Devan (film)

Devan is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Arun Pandian making his debut as director. The film stars himself in the title role being his 50th project as actor[1] with Meena and Kausalya in the lead roles, while Vivek and Malayalam actor Saikumar play supporting roles. Actors Karthik, Senthil, and Vijayakanth appear in guest appearances. Saikumar had made his Tamil debut with this film. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The film was released on 14 June 2002 and was also dubbed in Hindi as Vidrohi.[2]

Devan
Poster
Directed byArun Pandian
Produced byArun Pandian
Written byArun Pandian
StarringArun Pandian
Meena
Kausalya
Music byIlaiyaraaja
CinematographyP. Selvakumar
Edited byB. S. Vasu
Saleem
Production
company
Friends Creations
Release date
  • 14 June 2002 (2002-06-14)
Running time
175 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Plot

The movie opens with Alex Devan (Arun Pandian) murdering photographer Jeeva (Thalaivasal Vijay) in cold blood in the latter's house. Jeeva strategically positions a video camera to capture the impending murder, but Devan's face is not captured on it. Jeeva shouts out the name of his killer before dying, but the audio is lost at that point.

While the police search for the killer, Devan zeroes in on Chetta Raghu (Saikumar) as his next target. He follows Chetta to Chandigarh but is apprehended by CBI officer Rathnavel (Vijayakanth). Rathnavel is a tasked with bringing down hoarders and black marketers of India's staple grains. Once Rathnavel realises that Chetta is a mastermind of the hoarding operation, he begins to help Devan, even hiring successful lawyer Chakravarthy (Karthik) to fight for him.

The flashback shows that Devan's sister Jacqueline (Kausalya) was killed by Chetta. Earlier, Chetta and Devan were friends, but Chetta stalks and harasses Jacqueline. He peeps on her when she is bathing, and when she finds out about it, she slaps him in public. Chetta decides to take revenge. On Jacqueline's wedding day, he drugs her and sends her to church in the bridal costume with no dress underneath. Chetta then grabs her costume from the car, thus rendering her completely naked in public. He then shoots her and her groom. Devan is framed for the crime and wants to avenge his sister's death.

In the end, Chetta is killed.

Cast

Production

The film was Arun Pandian's 100th film as actor and debut film as director.[3] The climax scene was shot in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, at the harbour, where underwater sequences were shot, using helicopters and ships, 3000 tractors, 50 buses and 200 camels. Says Arun Pandian, "It's a story that I penned about 10 years back. Earlier when I casually talked to Vijayakanth about my intention of directing a film he had said that he would definitely act whenever I directed it. I reminded him of it and he promptly agreed. He was confident and didn't have any apprehension that I being the actor-director would give more footage to myself!".[4][5]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack and background score were composed by music director Ilaiyaraaja.[6]

  • "Ezhai Geetham" - Ilaiyaraaja
  • "Kanda Kanda Pasanga" - S. N. Surender
  • "Sexy Bomb" - Ganga, Mathangi
  • "Tenagela" - Febi, Mathangi
  • "Thaalaattum Kaatre" - Hariharan, Sujatha

Critical reception

Balaji wrote:"though the movie starts off impressively, it eventually turns into a cliche-ridden outing filled with sentiments, revenge and action".[7] Another reviewer wrote:"An interesting screenplay, with suspense, action, vendetta and patriotism weaved in, the male characters are well-etched, and the female characters given just enough scope to justify their presence in the film. Only that the film is a bit too lengthy and could have been trimmed a little".[8]

References
  1. "Moments to cherish". The Hindu. 24 May 2002. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HKprEcunk4
  3. https://web.archive.org/web/20011222183359/http://www.tamilstar.com/preview/devan/
  4. https://web.archive.org/web/20021220194859/http://www.chennaionline.com/location/devan1.asp
  5. http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2001/11/16/stories/2001111600660200.htm
  6. https://mio.to/album/Devan+%282002%29
  7. "Devan - Tamil movie review". Thiraipadam. 26 September 2019.
  8. "Devan Movie Review". lavan.fateback. Archived from the original on 12 August 2004. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
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