Boys (2003 film)
Boys is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language coming-of-age musical film directed by Shankar. It stars newcomers Siddharth, Bharath, S. Thaman, Manikandan, Nakkhul and Genelia, in her Tamil debut.The score and soundtrack are composed by A. R. Rahman. The story revolves around six youngsters, who experience the downfalls of adolescent life. The film was released on 29 August 2003.
Although initially controversial for its bold scenes, the film became a huge cult classic and is widely considered one of the best coming-of-age Indian movies ever. The film depicts the fashion, music and lifestyle favoured by the youth in the early 2000s.
Plot
Five college friends – Munna, Babu Kalyanam "Bob Gally", Juju, Krishna, and Kumar – are young adults who engage in reckless behaviour – smoking, drinking, flirting with girls, etc. – much to their parents' chagrin. Amidst their lifestyle, the boys befriend a middle-aged man named Mangalam, and meet Harini and her friends. Munna and Harini eventually start a romantic relationship that infuriates their parents. When the parents collectively decide to separate the group, Munna and Harini decide to elope. With support from Mangalam and the boys, Munna and Harini hastily get married in Tirupati without their parents' consent. Consequently, a confrontation leads the parents to expel the boys and Harini, who vow to succeed independently.The boys and Harini work odd jobs to earn money, and eventually form a band called Boys to fund their education. After earning initial success with modern versions of Tamil devotional songs, Boys are investigated and incarcerated under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for naively associating with Naxalites and making extremist songs. They are eventually rescued by Mangalam, who proves their innocence through great difficulty. Recognizing their natural talent, Mangalam encourages them to pursue music as a career, and joins them as their manager. Boys work hard to pursue opportunities and secure a contract to record an album with Sony. Before they can, however, an inebriated Krishna reveals to Harini that the boys hired a prostitute once, causing Harini to angrily leave Munna and return to her parents. The boys try to track the prostitute down to prove they did no wrong. Kumar spots her on a bus but dies after being run over.
Determined to fulfill their contract to Sony, Mangalam and the boys try to persuade Harini’s parents to let her record an album with them. Despite initial disagreement, Harini's parents eventually agree on the condition that Harini and Munna divorce and never see each other again. Munna reluctantly accepts this arrangement for the sake of his friends. Boys soon record and release their album to great success and fame, and even perform live on MTV, dedicating their performance to Kumar. Despite their success, Munna and Harini proceed for their divorce. At the court, however, Mangalam hatches a plan to deliberately make Harini jealous and reconcile her with Munna before their divorce is finalised, which succeeds as Harini furiously and possessively reunites with Munna.
Cast
Production
Development
In January 2002, it was announced that Shankar would make a film titled Boys featuring newcomers. He had postponed the making of Robot starring Kamal Haasan and Preity Zinta to start this film, with the announcement prompting thousands of applications from youngsters who wanted to feature in it. Shankar opted to introduce five debutants to play the lead characters and held auditions in 2002, with over 500 applicants being video tested.Siddharth had initially worked as an assistant director to Mani Ratnam in Kannathil Muthamittal, and the script writer of that film, Sujatha was insistent that Siddharth audition for Boys. After consulting with Mani Ratnam, he met Shankar, auditioned, and got the role of Munna. Shankar had seen Bharath at a dance programme, Inspirations at the Music Academy by 'Swingers', and called him to appear in screen tests that included delivering dialogues and dancing before selecting him to do the role of Bob Galy. Bharath was initially earmarked to play the lead role in the film before the team found Siddharth. Sai Srinivas, a percussionist and a drummer, who had worked with leading music directors was added after a successful audition in which he had to play the drums and went on to help out with the background score. Nakul, brother of actress Devayani, was a second-year college student who was also chosen. His family had sent some pictures of Nakul's elder brother Mayur to Shankar's office and, after seeing Nakul in one of the pictures, Shankar approached him. Manikandan, a visual communications graduate who had featured in Kala master's dance troupe doing stage shows, was also selected. Genelia, who was shooting for Hindi film Tujhe Meri Kasam, was chosen among 300 girls after Shankar was impressed by her Parker Pen commercial alongside Amitabh Bachchan. Her voice was dubbed by Rathi of Solla Marandha Kadhai. While finalising the lead cast, Shankar had also approached Bhagyaraj's son Shanthanu and Sarathkumar's daughter Varalaxmi, but their respective fathers turned down the opportunities.
Ravi K. Chandran was the principal director of photography; he introduced the linking of 62 cameras for the first time and the use of time-freeze technology in Boys. Cinematographers K. V. Anand and V. Manikandan were credited for filming two songs, while directors Gandhi Krishna and Balaji Sakthivel were a part of Shankar's assistant team.
Filming
Boys was launched at the Kalaivaanar Arangam in Chennai with Rajinikanth attending the event as the chief guest of the function and the new cast was introduced to the media. Filming began later that day, and two days later a teaser trailer of the film was broadcast on television.The song "Ale Ale" was picturised at the Bridestowe Estate Lavender Farm in Scottsdale, Tasmania, Australia where cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran linked 62 cameras, using a new 'time-freeze' technique with the help of Australian cinematographer Mark Ruff's rig. Mark Kobe, who had been a part of the teams of Godzilla and Independence Day, carried out the computer graphic effects for Boys and created a 3D female to feature in the song "Girlfriend". Another song, "Dating", was shot at a set created by Sabu Cyril on the Chennai seashore where he created a seaside swimming pool, restaurant, water volleyball, and discothèque for the song sequence. For "Boom Boom", Cyril made a set out of waste materials like steel, tin sheets, bottles, used cans of Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Dalda and wood waste to create the backdrop, whilst the actors in the song were dressed by designer Arjun Fazil in matchsticks, film rolls, videotape, and crisps covers. "Maro Maro" was picturised on 500 young dancers at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Kochi, while for "Secret of Success", the team were given permission to use the MTV logo as the scene saw the band performing at the MTV Awards. The background score for both these songs were sung by Gulzar, Sherefa, Ranya and Sameera.