''Romeo Juliet'' is a 2015 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
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film
[ written and directed by ]Lakshman
Lakshmana ( sa, लक्ष्मण, lit=the fortunate one, translit=Lakṣmaṇa), also spelled as Laxmana, is the younger brother of Rama and his loyalist in the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He bears the epithets of Saumitra () and Ramanuja (). ...
in his directorial debut. The film stars Jayam Ravi
Mohan Ravi (born 10 September 1980), better known by his stage name Jayam Ravi, is an Indian actor who works in the Tamil film industry. He has won a Filmfare Award and three SIIMA Awards. The son of veteran film editor A. Mohan, Ravi made his ...
and Hansika Motwani, with music composed by D. Imman
Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran (born 24 January 1983), better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film composer and singer, predominantly working in Tamil cinema. Also worked in Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi film industry. His first film as mu ...
. The title alludes to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
play ''Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
'' though the film not based on it. The film was released on 12 June 2015.
Plot
Aishwarya (Hansika
Hansika Motwani (born 9 August 1991) is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Tamil and Telugu films. Hansika began her career as a child actor in Hindi films, and later went on to appear in lead roles in Telugu films, including ''D ...
) is an airhostess who grew up at an orphanage. Growing up deprived of money, she believes that marrying into a rich family is the only way she can find happiness in life. She falls in love with Kartik (Jayam Ravi
Mohan Ravi (born 10 September 1980), better known by his stage name Jayam Ravi, is an Indian actor who works in the Tamil film industry. He has won a Filmfare Award and three SIIMA Awards. The son of veteran film editor A. Mohan, Ravi made his ...
) assuming he is rich, but once she realises he is just a gym instructor, she leaves him. Although Kartik tries to convince Aishwarya that love can work out even without riches, Aishwarya is adamant that she wants a rich husband and humiliates Kartik in various ways.
Subsequently, Aishwarya manages to get into a relationship with a rich man Arjun (Vamsi Krishna
Vamsi Krishna is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Telugu and Tamil films. He made his debut in '' Gharshana'' (2004) and went on to play the antagonist in films including ''Thadaiyara Thaakka'' (2012) and ''Ivan Veramathiri'' (2013).
...
), and his family has agreed to their wedding. But Kartik contacts her, threatening to break her relationship with Arjun. With Kartik standing in her way and threatening to break her relationship with Arjun, Aishwarya is forced to find a suitable girl for Kartik and after so many failed attempts, finds Nisha (Poonam Bajwa
Poonam Bajwa is an Indian actress and model who appears in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. She made her acting debut in 2005 with the Telugu film '' Modati Cinema'', after that she was featured in more Telugu film, such as ''Boss'' ( ...
) for him. Kartik and Nisha gets along well and gets into a happy relationship. Meanwhile as her marriage date with Arjun is approaching, Aishwarya soon gets disturbed and suffocated with the heavily restricted although rich lifestyle given by Arjun and his family. One day when she meets Karthik at a temple, Kartik tells her that his engagement with Nisha is going to happen the night before Valentine's Day. At the same time, Arjun and his family plans to have Arjun and Aishwarya's wedding in London and the flight is scheduled for the night before Valentine's Day. On the night Aishwarya is supposed to leave, she realises that she does not want to live the heavily restricted and robotic life with Arjun and tells him she wants to leave. Arjun tells her okay from now on neither he nor his family members will try to control anything about her, and questions her if now is she okay about marrying him. When Aishwarya appears hesitant, Arjun firmly questions her to open up and she says she loves Kartik. Arjun stops the car and asks her to get out and not come into his life again. Crying, she goes to the place where Kartik and Nisha are going to get engaged. She professes her love to Kartik but Kartik refuses and leaves the place with Nisha, but then a song plays, and Kartik reveals that the relationship between Kartik and Nisha was a play orchestrated by Nisha and him to make Aishwarya realise her mistake and also realise her love for him. The story ends with Kartik and Aishwarya reunited.
Cast
* Jayam Ravi
Mohan Ravi (born 10 September 1980), better known by his stage name Jayam Ravi, is an Indian actor who works in the Tamil film industry. He has won a Filmfare Award and three SIIMA Awards. The son of veteran film editor A. Mohan, Ravi made his ...
as Karthik
* Hansika Motwani as Aiswarya
* Poonam Bajwa
Poonam Bajwa is an Indian actress and model who appears in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. She made her acting debut in 2005 with the Telugu film '' Modati Cinema'', after that she was featured in more Telugu film, such as ''Boss'' ( ...
as Nisha
* Vamsi Krishna
Vamsi Krishna is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Telugu and Tamil films. He made his debut in '' Gharshana'' (2004) and went on to play the antagonist in films including ''Thadaiyara Thaakka'' (2012) and ''Ivan Veramathiri'' (2013).
...
as Arjun
* VTV Ganesh
Ganesh Janardhanan, also known by his stage name VTV Ganesh is an Indian actor, comedian and film producer. He is best known for his hoarse voice, and his appearances in films featuring Silambarasan. He had made his debut in Tamil movie ''Red'' ...
as VTV Ganesh
* Uma Padmanabhan
Uma Padmanabhan (born 27 September 1965 ) is an Indian film and television actress.
Career
Uma Padmanabhan had her early education in Chennai and graduated in commerce from SIET, Nandanam. When SUN TV was founded in 1993, she applied for the ...
as Karthik's mother
* Madhumila
Mathumila (born 23 May 1988), also written as Madhumila, is a Sri Lankan born Tamil actress, TV anchor, and model. She started her career as an anchor in 2012 on Makkal TV and made her acting debut in the Tamil television serial ''Office'', whic ...
as Priya
* Shreya Gupto as Tina
* Myna Nandhini
Myna Nandhini (born 21 May 1991) is an Indian actress and television personality who is best known as Myna Revathi in ''Saravanan Meenatchi (season 2)'', Alabarai Myna in ''Chinna Thambi'' and for her major breakthrough role Mynavathi in ''Aran ...
as Divyashree
* Bhawana Aneja
* Mathew Varghese as Arjun's relative
* Arya
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
as Actor Arya (cameo appearance
A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...
)
Production
Lakshman, who had previously ventured into films as producer of '' Kalvanin Kadhali'' (2006), announced that he would make his first venture as a director with a film titled ''Romeo Juliet'' featuring Jayam Ravi
Mohan Ravi (born 10 September 1980), better known by his stage name Jayam Ravi, is an Indian actor who works in the Tamil film industry. He has won a Filmfare Award and three SIIMA Awards. The son of veteran film editor A. Mohan, Ravi made his ...
in the lead role. Despite its title, it is not based on the William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
play ''Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
''. The director had initially finalised/convinced Nayantara
Diana Mariam Kurian, known professionally as
Nayanthara, is an Indian actress and film producer who is known for her work in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. She was in the ''Forbes India'' "Celebrity 100" 2018 list, with her total annual ...
to play the leading female role but did not want to repeat her pairing with Jayam Ravi, as the pair were working on another production, Raja
''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...
's ''Thani Oruvan
''Thani Oruvan'' () is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Mohan Raja and written by Raja and Suresh and Balakrishnan. Produced by Kalpathi S. Aghoram, S. Ganesh and S. Suresh under the studio AGS Entertainment, it ...
'', at the time of casting. Subsequently, he chose to cast Hansika Motwani in a leading role instead. A photo shoot was then held and promotional stills featuring the lead pair were released to the media in late March 2014. Hansika revealed that she would play a girl with a "futuristic attitude", while Jayam Ravi's character would be more conservative in the romantic comedy.
The film's first official poster released on 14 April 2014 coinciding with Tamil New Year
Puthandu (), also known as Puthuvarudam, and the Tamil New Year, is the first day of year on the Tamil calendar, traditionally celebrated as a festival by Tamil Hindus. The festival date is set with the solar cycle of the lunisolar Hindu cal ...
s Day and indicated that filming had begun. The team held their first schedule in May 2014, with Poonam Bajwa
Poonam Bajwa is an Indian actress and model who appears in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. She made her acting debut in 2005 with the Telugu film '' Modati Cinema'', after that she was featured in more Telugu film, such as ''Boss'' ( ...
joining the cast. The team shot a sequence where real life actors approach Jayam Ravi's character, a fitness trainer, to help them achieve six pack abs with Arya
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
making a guest appearance.
The first look teaser was released on 29 December 2014 with only the lead cast appearing on it.
Soundtrack
D. Imman
Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran (born 24 January 1983), better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film composer and singer, predominantly working in Tamil cinema. Also worked in Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi film industry. His first film as mu ...
composed the soundtrack album and score for the film. G. Rokesh
Rokesh is an Indian lyricist working on Tamil language films, who specialises in song lyrics containing Madras Bashai.
Career
Rokesh worked as a machine operator in the Parry's area of Chennai and had established a reputation for being a gana s ...
, Madhan Karky and Thamarai wrote the lyrics.
Release
The film was released worldwide 12 June 2015.The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.
Critical reception
Baradwaj Rangan
Baradwaj Rangan is an Indian film critic, writer, and formerly the deputy editor of ''The Hindu''. He later became a senior editor of Film Companion. Rangan won the National Film Award for Best Film Critic in 2006. Before joining ''The Hindu' ...
wrote, "The film is a disaster...it's impossible to digest the overall preposterousness...''Romeo Juliet'' just cannot make up its mind whether it wants to be a screwball comedy or a melodrama — the tone is all over the place. And the writing is painfully inconsistent". 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 ...
gave the film 2/5 and wrote, "here is a film that could prove to be a worthy challenger to ''Valiyavan
''Valiyavan'' ( Strong Man) is a 2015 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language romance film, romantic sports film written and directed by M. Saravanan (film director), M. Saravanan. It stars Jai (actor), Jai and Andrea Jeremiah and the music was c ...
'' for the title of the Most Preposterous Movie of the Year. Rediff
Rediff.com (stylized as ''rediff.com'') is an Indian news, information, entertainment and shopping web portal. It was founded in 1996. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with offices in Bangalore, New Delhi and New York City.
, it had more than 300 e ...
also gave it 2/5 and wrote, "Lakshman's ''Romeo Juliet'' is just a rehash of old clichés. He pitches love against money and there are no prizes for guessing which one wins". Sify
Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...
wrote, "Lakshman has packaged the film in a glossy manner but it is unable to find any spark or chemistry between the lead pair. His direction is amateurish and so are the characters half-baked. The best thing about ''Romeo Juliet'' is Jayam Ravi and Hansika who does their best to rise above the flawed script". The New Indian Express
''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...
wrote, "The film, an average entertainer, would have been more engaging if only the screenplay had been coherent and the episodes interesting".
References
External links
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*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romeo Juliet
2015 films
2015 romantic comedy-drama films
Indian romantic comedy-drama films
2010s Tamil-language films
Films scored by D. Imman
2015 directorial debut films
2015 comedy-drama films