Kaatru Veliyidai

Kaatru Veliyidai
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mani Ratnam
Written by	Mani Ratnam
Produced by	Mani Ratnam
Starring	Karthi Aditi Rao Hydari
Cinematography	Ravi Varman
Edited by	A. Sreekar Prasad
Music by	Original songs: A. R. Rahman Background Score A. R. Rahman Qutub-E-Kripa
Production company	Madras Talkies
Distributed by	Sri Thenandal Films
Release date	7 April 2017 (2017-04-07)
Running time	140 minutes (edited version) 147 minutes (full version)
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Kaatru Veliyidai ([Breezy Expanse] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is an Indian Tamil-language romance film produced, written and directed by Mani Ratnam. Featuring Karthi and Aditi Rao Hydari in the lead roles, the film has music composed by A. R. Rahman and cinematography by Ravi Varman. It was simultaneously released in Telugu as Cheliyaa.

Principal photography of the film commenced on 8 July 2016 in Ooty. The film was shot in Hyderabad, Leh, Ladakh, Chennai and Belgrade, and was completed in January 2017.

Plot

The film begins with a shot of the Kargil War showing the advances made by Indian soldiers. An Indian Air Force fighter jet is shot down by the enemy. The pilot Varun Chakrapani aka VC (Karthi) ejects from the hit aircraft and lands in enemy territory. He is promptly surrounded and captured by the Pakistani army. He is imprisoned in the Rawalpindi prison as Prisoner of war and is subjected to regular torture. While being held captive, he turns to the memories of his time with his former love Leela (Aditi Rao Hydari).

Leela comes to Srinagar to work as doctor. Meanwhile, VC encounters an accident while on a joy ride. He is brought in a criticial condition to the hospital. With the duty doctor not available, Leela takes charge and treats VC and nurses him back to health. He then gets out of the hospital without her knowledge along with Elias (RJ Balaji). When Leela comes to know about it, she and Nidhi (Rukmini) ask Elias about it and he says all that he can do is only take them to the Air force meeting the following week and make them meet VC. VC proposes her for a Coffee in a flight of that week's Saturday at 5.00pm. Leela goes to there and they both enjoy the ride. Meanwhile, VC gets to know that Leela is his course pilot Ravi Abraham's sister who died in a Flight which VC was supposed to go. Both develop feelings for each other. Later, Leela doesn't get to meet VC for 2 days and asks Elias about VC. He says that VC is on a camp for 3 months at Leh Militarybase. Leela and Nidhi go to meet him. VC asks whether Leela came to meet him and she says that she wanted to see the place where Ravi died and also to meet him. He takes her and she slowly gets to know that VC has a different character other than the lovable one which she has seen. Back to the present, VC and two other Indians plan for an escape from the prison. Now, Leela leaves and he tells her that she'll get couriers from him. She gets so. One day, when she interferes with the discussion which the officers were doing about the attack, VC tells her that a female and male are made with their own purposes by god and she can't talk about these. But, she says that both are equal and women are not only to give birth. When she talks all about these, VC asks her to shut up when she says she can't, he asks her to do so as he says to do so. She gets angry and moves out. He goes to her home and tells her that she's all he's got and he loves her so much and that he's not like her, and she is way too higher than him as he kills and she saves. The next day, she tells him that she's pregnant and as he gets hesitant about it, she says that she'll take care and leaves. So, VC takes Leela to a local register office and tells her that they should marry. As she is not ready about it, he asks her to think about it and come the next day at 4.00 pm. He leaves to Delhi forgetting about this and she's upset over him as he treats her like a Queen as well as puts her down and smashes her. The following day, Leela's grandfather dies and he goes there to her house where it is shown that Leela's father hates VC. That night he goes and tries to convince them, but he doesn't even get one word from them. The next day, when he's leaving for the Kargil war, Leela tells him that she's resigning and leaving Srinagar. He pleads for one more chance and leaves. Then he gets captured by Pakisthan and put as a prisoner. By some way, VC and the two other prisoners escape and reach India. VC searches for Leela and after 3 years, he finds her and tells her that he's changed and that he's sorry for meeting her, loving her, hurting her and for everything. When he sees Leela's daughter, she asks him to find out whether the daughter looks like him or her for VC's pleasant surprise and is moved. VC asks her why didn't she contact him, she says that she was afraid if he wouldn't like Leela or his daughter. They spend a moment of a loud cry with a hug and Leela says that Rohini (VC's daughter) is his responsibility from there on.

Cast

• Karthi as Varun Chakrapani "VC"
• Aditi Rao Hydari as Dr. Leela Abraham
• K. P. A. C. Lalitha as Achamma
• Shraddha Srinath as Girija Kapoor
• Rukmini Vijayakumar as Dr. Nidhi
• Delhi Ganesh as Col. Mithran
• RJ Balaji as Dr. Illyaas Hussain
• Sivakumar Ananth as Girish Reddy
• Vipin Sharma
• Harish Raj
• Mir Sarwar
• Amritaa Singh
• Dhyana Madan
• Ekansh Kumar

Production

Development

After shelving a multi-starrer project featuring Karthi and Dulquer Salmaan in the lead roles during December 2015, it was reported in the media that Mani Ratnam would instead work on a new film retaining Karthi as the lead actor and A. R. Rahman as the music composer and Ravi Varman as cinematographer, respectively. In February 2016, Karthi confirmed that he had signed on to play the lead role and would collaborate with the director twelve years after having worked with him as an assistant during the making of Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004). Mani Ratnam requested Karthi to lose weight through the CrossFit programme and learn the basics of flying to portray the lead character of a pilot. He prepared for the role by understanding more about fighter pilots through a wing commander friend and analysed their typical fitness routine their body language. Karthi also was asked to sport a clean-shaven look as a part of his role, and did so for the first time in his acting career. The start of the film was delayed as the team wanted to wait for a better climate, before beginning the shoot in Kashmir, while the team also chose to wait for Karthi to finish his commitments for the production of Kaashmora (2016). Sai Pallavi successfully auditioned for the leading female role of a doctor in the project and was signed on to make her debut as a lead actress in the Tamil film industry through the project. However, in April 2016, Mani Ratnam felt that the character had to be older and opted to leave Sai Pallavi out of the project, later replacing her with Aditi Rao Hydari. Hydari participated in Tamil lessons prior to the film's shoot, in order to improve her understanding of the script. She also worked in a hospital for a few days in order to get a better understanding of her role as a doctor.

Mani Ratnam and his team began location hunting in April 2016 to seek out replacements to resemble Kashmir and scouted areas including Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Kodaikanal, Ooty and Coonoor. Meanwhile, Mani Ratnam also worked closely with music composer A. R. Rahman and lyricist Vairamuthu in finalising seven songs for the film during the pre-production period. Actors RJ Balaji and Delhi Ganesh joined the cast of the film in July 2016, while actress Shraddha Srinath revealed that she would feature in a small role as a brigadier's daughter. Kannada actor Harish Raj and Hindi actor Vipin Sharma also joined the first schedule of the film, making their debuts in the Tamil film industry. Likewise, actresses Lalitha and Rukmini Vijayakumar were signed up for roles during the film's initial schedule. The film's first look poster was revealed in early July 2016, with the title of Kaatru Veliyidai, inspired by a poem by Subramania Bharati, officially announced.

Filming

The shoot of the film began in early July 2016 in Nilgiris, Ooty with a twenty-day schedule featuring Karthi and Aditi Rao Hydari. The location was chosen to show Kashmir on screen, as the latter's climate had made conducting shooting there difficult. Art director Amaran and production designer Sharmishta Roy worked together on designing the set during the first schedule, choosing to enhance existing backgrounds rather than to create lavish sets. The team regularly shot scenes from sunrise onwards, in order to ensure that the film progressed quickly. A second schedule for the film took place in Hyderabad during October 2016, lasting a period of ten days. The team then moved to Leh and the surrounding areas of Ladakh for a third schedule lasting fifteen days, with action sequences choreographed by Sham Kaushal being filmed. In late November 2016, the team moved to shoot scenes in Belgrade, Serbia and the surrounding snow-capped mountainous regions after they were denied permission to shoot action sequences involving aircraft in North India. During the ten day schedule, the team also shot a romantic song in the snowy backdrop choreographed by Brindha. The shoot was concluded in mid-January 2017, with the team announcing that the post-production phase would take a couple of months.

Music

Main article: Kaatru Veliyidai (soundtrack)

Composed by A.R. Rahman,the album consists of 6 songs.

Release

The film was released worldwide on 7 April 2017.While Sri Thenandal Films released the film throughout Tamil Nadu, Sri Venkateswara Creations bought the Telugu dubbing rights for the film and simultaneously released the Telugu version under the title Cheliyaa. Kerala rights was acquired by Sibu Thameens and actor-director-producer Arun Pandian acquired the rest of India rights (overseas) under his company A&P Groups.

Reception

Kaatru Veliyidai received unfavourable reviews from critics. Although praise was directed at Hydari's performance and Ravi Varman's cinematography, criticism was towards the screenplay by Ratnam.

External links

• Kaatru Veliyidai at IMDb