as Devi's husband Muthu and as Roopa's husband Veera.

Chandran, aware of Muthu's double life, tries to blackmail him but Muthu gives him
an altered photograph showing two of him. Believing it is genuine, Chandran gives
the photograph to Harichandran who sees through the fraud, commits a murder and
frames Muthu as Veera's killer. After Muthu reveals the truth about his double life
to his wives, they fight over him and refuse to share. The wives are kidnapped by
Harichandran's men. Muthu subdues Harichandran and Chandran, who are arrested.
Muthu's wives reconcile with him but not with each other. Muthu's mother persuades
him to leave Madras and return to Karamadai. When he, his mother and Ravikanth
enter Muthu's house, they find Devi, Roopa and Viswanathan already there. Devi and
Roopa take a bag each from Muthu then flounce off in opposite directions.
Cast

Rajinikanth as Muthuveerappan (Muthu/Veera)[3]

Meena as Devayani alias Devi[4]
Roja as Roopakala alias Roopa[5]
Janagaraj as Viswanathan[6]
Senthil as Ravikanth[7]
Vadivukkarasi as Muthuveerappan's mother[8]
J. Livingston as Chandran[9]
Mahesh Anand as Harichandran[4]
Vinu Chakravarthy as the village landlord[10]
Ajay Rathnam as Rathnavelu[6][11]
Vivek as Muthu's friend[12]
Charuhasan as Krishnamurthy Shastri (uncredited)[7]

Production
Development

After Rajinikanth saw the Telugu film Allari Mogudu (1992) with the director Suresh
Krissna and producer-screenwriter Panchu Arunachalam, he expressed his desire to
remake it in Tamil as their next collaboration.[13] Krissna objected to this idea
as he did not like the film and found it unsuitable for him. Rajinikanth said he
wanted to make a "two-wife" comedy,[13] but Krissna noticed Allari Mogudu lacks the
values associated with typical Rajinikanth films and felt fans would not accept his
character being bigamous. Rajinikanth said changes could be made to suit the local
milieu.[14] Krissna wanted to begin work on Baashha but Rajinikanth said if their
next film was similar to their action film Annaamalai (1992), "we will get caught.
Bring the hopes down, bring the level down and then take it up again." Krissna
agreed but avoided making a shot-for-shot remake of Allari Mogudu.[15]

Rajinikanth and Krissna went to the Taj Banjara hotel in Hyderabad to discuss the
plot. They prepared a fresh outline in ten days; Krissna tailored the story to
Rajinikanth's style and added logic to the scenario. He submitted the final draft
to Arunachalam, who liked it and suggested plot changes.[16] According to Krissna,
the remake has more "emotional profundity" than the Telugu original, and it was
established that the protagonist Muthuveerappan (Muthu) is a pious person who
married twice due to circumstances beyond his control. He differentiated Muthu from
the original's protagonist, saying although circumstances drive him to another
woman (Roopa), Muthu's feelings for his first wife Devi are sincere, he has not
forgotten her and is forced by his mother into marrying Roopa.[17]

The symbolism in a scene in which Muthu removes a thread tied by Devi from his
wrist to suggest their bond has ended was Arunachalam's idea.[8] Whereas in Allari
Mogudu the second wife's desire for the protagonist is sexual, that aspect in Veera
was made secondary. According to Krissna, "we polished the screenplay over and over
again till it gathered sheen. Eventually, but for the basic plot, Veera emerged as
a near-new product."[8] Veera was produced by Arunachalam's wife Meena under their
banner P. A. Art Productions. Arunachalam received sole credit for the screenplay
while P. Satyanand, the writer of Allari Mogudu, received credit for the original
story. Cinematography was handled by P. S. Prakash, editing by the duo Ganesh–
Kumar, and art direction was done by Magie.[11] The action choreography was handled
by Raju[18] and dance sequences were choreographed by Raghuram.[19] Meena was
chosen to play Devi, reprising her role from Allari Mogudu,[7][4] while Roja was
cast as Roopa, reprising the role originally played by Ramya Krishnan.[5][8]
Bollywood actor Mahesh Anand portrayed the antagonist Harichandran in his first
Tamil film.[4][20]
Filming

Veera was formally launched with a puja at the Lord Ganapathi temple within AVM
Studios,[21] although principal photography began at Rajahmundry.[22] A four-day
filming schedule with 40 background dancers was planned for the song "Maadethile
Kanni" at Talakona. After the first day's filming, Krissna was unhappy because the
location did not provide him with the expected quality.[23] The crew returned to
Madras and filmed the song at Raghavendra Kalyana Mandapam and at a house at AVM
Studios.[24] The song "Konji Konji" was filmed at Narada Gana Sabha, Madras.
Because the song that depicts Muthu performing on stage "didn't lend itself to
anything vibrant", Krissna intercut it with scenes in which Roopa visualises Muthu
in various outfits and begins to find him attractive. According to Krissna, this
was a chance to show Muthu in a variety of costumes because he is only shown
wearing a simple white shirt and black trousers until the song begins, and would
not change his clothing and appearance until much later in the film. Krissna
decided to "let the audience get a glimpse of how [Muthu] would look later on in
the film" through this song.[25]

The song "Malai Kovil Vaasalil" was filmed at the MRF Racing Track in
Sriperumbudur. As it depicts Devi having formed Muthu's name (முத்து) by arranging
thousands of lamps, 20,000 lamps were made to glow simultaneously. Krissna decided
to use chimney lamps that stopped the wind from extinguishing the lights. The song
had to be filmed from above to emphasise the glowing lamps while Devi "should
appear as a mere spot in the middle of gigantic lamps", so Prakash went to a tower
that stood about 200 feet (61 m) away from the actual spot so the camera could zoom
in and out for best results. Krissna described it as "one of the most strenuous and
painstakingly shot sequences" in his career.[26] Rajinikanth and Anand did not
rehearse the fight sequence in which Muthu and Harichandran jump towards each
other, then fall to the ground with their hands interlocked; they watched the
stuntmen perform and followed their instructions. Rajinikanth performed all of his
stunts without using a stunt double.[20]

Magie's assistant Mani designed the film's large, multicoloured kolam that was 100
ft × 200 ft (30 m × 61 m); a rope was attached to a pulley, one side of which was
attached to Mani's waist. He was made to hang horizontally from it, with his face
and hands turned towards the floor; completing the task took him two days and two
nights.[27] A scene in which Muthu and Ravikanth (Senthil) attempt to fool Roopa at
a temple was filmed at Hyderabad's Birla Mandir, which does not generally permit
filming. Most of Rajinikanth's acting was improvised on set. For the scene in which
Muthu trips on his dhoti while changing into formal clothing, there were no
retakes.[28] While filming a scene in which Ravikanth talks to Chandran (J.
Livingston) while Muthu silently witnesses, Rajinikanth could not control his
laughter at Senthil's dialogue delivery and covered his mouth with a towel.[29] In
the post-production phase, Meena's voice was dubbed by K. R. Anuradha[30] and the
introductory "Super Star" graphic title card from Annaamalai was re-used.[7][31]
The length of the final film is 4,406.34 metres (14,456.5 ft).[11]
Themes

Writer S. Rajanayagam compared Veera to another Rajinikanth film Panakkaran (1990)

because both of them stress that "true wealth consists of good parents, wife,
children and friends".[32] Though the film is a remake of Allari Mogudu, many
writers have compared Veera with Rettai Vaal Kuruvi (1987) and Micki & Maude
(1984), both of which also have bigamy as their themes.[5][6][33] According to
writer Archanaa Sekar, in Tamil films women married to the same man show "an
unusual display of sisterhood" and "female solidarity", citing Veera as an example
because the two female leads are initially friends (despite being unaware that they
are married to the same man), and once a conflict arises amongst them, "the
friendship helps smooth things over, and the film ends with the two choosing to co-
exist with the man".[34]
Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Veera was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, who also wrote lyrics along
with Vaali and Panchu Arunachalam.[35][36] It is the last Rajinikanth film for
which Ilaiyaraaja composed music.[37] The soundtrack album was released on the
label Pyramid Music.[38] During the filming schedule at Rajahmundry, Ilaiyaraaja
had composed a duet and sent it to Krissna, who liked the song but felt it did not
suit the situation. Rajinikanth and other crew members expressed similar views. On
returning to Madras, Krissna told Ilaiyaraaja the duet's tune did not suit the
situation;[39] Ilaiyaraaja was angry with Krissna but a few hours later, he
replaced the duet with other tunes.[40]

Many of the songs are set in Carnatic ragas such as "Konji Konji" in Dharmavati,
[41] "Malai Kovil Vaasalil" in Asaveri,[42] "Pattu Poo Poo" in Chalanata,[43][44]
and "Thirumagal" in Lalitha.[45] "Maadethile Kanni" is set in the Hindustani raga,
Brindavani Sarang.[42] Two versions of "Konji Konji" were recorded; one was sung by
S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and the other by K. S. Chithra.[35] Over 100,000 cassettes
of Veera's soundtrack were sold on the release date.[46]