Singam II

''Singam II'' is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Hari. Produced by Prince Pictures, and distributed by 2D Entertainment, it is a sequel to ''Singam'' (2010) and the second installment in the ''Singam'' film series. The film stars Suriya in the main lead role, alongside Anushka Shetty, Hansika Motwani, Danny Sapani, Mukesh Rishi, Rahman, Santhanam and Vivek. The music was composed by Devi Sri Prasad, while cinematography and editing were handled by Priyan and V. T. Vijayan.

''Singam II'' was released on 5 July 2013 and became a commercial success at the box office. A sequel titled '' Si3'' was released on 9 February 2017.

Plot

Eight months after killing the extortionist Mayil Vaaganam, former police officer Durai Singam goes on an undercover mission working as an NCC master in a Thoothukudi school and studies the illegal activities happening in the city. The only people who know about the operation are the Chief Minister Kumaravel and Home Minister Ramanathan. Sathya is a 12th grade student who falls in love with Singam, though Singam is waiting to marry his lover Kavya. Singam's father Soundarapandi is enraged about him leaving the police force, where he also forbids the marriage between Singam and Kavya, as he fears that Kavya's billionaire father Mahalingam might take Singam away to manage his business empire and that Singam will lose respect with his relatives.

Susai, a local who works as peon at Singam's school, shows the parts of Thoothukudi and tells about the rogue happenings in those places to Singam. Singam requests Ramanathan to transfer his colleagues Erimalai and Damodarai to assist him. Singam later learns that Sathya is the niece of an influential crime boss named Thangaraj, who is involved in Financial and Seaway scams. Thangaraj is in partnership with Bhai, who controls the southeast coastline of Tamil Nadu. Bhai and Thangaraj have connections with the international gangster and drug lord Michael Kong alias Danny. Singam does not know about their connection and keeps Bhai in his off-duty surveillance. Due to a verbal fight in a pub, Bhai's chief Saghayam, a drug importer, kidnaps a girl from another caste after her brother insults him, and holds her ransom until sunset. This causes riots between both gangs in the city, and Singam's school principal has to close the school for the day.

With his connections, Singam takes charge as the new DSP and saves the girl, where he is praised by the public and also forgiven by his father. Sathya learns that Kavya and Singam are strongly in love and distances herself from them. Later, Singam finds out about Thangaraj and Bhai's partnership, where he decides to arrest Saghayam at the harbour, who has brought Danny with him to attend Thangaraj's new hotel party. Sagayam is arrested, along with Danny for insulting the police. Thangaraj tries to make Singam release the duo, but to no avail. Bhai sends an army of goons to bust Danny and Saghayam out of prison. Singam's efforts are spoiled and is suspended for unruly behavior. Singam warns Bhai that he knows about Danny and will return soon. Singam meets Ramanathan at Chennai and proposes plans for an operation to arrest all of Danny's associates in India. Singam is re-appointed and gets his superior suspended. He gets authorization to kill drug dealers on sight even without evidence.

Since the next load of drugs is ready to be delivered by Danny, Bhai decides that Saghayam will deliver the drugs to him in Kerala and will bring it back, but is arrested by Singam. At Singam's engagement function, Mayil Vaaganam's former ally "Harbour" Shanmugam informs him that Thangaraj has hired goons to attack his family that night. Singam fights the goons himself where he places a drug bag inside Thangaraj's house and imprisons him. The next day, Singam learns that Sathya is dead by consuming poison, despite previously being told by Singam about her uncle's illegal activities. He realises that Thangaraj killed her as she knew the truth and to save Danny. Enraged, Singam seeks permission from Ramanathan for traveling to South Africa as his marriage will take place in three days. Singam arrives in South Africa and joins Major Kyle Ambrose and the police to confront Danny, who has taken sanctuary with a Durban-based don Alex. Singam and the Durban police chases them, where he defeats Alex's and Danny's men and during the chase Alex gets killed. After a long fight, Singam confronts Danny in his ship and arrests him. Singam drags Danny and puts him back to the same cell from which he escaped. Singam reunites with Kavya and gets promoted to DCP for his efforts.

Cast

Production

Reprising their roles from the original film are Anushka Shetty, Vivek, Vijayakumar, Nassar, and Radha Ravi while Hansika Motwani was signed on as the second female lead. British actor Danny Sapani plays the main antagonist. The actress Anjali is also featured in an item number. Prakash Raj did not return for the sequel, but he can be seen in clips from ''Singam'' that are intermittently featured during ''Singam II''. The film was shot mainly in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Tuticorin, Chennai, Tirunelveli and Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu. The director has also filmed some of the key songs, stunts and talkie portions in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, as well as Malaysia and Kenya. Primary production began in September 2012 and lasted for seven months until filming was wrapped up on 30 April 2013.

Soundtrack

Development

Devi Sri Prasad, who had also worked on the score of ''Singam'', returned for ''Singam II''. Bollywood singer Baba Sehgal had recorded a song in the film following the success of his "Kadhal Vandhale" number from the original. The soundtrack was released on 2 June 2013, a day after its originally scheduled launch in a grand event attended by several celebrities.

Reception

''Times of India'' gave the album 3/5 stars and stated that "DSP gets a foot-tapping album in Singam 2, though it sounds uncomfortably very similar to Singam."

Release

The release date was confirmed to be 5 July 2013. ''Singam II'' released in about 1500 screens worldwide, one of the largest releases for a Tamil film. The film released in a record 151 screens in Kerala and 63 screens in USA.

Reception

Critical response

S. Saraswathi of ''Rediff'' gave 3/5 stars and wrote "The Hari-Suriya combination seemed to have worked its magic once again. The screen presence and charisma of Suriya coupled with brilliance of Hari’s screenplay and direction makes Singam 2 a joyful experience." ''Deccan Chronicle'' wrote "Even if you are not a Suriya fan, ''Singam 2'' is worth a watch. The film roars rather well." ''Zee News'' wrote "‘Singam 2’ is definitely bigger, but it never gets better in the process of entertaining its viewers. It has a storyline that could keep you hooked but what doesn`t work in the favour of the film is the presence of too many characters and a weak screenplay." ''The Times of India'' gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "If ''Singam'' was mass masala, then Singam-2 is doubly so. Hari is clear about what entertainment he wants to dole out to his audiences and goes about delivering it unapologetically." Baradwaj Rangan of ''The Hindu'' wrote "Hari keeps his scenes extremely short, and if this prevents us from forming any sort of lingering attachment with the characters, at least we aren't allowed to dwell on anything long enough to get bored." ''News18'' gave 2/5 stars and wrote "'Singam 2' is definitely bigger, but it never gets better in the process of entertaining its viewers."

Other versions

The Telugu dubbed version simply titled ''Singam'', also known as ''Yamudu II'' was also released along with the original version on 5 July 2013. The film's Telugu version was distributed by K. E. Gnanavel Raja's Studio Green. A Hindi dubbed version entitled ''Main Hoon Surya: Singham II'' was released later on 2 August.

Box office

''Singam II'' had a sold-out opening with as much as 95–100% occupancy. The film collected on its opening day in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, while the Telugu dubbed version ''Yamudu II'' collected . The film grossed a record on its first weekend worldwide.

In the UK and USA, it earned and respectively on its opening weekend. The film earned in Chennai by the fourth week. And after seven weeks, the amount totalled at . According to '' Sify.com'', the film stayed inside the top five positions at Chennai box office continuously for eight weeks after its release and was declared a 'Superhit'. The film completed a 50 days theatrical run on 23 August 2013.

The film's Telugu version ''Yamudu II'' was an unusual success and earned in ten days from Andhra Pradesh. The film was successful in Karnataka and Kerala as well, collecting about and in its first ten days, respectively.

It performed exceptionally well in the Malaysian market, earning around within four weeks. The film was the third highest Tamil grosser in Malaysia after ''Enthiran'' and '' Sivaji'' at that point. The film's total business in UK after a one-month run was pegged at . ''Singam II'' completed 100 days in several screens across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh on 12 October 2013. The film was the second highest-grossing Tamil film of the year 2013 after ''Vishwaroopam''.

The film grossed approximately 1.36 billion worldwide in its lifetime.

Sequel

The third part of the ''Singam'' film series was initially scheduled to enter production in December 2015. Suriya and Anushka reprised their roles. Production on the film was, however, postponed due to climatic conditions in Chennai. Principal photography eventually began on 17 December with the filming of a song sequence, while regular shooting was scheduled to happen later in the month, though it was later moved to January 2016. Regular shooting commenced on 7 January 2016, with the film's title being revealed as ''S3''. After a long gap, during which the release of the film was postponed several times, the title was changed from ''S3'' to ''Si 3''. This was in order to exploit the Tamil Nadu Government's rule of entertainment tax exemption for films titled in Tamil.Suriya's 'S3' becomes 'C3'
The Hindu (17 January 2017). Retrieved on 2017-02-18.

Notes

References

External links

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{{2D Entertainment
2010s Indian films
2010s police films
2010s Tamil-language films
2013 action films
2013 films
Cultural depictions of South African people
Fictional portrayals of the Tamil Nadu Police
Films about the illegal drug trade
Films about the Narcotics Control Bureau
Films directed by Hari (director)
Films set in Canada
Films set in Chennai
Films set in Kerala
Films set in South Africa
Films set in Tamil Nadu
Films set in the Indian Ocean
Films shot in Canada
Films shot in Chennai
Films shot in Gauteng
Films shot in Karaikudi
Films shot in KwaZulu-Natal
Films shot in the United States
Films shot in Thiruvananthapuram
Films shot in Thoothukudi
Films shot in Tirunelveli
Foreign films set in the United States
Indian action films
Indian police films
Indian sequel films
Singam (film series)
Tamil-language Indian films