Velayudham, வேலாயுதம், is a 2011 Tamil action-masala film directed by M. Raja. It stars Vijay, Hansika Motwani and Genelia D'Souza. The film was formally launched on July 15, 2010 with its photo shoots taken earlier during the month. Produced by V. Ravichandran's Aascar Films, the film released on October 26, 2011. The story revolves around an ordinary milkman, trying to eradicate corruption. The film released to mixed reviews and was declared a commercial success.
Velayudham took a grand opening on Diwali day and was declared a box office success. The film topped the regional box office despite opening with less prints than 7aum Arivu, forcing the producers to release more prints. In its opening weekend, spanning five days, the film grossed 2.10 crore in Chennai city alone. According to Venu Ravichandran, the film grossed 19 crores in Tamil Nadu and 40 crores during the first weekend worldwide from 850 screens. On October 28, two days after its release, Vijay, Vijay Antony and director Raja met the press at a hotel in Chennai to celebrate the success of the film.
Overseas, Velayudham was a relatively high grosser in Europe and North America, with Taran Adarsh, a Bollywood film critic highlighting that the film was "rocking internationally". The film in its five-days extended weekend had collected $107,843 in UK, as the film featured at 20th position in the UK Box Office with a per screen average of $6,344 (fourth highest).
The film opens up in Pakistan with a blindfolded person being dragged by a few terrorists. He is brought to the leader of the gang and identified as the Home Minister of Tamil Nadu. Further plans are revealed when the gang strikes a hefty deal with him for planting a series of bombs in Chennai. Then happens a bomb explosion at a transportation bus in the city killing many innocent peoples. A group of three journalists, including Bharathi (Genelia D'Souza), commit to eradicating terrorism in the country after completing their Journalism course. One night, Bharathi and her two friends secretly film the illegal activities like creation of explosives and women trafficking happening in a secluded house. However, the journalists' presence is detected and their escape attempt results in the deaths of her friend and injury to Bharathi. But after the attack on Bharathi and her friends, the goon's vehicle explode due to a small mishap when a matchstick falls over petrol packets stored in the vehicle. Bharathi, already stabbed by one of the goons, comes up with a new idea to eradicate terrorism by creating a fictional character called Velayudham, and writes a note that he wants to clean up the city of bad guys before falling unconscious.
Velayudham a.k.a Vel (Vijay) is a milk vendor in a village called Pavunoor, and he has a sister named Kaveri (Saranya Mohan) he loves and a cousin Vaidehi (Hansika Motwani) who is crazy about him. Though the brother and sister creates lot of trouble for the villagers, they are still adored by the villagers. They, along with a couple of village friends, arrive in Chennai to collect money from a chit fund for his sister's marriage, and somehow Speedu (Santhanam) gets part of their money. On chasing Speedu in a railway station, Vel uses a bike to catch him, and it explodes a few seconds later. Next few moments he inadvertently prevents few bomb blasts and helps catch terrorists, thus Velayudham becomes a sensation over time. He even manages to save Bharathi in one of the incidents which he never meant for it to happen. Velu is unaware of the consequences, later Bharathi realises Velu is the guy who has been accidentally doing the work of Velayudham. Bharathi meets him, explains and asks him to become the fictional character, however he refuses. Later Velu goes to draw cash from the chit fund but the company cheats him off his money and the people who are cheated vow that Velayudham will come as their saviour. Velu seeing this decides to take upon the avatar of Velayudham and starts to do eradicate certain evil that pertains within the society. How he deals with the terrorists forms the crux of the last half of the movie.
The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Sify called it a "paisa vassol film", stating that the film was a "perfect outing with family, but far too long in length". Rediff.com gave the film 2.5 out of 5, while noting that it "doesn't take itself seriously and doesn't expect you to either. In other words, it's paisa vasool." CNN-IBN defined the film as a "must watch" and "treat for Vijay fans". Indiaglitz labelled it a "racy entertainer this Deepavali season" and cited it was a "right choice for the festival mood". Behindwoods named the film a "regular mass entertainer spiced up by Vijay" and gave the film 3 out of 5 as well.[53] Similarly Oneindia.in described it as a "complete masala entertainer", highlighting its story and "amazing action-sequences". Nowrunning.com rated it 2.5/5, writing: "Velayudham, part comedy part action sails through both streams smoothly until it is struck and sunk by crude melodrama". The Hindu stated that the film "simply enters and entertains" and that Raja had "churn[ed] out reasonably engaging fare", adding that it had a "strong story, a neat screenplay arresting action, admirable dance movements, one or two hum-worthy numbers and the ever-helpful sister sentiment". Indo-Asian News Service gave the film 2.5 out of 5, citing that it "defies all logic, but has the magic of the star called Vijay".
Filming was carried out primarily at three locations, Southern Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and the last schedule in Chennai. A song sequence choreographed by Shobi that was originally to be shot in Switzerland was canned in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, with Genelia and Hansika filming alongside Vijay. A stunt sequence was shot on a train moving on a bridge at Rayagada in Orissa under Tom Delmar's supervision, while another fight sequence was filmed at Golconda fort, Hyderabad. The film's dubbing was done in Four Frames Recording Studio in Chennai.
The film was launched on July 15, 2010 at the Madras University campus. Genelia D'Souza who had acted opposite Vijay in Sachein was chosen for the role of a journalist, and Hansika Motwani was chosen to portray Vijay's love interest, while Saranya Mohan would play sister to Vijay's character. Art director Veera Samar also was roped in to play a journalist. While Santhanam and M. S. Baskar were chosen to play the comedy lead in the film, Sayaji Shinde, Vineetkumar and Abhimanyu Singh were selected to play negative roles. Tom Delmar, who had worked as a stunt coordinator in several Hollywood film, joined the crew to choreograph the stunts in the film. Due to his commitment to Velayudham, Vijay almost lost his role in S. Shankar's Nanban. He had walked out of Nanban, since the two films demanded two completely different looks, however, he joined the film later as the scenes involving the protagonist were reserved to be shot later. Vijay donated 100 cows to poor people in Udumalapet near Coimbatore as per Hindu tradition to pray for the success of the film.
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