Jil Jung Juk

Jil Jung Juk(transl.The Good, The Average, The Unworthy) is a 2016 IndianTamil-languageneo-Westernpost-apocalypticblack comedy filmdirected by Deeraj Vaidy, in his directorial debut. It is produced bySiddharthunder Etaki Entertainment, who also enacts with Avinash Raghudevan andSananth Reddyin the titular role. The film follows Jil, Jung and Juk who are assigned by a dreadful drug lord to transport drugs, where they faces struggles during their journey.
Deeraj Vaidy initially produced a pilot film with two of the lead actors in 2014. Impressed by the draft, Siddharth asked Vaidy to pen down the script on the lines of a similar theme; the draft was completed in January 2015. It is touted to be the first Tamil film to be set in adystopian world, where events were happening in the future and principal shooting for the film was completed within 38 days, where the film was shot inTiruvallur,ChennaiandKanchipuram. The film was officially announced in September 2015, and a four-month longpost-productionprocess began the same month.Vishal Chandrasekharcomposed the soundtrack and musical score, while Shreyaas Krishna handled thecinematography.Editingwas done by Kurtz Schneider.
Jil Jung Jukwas theatrically released worldwide on 12 February 2016, where it generally received mixed-to-positive reviews. Critics praised its offbeat elements, concept, cast performances, technical aspects, and the use ofcolor palettes, but criticized for its pace and screenwriting. Despite the average performance at the box office,Jil Jung Jukwas considered as one of the '25 Greatest Tamil Films of the Decade' byFilm Companion.
In the 2020 post-apocalypticChennai, amidst the huge demand for petrol and money, Deivanayagam, an erstwhile powerful gangster gets a chance to smugglecocaineto defeat his nemesis Rolex Rowther. Deivanayagam hires three guys: Nanjil Sivaji (Jil), Jambulingam (Jung), and Jaguar Jagan (Juk), to safely deliver the cocaine to a Chinese gang inHyderabad. With the help of a scientist Marundhu, Deivanayagam sells the drugs by coating them inAmbassador carpainted pink so that it would not be detected by the police. Along the way, Jil, Jung and Juk encounter Narasimhan, who has an almost identical car.
Narasimhan eventually befriends the trio and takes them into a pub. After a drink at night, the trio escapes the pub without his knowledge but later realize that they have taken Narasimhan's car in their drunken state. It was revealed that Narasimhan was assigned by Deivanayagam's assistant Pai and Marundhu, to steal the car and sell it to a gangster named Attack Albert. Confused, the trio went to a shooting spot where they see a car being used in an action sequence, left damaged after the shoot. It was later revealed that the car was considered to be the Ambassador car, that was Deivanayagam assigned to deliver.
Shocked and dismayed, the trio confronts Narasimhan about his plans and takes them with his car so that they can paint the car in pink and coat the stuff, but as they do not have cocaine, they decide to approach Attack Albert. Albert kidnaps the trio and eventually manages to escape the location with the stuff Albert has. Rowther reveals Deivanayagam's plans and decides to have a meeting with Deivanayagam. The trio is caught by Rowther's men and kept under their custody. During their business dealing, Deivanayagam reveals that theRolexwatch he gave to Rowther was fake, leaving Rowther deceived.
A gang-war takes place between Deiva and Rowther's men until Albert arrives and kills the two gangsters so that he could be a powerful drug lord. Albert kidnaps Jil, Jung and Juk to murder them, taking them to a far-away place. They see Juk's father, a bus driver, who rescues the trio. Both of them fight hard with Albert's men. However, Albert arrives with aGyrojetto kill the men, but it was stopped by a marble and eventually backfired, leading Albert to collapse. Jil, Jung and Juk escape the place and lead a happy life. The Chinese gang, who had been waiting for the delivery, feels dejected that Jil didn't arrive, and they cancel the deal midway leaving empty-handed.
Jil Jung Jukmarked the debut directorial venture of Deeraj Vaidy. During his career as asoftware engineer, he chose his interest in filmmaking and had made two short films before approachingSiddharthin late-2014. He did apilot filmof this film,which impressed Siddharth and asked him to conceptualise the script to make it into a feature film format.When he narrated the final draft of this project in January 2015, Siddharth was impressed by the narration and storytelling, which was turned to be "off-beat and conventional" and had an "innovative scope" in the script. Likely, Siddharth had planned to take a break from acting commitments after his filmsKaaviya Thalaivan(2014) andEnakkul Oruvan(2015) underperformed at the box-office despite getting good reviews, had reconsidered his plans to act in the film.Apart from acting, Siddharth agreed to produce the venture under Etaki Entertainment, thus becoming his second film as a producer afterKadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi(2012) and his first solo project as a producer.
The title was officially announced in May 2015, which was derived from a dialogue spoken byVadivelufromKaadhalan(1994). Deeraj Vaidy co-wrote the script with Mohan Ramakrishnan, his college friend, which is touted to be the first Tamil film set in adystopian eraand being set in apost-apocalypticworld.He said that the film is "an offbeat film which do not require a conventional hero. We needed a space to get creative. My films were zero-budget and I took care of everything. I learnt something new with every film; each one was more progress. I was clear even that someone could find a fault for being technically poor, but that could not be excuse for bad content".The film's technical crew consists of relatively newcomers: except for composerVishal Chandrashekhar, debutant Shreyaas Krishna handled thecinematography, whilset Kurtz Schneider was theeditor.
Siddharth starred in the titular character Nanjil Sivaji (Jil). Deeraj chose him as the protagonist in the first place, because he wanted someone who never hesitates to experiment. When he came to Siddharth's house for narrating the story, he saw a CD wall in his room, for which he believed that Siddharth was the right person to experiment.As the film is set in a fictional world, Siddharth wore ablue hairin this film, which is considered to be an "unusual and uncommon look".Avinash Raghudevan andSananth Reddywere cast in other leading roles as Jambulingam (Jung) and Jaguar Jagan (Juk). The former was described as a "scary" and "logical guy" while the latter was seen as a "constant troublemaker in the film". Avinash practised various mannerisms for his role in the film saying, "Whenever Jung speaks, his cheek starts twitching. It was interesting to practise this, and I had full freedom on the set to come up with suggestions".Both Avinash and Sananth had appeared in the pilot version of this film that was shot in 2014, with Kanna Ravi played Siddharth's role in that film.Veteran actorsRadha RaviandNassarappeared in pivotal roles andRJ Balajialso starred in acameo appearance.The film did not have a female lead opposite the lead actors;the only female actor present in the film wasJasmin Bhasin, who appeared in a short role as actress Sonu Sawant.
Filming ofJil Jung Jukbegan in late May 2015, with portions of the film being shot inTiruvallur,ChennaiandKanchipuram.The interior shoots were held in specially designed sets in Chennai, as per Deeraj's insistence to be shot in sets, and Siddharth (also a producer) supported Dheeraj's decision to be shot in sets. Eventually, the team used dummy clapboards while shooting the film portions. The film's shooting silently progressed during May and June, and the team managed to complete the entire film within 38 days.
The film's post-production progressed within September 2015, and the team first revealed the film to the media on September 9.As the film required a lot of work onvisual effects, the post-production work went progressed nearly four months. Siddharth being a producer, agreed to offer huge costs on post-production so that they can come up with the manageable output, since the film is huge in the aspects of technology, gloss and style.The film'ssound mixingdone byVishnu Govindand Sree Sankar, with Suren G. handledre-recordingworks for the film, while Suresh Ravi worked ondigital intermediateandcolor grading.Work on the project has been delayed eventually due to theSouth Indian floods, and eventually the team worked day-and-night, so that they can complete the post-production within the end of the year. The film's first look was released by directorKarthik Subbarajin late October 2015.
Jil Jung Jukis the first film to be set in adystopian era, a concept which is first-of-a-kind inTamil cinema.Being set in a futuristic world, the film explores the three dimensions ofphysics—mass,timeandlength— as human characters, describing Jil, Jung and Juk. This concept was evolved during Dheeraj's conversation with his collegemate Mohan Ramakrishnan, during their final years of graduation.Vishal Menon ofFilm Companionwrote about how the director uses several references for ablack comedyfilm, which had been inspired from the works ofGuy RitchieandWes Anderson, probably on the subject of a dark comedy. Eventually, the references of a futuristic western action film was noted by several critics and the use of colour in the themes of the films had been referenced to some of Guy Ritchie's works. As per the narrative, the pink color was eventually used in many important sequences.
The film also explored the concept ofbutterfly effect(an idea about how a small incident causes larger effects), where in a scene that Jil (Siddharth) had this idea referring to a song "Oh Butterfly" fromMeera(1992). However, there was a scene which had a flap of a butterfly's wing sets off a series of events, and some sequences referred this concept.The film's only female cast member,Jasmin Bhasin, played the role of Sonu Sawant, aMumbai-based actress who offered a role in aTamil film, despite being not familiar inTamil. This eventually takes a dig at the stereotypicalportrayal of womeninTamil cinema, where directors include North Indian actresses in Tamil films as heroines, eventually wanted the female lead to be fair and dumb (loosu ponnu).The film also had a connection withKarakattakkaran(1989). In a scene where Sananth reveals the backstory of his father, a former bus driver, who joined Deiva's gang, and had stole a pink-colour 1960Chevrolet Impalabelonging to 'Rolex' Rowther, along with the cash, and a heroine whom Rowther kidnapped. Siddharth, mockingly asked that his father had keptSoppanasundari, the previous owner of that car, according toKarakattakkaranplot.
Vishal Chandrashekharcomposed thesoundtrackforJil Jung Juk, which had five songs written byVivek, Deeraj Vaidy andSiddharth.The initial script of the film had no songs, and Dheeraj approached Vishal only for composing thebackground score;a promotional song was eventually made, but in the process, Vishal had recorded five tracks for the album.The soundtrack featured vocals byAnirudh Ravichander,Santhosh Narayanan,Sean Roldan,Anthony Daasan,Andrea Jeremiah, Kavita Thomas. Siddharth andRadha Ravi, who were a part of the film's cast, had recorded two tracks respectively. On 10 November 2015, coinciding withDiwali, the music video of the promotional track "Shoot the Kuruvi" was launched by actorSalman KhanthroughYouTube.The rest of the songs and the full album released by prominent celebrities on the same day.
A critic fromBehindwoodspraised the composer for delivering all the songs in a quirky and unconventional western genre; he called the album as "truly international" and rated 3.25 out of five.Writing forBollywoodLife.com, H Shivakumar called the liberal mixture ofEDM,jazz,contemporary R&B,rock,dubstepandWestern folkas "fantastic" but criticised the lyrical similarities in the songs; he gave verdict saying "the album is quirky and catchy and does not deviate from the film's theme" with a rating of three-and-a-half out of five.Vipin Nair ofMusic Aloudsaid the soundtrack is "wacky, but highly imaginative and engaging", assigned a score of 8.5 (out of 10)while Karthik Srinivasan ofMilliblogstated the soundtrack as "impressive".
Jil Jung Jukwas first revealed to the public by launching the first lookand teaser in November 2015.Following the wide response for the teaser, in mid-November 2015, Siddharth announced that the film will have a theatrical release worldwide on 25 December 2015,coinciding withChristmas.However, following the 2015 South Indian floods that occurred during early-December,Siddharth announced that the theatrical release of the film will be postponed to 2016, as he and his team had to work on relief measures for the people who were affected by the flood.The trailer of the film was released byS. S. Rajamouli,on the eve ofPongal(14 January 2016),further adding that the film will be released worldwide on 12 February 2016, which also coincided with the eve ofValentine's Day.
To make the promotional activities more unique, the cast ofJil Jung Juk— Siddharth, Sananth and Avinash appeared in a special video made by theYouTubechannel Put Chutney, released before the film's release.The video titled10 Elements of a Commercial Film, which sarcastically mocks at the current trend in the Tamilcommercial filmshad the cast making a parody of themselves and their film.The video garnered attention from film buffs and had garnered more than a million views onYouTube.A Coimbatore-based start-up company named Creative Monkey Games & Technologies, had designed an android game based on the film, that had released before the film's release date (11 February 2016) and was downloaded by 8,000 users within 5 days of the launch.Deeraj Vaidy planned to launch the director's cut version of this film throughYouTubeon 1 April 2020. However, the video was taken down due to copyright violation.
Jil Jung Jukreceived mixed-to-positive reviews from critics with praise towards its offbeat themes, characterisations and technical aspects, but was criticised for its pace and screenwriting.
M. Suganth ofThe Times of Indiagave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "To some extent, the director offsets such disappointments by providing us with a steady stream of quirkiness, but the climax, which is over-stretched and cliched, leaves us with a film that we admire but cannot wholeheartedly fall in love with."Sudhir Srinivasan ofThe Hindupraised the quirky ideas used in the film, but criticised the team for "encouraging mainstream and discomfiting ideas". He further went on to say "it’s all rather queer, but fails necessarily equate to enjoyability".Malini Mannath ofThe New Indian Expresswrote "Jil Jung Juk seems more a case where the actors seem to have had more fun enacting their scenes, than what the viewers experience watching them."S. Saraswathi ofRediffgave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "The film does have its share of laughs, but it lacks the chaos, excitement and crazy fun that would have made the film more enjoyable. The wacky entertainment that was promised in the intriguing trailer is missing. Despite its faults,Jil Jung Jukdoes make a decent entertainer."
Latha Srinivasan ofDaily News and Analysiscriticised the script as "it falls short of expectations, particularly in the second half", however praised the major technical aspects and other novel elements featured in the film, calling it as a "must watch for those who would love to attempt for something different in Tamil cinema".Arathi Kannan ofManorama Onlinegave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Jil Jung Juk a dark comedy could only be justified to some extent, for it doesn't employ the noir elements (popularised by Korean and Hollywood masters) like the brilliance of violence, satirical narrative or even a style statement making cast to their fullest standing.Indiaglitzgave 3.75 out of 5 stars and wrote "It is commendable that Dheeraj has infused elements of humor in every bit of voiceover, comic strip, title card and subtitle and for extracting neat performances from every cast member. The director also sets the right expectation to his audience in the very beginning and hence the question of logic never arises."Behindwoodsgave 2.75 out of 5 stars and wrote "JJJ is not that usual route you take to attain entertainment. It is quite unpredictable and intimidating, but giving it a chance, it will grow on you for it could become acult filmone fine day and can give you an unsullied experience."
In contrast, Gauthaman Bhaskaran ofHindustan Timesgave 1.5 out of 5 stars and said "Siddharth, Avinash Raghudevan and Sananth Reddy produce enough laughs through some great one-liners in the first half of the film; but this becomes a serious flaw post intermission, when Vaidy, who also wrote the script, runs out of ideas and begins to stretch scenes till they appear irritatingly repetitive. And the performances are passe as well, and do not add up either."Anupama Subramanian ofDeccan Chroniclegave 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "The major drawback is its ordinary screenplay. What ideas looked great on paper, lose steam in execution and the jokes fall flat many times, especially during the latter half."Sifygave 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "the film is occasionally Jil (Good) mostly Jung (Average) and largely Juk (Worst)" and further added "Just like any other dark comedies in Tamil cinema (most of them are inspired by Guy Ritchie flicks), here too each and every character has got interesting back stories and to be honest, they initially create good impression but over indulgence and repetitive gags spoils the show."