''College Kumar'' is a 2020 Indian

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

written and directed by

Hari Santhosh Hari Santhosh is an Indian film lyricist and director who predominantly works in the Kannada Film Industry. He is best known for 2012 film Alemari. Early life Hari Santhosh was born to Harish and Prema in Koppa, Sringeri and was Brought up ...

. A remake of director's own 2017

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

film of the same name, it was simultaneously shot in

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 ...

and

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 ...

languages, with

Prabhu ''Prabhu'' means master or the Prince in Sanskrit and many of the Indian languages; it is a name sometimes applied to God. The term is also used by devotees of the Hindu God Lord Krishna/Vishnu as a title and form of address. It is also appended ...

starring in Tamil and

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

replacing him in Telugu. Rahul Vijay, Priya Vadlamani and

Madhoo Madhoo Shah (Madhubala) (born Padma Malini; 26 March 1969) is an Indian actress known for her works predominantly in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada language films. She was a part of Movies like ''Phool Aur Kaante'' (1991), '' Roja ...

co-star in both versions. ''College Kumar'' was released on 6 March 2020 in both languages.

Plot

Thiru Kumaran, a peon, wants to make his son an auditor because his employer, an arrogant auditor, insults him. As time passes by, his son, Shiva Kumar disappoints him by not being a bright student at college. Thiru's wife Janaki too is upset over the same. He loses his cool when Kumar is terminated from college for indulging in a malpractice. An infuriated Kumar vents out his frustration to his father and challenges him to join college and earn a degree. How Thiru takes up the challenge forms the rest of the story.

Cast

as Thiru Kumaran /

as Sasi Kumar * Rahul Vijay as Shiva Kumar * Priya Vadlamani as Avantika *

as Janaki *

Nassar Nassar ( ar, نصار, lit=helper, protector, supporter, victory-maker), is a given name and surname, commonly found in the Arabic language. Alternative spellings of this name, possibly due to transliteration include Naser, Nasser, Nasir, Naseer ...

as Santhosh Kumar (Tamil) / Prakash Kumar (Telugu) * Manobala * Chaams * Avinash as Kaliyamurthy (Tamil)

Production

In April 2019, it was reported that the

film '' College Kumar'' would be remade in Tamil and Telugu languages, with both versions being shot simultaneously. Hari Santhosh was confirmed to be directing both remakes, while the producers of the original too would be retained. Principal photography began in the same month. Though the cast was largely the same in both versions,

was exclusive to the Tamil version and

to Telugu. It was also the Tamil cinema debuts of Rahul Vijay and Priya Vadlamani.

Themes

Hari Santhosh has stated that, through ''College Kumar'', he intends to convey the message that "it's never too late to learn."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

Qutub-E-Kripa Qutub-E-Kripa is a national award-winning ensemble of young musicians of A. R. Rahman's KM Music Conservatory. According to AR Rahman's official website, the K M College of Music & Technology produces outstandingly talented students every year. In ...

. It was released via

Sony Music India Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd. is the record label operated by Sony in Chennai, India. The company began operation in 1997, and it was the first record company in India to be 100% foreign-owned, with Sony being a Japanese corporati ...

Release and reception

''College Kumar'' was released on 6 March 2020 in both Tamil and Telugu versions. Reviewing the Telugu version, Neeshita Nyayapati of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' rated it 2 stars out of 5, praising the premise but criticised its execution, saying it "makes it seem like leftover material from the 90s or early 2000s." ''123 Telugu'', review the Telugu version, opined that "Except for Rahul Vijay and Rajendra Prasad’s performance, there is nothing much to look forward to in this film which is like old wine in an old bottle". Reviewing the Tamil version, Thinkal Menon of ''The Times of India'' also rated it 2 stars out of 5, saying, "''College Kumar'' has the issues which most of the remake versions suffer. The project, which has been made simultaneously in eluguas well, looks like a Telugu film in many scenes, thanks to the location and artistes who play the minor supporting roles." ''

Maalai Malar ''Maalai Malar'' is a daily evening Tamil newspaper. It is owned by Daily Thanti group. It was founded by S. P. Adithanar in 1977 at Coimbatore. Maalai Malar has twelve editions published from Chennai, Vellore, Dindigul, Thanjavur, Tirun ...

'', however, reviewed the Tamil version more positively, praising its comedy.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=11859486 2020 comedy films 2020 films 2020 multilingual films 2020s Tamil-language films 2020s Telugu-language films Indian comedy films Indian multilingual films Tamil remakes of Kannada films Telugu remakes of Kannada films Films directed by Hari Santhosh