Devan (film)

Devan
File:Devan poster.jpg Poster
Directed by	Arun Pandian
Produced by	Arun Pandian
Written by	Arun Pandian
Starring	Arun Pandian Meena Kausalya
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	P. Selvakumar
Edited by	B. S. Vasu Saleem
Production company	Friends Creations
Release date	14 June 2002 (2002-06-14)
Running time	175 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

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 with Meena and Kausalya , while Vivek and Malayalam actor Sai Kumar play supporting roles. Actors Karthik, Senthil, and Vijayakanth appear in guest appearances. Sai Kumar 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.

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 (Sai Kumar) 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

• Arun Pandian as Alex Devan (Jackson)
• Meena as Uma
• Kausalya as Jacqueline, Devan's sister
• Vijayakanth as Rathnavel IPS, Deputy Director CBI (guest appearance)
• Karthik as Lawyer Chakravarthy (guest appearance)
• Vivek as Saravanan
• Sai Kumar as Chetta Raghu
• Chandrasekhar as Chandran
• Senthil as Police officer (guest appearance)
• Vijayan as the Police inspector
• Thalaivasal Vijay as Jeeva
• Pandu as Kaalimuthu
• Vinu Chakravarthy as Politician
• Karikalan as Inspector Ravikumar
• Ajay Rathnam as Police Officer
• Rajmohan as Shiva
• Nandha as Nandha
• Mohan Raman as Anantharaman
• Bayilvan Ranganathan as Parrot astrologer
• Kovai Senthil as a Company worker
• Marthandan as a Company worker
• Citizen Mani as Mani
• Boys Rajan as Travel agent
• Mudhalvan Rajendran as the Police inspector
• Srilatha as a Company worker
• Minnal Deepa as Bhavana

Production

The film was Arun Pandian's 100th film as actor and debut film as director. 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!".

Soundtrack

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

• "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". 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".

External links

• Devan on IMDb