Saamy

Saamy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hari
Written by	Hari
Produced by	K. Balachander (Presenter) Pushpa Kandasamy
Starring	Vikram Trisha
Cinematography	Priyan
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Production company	Kavithalayaa Productions
Distributed by	Kavithalayaa Release
Release date	1 May 2003 (2003-05-01)
Running time	161 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹5 crore[1]
Box office	₹15 crore[2]

Saamy is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Hari. The film was presented by K. Balachander and produced by Pushpa Kandasamy under banner Kavithalayaa Productions. The film stars Vikram and Trisha in lead roles and Kota Srinivasa Rao (debut in Tamil cinema) in a negative role. Music was composed by Harris Jayaraj. Upon release, the film was highly successful at the box office. It was remade in Telugu as Lakshmi Narasimha (2004) starring Nandamuri Balakrishna, in Bengali as Barood starring Mithun Chakraborty, loosely in Kannada as Ayya (2005) starring Darshan and later in Hindi as Policegiri (2013) starring Sanjay Dutt.

Like other films directed by Hari, this film also specialises a particular city and this time it is Tirunelveli. Saamy along with Kaakha Kaakha started a trend of police films in Tamil such as Bheeshmar, Gambeeram, Anjaneya and many others. A sequel, Saamy Square, was released in 2018.^[3]

Plot[]

Aarusaamy, a.k.a. Saamy (Vikram) arrives in Tirunelveli as an inebriated person, starting his morning with a bottle of beer and idlis and befriending some of the local people. One day when strolling with his friend (Crane Manohar), he witnesses a corrupt cop (Ponnambalam) trying to extort money from someone, he beats him black and blue. The ruckus caused by the fight prompts the police to arrive at the scene, and when they question Saamy, he reveals himself to be the new DCP of Tirunelveli city, while ordering the police to arrest the swindler posing as a cop. Saamy later assembles the police force and rules out their procedures that they can do whatever they wish, provided the public and the innocent are not harmed in the process. He also tells them to arrest any thug or rowdy in the town without second thoughts. Due to Saamy's administration, the crime rate in Tirunelveli drops. At the outset, Saamy pretends to be a corrupt cop by accepting bribes from the very influential Annachi Perumal Pichai (Kota Srinivasa Rao) under the condition that his illegal activities will not be monitored, while advising him to move his liquor stores elsewhere in order to avoid disturbance to the public. Perumal accepts this, merely out of an assumption that Saamy belongs to his caste.

Saamy falls in love with a college-going Brahmin girl Bhuvana (Trisha). Bhuvana's father, Srinivasan (Delhi Ganesh), is a straight-forward government officer who dislikes bribery and leads a noble life. Saamy and Bhuvana meet each other when Saamy goes with his assistant, Inspector "Punctuality" Paramasivam (Ramesh Khanna), in search of a home for rent. Bhuvana misinterprets Saamy and Paramasivam as thieves and locks them in a room, only to be revealed of their identities by the police. Soon their frequent rendezvous turn to love, with Bhuvana deciding to cook for Saamy as a surprise in his home. Saamy 'seals' Perumal's gas station because the workers assaulted a woman and others when they challenged them a very less distribution of petrol than being promised. This infuriates Perumal, who storms into Saamy's quarters with Bhuvana being present, and they argue. Bhuvana gets upset when Perumal mentions the bribe Saamy had taken from him, leaving to her home.

The next day, Saamy tries to convince Bhuvana at the temple and tells her his story; Saamy's father (Vijayakumar) wanted to become a cop in the 70s, but he was unable to due to corruption. So, he takes care of agriculture as his living, but he wanted to make his son a cop. Saamy passes the exams, but was asked for bribes. His father mortgages his properties and makes him get the desired job. Being an honest cop, Saamy is honored with transfers all over Tamil Nadu due to political pressure. In Trichy, he is accused of bribery and gets suspended. It takes him about 6 months to prove his innocence, and he is finally posted in Tirunelveli. He adapts a new policy of adjusting with the local goons so he can serve the people in an effective way, while also taking bribes from the influential persons who cheat the public. Saamy also tells Bhuvana that the money he takes as bribes are only donated to the temple and to charity and not used by him. Bhuvana reconciles with Saamy, and after much coercion, her father agrees to their engagement, and they marry.

The ruling party has called for a one-day strike all over the state, and Perumal is handed with the responsibility of Tirunelveli on the eve of the Pongal festival. Saamy takes steps to maintain law and order. The strike becomes a failure, which earns Perumal's rage. Perumal was waiting for a chance to take revenge on Saamy for sealing his petrol bunk earlier. So, his henchmen attack the marketplace on the day of Saamy and Bhuvana's marriage, since all the prime policemen would be attending the wedding. Saamy witnesses the brutality of Perumal's men, and this incident starts their enmity. Saamy is given his transfer order to Dindigul, with one week of duty remaining in Tirunelveli city. Saamy challenges to close Perumal's empire and finish him in that week, which he succeeds in doing so by using various tactics.

Perumal's men try to kill Saamy outside a temple. He beats them blue and black, and arrests them. He advises Bhuvana to leave for his hometown Pazhani by bus. In the evening, after listening to Perumal's phone calls, Saamy realises that Perumal has planned to bomb somewhere. He meets with Perumal's henchman, who he spared in the rally shooting. he convinces the henchman to turn approver. Saamy then finds that the bomb is to be detonated in his house, to which he affirmatively replies that it be done as a last resort to finally frame Perumal and lock him up by framing him as a terrorist. Unknown to Saamy, Saamy's father has come to his house from Pazhani. Despite Saamy's attempts to warn his father, the bomb detonates, and Saamy's father is killed. The bomb maker (Ilavarasu) and Perumal's henchman give statements to the District magistrate, and Saamy gets an arrest warrant for Perumal. The district authorities and ministers convene an emergency meeting to stop Saamy. They state the proofs of bribe Saamy got from Perumal as the reason. Saamy counters that, by showing proofs that Saamy himself sent all that bribe to charitable organizations under Perumal's name. After all discussions, Saamy threatens to murder anyone who obstructs his duty, and leaves to arrest Perumal once and for all.

On the final day, Saamy gives news to the media, that Perumal has absconded, and police are searching for him. Saamy routes Perumal to his own sand quarry. After a brief fight, Perumal surrenders to Saamy and scoffs at him. Saamy refuses, saying that if he arrests Perumal, he will face dire consequences in the future, and innocent people will also suffer. So he kills Perumal with his illicit revolver, and burns his corpse in a brick kiln nearby, so that no one will try to replace or avenge the absconding Perumal, and thus no harm done. Saamy then performs the rites for his deceased father.

Cast[]

Production[]

After directing Thamizh, Kavithalayaa Productions called Hari to direct a film for them since Hari assisted few of their films.^[4] The film was titled as Saamy, with Vikram and Trisha as a lead pair; the latter was selected as the makers wanted a fresh pair opposite Vikram.^[4] Telugu actor Kota Srinivasa Rao was selected to play negative role making his debut in Tamil.

The film's shooting schedule took place at Karaikudi, Some fight scenes were shot at the busy lanes in Karaikudi where Vikram chased some rowdies, The fight scene was shot for five days, with Priyan canning the shots and Super Subbarayan choreographing the fights.^[5][6] Vikram worked on his body for the film, sporting a thick waist to show notable differences from his other police film, Dhill and also put on eight kilograms.^[7]

Soundtrack[]

The soundtrack album and background score were composed by Harris Jayaraj. The lyrics for songs were written by Na. Muthukumar, Thamarai & Snehan and upon release the soundtrack received positive reviews from critics. Due to its popularity on the music charts, Harris Jayaraj was nominated for the Filmfare Best Music Director award.

Tamil track list

Telugu track list^[8]

All lyrics are written by Siva Ganesh.

Release[]

Critical reception[]

Sify wrote:"The patchy storyline merely serves as a pretext to spark off several skirmishes and bombastic dialogues. Ultimately it is Vikram who dominates this action movie. In fact he is the mainstay of the picture [sic] Director Hari packs in a sting, but Saamy is strictly for the no holds barred action addicts".Heroine Trisha also received praise from the critics:" Trisha is appealingly sensual and looks glamarous as the brahmin girl Bhuvana and brings out the nuance of her character well."^[9] Bizhat called it:"taut, fully engaging actioner".^[10] Hindu wrote:"Kavithalaya's Saami should follow the Dhil, Dhool line. Vikram's daredevilry and macho appeal ought to go down well with the masses. His presence of mind and intelligence are bound to make an impression on those who expect something more".^[11]

Box office[]

Saamy was released approximately in 100 screens in Tamil Nadu. The film had a huge opening as it was a summer vacation for the Tamil audiences. Theatres in Chennai had almost 100% occupancies and the film recovered all its budget within 4 to 5 days.^[12] The film sold 1 crore tickets in Tamil Nadu box office netting ₹32 crore in its lifetime run.

Dubbed versions and remakes[]

The film was remade into Telugu in 2004 as Lakshmi Narasimha, though the original version was dubbed and released in Telugu as Swamy IPS.^[13] It was also remade in Bengali as Barood (2004), in Kannada as Ayya (2005) and in Hindi as Policegiri (2013).^[14] Despite the Hindi remake, Saamy was also dubbed and released into that language as Policewala Gunda 3 in 2015.^[15]

Sequel[]

In August 2016, during the audio launch of Iru Mugan, director Hari made an official announcement that he will unite with Vikram, also echoed by the latter, for a sequel to Saamy. Later the sequel named Saamy 2.^[16]

References[]

External links[]

• Saamy at IMDb