Varmaa

Varmaa is a 2020 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by Bala and produced by Mukesh R. Mehta of E4 Entertainment. It is a remake of the 2017 Telugu film Arjun Reddy. The film stars Dhruv Vikram and Megha Chowdhury. Filmed between March and September 2018, its release was initially cancelled after E4 Entertainment was unsatisfied with the output and re-shot the remake in 2019 as Adithya Varma with a largely different cast and crew. Despite E4's initial refusal to release Varmaa, the film was released on 6 October 2020 on over-the-top (OTT) platforms to negative reviews from critics.

Varmaa
Official release poster
Directed byBala
Produced byMukesh R. Mehta
Screenplay byRaju Murugan (dialogues)
Based onArjun Reddy
by Sandeep Vanga
Starring
Music byRadhan
CinematographyM. Sukumar
Edited bySathish Suriya
Production
company
E4 Entertainment
Distributed by
Release date
  • 6 October 2020 (2020-10-06)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Plot

Varmaa Vasudevan is a house surgeon. Despite being a brilliant student, he has severe anger management problems that earn the wrath of the college dean. Varmaa's aggressive nature also earns him a reputation among his juniors as a college bully. After a brawl alongside his friend Kamal against members of the opposing team during an inter-college football match, the dean asks Varmaa to either apologise or leave the college. Varmaa initially chooses to leave the college but stays back after meeting the first-year student Megha.

Varmaa and his friend Ashok enter a 1st-year classroom and announce that Varmaa is in love with Megha and asserts that she is exclusive to him. Initially afraid, Megha starts adjusting to Varmaa's overbearing attitude. She eventually reciprocates his feelings and they develop an intimate relationship. Varmaa graduates with an MBBS degree and leaves to pursue a Master's degree in orthopaedic surgery. Over the course of 15 days, Varmaa's and Megha's relationship becomes stronger. Days later, Varmaa visits Megha's house, where her father sees them kissing and throws Varmaa out.

Megha's father opposes her and Varmaa's relationship due to Varmaa's brash behaviour and also because they belong to different castes. Varmaa demands Megha decide within six hours otherwise he will end their relationship. Following this incident, Megha's parents seize her phone, preventing her from contacting Varma. By the time she manages to visit Varmaa's house, he is drunk, injects morphine into himself, and becomes unconscious for two days. Megha is then forcibly married to someone from her caste. Varmaa learns about the marriage from Ashok and goes to her house. He is assaulted and gets arrested for making a scene. Varmaa's father throws him out of the family home for ruining his reputation.

With Ashok's help, Varmaa rents a flat and joins a private hospital as a surgeon. To cope with his emotions, he starts taking drugs, attempts one-night stands, buys a pet dog, and names it after Megha and drinks alcohol; all of which are unsuccessful. Within months, he becomes a successful surgeon and a high-functioning alcoholic who is feared by the hospital's staff members, one of the reasons being his high surgery count. Varmaa's self-destructing behaviour and refusal to move on worries Ashok. He persuades one of his patients, Raiza Wilson, a leading film star, to have a no-strings relationship with him, which he ends when she falls in love with him.

On a day off, Varmaa unwillingly agrees to perform life-saving surgery and collapses from dehydration. The hospital staff examines his blood samples, which show traces of alcohol and cocaine. The hospital chief files a case against Varma, who accepts the truth on the grounds of violating his professional ethics during an in-house court hearing, despite Ashok making arrangements to bail him out. Varmaa's medical licence is cancelled for five years and he is evicted from the flat. The next morning, Ashok manages to reach Varmaa to convey his father's death; he and they reconcile. Varmaa gives up his self-destructive habits soon after.

While leaving for a vacation, Varmaa sees a pregnant Megha sitting in a park. Convinced that she is unhappy with her marriage, Varmaa meets her after returning from his vacation. Megha reveals that she left her husband days after their marriage and continued to work in a clinic. She tells Varmaa that he is the child's father, and they reunite.

Cast

Production

Development

In September 2017, it was announced that E4 Entertainment had bought the rights to remake the Telugu film Arjun Reddy (2017) in Tamil and Malayalam languages.[8] The following month, Bala was chosen to direct the yet-untitled Tamil remake.[9] On 10 November 2017, the title was announced as Varma,[10] although it would later be amended to Varmaa.[11] Raju Murugan was chosen to write the dialogues.[12] M. Sukumar was selected to handle the cinematography.[13] Producer Mukesh R. Mehta said the remake would be 20 minutes shorter than Arjun Reddy.[14] Sathish Suriya was chosen as the editor, after having earlier worked for Bala's Naachiyaar (2018).[15] Actor Vikram's son Dhruv was cast as the male lead, in what would have been his acting debut.[12] It is the Tamil debut for the Kolkata-based model Megha Chowdhury, who plays the female lead.[16][17]

Filming

Principal photography began in early March 2018 at Kathmandu, Nepal,[12] and a week later, after completing the first schedule there, the crew shifted to Chennai for the second schedule.[18] Shooting was briefly stalled due to a strike of the Tamil Film Producers Council, but resumed in April after the strike ended.[19] For the final schedule, the team shifted to Tiruvannamalai.[3] Principal photography wrapped in mid-September 2018.[20]

On 7 February 2019, E4 issued a press statement stating that they would go for a complete reshoot as they were not satisfied with the final cut provided by Bala.[11] Bala's version of the film contained deviations from Arjun Reddy, which resulted in the conflict.[21] Changes included the absence of many characters from Arjun Reddy, including the male lead's grandmother. Varmaa was also two hours long while E4 wanted it to have a runtime of three hours like the original.[22] In their press statement, E4 added that the film would be relaunched with a completely new cast and crew while retaining Dhruv.[11] In a separate press statement, Bala decried E4's comments, saying it was his own decision to quit the film "in order to safeguard creative freedom" because he was asked to make changes.[23] This became the first such incident in Tamil cinema that the producer of the film refuses to release the film due to unsatisfactory final cut despite the completion of the film.[24] The new version, directed by Gireesaaya, was titled Adithya Varma,[25] and did not retain any scene shot by Bala for Varmaa.[26]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Radhan.[27] The song "Vaanodum Mannodum", written by Vairamuthu and sung by Vignesh G., was released on 27 December 2018 as a single.[28]

Marketing

The teaser for Varmaa was released on 23 September 2018. It was widely ridiculed and criticised on social media,[29] while a critic from The New Indian Express called it "a failed attempt to remake the original".[30] The teaser received five million views within fifty hours of release.[31] The trailer was released on 9 January 2019.[7]

Release

When Varmaa was scheduled for a theatrical release in January 2019, Shakthi Film Factory acquired the Tamil Nadu distribution rights.[32] Despite E4's initial refusal to release it,[24] after more than a year of deadlock, the film was released on 6 October 2020 on over-the-top (OTT) platforms. It was released on Simply South and Tentkotta internationally, and within India on The Ally, Shreyas ET and ShemarooMe.[33] The decision to release an alternate version of a film was compared to the announcement of Zack Snyder's Justice League, a director's cut of Justice League (2017).[34]

Reception

Varmaa received generally negative reviews from critics, many of whom compared it unfavourably to Adithya Varma.[35][36] M. Suganth of The Times of India rated the film 2 stars out of 5, saying, "Instead of feeling new age-y, Varmaa comes across as old-fashioned and even crass at times. It gets Arjun Reddy all wrong." Suganth also felt many of the actors like Chowdhury were miscast and criticised the lack of onscreen chemistry between her and Dhruv. He concluded that Dhruv looks "sure-footed in some scenes and like a novice in some".[4] Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion wrote, "Not a single frame is distinctive, or shows that a major filmmaker is behind the camera. You get the feeling Bala was forced to direct this with his hands tied."[37] Ranjani Krishnakumar of Firstpost wrote, "Varmaa is not rooted anywhere. The milieu does nothing for the film. Varma’s pain, which is what made Arjun Reddy intense, is heavily diluted. In fact, for the most part, he is just your average alcoholic, only too pampered."[1]

Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express wrote, "After watching Varmaa, I could see why the producer thought it was not a good idea to release it in theaters. Bala's interpretation of Sandeep Vanga's material strips the larger-than-life aura around the self-indulgent, inconsiderate, alcoholic and self-destructive protagonist." However, he concluded that the film "is a unique, honest and bold interpretation of a character that we all love despite the breathtaking level of faultiness."[38] Srivatsan S. of The Hindu wrote that "But the Bala Cut, as it would come to be known, is surprisingly cold and lifeless — even by the standards set by Adithya Varma — and edits out the dramatic bits of the Telugu original, only limiting to its plot points" and stated that the film was a "reinterpretation to his own Sethu".[2] Sudhir Srinivasan of Cinema Express gave the film a rating of one-and-a-half out of five stars and noted that "What would the Bala of today change about/add to this story that’s been told so many times now that you can predict its every beat? Well, it turns out that he hasn’t. He has settled to giving us a jaded, curtailed version instead".[39]

References
  1. Krishnakumar, Ranjani (7 October 2020). "Varmaa movie review: The insipid ghost of Arjun Reddy". Firstpost. Archived from the original on 12 October 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  2. S, Srivatsan (6 October 2020). "'Varmaa' movie review: Bala's version is shorter and an insipid remake". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 6 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  3. Balaji, Gautham (8 August 2018). "City boy makes it big with Bala's next". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 21 August 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  4. Suganth, M (6 October 2020). "Movie Review : Bala's Varmaa gets Arjun Reddy all wrong". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 6 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  5. Taluja, Vageesha (12 October 2020). "'Varmaa' movie cast: Here's a list of the actors and the characters they portray". Republic World. Archived from the original on 14 October 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  6. CR, Sharanya (8 January 2019). "I don't want to be typecast: Sandra". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 6 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
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