Venkatramakrishnan (Srikanth), Sevalkodi Senthil (Jeeva) and Panchavan Parivendan (Vijay) are three engineering students who share a room in the residence of Ideal Engineering College (IEC), Chennai. Venkat is studying engineering to pursue his father's wishes over his own wish — to become a wildlife photographer. Senthil is studying to raise his family's fortunes and get them out of poverty. On the other hand, Pari studies for his simple passion in machines and devices. Pari believes that success in studying is not achieved by solely memorizing definitions given by textbooks or professors, but by understanding and applying the concepts. He believes that one should follow excellence, not success, as success will come itself if excellence is followed.
However, this different approach is sneered upon by the faculties, including the dean of the college, Professor Virumandi Santhanam "Virus" (Sathyaraj). In contrast, Virus' favorite student, Srivatsan "Silencer", (Sathyan) believes in mindless memorizing over understanding, in order to reach his goals of corporate and social status. Meanwhile, Pari falls in love with Virus' daughter who was a medical student Ria (Ileana D'Cruz) when he, Senthil and Venkat accidentally crash her sister's wedding banquet to obtain a free meal, which infuriates Virus. Virus labels Pari and his friends as "idiots" and continually attempts to break Pari's friendship with Senthil and Venkat.
Things further escalate when the three friends drunkenly break into Virus's house one night to allow Pari to confess his love to Ria, and urinate on the front door before fleeing. The next day, Virus threatens to rusticate Senthil unless he squeals on Pari. Not wanting to betray his friend or let down his family, Senthil attempts suicide and ends up paralyzed. Following his recovery, Senthil discards his fear of the future. Encouraged by Pari, both Senthil and Venkat gain courage to do what they were afraid to do before. Senthil takes a frank approach in an interview for a corporate job, while Venkat convinces his parents to allow him to pursue his love of wildlife photography, both successful in their endeavors.
When Virus discovers that Senthil successfully obtained a job offer, he conspires to prevent him from getting the job by creating an exam paper so tough that will deliberately fail Senthil. When Ria learns of his plan, she helps Pari and Venkat by providing them with the keys to her father's office. However, Virus catches them and expels them on the spot. Ria angrily confronts him, revealing that his son, Ria's brother, committed suicide when he could not get into IEC, like Virus demanded, even though he had no interest in engineering and instead wished to be a writer. At the same time, Ria's pregnant older sister Swetha (Anuya Bhagvath) goes into labor. A heavy rainstorm cuts all power and floods the streets, making it impossible for the ambulance to reach Swetha, and Ria is stuck at her hospital, where she had fled. Pari, Senthil and Venkat come to the rescue, along with other students from IEC. Over phone and webcam, Ria instructs Pari to deliver the baby via VOIP. After the baby is apparently stillborn, Pari resuscitates the baby by leading the students in saying "All is well". Virus reconciles with Pari and his friends, and allows them to stay for their final exams.
Their story is framed as intermittent flashbacks from the present day, ten years after Srivatsan bet that he'd become more successful than Pari. Having lost contact with Pari, who disappeared during the graduation party and went into seclusion, after five years, Senthil and Venkat begin a journey to find him. They are joined by Srivatsan, now a wealthy and successful professional in the USA, who is looking to seal a deal with a famous scientist and prospective business associate named Kosakhi Pasapugazh. When they find Pari's house in Ooty, they find a completely different man: the real Pari (S. J. Surya).
From him, they come to know that their friend was a destitute servant boy "Pappu" who loved learning, while he, the real Pari, disliked study. After seeing the boy's intelligence, the family agreed to let the servant boy study in Pari's place instead of laboring. In return, the real Pari would pocket his qualifications and after graduating, the servant boy will cease all contact. The real Pari reveals that Pappu is now a schoolteacher in Dhanushkodi. At the same time, they find out that, without Pari, Ria decided to marry the same price-obsessed banker that Pari initially talked her into dumping, and they go to rescue her from the wedding in Coimbatore.
Senthil and Venkat find Ria and arrive at Pari’s school. Ria and the fake Pari rekindle their love, while Srivatsan mocks Pari for becoming a lowly school teacher. He asks Pari to sign a "Declaration of Defeat" document. When Pari's friends ask what his real name is, he reveals that he is actually Kosakhi Pasapugazh himself. Srivatsan finds out about this and is horrified; he accepts his defeat and pleads his case with Kosakhi Pasapugazh to establish the business relationship he was after.
Cast
- Vijay as Kosakhi Pasapugazh (Panchavan Parivendan)
- Jeeva as Sevalkodi Senthil
- Srikanth as Venkatramakrishnan
- Ileana D'Cruz as Ria Santhanam
- Sathyaraj as Virumandi Santhanam (Virus)
- Sathyan as Srivatsan (Silencer)
- S. J. Surya as Panchavan Parivendan (Guest appearance)
- Anuya Bhagvath as Swetha Santhanam
- Vijay Vasanth as Paneerselvam
- Indrans as Virus's assistant
- Manobala as 'Librarian' Bose
- Uma Padmanabhan as Venkat's mother
- S. Shankar in a special appearance
- Ajay Rathnam as Panchavan Parivendan's father
Production
Development
Following Gemini Film Circuit's purchase of the remake rights for 3 Idiots in January 2010, there was much speculation in regard to the three title roles essayed by Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the original.[10] Gemini Film Circuit approached noted directors S. Shankar, Vishnuvardhan and S. Dharani to replace Rajkumar Hirani as the director, with the approval from Shankar leading to him being signed.[11] Despite speculation that he was set to pull out from directing his first remake as it would be a step down from his previous film,Enthiran, Shankar stated his commitment in October 2010.[12][13] He later added that, "he came across 3 Idiots during the making ofEndhiran, and it was that moment he decided to break his self-imposed rule – making only original movies and decided to direct his first remake venture."[14] As Shankar's norm music director, A. R. Rahman couldn't be retained for the project due to his busy schedules, Harris Jayaraj and Yuvan Shankar Raja were approached to compose the soundtrack,[15] with Shankar settling for the former with whom he had worked with in the 2005 action film Anniyan earlier.[16] Meanwhile, Manoj Paramahamsa, whose work in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa andEeram had been critically acclaimed, was signed on as the cinematographer.[17]
Casting
For the lead role enacted by Aamir Khan, initial reports suggested that Suriya was the front runner, who however dismissed the link citing that his commitments had left him busy.[18] A special screening for the film industry included Vijay, who expressed his desire to work in the film, and was subsequently signed up by Gemini Film Circuits to portray the lead role.[19][20] However, by mid-December 2010, soon after trial shoots were held, Vijay walked out the film following disputes over his dates, with Surya being labelled as his likely replacement.[21][22]Reports claimed that talks with Surya failed, since the actor had demanded salary increase and dubbing rights for the Telugu-version of the film.[23] Surya's reasons for refusing the offer was later confirmed not to be true, with Surya himself revealing that he had opted out only because of other film commitments and "did not want to keep Shankar waiting."[24] As a result, Vijay was once again finalized for the role.[25][23]
The roles of the other two titular characters took considerably longer to confirm. Madhavan was initially approached to reprise his role from the original but made it clear that he was unwilling to be a part of the remake, citing the film had already "gone down in history".[26] Early indications suggested that Udhayanidhi Stalin had replaced him but the claims were false.[19] In November 2010, reports emerged that Vinay Rai or Nakul were set to play the role, however Vinay cited that he refused the project as the role was not as meaty as the other two characters.[27] Consequently, the production house signed Srikanth to play the role, after seeing his performance in Drohi, which had come after several box-office failures for him.[28] Sharman Joshi's role was originally offered to Silambarasan, but after discussions, it was revealed that Silambarasan could not associate himself with the character.[29] Subsequently the role was offered to Siddharth, a protege of Shankar, who also went on to refuse the project.[30] Despite further reports that Arya and Jeeva were being considered, the latter signed on and agreed with Shankar that he would play Joshi's role instead of Madhavan's.[31][32] The role played by Kareena Kapoor in the original, was reported to be played by either Shruti Haasan or Asin. However Ileana D'Cruz was signed on for the film after attempts to feature Katrina Kaif in the film had failed.[33] The college professor's role was given to Sathyaraj, despite early indications that Prakash Raj would be approached. Omi Vaidya was unable to reprise his role from the original and comedian Sathyan Sivakumar was signed on to essay his role, while S. J. Suryasigned on to appear in a guest role, portraying the role enacted by Javed Jaffrey.[34] Anuya Bhagvath was also signed up for a supporting role.[35]
Filming
The first schedule of filming was held in Ooty, where scenes involving Ileana, Srikanth and Jeeva were shot.[36] During the second schedule scenes involving the lead cast were canned at Dehradun and a car chase at various places in Chennai,[37][38] while two songs were filmed inLondon and Buckingham during the third schedule.[39] Some significant parts of the film were shot in Chennai at Sun Studios and the Ampa Skywalk Mall,[40][41] as well as in the Koyambedu water tank for three days, for which an Akila crane was used.[42] Further filming, including the climax, was held at various locations in Europe, Andamans and Coimbatore.[43] Filming was wrapped-up in October, with a song featuring Vijay and Ileana being the last one to be shot which was choreographed by Farah Khan.[44][45] The filming process lasted for eight months.[46]
No comments:
Post a Comment