Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam
Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam, also known by the initialism VVS, is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film directed by Ponram. Produced by P. Madan under Escape Artists Motion Pictures, it stars Sivakarthikeyan, Soori and Sri Divya, with Sathyaraj in a prominent role. In the film, a young man falls in love with the daughter of the village head, who opposes love marriages.
Varuthapadatha Valibar Singam marked Ponram's return to direction after Thirutham. Filming, which took place in Theni, Tiruchirappalli and Chennai, was completed by July 2013. The music was composed by D. Imman, with cinematography handled by Balasubramaniem and editing done by Vivek Harshan. M. Rajesh, whom Ponram had assisted him, wrote the dialogues for the film.
Varuthapadatha Valibar Singam was released on 6 September 2013, coinciding with the Ganesh Chathurthi weekend and became a major commercial success, positioning Sivakarthikeyan as a star in Tamil cinema. The film received praise for the on-screen chemistry between Sivakarthikeyan and Soori, and their comedic dialogues had been popular in Tamil cinema. It was remade in Kannada as Adyaksha and in Telugu as Current Theega, both released in 2014.
Plot
The film begins with police arriving at Sivanandi's house questioning Sivanandi about killing his daughter Lathapandi because Sivanandi's daughter Lathapandi ran away with the guy who Lathapandi loved. Bosepandi and Kodi are best friends who are the leaders of a group called Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam. One day, Bosepandi falls in love with Kalyani who is a teacher at a school. Bosepandi writes a love letter for Kalyani but he wants someone to go give his love letter to her so that is when Bosepandi finds Lathapandi. Lathapandi gives Bosepandi's love letter to Kalyani and Lathapandi tricks Bosepandi into believing many things.Sivanandi fixes marriage for Lathapandi but Lathapandi is not willing to marry because she is very young and wants to study further. Despite Lathapandi's attempts, nothing stops Lathapandi's marriage. Lathapandi's marriage is posted on a billboard which Bosepandi and Kodi decides to stop Lathapandi's marriage since they want their group billboard on there. Bosepandi and Kodi go to the police station and threaten the police that they will go to the commissioner. The police talks to Sivanandi and makes Sivanandi stop Lathapandi's marriage. One day, Lathapandi reveals to Bosepandi that Kalyani is getting married. Bosepandi decides to move on in his life, so Bosepandi arranges for a Dindigul programme to happen in his area. Bosepandi sees Lathapandi in a sari and Bosepandi immediately falls in love with Lathapandi. The same night, the police reveal to Sivanandi that the person who stopped Lathapandi's marriage was Bosepandi.
A day later Bosepandi tells Lathapandi about his love for her but Lathapandi ignores Bosepandi and she says no to him. Bosepandi walks away from Lathapandi, Bosepandi listens to a sad song when a gang comes and bashes Bosepandi. Bosepandi later finds out that it was Sivanandi's gang who hit Bosepandi. So, Bosepandi and Kodi decide to steal what Sivanandi considers his 'soul' and that is Sivanandi's Gun. Bosepandi and Kodi steals Sivanandi's Gun and they both run away and cause a lot of trouble. Bosepandi then tells Lathapandi that he will return the gun if she comes to their friends' marriage and so Bosepandi returns Sivanandi's Gun without anyone knowing. Lathapandi in return goes to that marriage and takes many photos with Bosepandi. Lathapandi's mother Dhanalakshmi warns Lathapandi that this is not correct and Lathapandi should stop it. Sivanandi's cow falls into a well when Sivanandi goes out of town so Bosepandi helps to get Sivanandi's cow out of the well. That night Bosepandi stays with Lathapandi in Sivanandi's house and Bosepandi and Lathapandi see Sivanandi sleepwalking. After that, Bosepandi and Lathapandi wake up in the morning and they see Sivanandi walking again. This time Sivanandi is awake but Bosepandi and Lathapandi thinks Sivanandi is sleepwalking again and so Bosepandi tells Sivanandi about liking Lathapandi. Once Bosepandi finds out that Sivanandi is indeed awake, Bosepandi runs out of Sivanandi's house.
Sivanandi then makes Lathapandi promise that Lathapandi will only marry the guy who Sivanandi tells Lathapandi to marry and so Lathapandi promises Sivanandi. Sivanandi's family fixes marriage for Lathapandi but on the night before Lathapandi's marriage, Lathapandi decides to run away with Bosepandi. When running away at night, they see Sivanandi and Sivanandi tells Bosepandi and Lathapandi to run away from his house and gives them some money so that they never come back. Sivanandi wants Bosepandi and Lathapandi to run away because Sivanandi doesn't want Lathapandi to marry the guy Sivanandi has chosen for Lathapandi and Sivanandi can't stop Lathapandi's marriage because Sivanandi has too much respect in his village. Sivanandi watches Bosepandi and Lathapandi get married and they both settled in a hill area. Sivanandi comes to visit Bosepandi and Lathapandi every day. On Sivanandi's one visit, Bosepandi reveals Sivanandi that Lathapandi is pregnant. Bosepandi and Lathapandi then return to the village because Bosepandi's father had offered him more money than Sivanandi. Then the film ends with everyone laugh on each other.
Production
Development
Ponram returned to direction with this film after Thirutham, and M. Rajesh, under whom he was previously worked as assistant director, wrote the dialogues. The title Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam was derived from a fictional club that features in Winner, and a real club with the same name which Ponram said "treats serious issues with disdain and frivolous issues seriously". The film was produced by P. Madan under Escape Artists Motion Pictures, photographed by Balasubramaniem and edited by Vivek Harshan. It was announced at a press interaction event on 12 June 2013 at Chennai.Rajesh initially wrote one version of the script, which Ponram had drafted and then had changed the normal version of the dialogues to suit its village-centric theme. While writing the story, he would often provide feedback from Rajesh suggesting any changes in the script. Since Rajesh knew about the progress of the script from its inception, Ponram insisted him to write the dialogues, to which Rajesh agreed. He considered the humour element to be the highlight for this film.
Casting and filming
Ponram narrated the script to at least 12 actors before Sivakarthikeyan was finalised as the lead character. Sri Divya, who previously appeared mainly in Telugu films, made her Tamil debut in this film; she plays Sivakarthikeyan's love interest. Soori had chosen to play the comedic role in the film, having previously worked with him in Manam Kothi Paravai and Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga. Sathyaraj was chosen to play Sivanaandi Thevar, whom Ponram had considered to be perfect for the role and added that his role was not an antagonist.Much of the film's production has been completed, before the team officially announced the film; filming was held in various places such as Theni, Tiruchirappalli and Chennai. The final filming schedule was completed in Theni by early July 2013.
Themes and influences
Varuthapadatha Valibar Singam deals with the practices of honor killing. Ponram admitted that films that fit in the similar category had been considered to be preachy and had gore, but then decided to take a light-hearted and comical route for the film. He noted that though had to indicate the social injustices prevailing in a particular caste or region, he never wanted to use any direct references of the community, but instead implied it using their customs, traditions and accent to pertain to wide range of audiences.Soundtrack
The music is composed by D. Imman, with lyrics written by Yugabharathi. Imman collaborated with Sivakarthikeyan for the second time after Manam Kothi Paravai. The soundtrack album features five songs, with a dubstep version and three karaoke versions, thus making it to nine tracks in total. Sivakarthikeyan sung the title track "Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam", making his debut in playback singing. The audio launch took place on 19 July 2013 at Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai.Release
Initially scheduled to be released during August 2013, Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam was released in theatres on 6 September 2013, during the Vinayagar Chathurthi weekend. It was released in 343 screens in Tamil Nadu. The film's television premiere took place on 14 January 2014, coinciding with the Pongal festival on Kalaignar TV, and registered a TRP rating of 12.29.Reception
Critical reception
Baradwaj Rangan writing for The Hindu stated, "The film has enough silliness to qualify as mild amusement, especially in the scenes with Bosepandi and his friend Kodi — but these gags would work just as well as a compilation clip on YouTube. The plotting is too loose to warrant a two-hour-and-forty-minute movie, with sentimental detours and meandering subplots". The Times of India rated it 3 out of 5, stating "What makes this a rather predictable film appealing to an extent is the lighthearted manner in which Ponram tells his story." IANS wrote, "While the film's biggest strength are its dialogues, its lengthy second half tests the audience's patience".S Saraswathi of Rediff.com gave a rating of 2 out of 5 and summarised, "Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam is boring and gets repetitive after a while". Sify gave a rating of 2.75 out of 5 stating, "Ponram through VVS follows the comedy template set by his guru Rajesh and blends them with his hero Sivakarthikeyan's image. Add D Imman's peppy melodies with a rural touch and you get a mass comedy entertainer". Malini Mannath of The New Indian Express wrote, "the film though not the best of comedies, makes for a fairly pleasant watch" with a rating of 2.5 out of 5.