Action (2019 film)

Action
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sundar C.
Written by	Subha Badri (Dialogues)
Screenplay by	Sundar C. Venkat Ragavan Subha
Story by	Sundar C.
Produced by	R. Ravindran
Starring	Vishal Tamannaah Akanksha Puri Aishwarya Lekshmi Ramki Chaya Singh Yogi Babu Kabir Duhan Singh
Cinematography	Dudley
Edited by	N. B. Srikanth
Music by	Hiphop Tamizha
Production company	Trident Arts
Release date	15 November 2019 (2019-11-15)
Running time	157 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Action is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language action film^[1] directed by Sundar C. and produced by R. Ravindran under his banner Trident Arts. The film stars Vishal and Tamannaah as intelligence officers who together embark on a globetrotting mission to hunt down a terrorist. The film co-stars Akanksha Puri, Aishwarya Lekshmi, marking the debut in Tamil cinema, Ramki, Chaya Singh, Yogi Babu, and Kabir Duhan Singh. The music was composed by Hiphop Tamizha. It also marks Vishal's second collaborations with Sundar C. after Aambala and with Tamannaah after Kaththi Sandai.Sundar C makes a cameo appearance.^[2][3]

Action was released theatrically on 15 November 2019. Receiving praise for some of the action sequences and criticism for the execution,^[4] it was both a critical and commercial failure, while its Hindi dubbed version was a success on YouTube.^[5]

Plot[]

The film opens with Colonel Subhash fighting off a group of men in Istanbul and rescuing his colleague Lieutenant Diya. He is then seen interrogating one of the men. The film then goes into a flashback before Subhash proceeds to shoot the last man.

A few weeks ago, Subhash's father, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, retires to be succeeded by his elder son Saravanan. Subhash calls his whole family along with his lover, Meera. Meanwhile, Diya is also shown to be in silent love with Subhash. During a campaign involving the prime minister candidate, Saravanan finds out that his friend Deepak has flown away after extracting 40 billion rupees on loan. When he calls Deepak, Deepak instead tells him to get out of the ceremony. On the other hand, Subhash tries to converse with Meera during the campaign and sends her a message. Realizing she left her phone in the car, Meera goes to the parking lot, where her phone gets exchanged with that of a killer. After noting the killer duo's vehicle number, Meera tries to escape but gets attacked and brutally stomped to death by a woman disguised as a cop. Retrieving the phone, she gives a call to the cell phone bomb placed in a cooler at the stage. The bomb goes off, knocking down Saravanan and his family while killing the prime minister candidate. Subhash gets shattered to find Meera's corpse, while Saravanan gets framed for the assassination with the help of Deepak. Having recorded a conversation with Deepak in which the latter told him to escape from the stage, Saravanan calls a press conference at his house amidst violent protests but is found hanging in his room, thus making the media believe he was involved.

Subhash then finds out about the killer woman through the vehicle number Meera noted on her palm. Looking at the tattoo on her neck in the CCTV footage at the vehicle store and her phone's screen, Subhash manages to track her, through further investigations, to be a wanted contract killer in London. With the help of a hacker, Jack, Subhash manages to trace the woman, fight off her henchmen and kill her by hanging her in the same way she killed and hanged Saravanan to death. Subhash then arrives in Istanbul and is joined by his brother-in-law and Diya. Targeting Deepak's account, they plan to pull off a money extracting mission. The mission goes as planned, and Subhash succeeds in retrieving money from Deepak's account. However, when the trio goes to meet Deepak, the latter is found murdered, and a chase ensues, resulting in a heroic escape. Subhash realises a cop posing as a blind man has killed Deepak and framed him. They find that the cop is none other than the city commissioner of Istanbul. Using Diya as a bait, Subhash lures the cop and his henchmen into a trap and fights them off. Back to the present, Subhash threatens to kill the cop, who then reveals it was Syed Ibrahim Malik, a Pakistan-based wanted terrorist, the real conspirator behind the explosion.

Informing his captain, Subhash then decides to bring Malik in on his own and, accompanied by Diya, goes to Lahore, Pakistan, illegally where an undercover agent introduces him to Malik's location and armed forces. Learning of Malik's daughter's wedding, Diya enters the house with a fake identity card during the celebrations and secretly drops flammable balls that lead to a fire with the sunrise the next day. Malik is ordered by the Pakistan Military general Tahir Iqbal to accompany his officers to a safe house. Using the opportunity, Subhash chases after the vehicle and successfully takes Malik hostage. Following a car chase, he manages to escape while Diya and the agent wait for him at the airport. Malik is, however, left behind in the car, and Tahir admits him to a hospital where he realises it's his body double who was ordered by Malik himself to accompany Tahir's army, due to being held on gunpoint by Subhash. The two fought, following which Subash captured him. Both disguised, they board the plane before Tahir intervenes and orders to stop it after the airport authorities identify Subhash. The flight to India is stopped, and Tahir rushes inside, only to realise Subhash and his team took off in a flight to Nepal. Landing in Nepal, Subhash hands over Malik to the Indian Army. During an event honouring Saravanan after more conspirators are arrested, it is revealed Subhash shot Malik in a staged escape.

Cast[]

Soundtrack[]

The soundtrack album is composed by Hiphop Tamizha, collaborating with Vishal and Sundar. C for their previous outing Aambala. The lyrics were written by Pa. Vijay, Hiphop Tamizha, Arivu, Paul B Sailus, and Navz47.

The album features five tracks, and all of them were released as singles, before being released as an album on 30 October 2019. The Telugu version was released on 1 November 2019.

Telugu actor Rana Daggubati making his debut as a singer, crooning the rap portion for the Telugu version of the song "Lights Camera Action", while the original version of the song, was performed by Hiphop Adhi and Paul B Sailus.^[6]

Release[]

The official teaser was released on 13 September 2019,^[7] followed by the trailer which was released on 27 October 2019.^[8] The film was theatrically released in India on 15 November 2019.^[9]

Action received negative reviews from critics.^[10] Firstpost gave 2 out of 5 stars stating "Vishal, Tamannaah starrer is a formulaic entertainer with no proper storyline. If only the film had a script with some logic and was a bit racier, it could have been a time pass entertainer".^[11] The Times of India gave 2.5 out of 5 stars stating, "A handful of action set pieces, set in exotic locales, strung together by a semblance of a plot. If you dig the corniness of the lines and the OTT-ness of the stunts, then you might be able to enjoy the film".^[12] Sify gave 2 out of 5 stars stating "Action is a below-average action thriller from Sundar C- Vishal combo".^[13] Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote "Like any self-respecting popcorn entertainer, there are OTT moments aplenty. Killer mehndi cones? Bring ’em on. But there’s always a little surprise around the corner".^[14]

Box office[]

Action failed commercially; Made on a budget of INR 44 crore, it collected INR 7.7 crore in Tamil Nadu box office and INR 4 crore in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Having assured the producers he would bear the losses if the film did not collect a minimum of INR 20 crore and compensate by doing a film for them, the production company Trident Arts filed a petition against Vishal for making the film under his own banner. Following the petition, Vishal was ordered by the Madras High Court to compensate for the losses incurred.^[15]

Home media[]

The Satellite Rights of the film were sold to Star Vijay TV. Action began streaming on Amazon Prime Video from 16 December 2019. The film was released on DVD in Japan on 4 November 2020.^[16]

References[]

External links[]

• Action at IMDb