Uriyadi () is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language political action thriller film written, directed, and produced by filmmaker Vijay Kumar under Souvenir Productions in association with Nalan Kumarasamy and Sameer Bharat Ram, presented and co-produced by Satish Swaminathan. Starring Indian actors Vijay Kumar, Mime Gopi, Citizen Sivakumar, Chandru Kumar, Henna Bella, Jeyakanth Velu, and Suruli, its plot revolves around four bachelors whose carefree lives take a drastic turn when a corrupt official ensnares them in caste politics.
Vijay Kumar wrote the script when he moved to the United States in early 2011, originally titled as ; however, the scripting process was delayed for more than a year due to Kumar's decision to create a storyboard to aid in its organization. After brief work in scripting, casting and pre-production, the film began principal photography in July 2013 and ended in October 2013. Most of the film's portions were shot in and around Chennai; it was followed by a lengthy post-production phase induced by censorship laws that forced Kumar to make a multitude of cuts and revisions before the final edit could be approved for release. Paul Livingstone handled the cinematography for the film, while editing was done by Abhinav Sunder Nayak. In addition to directing and acting in the film, Kumar also composed its score and oversaw its audio engineering. The film features a soundtrack album composed by Masala Coffee, Anthony Daasan and Vishal Chandrashekhar.
Uriyadi was released theatrically on 27 May 2016, to highly positive critical reviews, praising its screenwriting, direction, performances, action sequences, and various technical aspects. Critics praised Vijay Kumar for his realistic filmmaking devoid of clichéd elements present in mainstream Tamil films. Lauded as one of the best political thrillers in Tamil cinema, Uriyadi earned Vijay Kumar his breakthrough in the film industry, granting him many accolades for his work.
A spiritual sequel titled Uriyadi 2 was released on 5 April 2019.
Plot 1995: Lenin Vijay, Suresh, Akhil and Karthi, were four carefree and adventurous friends who are final year students at an engineering college on the outskirts of Trichy. The film opens by showcasing the daily lives of the four student friends. The students soon meet the politician, Kumar, who is eager to begin his own caste-based political party. He also runs a roadside dhaba frequently visited by the students.
In many subsequent events, the students get into trouble with the local residents. In one such instance in the dhaba, Kumar comes to their rescue, and hence, they get in touch with each other. Later that night, however, one of the students is attacked by some of the local residents. This infuriates some other students, who then chase the locals, and a fight ensues.
Meanwhile, Lenin's ex-girlfriend Agnes is harassed by Ramanathan, a part-time engineering student. This is witnessed by Karthi, who confronts and physically assaults Ramanathan and then narrates these events to Lenin. Later, to their surprise, Ramanathan's friends wait in the dhaba to ambush Karthi. Ramanathan, who has little luck with love, yearns for one college student who seems to be the ex-girlfriend of Lenin. One night, the four friends get very drunk and accidentally annoy some of the caste fanatics. Kumar, along with his uncle, happens to see this and contemplates how to take advantage of this tense situation.
While all this is happening, Kumar drafts plans to initiate a caste-based political party about which he has been dreaming. The plot ends when all three sets of characters meet, and each of them discovers their mutual interconnections.
Cast
Vijay Kumar as Lenin Vijay Mime Gopi as Kumar Citizen Sivakumar as Ulagappan Henna Bella as Agnes Chandru Kumar as Suresh Jeyakanth Velu as Akhil Suruli as Ramanathan Shankarthas as Nallathambi
Production Vijay Kumar, a software engineer-turned-filmmaker, worked on two short films which were screened at the reality show Naalaya Iyakkunar in 2009. But, he discontinued the progress of the films for personal reasons. When he moved to the United States the following year, Kumar began working on the script of his maiden feature film which served the title (). The scripting and writing process took more than a year, with Kumar sketching more than 2500 shots for its storyboard. As a debutante, he wanted to ensure that everything goes per plan once the film goes on floors and hence created story boards to make production easier, it eventually took him more than four months to complete the process and he wanted to include minute details in the process. After completing the final draft in its entirety, he moved to India and started his production house Souvenir Productions in April 2013.
Kumar sent auditions for the film's casting in May 2013, where he prioritised struggling actors who wanted to enter into the film industry after multiple struggles. As a result, a three-month acting workshop was conducted, and he had hired the actors: Chandru Kumar, Henna Bella, Jeyakanth Velu and Suruli. Prominent actors Mime Gopi and Citizen Sivakumar, were also brought in the film. Except for a handful of technicians and actors, the entire crew and cast were debutants. The story was set in a college that is on a highway, which revolves around two sets of characters – the four college students (the protagonists of the film) and a village-based aspiring politician. The story revolves around the seemingly unrelated tracks that merge forms the plot. In addition, the director revealed that there is a third track – a revenge-based conflict between the leads and a part-time student in the college. Kumar later changed the title to Uriyadi () as he wanted to make it sound audience-friendly.
The principal shooting for the film began in July 2013, once the team had completed pre-production works. 90% of the film's portions were shot in the outskirts of Chennai, in and around places like Padappai and Oragadam. Talking about the challenges he faced while shooting for the film, Vijay Kumar says since the film is set in the 1990s, removing objects relevant to the present time was the toughest challenge of all, mainly because it was mostly shot on the highways. Vijay Kumar made the cinematographer Paul Livingstone, use a film camera and rolls instead of a digital camera, in order to have a realistic portrayal of that period. Kumar was devoid of run-of-the mill characterisations and scenes, and other commercial elements such as glamour, romance and comedy elements which did not synchronise with the main plot. He managed to shoot the action sequences as realistic as possible, where many scenes in the film where the actors hit each other are real, and there were instances of a few getting injured.
Music
The film's soundtrack album featured six tunes: three tracks, three karaoke versions and an unplugged version of one of the songs. The band Masala Coffee contributed two songs to the film's soundtrack, thus making their debut in film music scene. Playback singer Anthony Daasan, also debuted as composer with the film, had tuned one track to the album, which was titled "Maane Maane". The unplugged version of the track "Maane Maane", performed by Siddharth was co-tuned by Vishal Chandrashekhar, which was used for promotional purposes. Vijay Kumar composed the background score for the film, besides acting and direction. The album was released by Sony Music India on 28 January 2016.
Themes and analysis
Portrayal of violence Many reviews of the film highlight the intense violence portrayed throughout. In an interview with the Indo-Asian News Service, Vijay Kumar relates how actors were actually injured during filming: "I was supposed to hit someone in the back with a rod, and somehow the blow landed on his head, much to my surprise. Although we used a fiber rod, he suffered severe injury." A reviewer writing in Indiaglitz cautions, "even after being warned the violence in the film is excessive and causes the viewers to flinch and squirm." A critic writing in The Hindu noted the level of realism in the fight scenes, "here you see the chaos, you see people scrambling, slipping, falling — not people executing perfect punches.". Another critic from The Times of India wrote "High on blood, violence and realism this film will definitely shock and appal you. The realistic fights were more brutal than entertaining".
Political significance Some critics note the film's commentary on caste-based political parties. Writing in The Hindu, Baradwaj Rangan notes that director Vijay Kumar illustrates "how these small outfits form a party whose mission is (apparently) to represent that particular caste, get votes from people belonging to that caste, get elected to power, and trade this power for favours from bigger parties." A reviewer in Ananda Vikatan, called Uriyadi a whiplash against caste. Indiaglitz was all praise for the way Vijay Kumar handled caste based politics in the movie, "At such a young age it is surprising that this man has a deep understanding and conviction about the caste based politics and how the self proclaimed champions of a caste betray their own people for selfish motives". Puthiya Thalaimurai noted that Uriyadi shed light on the selfish political ambitions of caste outfit leaders. Remarkably, after a screening of Uriyadi at the Institute of Politics of University of Wrocław, Poland, its official representatives issued a statement saying it educated their students on the Indian caste system and its political consequences and that it enabled them to observe various ways of creating political influence. TNMEKS noted that Uriyadi unmasked the cruel nature of caste and shed light on the way caste outfits plot extensively to transform themselves into political parties.
Release By the completion of post-production works within August 2014, Vijay Kumar sent the film to the Central Board of Film Certification for preview screening. After trimming scenes featuring excessive violence, the film got an A certificate from the Censor Board. Kumar approached distributors to release the film, who refused the film in concern of a violent content. In mid-2015, director Nalan Kumarasamy, whom Kumar befriended when they were contestants in the reality show Naalaya Iyakkunar, had agreed to distribute and co-produce the film, under his newly launched production house Pinrom Pictures. Kumar organised a preview show for the members of the Tamil film industry on 23 May 2016, where it received highly positive critical response. The film was theatrically released on 27 May 2016.
Prior to the release, the film was pirated by torrent sites which affected its theatrical run. However, it also helped the film gain more popularity and response among the audience, who praised filmmaker Vijay for the direction. The fans requested to release the uncut version of the film, but Vijay Kumar revealed that the uncensored footage of the film was destroyed during the 2015 South Indian floods, which flooded his office in Jafferkhanpet, but the team had a copy of the censored and edited version of the film at Prasad Labs, where the director had to reassemble his cut from the copy. Uriyadi, along with 12 other Tamil films, was screened at the Tamil film competition of the 14th Chennai International Film Festival 2016.
Reception
Critical response