Gentleman (1993 film)

Gentleman is a 1993 Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film written and directed by S. Shankar in his directorial debut, and produced by K. T. Kunjumon. The film stars Arjun, Madhubala and Subhashri, with M. N. Nambiar, Manorama, Goundamani, Senthil, Charan Raj, Vineeth, and Rajan P. Dev in supporting roles. It revolves around a respected Madras-based businessman who moonlights as a thief who steals from the rich and gives it to the poor.

Gentleman
Theatrical release poster
Directed byShankar
Produced byK. T. Kunjumon
Written byBalakumaran (dialogue)
Screenplay byShankar
Story byShankar
StarringArjun
Madhubala
Music byA. R. Rahman
CinematographyJeeva
Edited byB. Lenin
V. T. Vijayan
Production
company
A. R. S. Film International
Distributed byA. R. S. Film International
Release date
  • 30 July 1993 (1993-07-30)
Running time
160 minutes[1]
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Gentleman was released on 30 July 1993 and became a box office success, running for over 175 days in theatres besides winning three South Filmfare Awards and four Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. The film was remade in Hindi as The Gentleman (1994).[2]

Plot

In Ooty, Krishnamoorthy alias Kicha and his sidekick Mani perform a swashbuckling heist of money of several crores while being in disguise diverting the attention of police, and escape in Nilgiri Mountain Railway, much to the frustration of a chasing police officer named Ratnam.

Kicha is a respected citizen who runs a home-based papadum business along with Mani in Madras. Susheela, one of Kicha's many female employees, has a crush on him and is constantly demanding his attention. Another thing adding to her woes is the arrival of her jovial cousin Sugandhi. She makes the place so lively and playful with silly fights between Mani and Babloo. Sugandhi later develops a crush on Kicha, especially after being saved by him from some molesting goons. Kicha tells to her that he has no such feelings for her and wants her to find a suitable mate. Before leaving Madras, Sugandhi steals Kicha's ring as a souvenir.

After several unsuccessful attempts at nabbing the thief, a disgraced Azhagar Nambi shaves his head and is left with a ring mark on his face, after a scuffle with the thief. On investigating, he later realizes that the mark was formed by a ceremonial ring worn by Brahmin priests, but to his vain, finds that the specific design of this ring is uncommon to Brahmin priests, but rather resembles a mangala sutra. Nambi is forced by his parents into getting married and by coincidence to Sugandhi, from whom he gets the particular ring that he was tracking and finds out that it belongs to Kicha. In an attempt to trap and arrest Kicha, Nambi plots an attempt at Kicha's house where they were invited for a wedding dinner, hosted by Kicha, where he shoots Kicha, but the latter narrowly escapes with a bullet injury in his hand, along with Mani. Susheela follows them to their hideout, where Susheela finds the duo and accuses Kicha for his deed.

After Susheela threatens to commit suicide, Kicha reveals his flashback about his student life as a district level topper along with his best friend Ramesh, and when they both were denied their desired medical college seats due to bribery, that leads to the suicides of Kicha's mother and Ramesh. Since then, Kicha became a thief to build a college of his own, where he desires to make education available to the deserved without any difference to poor, rich, or any caste.

In order to fund the final stages of the college building, aware of the police trap, Kicha makes one last attempt to steal money from the Chief Minister, resulting in success, but Nambi gains the upper hand in arresting him. In the courtroom, Kicha demands that the State CM should come to the courtroom, who was previously educational minister demanded the bribe from him. Though the CM is exposed to the public, he is still let off, which infuriates a youth who was inspired by Kicha's ideologies. The youth kills the minister in a suicide attack.

During the end credits, it is shown that Kicha serves his jail sentence and subsequently inaugurates the medical college for the poor students after his release.

Cast

Production

After scoring back-to-back successes like Vasanthakala Paravai (1991) and Suriyan (1992), producer K. T. Kunjumon of A. R. S. Film International wanted to collaborate again with director Pavithran and actor R. Sarathkumar; however since they went on to do other projects, the collaboration did not happen. Photographer Stills Ravi and editor V. T. Vijayan suggested the name of S. Shankar who worked as an assistant in these two films. Impressed with Shankar's story, he decided to produce the film, Gentleman. While Shankar also wrote the screenplay, Kunjumon selected Balakumaran to write the dialogues.[2]

Shankar wanted Kamal Haasan to play the lead role, but he refused because of the politics shown in the story and felt "it was not the right position to take on the subject".[10] When Arjun was approached, he too was reluctant. According to him, no filmmakers were ready to make a film with him until the release of Sevagan (1992) which was directed by Arjun himself. Therefore when Shankar approached him with the script of Gentleman, he decided to decline after listening to the script just as he did to a few other directors. But he was impressed by the story and hence decided to do it.[11]

The climax scene where a student kills the antagonist in a suicide bombing was inspired from the assassination of Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa.[2][12] Kunjumon insisted Shankar to rewrite the climax by adding this element, much to the dissatisfaction of Arjun, who felt that his heroism would get diluted. However, Kunjumon was adamant about the climax and it was shot as per his wish.[2]

Soundtrack
Gentleman: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
A. R. Rahman
Released1993
RecordedPanchathan Record Inn
GenreSoundtrack
Length23:53
LabelPyramid
Ayngaran Music
Aditya Music
ProducerA. R. Rahman
A. R. Rahman chronology
Pudhiya Mugam
(1993)		 Gentleman: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(1993)		 Kizhakku Cheemayile
(1993)
Singles from Gentleman: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
  1. "Chikku Bukku Rayile"
    Released: 1993
  2. "Ottagathai Kattiko"
    Released: 1993

The score and soundtrack of the movie was composed by A. R. Rahman and lyrics by Vairamuthu and Vaali.[13] Gentleman marked the beginning of a famed collaboration between A. R. Rahman and director S. Shankar. The film and soundtrack were dubbed and released in Telugu with the same name. The lyrics were penned by Rajashri for this version.[14]

A Gentleman instrumental adaptation album was subsequently released on Lahari and became a runaway success. The track "Ottagathai Kattiko" soundtracked a BBC fashion show. The song is set in the Carnatic raga Dharmavati,[15] and "Paakathe" is set in Mohanam.[16]

Tamil version (Original)
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."En Veetu Thotathil"S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sujatha Mohan3:56
2."Usalampatti Penkutti"Shahul Hameed, Swarnalatha4:41
3."Chikku Bukku Rayile"Suresh Peters, G. V. Prakash Kumar5:24
4."Parkathey"Minmini, Srinivas, Noel James4:29
5."Ottagathai Kattiko"S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki, Sujatha Mohan, Minmini5:15
Telugu version (Dubbed)
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Kontegaadni Kattuko"S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki5:15
2."Chikubuku Raile"Suresh Peters, G. V. Prakash5:24
3."Naa Inti Mundunna"S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sujatha Mohan3:51
4."Maavele Maavele"Minmini, Srinivas, Noel James4:29
5."Mudinepalli"Shahul Hameed, Malgudi Subha, Swarnalatha4:40

Release

Gentleman was released on 30 July 1993.[17] Kunjumon had to distribute the film on his own since no distributors were willing to buy this film as they felt "it looked like a dubbed film" Despite this, it became a major commercial success,[2] running for over 175 days in theatres.[18]

Critical reception

New Straits Times in its review dated 14 August 1993 stated: "Sankar .. has provided thought-provoking story [..] build up the story well, making us eager to find out why the hero is committing all those robberies."[19] Writing for The Indian Express, Malini Mannath said, "Shankar makes a promising debut infusing his script with action, sentiment, comedy and even some titillating scenes for added measure and tries to give something different within the parameters of commercial cinema. Jeeva's camera is effective in capturing the well choreographed stunt scenes (Vikram Dharma)."[3] On 22 August 1993, Ananda Vikatan rated the film 50 out of 100.[20]

Awards
Event Category Recipient Ref.
41st Filmfare Awards South Best Film – Tamil K. T. Kunjumon [21]
Best Director – Tamil Shankar
Best Music Director – Tamil A. R. Rahman
1993 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Best Actor Arjun Sarja [22]
Best Director Shankar
Best Music Director A. R. Rahman
Best Female Playback Singer Sujatha (for "En Veetu Thotathil")

Legacy

In the 2019 Tamil film Hero, Arjun reprises his role as Sathyamoorthy (whose name is similar to Krishnamoorthy), a man who takes away money from the rich to build a school that is free for everyone.[23]

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References
  1. Dhananjayan 2011, p. 153.
  2. Menon, Vishal (21 July 2018). "KT Kunjumon and 25 years of 'Gentleman'". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 23 August 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  3. Mannath, Malini (6 August 1993). "Daring and caring". The Indian Express. p. 6.
  4. Srinivasan, Pavithra (27 September 2010). "Shankar's landmark films before Endhiran/Robot". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 14 July 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  5. Dhananjayan 2011, p. 154.
  6. Mohan, Ashutosh (24 March 2020). "Top 10 Tamil Films Where Senthil Got The Better Of Goundamani". Film Companion. Archived from the original on 10 April 2020. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  7. Kumar, Pradeep (3 April 2020). "Prabhudheva's best dance sequences: From 'Chikku Bukku' to 'Guleba'". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  8. "Raju Sundaram talks about Chal Maar on Kings of Dance". The Times of India. 8 December 2017. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  9. "Haven't you watched Raghava Lawrence's amazing dances yet?". OnManorama. 30 October 2018. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  10. Thirumurthy, Priyanka (2 September 2019). "'Orey Oru Gramathiley' to 'Pariyerum Perumal': Caste-based reservation in Tamil films". The News Minute. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  11. Rajpal, Roktim (22 June 2017). "Action King Arjun reveals why he initially turned down Shankar's Gentleman". Pinkvilla. Archived from the original on 11 April 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  12. "Tuesday Trivia: Assassination of Sri Lanka President inspired the climax of Shankar's Gentleman". India Today. 12 May 2020. Archived from the original on 25 May 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  13. "Gentleman". JioSaavn. Archived from the original on 23 August 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  14. "Gentleman". JioSaavn. Archived from the original on 23 August 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  15. Anand, S. (3 August 2009). "Medley Messiah". Outlook. Archived from the original on 23 August 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  16. Mani, Charulatha (16 September 2011). "A Raga's Journey – Magical Mohanam". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 23 August 2019. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  17. "Gentleman". The Indian Express. 30 July 1993. p. 3.
  18. Selvaraj, N. (20 March 2017). "வெள்ளி விழா கண்ட தமிழ் திரைப்படங்கள்" [Tamil films that completed silver jubilees]. Thinnai (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  19. Vijiyin, K. (14 August 1993). "Catchy songs pep up Gentleman's story". New Straits Times. p. 25. Archived from the original on 2 May 2016. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  20. "சினிமா விமர்சனம்: ஜென்டில்மேன்" [Movie Review: Gentleman]. Ananda Vikatan. 22 August 1993. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  21. "41st Filmfare Awards". Filmfare. November 1994.
  22. Dhananjayan 2011, pp. 154–155.
  23. Suganth, M (20 December 2019). "Hero Movie Review : Fairly good vigilante film, middling superhero movie". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 11 August 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.

Bibliography
  • Dhananjayan, G. (2011). The Best of Tamil Cinema, 1931 to 2010: 1977–2010. Galatta Media. ISBN 978-81-921043-0-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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