Star (2001 film)


Star is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Praveen Gandhi and produced by Vijaykrishna. The film stars Prashanth and Jyothika in the lead roles while Raghuvaran, Vijayakumar, and Praveen Gandhi play other pivotal roles. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by A.R. Rahman, while the film is edited by M. N. Rajan. The film opened to poor reviews and performed below average at the box office in July 2001. The film is dubbed into Hindi as Baaghi and in Telugu as Takkari Donga Chakkani Chukka.

Plot

Murthy earns his living taking the blame for the mistakes of other people, and so the jail is his second home. Dhanushkodi has sworn to kill ex-collector Ramanathan's son Santhosh, and so, Ramanathan has transferred Santhosh to Mauritius while telling the world he has run away. Wishing to save his son, he hires Murthy to act as him, hoping Dhanushkodi would kill him instead of his actual son. Murthy too accepts the gig since his lover Preeti is Ramanathan's niece. In the climax, Santhosh supports Dhanushkodi for killing his father, but Dhanushkodi kills Santhosh. The film ends with Murthy taking the blame for killing Santhosh and surrendering himself to police.

Cast

The success of Jodi prompted director Praveen Gandhi to collaborate with Prashanth and Simran again in a project called Star, but Simran soon dropped out and was replaced by Jyothika. After their successful association in Ratchagan and Jodi, Praveen Kanth wanted Rahman to provide the music yet again, but the composer was short on time so Rahman compromised to reinvent tunes earlier composed for films like Thakshak and Earth for the project.
The introduction of Jyothika's character was filmed on the streets of Chennai. The team then went on a shooting stint to Kurinji village at Gobichettipalayam and during the time there provided Rs 2 lakhs to help renovate a temple, which had been closed for twenty years.

Release

Critic Malini Mannath gave the film a negative review adding that "an artist can rarely rise above a bad script, consequently Prashanth’s attempts to infuse some life through fight scenes and dance numbers turn futile" and that "Jyotika’s expressions are becoming repetitive.". The critic concluded that had "ruinously shoddy script" and "the director’s attempt to enter into the acting arena, and play one of the crucial characters in the film adds insult to injury". Another critic added that the film would not give a boost to Prashanth's career as he had anticipated stating that it was a "below average movie". Another reviewer described that "the messy screenplay in the second half ruins the story that admittedly has enough potential for romance, laughs, sentiments and action".
The failure of the film ended the partnership between Rahman and Praveen Kanth, with the composer refusing to score the music for the director's next venture, Thullal. Plans were made in 2003 to remake the film in Telugu as Mahendra, but the venture never took off. However, in 2005 it was dubbed and released in Telugu as Takkari Donga Chakkani Chukka.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman with lyrics by Vairamuthu, Piraisoodan and Palani Bharathi. The Rasiga Rasiga song was a chartbuster. Due to lack of time, Rahman could not accept the film, but the director sought permission to re-use some songs from his previous Hindi album, Thakshak and one song from Earth. The director followed the same approach in his previous film Jodi. Singer Karthik made his playback debut with this soundtrack.
#TitleArtistLyricsDurationNotes
1"Manasukkul Oru Puyal"S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sadhana SargamVairamuthu5:11Reused "Boondi Si Baatein" from Thakshak
2"Thom Karuvil Irundom"Shankar MahadevanVairamuthu5:28Reused "Dheem Ta Dare" from Thakshak
3"Rasiga Rasiga"S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sujatha MohanPiraisoodan6:53Reused "Rang De" from Thakshak
4"Machha Machhiniye"Unni Menon, Ganga SitharasuVairamuthu5:01Reused "Ruth Aagayi Re" from Earth
5"Adi Nenthikkitten"Karthik, Chitra SivaramanPalani Bharathi6:15

;Telugu soundtrack
#TitleArtistDuration
1"Vayasuku"Sujata Trivedi, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam5:11
2"Thom"Shankar Mahadevan5:28
3"Rasika"S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sujatha Mohan6:53
4"Maradalive"Shankar Mahadevan, Ganga Sitharasu5:01
5"Ne Mokkokunna"Karthik, Chitra Sivaraman6:15