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Thagapansamy
Title card
Directed by	Shivashanmughan
Written by	Shivashanmughan
Produced by	Tiruchi Gopalji
Starring	Prashanth Pooja
Cinematography	J. Sridhar
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan
Music by	Srikanth Deva
Production company	Thirumalai Creations
Release date	28 December 2006 (2006-12-28)
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Thagapansamy is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Shivashanmughan and produced by Tiruchi Gopalji. The film stars Prashanth and Pooja, while Namitha, Karunas and Vincent Asokan played other supporting roles. Featuring music composed by Srikanth Deva, the film had a delayed release on 28 December 2006 after going through production problems.

Plot

The film begins with Kathirvel (Prashanth), a do-gooder going all out to get water for his village. With monsoon repeatedly failing, his village reels under drought, and he runs from pillar to post to get a well dug in the village. He manages to bring Shanmugham (Mahadevan), a water-divining expert, to dig a well. Shanmugham, his wife, and daughter Marikozhundhu (Pooja) come to the village. Unfortunately, a freak mishap kills Shanmugham, and the villagers' search for water continues. To eke out their livelihood, all the villagers, led by Kadhirvel, decide to leave the village with a heavy heart to take up employment in a farmhouse in Rajasthan. Upon reaching the place, they come to know they have been taken as bonded labourers, and there is no way out but to work there tirelessly for the next three years. They undergo physical and mental torture from the greedy landlord Thakur Dass (Vincent Asokan) aided by his Marwadi sidekick (Pa. Ranjith). A silver lining in the cloud is Swapna (Namitha), Thakur's sister. She gets fascinated by Kadhirvel's heroics. The rest is how Kadhirvel fights for his men, helps them reach their village back without any danger and eventually marries Marikozhundhu.

Cast

• Prashanth as Kathirvel
• Pa. Ranjith as Commentator
• Pooja as Marikozhundhu
• Namitha as Swapna
• Vincent Asokan as Thakur Dass
• Mahadevan as Shanmugam
• Karunas
• Thambi Ramaiah
• Besant Ravi
• Supergood Lakshmanan
• Rajendranath

Production

The film was launched in July 2005 by Amudha Durairaj and her production house Deivanai Movies, who had previously made Thamizh (2002) with Prashanth in the lead role. The cast and crew were announced at the launch, though the film soon after went through a change of producer with Tiruchi Gopalji taking over. Meera Jasmine had initially been signed by the production house to play the lead female role but backed out and Pooja was subsequently handed the role. Director Pa. Ranjith worked as an assistant director in this film. Prashanth worked for the film in 2005 simultaneously with several other projects, including ventures such as Venkatesh's Petrol and Ramesh Selvan's Runway, both of which were subsequently shelved. By October 2005, it was reported that most of the film's shoot was over and that the team had shot scenes across Tiruchi, Karaikudi, Gingee, Thenkasi and Rajasthan. Cinematographer Sridhar was injured in March 2006 at the shoot of the film, when he fell off a horse he had been sitting on. One of the songs was shot at Gingee Fort with 80 dancers, 10 elephants and 20 horses.

A website run by Indiaglitz.com was launched for the film in April 2006, coinciding with Prashanth's 33rd birthday. The team then screened the completed film to then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, at a special show at Four Frames Studios in June 2006.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Srikanth Deva, with lyrics written by Shiva Shanmugam. The soundtrack released on 15 December 2005, more than a year before the film had a theatrical release.

Release

The film was scheduled to release after much delay on 22 December 2006 but was delayed by a day after Prashanth and Karunas held up the lab processing due to non-payment of their acting fees. The producer of the film, Tiruchi Gopalji was strapped for cash and could not pay the actors. After approaching producers’ council of Tamil Nadu for help, the issue was sorted out and the Chennai distribution rights of the movie were given to Karunas. The film subsequently ran in smaller theatres and then was re-released on 28 December to larger screens, though was only able to have a below average run at the box office.

Critical reception

A critic from Sify noted that the film was "average" and claimed "the film starts on a promising note but the second half peters out into a mass masala. The decent first half has a good message and looks realistic but slowly down the lane the story loses track". Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "It's a good theme the director has chosen and is well-intentioned. But with the treatment being superficial, it's like we are seeing the same commercial elements, maybe in a slightly different angle." Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote, "Shiva Shanmughan has shown that a strong story base combined with a smooth-flowing script is bound to touch the viewer. `Thagappansami' does". Lajjavathi of Kalki felt the plot has been handled unnaturally which is a huge drawback of screenplay and also felt the director, who gave the dialogues naturally and elegantly, could have given a kudos if he had taken some new issue in hand.

References

1. "Thagapansamy". BizHat.com. Archived from the original on 12 July 2007. Retrieved 5 June 2005.
2. "New film news". Behindwoods.com. 6 July 2005. Archived from the original on 8 July 2005. Retrieved 5 June 2005.
3. "Prashanth in 'Shock'". The Hindu. 21 June 2004. Archived from the original on 24 June 2004. Retrieved 21 June 2005.
4. Menon, Neelima (4 November 2014). "Madras Story: The Pa Ranjith interview". Silverscreen India. Archived from the original on 29 March 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
5. Kumar, S.R. Ashok (1 July 2005). "Actor's worldwide search for a lifemate ends at T.Nagar". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 2 July 2005. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
6. "Prashanth Pooja pair". The Hindu. 28 October 2005. Archived from the original on 30 October 2005. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
7. "Action aplenty at shoot". IndiaGlitz. 15 March 2006. Archived from the original on 3 March 2018. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
8. Mannath, Malini (8 August 2005). "Thagappan Samy". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 3 December 2005. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
9. "Happy B'day Prashanth". IndiaGlitz. 6 April 2006. Archived from the original on 7 April 2006. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
10. "Karunanidhi watches Thagappansamy!!". Behindwoods. 27 June 2006. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
11. "Thgappan Saamy". JioSaavn. January 2005. Archived from the original on 6 August 2023. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
12. "2006's most delayed movie releases at last". Behindwoods. 23 December 2006. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
13. "Box office - 7". Behindwoods. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
14. "Top actors rank - 19". Behindwoods. Archived from the original on 28 November 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
15. "Thagapansamy". Sify. Archived from the original on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
16. Mannath, Malini (16 January 2007). "Thagappansamy". Chennai Online. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 6 August 2023.
17. Rangarajan, Malathi (29 December 2006). "A pleasant surprise from Prashanth". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 2 June 2007. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
18. லஜ்ஜாவதி (14 January 2007). "தகப்பன் சாமி". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 80. Archived from the original on 14 April 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2024 – via Internet Archive.

External links

• Thagapansamy at IMDb 

• 2006 films
• 2000s Indian films
• 2000s Tamil-language films
• 2006 action films
• Films scored by Srikanth Deva
• Indian action films
• Tamil-language Indian films