Gentleman (1993 film)

Gentlemanis a 1993 IndianTamil-languageheistaction filmdirected byS. Shankar, in his directorial debut, and produced byK. T. Kunjumon. The film starsArjun Sarja, alongsideMadhubala,Subhashri,M. N. Nambiar,Manorama,Goundamani,Senthil,Charan Raj,Vineeth, andRajan P. Dev. In the film, a respectedMadras-based businessman moonlights as a thief to steal from the rich and give to the poor for their education.
Gentlemanwas released on 30 July 1993 and the film became a commercial success, running for over 175 days in theatres. It won threeSouth Filmfare Awards(includingBest Film – TamilandBest Director – Tamil), fourTamil Nadu State Film Awards(includingBest ActorandBest Director) and fiveCinema Express Awards. The film was a breakthrough for Arjun and Shankar and established them as one of the top actors and directors inTamil cinema. It was remade inHindiasThe Gentleman(1994).
InOoty, Krishnamoorthy "Kicha" and his sidekick Mani perform aswashbucklingheist of severalcrores, while being in disguise diverting the attention of police, and escape inNilgiri Mountain Railway, much to the frustration of Inspector Ratnam. Kicha is a respected citizen running a legitimatepapadambusiness with Mani inMadras. Susheela, one of Kicha's many female employees, has a crush on him and is constantly demanding his attention. Another thing adding to Susheela's woes is the arrival of her jovial cousin Sugandhi, who makes the place lively and playful with silly fights between Mani and Babloo.
Sugandhi later develops a crush on Kicha after being saved by him from the goons who tried to molest her. 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, the disgraced police officer Azhagar Nambi shaves his head and is left with a ring mark on his face, after a scuffle with the thief. Nambi investigates the design of the mark, believing it was formed by a ceremonial ring worn byBrahminpriests, but to his vain, finds that such a design is uncommon to Brahmin priests, but rather resembles amangala sutra.
Meanwhile, Nambi's parents force him to marry Sugandhi, from whom he gets the particular ring and learns 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. Nambi shoots Kicha, who narrowly escapes with a bullet injury in his hand. Kicha and Mani arrive at their hideout, where Susheela follows them and accuses Kicha of his deed. After Susheela threatens to commit suicide, Kicha reveals his past.
As a student, Kicha is a district-level topper, along with his best friend Ramesh, but they are denied their desired medical college seats despite scoring high marks due toreservationand bribery, which leads Kicha's mother and Ramesh to commit suicide. Due to this, Kicha becomes a thief to build a college, with the desire to make education available to the deserved, regardless of income, caste, or religion.
In the present, to fund the final stages of the construction of the college and being aware of the police trap, Kicha makes one last attempt to steal money from theChief Minister(CM) and succeeds, but Nambi manages to arrest him. In the courtroom, Kicha demands that the CM (who was previously the education minister who demanded the bribe from Kicha) should arrive at the courtroom. Though exposed to the public, the CM is let off, where an infuriated youth, who was triggered by Kicha's testimony, kills the CM in a suicide bombing. Six years later, Kicha and Mani complete their prison sentence and inaugurate the college.
After scoring back-to-back successes likeVasanthakala Paravai(1991) andSurieyan(1992), producerK. T. Kunjumonof A. R. S. Film International wanted to collaborate again with directorPavithranand actorR. Sarathkumar; however since they went on to do other projects, the collaboration did not happen. Photographer Stills Ravi and editorV. T. Vijayansuggested the name ofS. Shankarwho 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 titledGentleman, 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 selectedBalakumaranto write the dialogues.Cinematography was handled byJeeva, editing by Vijayan andB. Lenin, and art direction by Maghi,whileVikram Dharmawas the action choreographer.
The initial story revolved the militancy of aBrahminyouth. Shankar wantedKamal Haasanto play the lead at this stage, but he refused because he felt the story was too similar toGuru(1980) in which he acted and did not like Shankar's take on the concept.WhenArjunwas approached, he was reluctant. According to him, no directors wanted to make a film with him until the success ofSevagan(1992) which was directed by Arjun himself. Therefore when Shankar approached him with the script ofGentleman, 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 song "Chikku Bukku Rayile" was mostly shot atEgmore railway station.The climax scene where a student kills the antagonist in a suicide bombing was inspired from the assassination of the thenPresident of Sri Lanka,Ranasinghe Premadasa.Kunjumon insisted that Shankar rewrite the climax by adding this element, much to the dissatisfaction of Arjun, who felt that his heroism would be diluted. However, Kunjumon remained adamant and it was shot as per his wish.The filming took seven months to be completed.
Critics have noted the film's resemblance toOre Oru Gramathiley(1987) due tocaste-based reservationbeing a mutual theme in both and the protagonist being a Brahmin who rebels against this,andKaruppu Panam(1964).
The score and soundtrack were composed byA. R. Rahman. Initially Shankar wantedIlaiyaraajato compose for the film later he was sceptical about the choice.Vairamuthuwrote the lyrics for all songs except "Chikku Bukku Rayile" and "Parkathey", which were written byVaali.The songs were recorded atPanchathan Record Inn, and the soundtrack was released under the Pyramid label.The film and soundtrack were dubbed and released inTeluguwith the same name. The lyrics were penned byRajasrifor this version.The original Tamil soundtrack sold over 300,000 cassettes.
The opening of the song "Ottagathai Kattiko" is often thought to have been inspired from the 1991 Telugu song, "Eddem Ante Teddam Antav", composed byRaj–Kotiand sung byMalgudi Subhafrom the albumChik 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 a railway station, the sound of trains frequently disturbed their conversation; nonetheless, the train sounds inspired Rahman to compose "Chikku Bukku Rayile"."Ottagathai Kattiko" is set in theCarnatic ragaknown asDharmavati,"En Veetu Thotathil" has shades of Chenchurutti and Neelambari,"Parkathey" is set inMohanam,"Usalampatti Penkutti" is also set in Dharmavati.
The songs fromGentlemanwere reused in theHindiremakeThe Gentleman(1994), though onlyAnu Malikwas credited for the music."Ottagathai Kattiko" was later remixed by the French rap groupLa Cautionas "Pilotes Automatique".
Gentlemanwas released on 30 July 1993.Kunjumon promoted the film by playing trailers on television sets situated on suburban railway stations.He 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 success, running for over 175 days in theatres.
Writing forThe Indian Expresson 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. Vijiyan ofNew Straits Timeswrote 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 Vikatanrated the film 50 out of 100.
In the 2019 Tamil filmHero, Arjun portrays Sathyamoorthy (whose name is similar to Krishnamoorthy), a man who steals money from the rich to build a school that is free for everyone.The 2021 filmDikkiloonawas titled after the word used by Goundamani and Senthil inGentleman.In June 2022, a sequel was announced with Kunjumon returning as the producer, and Gokul Krishna directing.