''Gentleman'' is a 1993 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language heist

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

co-written and directed by

S. Shankar Shankar Shanmugam (born 17 August 1963), credited as S. Shankar or his mononym Shankar, is an Indian filmmaker who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. He is one of the most prolific and highest paid film directors in India. His films typicall ...

in his directorial debut, and produced by

K. T. Kunjumon K. T. Kunjumon (born 15 November 1953) is an Indian film producer and writer, politician active in Tamil and Malayalam films. He began his career co-producing several Malayalam films, often working with director P. G. Viswambharan. His first Ko ...

. The film stars Arjun,

Madhubala Madhubala (born Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi; 14 February 1933 – 23 February 1969) was an Indian actress and producer who worked in Hindi-language films. She ranked as one of the highest-paid entertainers in India in the post-independence era, ...

and

Subhashri Subhashri is an Indian actress in south cinema. She is the sister of south actress Malashri. She was noted for roles in films like ''Gentleman'', '' Muthu'', ''Pedarayudu'' and ''Minor Mappillai''. Filmography Tamil * '' Enga Thambi'' (1993 ...

, with

M. N. Nambiar Manjeri Narayanan Nambiar (7 March 1919 – 19 November 2008) was an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Tamil cinema, known mostly for his villain roles in an eight decade long career. He has also appeared in a few Malayalam films. ...

, Manorama,

Goundamani Subramaniyan Karuppaiya (born 25 May 1939), known by his stage name Goundamani, is an Indian actor and comedian who works in Tamil cinema. He is known for his comic duo partnership in Tamil films with fellow actor Senthil. The pair dominated t ...

Senthil Senthil (born 23 March 1951) is an Indian comedy actor who works in Tamil cinema. He is famous for his comedian roles along with fellow actor Goundamani. The pair dominated the Tamil industry as comedians in the 1980s and 90s.Charan Raj Charan Raj is an Indian actor, director, film producer, and writer who works in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia and Hindi movies. Career Charan Raj is a versatile actor who is popular for his villainy and character roles in South Indian ...

Vineeth Vineeth Radhakrishnan (born 23 August 1969) is an Indian actor, classical dancer, voice artist and choreographer who primarily works in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. He has also starred in a few Kannada and Bollywood films. He h ...

, and

Rajan P. Dev Rajan P. Dev (20 May 1951 – 29 July 2009) was an Indian film and stage actor. He was born in Cherthala in the Alappuzha district of the former state Thiru-Kochi (present day Kerala). He had acted in over 500 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu ...

in supporting roles. It revolves around a respected

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

-based businessman who moonlights as a thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor for their education. ''Gentleman'' was released on 30 July 1993, and distributed by Kunjumon himself as distributors were reluctant. Despite this, the film became a box office success, running for over 175 days in theatres besides winning three South Filmfare Awards (including Best Film – Tamil and Best Director – Tamil), four

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The aw ...

(including

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to th ...

and

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

) and five

Cinema Express Awards Cinema Express Awards are presented annually by Indian Express Group on behalf of Cinema Express film magazine to honour artistic excellence of professionals in the south Indian film industry which comprises Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam ...

. The film was remade in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as '' The Gentleman'' (1994).

Plot

Ooty Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

, Krishnamoorthy "Kicha" and his sidekick Mani perform a

swashbuckling A swashbuckler is a genre of European adventure literature that focuses on a heroic protagonist stock character who is skilled in swordsmanship, acrobatics, guile and possesses chivalrous ideals. A "swashbuckler" protagonist is heroic, daring, ...

heist of money of several

crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is e ...

s while being in disguise diverting the attention of police, and escape in

Nilgiri Mountain Railway The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) is a railway in Nilgiris district, Tamil Nadu, India, built by the British in 1908. The railway is operated by the Southern Railway and is the only rack railway in India. The railway relies on its fleet of s ...

, much to the frustration of a chasing police officer named Ratnam. Kicha is a respected citizen who runs a legitimate

papadam A papad is an Indian deep fried dough of black gram bean flour, either fried or cooked with dry heat (flipped over an open flame) until crunchy. Other flours made from lentils, chickpeas, rice, tapioca, millet or potato are also used. ''Papad' ...

business along with Mani in

. Susheela, one of Kicha's many female employees, has a crush on him and is constantly demanding his attention. Another thing adding to her woes is the arrival of her jovial cousin Sugandhi. She makes the place so lively and playful with silly fights between Mani and Babloo. Sugandhi later develops a crush on Kicha, especially after being saved by him from some molesting goons. Kicha tells Sugandhi that he has no such feelings for her and wants her to find a suitable husband. Before leaving Madras, Sugandhi steals Kicha's ring as a souvenir. After several unsuccessful attempts at nabbing the thief, a disgraced police officer Azhagar Nambi shaves his head and is left with a ring mark on his face, after a scuffle with the thief. He investigates the design of the mark, believing it was formed by a ceremonial ring worn by

Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

priests, but to his vain, finds that such a design is uncommon to Brahmin priests, but rather resembles a

mangala sutra A mangala sutra (), or thaali (ISO: ''tāḷi''), is a necklace that the groom ties around the bride's neck in the Indian subcontinent, in a ceremony called ''Mangalya Dharanam'' (). The necklace serves as a visual marker of status as a ma ...

. Nambi is forced by his parents into getting married and by coincidence to Sugandhi, from whom he gets the particular ring that he was tracking and finds out that it belongs to Kicha. In an attempt to trap and arrest Kicha, Nambi plots an attempt at Kicha's house where they were invited for a wedding dinner, hosted by Kicha, where he shoots Kicha, but the latter narrowly escapes with a bullet injury in his hand, along with Mani. Susheela follows them to their hideout, where Susheela finds the duo and accuses Kicha of his deed. After Susheela threatens to commit suicide, Kicha reveals his past: Kicha was a district-level topper along with his best friend Ramesh, and when they both were denied their desired medical college seats despite scoring high marks due to caste-based reservation and bribery, that led to the suicides of Kicha's mother and Ramesh. Since then, Kicha became a thief to build a college of his own, where he desires to make education available to the deserved, regardless of income, caste, or religion. To fund the final stages of the college building, aware of the police trap, Kicha makes one last attempt to steal money from the CM, resulting in success, but Nambi gains the upper hand in arresting him. In the courtroom, Kicha demands that the CM, who was previously the educational minister who demanded the bribe from him, should come to the courtroom. Though the CM is exposed to the public, he is still let off, which infuriates a youth who was inspired by Kicha's testimony. The youth kills the CM in a suicide bombing. 6 years later, Kicha and Mani, having completed their jail sentence, inaugurate Kicha's college and Kicha unites with Susheela.

Cast

* Arjun as Krishnamoorthy (Kicha) *

as Susheela *

as Sugandhi *

Charan Raj Charan Raj is an Indian actor, director, film producer, and writer who works in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia and Hindi movies. Career Charan Raj is a versatile actor who is popular for his villainy and character roles in South Indian ...

as Azhagar Nambi *

as Ramesh's father * Manorama as Kicha's mother *

as Mani *

Gautami Gautami Tadimalla (born 2 July 1969), known mononymously as Gautami, is an Indian actress and politician who has worked mainly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films in addition to Hindi, and Kannada films. She was one of the leading South India ...

(special appearance in the song "Chikku Bukku Rayile") *

Prabhu Deva Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973) is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada language films. In a career spanning 32 years, he has performed and designed a ...

(special appearance in "Chikku Bukku Rayile") *

Raju The Raju are a Telugu caste found mostly in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Varna Status The Raju caste, which A. Satyanarayana calls the "locally dominant landed gentry", claims Kshatriya status in the varna system despite there being ...

(special appearance in "Chikku Bukku Rayile") *

as Ramesh *

as the chief minister *

Ajay Rathnam Ajay Rathnam is an Indian actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil language, Tamil films and serials. He is known for his supporting and negative roles and has acted in over 300 movies. Standing at 6 ft 4 in (193 cm), Rathnam is one of the t ...

as Ratnam *

Raghava Lawrence Lawrence Raghavendra is an Indian dance choreographer, actor, director, composer, dancer and playback singer. After making his debut as a dance choreographer in 1993, he began looking for acting opportunities. He began his career as an actor in ...

(uncredited dancer in "Chikku Bukku Rayile") *

Rajendran A. Rajendran,(born 1 June 1957) credited as Motta Rajendran or ''Naan Kadavul'' Rajendran, is an Indian stunt double and actor working mainly in Tamil cinema. He debuted in 2003 with the Tamil film '' Pithamagan'' and has worked as a stunt doub ...

as a henchman (uncredited)

Production

Development

After scoring back-to-back successes like ''

Vasanthakala Paravai ''Vasanthakala Paravai'' () is a 1991 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by Pavithran in his debut. The film stars Ramesh Aravind, Sarathkumar and Shali. The film, produced by K. T. Kunjumon, had musical score b ...

'' (1991) and ''

Surieyan ''Surieyan'' () is a 1992 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Pavithran, and produced by K. T. Kunjumon. The film, starring Sarathkumar and Roja, revolves around IPS officer Surieyan who is forced to flee after being fr ...

'' (1992), producer

of A. R. S. Film International wanted to collaborate again with director Pavithran and actor

R. Sarathkumar Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Award ...

; however since they went on to do other projects, the collaboration did not happen. Photographer Stills Ravi and editor V. T. Vijayan suggested the name of

who worked as an assistant in these two films. Shankar had prepared a story, but it was rejected by many producers. After listening to the story, an impressed Kunjumon decided to produce the film which would later be titled ''Gentleman'', but on the condition that Shankar accept any changes he suggest, to which Shankar agreed, making his directorial debut. While Shankar also wrote the screenplay, Kunjumon selected

Balakumaran Balakumaran (5 July 1946 – 15 May 2018) was an Indian Tamil writer and author of over 200 novels, 100 short stories, and dialogue/screenplay writer for 23 films. He also contributed to Tamil periodicals such as ''Kalki'', ''Ananda Vikatan'' an ...

to write the dialogues. Cinematography was handled by Jeeva, editing by Vijayan and

B. Lenin B. Lenin born as Bhimsingh Lenin is an Indian film editor, writer and director who works in Tamil language, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi language, Hindi films. The son of Tamil film maker A. Bhimsingh, Lenin entered the film industry as an assistan ...

, and art direction by Maghi, while

Vikram Dharma Vikram Dharma (born as R. N. Dharmaseelan in 1956 – 28 June 2006) was an Indian action choreographer in the Tamil film industry (also known as Kollywood) in Indian cinema. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Action for ''Yuva''. He was the s ...

was the action choreographer.

Casting and filming

Shankar wanted

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...

to play the lead role, but he refused because of the politics shown in the story and felt "it was not the right position to take on the subject". Shankar also suggested Rajasekhar to Kunjumon, but they were unsuccessful in casting him. When Arjun was approached, he was reluctant. According to him, no directors wanted to make a film with him until the success of '' Sevagan'' (1992) which was directed by Arjun himself. Therefore when Shankar approached him with the script of ''Gentleman'', he decided to decline without listening to the script just as he did to a few other directors. But he listened to the script after much persuasion and, impressed by the story, decided to do it. The climax scene where a student kills the antagonist in a suicide bombing was inspired from the assassination of the then

President of Sri Lanka The President of Sri Lanka ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා ජනාධිපති ''Śrī Laṃkā Janādhipathi''; ta, இலங்கை சனாதிபதி ''Ilankai janātipati'') is the head of state and head of government of t ...

Ranasinghe Premadasa Sri Lankabhimanya Ranasinghe Premadasa ( si, රණසිංහ ප්‍රේමදාස ''Raṇasiṃha Premadāsa'', ta, ரணசிங்க பிரேமதாசா ''Raṇaciṅka Pirēmatācā''; 23 June 1924 – 1 May 1993) was t ...

. Kunjumon insisted Shankar to rewrite the climax by adding this element, much to the dissatisfaction of Arjun, who felt that his heroism would get diluted. However, Kunjumon was adamant about the climax and it was shot as per his wish.

Soundtrack

The score and soundtrack were composed by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

Vairamuthu Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he first ...

wrote the lyrics for all songs except "Chikku Bukku Rayile" and "Parkathey", which were written by Vaali. The songs were recorded at

Panchathan Record Inn The Panchathan Record Inn and AM Studios is composer/music director A. R. Rahman's studios on his street at Kodambakkam, Chennai in Tamil Nadu. History The Inn was established in 1989, attached to Rahman's backyard, and developed into one o ...

, and the soundtrack was released under the Pyramid label. The film and soundtrack were dubbed and released in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

with the same name. The lyrics were penned by

Rajasri Rajasree (Rajasree Thota Panchajanyam, Kusuma Kumari, born 31 August 1945), also known as Rajasri or Rajashri, is an Indian actress active from 1956 to 1979. She is particularly famous for her portrayal as a princess in several folklore Telug ...

for this version. The original Tamil soundtrack sold over 300,000 cassettes. The song "Ottagathai Kattiko" is often thought to have been lifted from the 1991 Telugu song, "Eddem Ante Teddam Antav", composed by

Raj–Koti Thotakura Somaraju and Saluri Koteswara Rao, popularly known as Raj–Koti were Indian film music composers, singer-songwriters, record producers, musicians and multi-instrumentalists duo in Telugu cinema, In a notable career spanning a decade ...

and sung by

Malgudi Subha Malgudi Subha (born 17 October 1965; also spelled as Malgadi Shuba) is an Indian playback singer. She has recorded songs in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. In a career spanning two decades, she sang more than 3000 songs. She began ...

from the album ''Chik Pak Chik Bam''; in reality, Rahman, who was an arranger in Raj–Koti's team, helped them in composing the original song. Once when Rahman went to visit a friend whose house was near the railway station, the sound of trains frequently disturbed their conversation; nonetheless, the train sounds inspired Rahman to compose "Chikku Bukku Rayile". "Parkathey" is based on "Kilele" by

Osibisa Osibisa are a Ghanaian-British Afro-Rock band founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate West African and three London based Caribbean musicians. Osibisa were the most successful and longest lived of the African-heritage bands in ...

. "Ottagathai Kattiko" is set in the

Carnatic raga Carnatic raga refers to ''ragas'' used in Carnatic music. A Carnatic raga has several components - primordial sound (''nāda''), tonal system (''swara''), pitch (''śruti''), scale, ornaments ('' gamaka'') and important tones. Origins and histo ...

known as

Dharmavati Dharmavati is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 59th '' Melakarta'' rāgam in the 72 ''melakarta'' rāgam system of Carnatic music. It is called ''Dhaamavati'' in Muthuswami Dikshitar school ...

, "En Veetu Thotathil" is set in Chenchurutti, "Parkathey" is set in

Mohanam Mohanam is a rāga in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an ''audava'' rāga (or ''owdava'' rāga, meaning pentatonic scale). It is usually described as a ''janya'' rāga of Harikamboji (28th Melakartha Raga). ...

, and "Usalampatti Penkutti" is also set in Dharmavati. The songs from ''Gentleman'' were reused in the

remake '' The Gentleman'' (1994), though only

Anu Malik Anwar Sardar "Anu" Malik (born 2 November 1960) is an Indian music composer, singer, music arranger and score composer. He is an Indian National Award and Filmfare Award winning musician, who primarily composes music for the Hindi film indus ...

was credited for the music. "Ottagathai Kattiko" was later remixed by the French rap group

La Caution La Caution is a French hip hop duo consisting of Hi-Tekk and Nikkfurie, both of Moroccan descent. They are notable for creating the song "Thé à la Menthe" which is known for appearing (in instrumental form) in the 2004 American film ''Ocean' ...

as "Pilotes Automatique".

Release

''Gentleman'' was released on 30 July 1993. Kunjumon had to distribute the film on his own since no distributors were willing to buy this film as they felt "it looked like a dubbed film". Despite this, it became a major commercial success, running for over 175 days in theatres.

Critical reception

Writing for ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' on 6 August 1993, Malini Mannath said, "Shankar makes a promising debut infusing his script with action, sentiment, comedy and even some titillating scenes for added measure and tries to give something different within the parameters of commercial cinema. Jeeva's camera is effective in capturing the well choreographed stunt scenes (Vikram Dharma)." K. Vijiyin of ''

New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as ''The Straits Times'' on 15 July 1845. It was relaunched as the ' ...

'' wrote on 14 August 1993, "Sankar .. has provided thought-provoking story .build up the story well, making us eager to find out why the hero is committing all those robberies." On 22 August 1993, ''

Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History and profile ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 wa ...

'' rated the film 50 out of 100.

Accolades

Legacy

In the 2019 Tamil film ''

Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...

'', Arjun reprises his role as Sathyamoorthy (whose name is similar to Krishnamoorthy), a man who takes away money from the rich to build a school that is free for everyone. The 2021 film ''

Dikkiloona ''Dikkiloona'' is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language science fiction comedy film written and directed by Karthik Yogi. The film stars Santhanam, Anagha and Shirin Kanchwala, while Yogi Babu, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendran and Anandaraj play supporti ...

'' was titled after the word used by Goundamani and Senthil in ''Gentleman''. In June 2022, a sequel was announced with Kunjumon returning to produce, and Gokul Krishna directing.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* * {{Authority control 1990s heist films 1990s Tamil-language films 1990s vigilante films 1993 action films 1993 directorial debut films 1993 films Fictional portrayals of the Tamil Nadu Police Films about corruption in India Films about the education system in India Films directed by S. Shankar Films scored by A. R. Rahman Films set in Chennai Films set in Delhi Films shot in Ooty Indian action films Indian heist films Indian vigilante films Tamil films remade in other languages