Raja Rani (2013 film)

Raja Rani
Directed by	Atlee
Written by	Atlee
Produced by	AR Murugadoss S. Shanmugam
Starring	Arya Jai Nayantara Nazriya Nazim Sathyaraj Santhanam
Cinematography	George. C. Williams
Edited by	Anthony L. Ruben
Music by	G. V. Prakash Kumar
Production companies	Murugadoss Productions Fox Star Studios
Release date	27 September 2013 (2013-09-27)
Running time	165 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹25 crore (US$3.0 million)
Box office	₹14.60 crore (US$1.7 million) (3 Days Collection)

Raja Rani (English: King, Queen) is a Tamil romantic comedy film directed by debutant Atlee, who previously worked with Shankar as an assistant in Enthiran (2010) and produced by AR Murugadoss in association with Fox Star Studios. The film features Arya, Jai, Nayantara, Nazriya Nazim, Santhanam and Sathyaraj in the lead roles. It received 'U' Certificate from Central Board of Film Certification. The film released worldwide on 27 September 2013. The film received highly positive reviews from critics.

Plot

The movie opens with the wedding day of John (Arya) and Regina (Nayanthara) where both unhappily and unwillingly do the "I do" and enter their married life. From the very night, they agonize each other's life through silent acts of conflict. John comes home drunk each night to the irritation of Regina & their flat mates. Regina cries each night on one side of bed while John watches TV on highest volume possible just to irritate her. On one such eventful night, Regina falls prey to a sudden bout of fits due to extreme stress and is immediately hospitalized by John only out of humanity. There at the hospital ICU, he witnesses shock treatment being given to her which brings tears to his eyes. As she was recovering, John tries to be a caring friend to her. On the hospital bed, Regina narrates him her love story. The movie unfolds the rather funny love story of Regina and Soorya (Jai) who is a call center executive for her Mobile network. . Their love story makes John realize ,to what extent a woman can love a man and his respect for her grows. But Regina admonishes John for his kind gestures which gets John to drinking again. Sarathy (Santhanam) who is John's best friend tries to talk to Regina at their flat one night after being drunk telling her about John's love story. The movie now unfolds to another amusing story with Keerthana (Nazriya Nazim) . With both the stories told, now the movie shows how both John and Regina with their extremely conflicting and dominating natures, unlike the previous lovers they had who were apparently their perfect matches, unite to a life of bonding with much better understanding of each other and life.

Cast

• Arya as John
• Nayantara as Regina, an IT professional

She described the character as "very stubborn. She loses her temper at the drop of a hat, but is also emotionally vulnerable. What I like the most about her is the way she handles each and every phase in her life."

• Jai as Surya
• Nazriya Nazim as Keerthana
• Sathyaraj as James

In an interview with The Times of India, he said "There are three important reasons why I chose to act in this film — Atlee, Atlee and Atlee. He worked with Shankar in Nanban (my first movie with the director) and he made it so easy for the filmmaker. The story of Raja Rani was so modern in thought and that's why I took it up,"

• Santhanam as Sarathy

The crew had announced that Santhanam would not be merely a comedian, but would have "an integral role to play in the development of the story". Speaking to The Times of India, Atlee said, "He will not only keep the audience in splits, but also make them shed a tear or two. His performance in emotional scenes will be refreshing. The audience will see Santhanam, the actor, in the film."

• Sathyan as Iyappan
• Manobala
• Rajendran
• Misha Ghoshal

Production

Casting

Atlee Kumar, an assistant director to Shankar, narrated his script to Murugadoss in early 2012 and the pair agreed to make a film featuring Arya and Nayanthara in the lead roles. Jai was also signed on to feature in a pivotal role in the film, appearing as Nayanthara's love interest in a flashback segment. Initially Priya Anand was considered another leading role, but the opportunity was later offered to Nazriya Nazim who had made her debut with Neram (2013) in Tamil films. Sathyaraj, Santhanam and Sathyan were also signed to play other supporting roles in the film. The film has music by G. V. Prakash Kumar, art direction by T. Muthuraj and cinematography by debutant George, a former associate of Nirav Shah.

Filming

The film began its first schedule at a bungalow in Greams road, Chennai. Kamal Haasan switched on the camera and a song picturizing Jai and Nayanthara was canned on the occasion. The sequence involving Jai and Nayantara will be canned first and Arya will join the team after he completes his work on Irandam Ulagam.

Release

A first official film teaser showing the lead pair quarreling through their projections in a mirror, was released on May 11 by Fox Star Studios. The teaser went instantly viral garnering a large number of views.

The official trailer was released along with the music album in a very innovative manner on 23 August 2013. The trailer was released on YouTube earlier in the day and was simultaneously telecast across 12 television channels at 7 PM. The trailer received tremendous response and the film released in 700 screens worldwide.

Critical reception

Raja Rani received mostly positive reviews from critics. Rediff rated it 3/5 and stated, "Debutant director Atlee's 'Raja Rani' is a simple refreshing tale about how to cope with life, when we lose someone we love. The film has a lot going for it and definitely succeeds in entertaining the audience." Rajiv Menon of DesiMartini rated it 3/5 and stated "Raja Rani is a refreshing take on romance and is one of the better films of this year in this genre." Behindwoods rated it 3/5 and stated "The movie's running time is 2 hours 45 minutes and there are moments in the second half leading to the finale which sag. The end product could have been much tauter. To sum up, though the second half of Raja Rani moves along predictable lines, it's still a promising debut by Atlee."

IndiaGlitz said, "One look at the movie and there might be suspicions of Atlee as a debutant, he gives away a clean family entertainer with no hoopla's. There are two other major contributing factors. George's enchanting cinematography giving a bouncing color to the film, and flows with freshness. And the other is GV's music, if the songs are chartbusters, then the BGM is another success story. They flow well with the scenes right from the start to the end, way to go team." Sify stated, "Debutant director Atlee's highly hyped Raja Rani starts off promisingly and keeps us engaged in the first half. But post-interval it loses steam, and turns out to be a cheesy, emotionally manipulative drama with a predictable long drawn out climax that goes on and on for 35 minutes."

Sudish Kamath of The Hindu cited that Atlee's Raja Rani merits a watch in spite of its fundamentally flawed structure.He pointed it as a modern-day Mouna Raagam-as-romantic comedy, treated as a matter-of-fact, slice-of-life drama with considerable restraint barring a few instances of larger-than-life theatrics (a heart attack, two epileptic attacks and an accident) all slapped on an otherwise light-hearted film. He gave a bottomline that Raja Rani as three love stories for the price of one.

In contrast, Gautaman Bhaskaran of Hindustan Times rated it 2 stars and said, "At a little over 150 minutes, Raja Rani is a bumpy ride with potholes of songs, with characters who are nothing better than caricatures and with a romance that hardly engages."

Box Office

The film opened to 100% occupancy on the first day and collected 4.5 crore. The film second day collection is extraordinary, at 5.2 crore.The film's 1st weekend collection was around ₹ 14.60 crore worldwide.

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack album for Raja Rani was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar. The lyrics were penned by Na. Muthukumar, Pa. Vijay and Gaana Bala. The single, "Hey Baby" was released on 19 August 2013. The Dubbbing Voice For Nayanthara Given by Deepa Venkat who was a tamil Serial Actress. The complete album was released on 23 August 2013 at Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai. The audio was released by G. V. Prakash Kumar and received by actors Jiiva and Arya.

Tracklist

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Hey Baby"	Na. Muthukumar, Gaana Bala	G. V. Prakash Kumar, Gaana Bala, Aishwarya	05:06
2.	"Angnyaade"	Pa. Vijay	Shakthisree Gopalan	03:37
3.	"Chillena"	Na. Muthukumar	Clinton Cerejo, Alphonse, Alka	05:12
4.	"Unnale"	Na. Muthukumar	Vandana Srinivasan	01:41
5.	"Oday Oday"	Pa. Vijay	Vijay Prakash, Sasha, Shalmali Kholgade	04:32
6.	"Imaye Imaye"	Pa. Vijay	G. V. Prakash Kumar, Shakthisree Gopalan	03:26
7.	"A Love For Life"		G. V. Prakash Kumar, Navin Iyer, Chennai Symphony	03:17
Total length:				26:50

Behindwoods rated the album 3.5 out of 5, and said "G.V strikes with lively & cheerful melodies. A very pleasant album !" IndiaGlitz rated it 2.5 out of 5 and said, "GV Prakash keeps his promise". Cinemalead.com rated the album with 3.5 out of 5 stars and said the album is Innovative,Interesting and Intriguing