Dhool


Dhool is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Dharani. The film featured Vikram in the main lead role, while Jyothika, Vivek, Reemma Sen, Sayaji Shinde, Telangana Shakuntala, and Pasupathy, among others, play important roles. The film, produced by A. M. Rathnam at a cost of 7 crore, had music composed by Vidyasagar and released in January 2003. The film was a commercial blockbuster. It was remade in Telugu, Sinhalese, Punjabi, and Bengali.

Plot

Arumugam lives in a village and is a kindhearted man. There is a chemical factory in the village which releases toxic wastes into the river, and the villagers decide to give a petition to Minister Kaalaipandi requesting him to close the factory. Arumugam and his childhood rival Eswari, along with her grandmother Mundakanni, leave to Chennai to meet Kaalaipandi, who has won from the village's constituency. All three reach Chennai and stay with Narain, who also belongs to the same village but is settled in Chennai. Swapna, a fashion model, also lives near Narain's home, and she is attracted towards Arumugam, whereas Narain loves her. Arumugam meets Kaalaipandi amidst a heavy crowd and conveys the problems faced by their villagers due to water pollution. Kaalaipandi assures to take swift action.
Meanwhile, Sornaka and her brother Aadhi are local goons involved in many illegal activities with Kaalaipandi supporting them behind. One day, Eswari accidentally collides with Aadhi, following which he tries to beat her, but she saved by Arumugam. Also, Arumugam fractures Aadhi's hands. Now, Sornaka and Aadhi set an eye on Arumugam and decide to trouble him. They, along with Kaalaipandi's help, kidnap Arumugam and injure him badly. Kaalaipandi also informs that he will never take any action against the chemical factory in his village. Narain, Swapna, and Eswari rescue and treat Arumugam. Arumugam discloses the true image of Kaalaipandi and the culprits behind him to Eswari and Narain.
Arumugam decides to take revenge on Kaalaipandi and tarnish his image among the public. Arumugam uses Kaalaipandi's memo pad and forges a letter praising an adult movie and requesting it to be published in a daily newspaper. The newspaper editor believes it and publishes it the next day. This brings agitation among political parties, and people demand resignation from Kaalaipandi. Meanwhile, Sornaka decides to kidnap Eswari and kill Arumugam, but instead, Arumugam thrashes Sornaka's men and saves Eswari. Sornaka, while trying to escape, gets hit by a lorry and dies.
Kaalaipandi decides to bring back his lost image by staging a fast until death event, which will bring sympathy among citizens. Arumugam mixes his village's dirty water into the drink served to break the fast. When he discloses it on the media, fearing his position, Kaalaipandi attempts to kill the CM in hospital. Arumugam is arrested on a false case. When Kaalaipandi once again tries his luck to kill the CM, Arumugam uses his skills and gets Kaalaipandi killed on the hands of policemen. Arumugam returns back to his village with Eswari and Mundakanni. It is also shown that both Arumugam and Eswari had developed a romantic interest in each other. The film ends with the whole village celebrating Arumugam's victory.

Cast

After the success of their 2001 collaboration Dhill, Dharani and Vikram announced in February 2002 that they were to come together again for a project titled Dhool. Jyothika got the chance to play opposite Vikram for the first time. The film's song, "Aasai Aasai", was partially shot in Denmark, and plans had been earlier made to shoot fight sequences in London, though the team later opted against doing so. A huge set of a temple, a church, some houses and a shopping area, was erected at the Indian Express Office premises. Telangana Shakuntala's voice was dubbed by Srilekha Rajendran.

Soundtrack

The Music of the film was composed by Vidyasagar. The soundtrack was well received by the audience and critics alike. All songs were chartbusters especially "Koduva meesai" and "Inthadi kappakizhange" were much popular. The music of "Ithanundu Muthathile" and "Koduva Meesa" were used for two songs of Naaga, another film that Vidyasagar composed the music for.

Critical reception

Upon release in January 2003, the film was financially successful, despite opening alongside other prominent ventures such as the Kamal Haasan-Madhavan starrer Anbe Sivam and Vijay's Vaseegara. Rediff.com review praised Vikram's enactment citing that "Vikram is at his peak" and that "he seems as much at home with comedy as with action, in romance as in emotional sequences", while the critic from The Hindu also praised his performance. The film became a blockbuster and Vikram's fifth success in two and a half years with Vikram being dubbed as "the matinee idol of our times" by a leading Indian newspaper. The film was nominated in six different categories at the Filmfare Awards South 2003 with A. M. Rathnam, Dharani and Vidyasagar being considered for the Best Film, Best Director and Best Music Director categories respectively. Furthermore, Jyothika was listed amongst the Best Actress nominees, while Reemma Sen and Vivek were also shortlisted for the Best Supporting Actress and Best Comedian awards. However the film did not win any awards with Pithamagan sweeping most of the categories that year, although Vivek did win for his role in Saamy. The film successfully ran for 25 weeks.

Remakes

Dhool was remade and released in Telugu in October 2003 by Ravi Raja Pinnisetty as Veede, with Ravi Teja and Arthi Agarwal taking up the lead roles, while Reemma Sen retained her role.
The Sinhala remake of the film released in Sri Lanka in 2014 starred Ranjan Ramanayake as Ranja.
A Hindi version of the film was also planned by Guddu Dhanoa in 2004 with Sunny Deol and Gracy Singh in the lead roles under the banner of Padmalaya, but the film failed to take off.

Awards

Nominations