Aadukalam

About the film

Aadukalam (; transl. Playground) is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language sports action drama film directed by Vetrimaaran, produced by S. Kathiresan and distributed by Sun Pictures. The film stars Dhanush in the lead role, alongside Taapsee (in her Tamil debut), Kishore, V. I. S. Jayapalan, Naren Narayanan, and Murugadoss. G. V. Prakash Kumar composed the film score and soundtrack.

The film was released on 14 January 2011 to critical acclaim, with critics praising the screenplay, direction and performances (particularly of Dhanush, Jayapalan and Naren). The film won six awards at the 58th National Film Awards, including Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor. The film also won five awards at the 59th Filmfare Awards South – Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Music Director and Best Cinematography. Based on an online poll by The Times of India, Vetrimaran was chosen as the best director for Aadukalam.

Plot

In Madurai, veteran rooster trainer Periyasamy aka "Pettaikaaran" and Madurai Central Police Inspector Rathnaswamy are tough competitors in cockfights, and it is often Pettai who wins because nobody knows his way of maintaining the quality of the birds. Rathnasamy and Pettai were once protegees of veteran Doraisamy, who has retired from active competition but is considered the honorary overlord of rooster fighting in south Tamil Nadu.

K. P. Karuppu and Durai are the favourites in Pettai's team. Karuppu is very talented in breeding and training roosters, while Durai is very rich, owns three bars in the town of Thiruparankundram, and is talented in rooster training. One day, during an informal match, local police raid the spot and arrest most of the involved, except Rathnaswamy and Durai who escape. Everyone is released after stern warning from the local police, after intervention from Rathnasamy. Pettai's roosters were abducted by the fleeing men from Rathnasamy's party, and Pettai orders his guys to bring them back by any means. He also asks them to kill any fowl which had bred with his roosters, to prevent the strength of his roosters passing to Rathnasamy's flock. Karuppu goes to the railway colony at night, to retrieve their rooster, since an ally of Rathnasamy lives there. He kills the fowl which had mated with their rooster, and bumps into an Anglo-Indian girl named Irene. He is smitten with her beauty, but silences her and leaves.

Having been defeated in all earlier bouts with Pettai's roosters, Rathinasamy keeps insisting on having one last fight to win and satisfy his old mother's wish, but Pettai declines to have any more cockfights because he feels that Rathnaswamy has lost faith in his roosters and will be using nefarious methods to win, like the earlier raid.

Production

Following the success of their 2007 collaboration Polladhavan, the entire team of that film — director Vetrimaaran, lead actor Dhanush, producer S. Kathiresan, and music director G. V. Prakash Kumar — collaborated again for Aadukalam. Vetrimaaran spent a period of two years in Madurai to understand the local dialect and lifestyle of the people living there. Aadukalam was the first film of Vetrimaaran to have a production office set up outside of Chennai. Vetrimaaran took a year to complete the screenplay, script, and dialogues for Aadukalam and held a bounded script for the venture, which is considered rare in Tamil films. Vetrimaaran narrated only half of the film's script to Dhanush before the latter was impressed with it and agreed to act in the film. The film was initially titled Seval, but since the rights to the title were already taken by director Hari for his project with Bharath, Vetrimaaran decided to rename his film as Aadukalam. Vetrimaaran revealed that the idea of the story was inspired from several films both international and local such as Caché, Amores perros, Babel, Powder Keg, Thevar Magan, Virumaandi, and Paruthiveeran as well as novels such as Roots: The Saga of an American Family and Shantaram, which are mentioned during the end credits.

Shriya Saran was signed on for the project in February 2008 but eventually pulled out citing schedule conflicts. In June 2009, Trisha Krishnan, who was selected to replace Saran for the role of Irene, was forced to opt out of the project after her schedule clashed with the allotted dates for her other films, Namo Venkatesa (2010) and Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010). Newcomer Taapsee Pannu, a Punjabi software engineer, was named as her replacement. R. Parthiban was originally offered to portray Karuppu's mentor Pettaikaran, but declined due to scheduling conflicts. Sri Lankan Tamil writer and political commentator V. I. S. Jayapalan portrayed the role, thereby making his debut in Tamil cinema. Attakathi Dinesh makes a small cameo in the film as Dinesh, Karuppu's nemesis when it comes to winning Irene's love. Murugadoss plays Karuppu's friend Oole while Naren appears as Rathnasamy who is Pettaikaran's rival in cockfighting; both actors added the film's title to their stage names.

Principal photography began in Madurai in February 2009 with scenes featuring Dhanush being shot. The first look of the film was released shortly after the commencement of filming. It featured a series of promotional posters depicting the characters played by Dhanush, Jayapalan and Kishore. During early stages of production, Dhanush revealed he would play the role of a local cockfighter named K. P. Karuppu, and described the venture as his "dream project". The cockfight sequences that take place before intermission was filmed for 26 days in a set created by art director Jacki. Filming was completed in August 2010. In addition to being shot in Madurai, some portions were also filmed in Thiruparankundram. The cockfights were filmed using computer-generated imagery (CGI).

Key details