Mugamoodi
Introduction '''''Mugamoodi''''' () is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language superhero film directed by Mysskin and produced by  Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur. The film stars Jiiva, Narain, Pooja Hegde, Nassar, Selva and Girish Karnad. The music was composed by Krishna Kumar with cinematography by Sathyan Sooryan and editing by Gaugin. ''Mugamoodi'' was released theatrically on 31 August 2012 and received mixed reviews from critics. The film was commercial success.
Plot Anand alias "Bruce Lee" is a college graduate who hates the idea of 9-5 jobs and studies martial arts with a group of similarly jobless friends. Attempting to recruit new students to pay tuition fees and save their school, Anand gets involved in a brawl and falls for Shakthi, who is the daughter of DCP Gaurav. In Chennai, a series of heists are happening across the city, which has left dozens dead and countless amounts of money stolen. The police believe that a new robbery is about to take place. Anand's grandfather advises him to make Shakthi see him as a hero.Anand wears a borrowed superhero costume and introduce himself as Mugamoodi to Shakthi, where he tries to impress the children with his skills and accidentally ends up in the middle of a police chase. Anand helps the police capture one of the bandits, but the gang shoots the captured member dead when they are transferring him. The news which Mugamoodi captured one of the suspects, which police could not catch them in many months, spreads across the city and makes Shakthi begin to like Mugamoodi. Gaurav finds a match between a fingerprint from the crime scene and one from police records. Anand decides to visit Shakthi again unmasked to reveal his identity and confess his love to her. While arriving to meet Shakthi, Anand encounters a gang member, who shoots Gaurav. Anand tries to seize him, but the gunman escapes after the gun is seized by Anand and the family believe Anand shot Gaurav. Anand is being chased by the police and is on the run. The gang kills Anand's friend Viji, who went with him to visit Shakthi. Anand is again seen by police alone with a dead body and is naturally thought responsible for the killing. Anand's grandfather and brother create a ''Batman'' styled-superhero. Gaurav survives and the gang decides to kill him and his family in the hospital. Anand (masked himself as Mugamoodi) saves them by defeating the gang and takes Gaurav's police documents containing the latest findings of the case, including the fingerprint match, as he wants to avenge Viji's death. To Anand's shock, The police findings in the documents are against his martial arts teacher Sifu Chandru. Chandru reveals that he is not connected to those cases and reveals that Anguchamy alias Dragon is behind the crimes. Chandru and Dragon learnt kung-fu in the same school 22 years ago. Meanwhile, Dragon also learns that Mugamoodi is Anand, where he and his gang raids Chandru's school to kill Anand, but they kill Chandru when he is nowhere to be seen. The gang seizes a port and kidnaps 30 children, along with three adults including Shakthi, as hostages to blackmail the police. They demand the police to arrange a ship which guarantees their safety across the Indian border, while they also demand Mugamoodi to drive a van of gold alone. The gang threaten to kill the hostages if their demands are refused. Mugamoodi agrees to drive the gold, where a fight ensues between him and Dragon. During the fight, Dragon takes off Mugamoodi's mask and reveals his identity to Shakthi. Dragon also confesses that his brother Anthony had shot Gourav earlier. With the help of his grandfather and friends that had him sneaked into the port, Anand kills some key members of the gang. A fight ensues between Anand and Dragon, where Dragon falls to his death in the sea. Anand manages to release all the hostages and Shakthi tells him to continue his service as Mugamoodi.
Cast * Jiiva as Anand alias Bruce Lee / Mugamoodi* Narein as Anguchamy alias Dragon* Pooja Hegde as Shakthi (voice dubbed by Savitha Reddy)* Nasser as DCP Gaurav, Shakthi's father* Selvaah as Master Sifu Chandru* Girish Karnad as Anand's grandfather* Aadukalam Naren as Anand's father* Anupama Kumar as Roshini, Shakthi's mother* Aadukalam Murugadoss as Anand's friend* Kalaiyarasan as Viji* Ray as Shakthi's brother* Vaishnavi as Shakthi's sister* Misha Ghoshal as a cop's wife* Darshan as Dragon's sidekick* Krishna Kumar as police commissioner (uncredited cameo appearance)
Production Jiiva during an 8-hour head casting session in Hong Kong for make up for his character ''Bruce Lee/Mugamoodi''===Development===In September 2008, UTV Motion Pictures agreed to produce Mysskin's script titled ''Mugamoodi'' (Mask) and subsequently signed on leading actor Suriya to play the lead role. Pre-production work for the film began in late 2008, with the film also being referred by the media as ''Agni Puthran''. The film was reported to be made at a cost of 50 crore with A. R. Rahman as the music composer. Suriya portrayes a karate fighter in the film. In July 2009, Suriya opted out and unsuccessful discussions were held with Vishal to replace him, forcing Mysskin to stall the project. As the project remained dormant, Mysskin temporarily shelved the project and moved on to script a horror film.===Casting===In October 2010, Arya signed on for the film with N. Linguswamy's Thirupathi Brothers production house replacing UTV as producers. However, within months, Arya had pulled out as had Linguswamy. In June 2011, a new Mumbai-based company had taken the production reins whilst Jiiva, after the commercial success of his political thriller ''Ko'', had signed on to portray the lead role. Later that month, it was announced that Narain, who had worked with Mysskin in both ''Chithiram Pesuthadi'' and ''Anjathe'', would portray the role of the lead antagonist with reports suggesting that the role would be reminiscent of The Joker / Scarecrow from ''The Dark Knight'' and ''Batman Begins'' respectively. Narain claimed that his villainy in the film would be totally brutal, where his character in the film has no shades and is absolutely negative. In early July 2011, sources reported that Amala Paul had been signed up to portray the lead female character in the film, which the actress dismissed, with Dhananjayan of UTV also confirming that Amala was not approached for the role. Pooja Hegde, who is the second runner-up of the 2011 Miss Universe India, was eventually finalized as the female lead. Krishna Kumar, who had scored for Mysskin's ''Yuddham Sei'' in 2010, was selected as the film composer over two other music directors, while Madhan Karky would pen the lyrics, associating for the first time with Mysskin. Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao was added to the cast in November 2011, which proved false, and he was replaced by Girish Karnad, while Prakash Raj was also reported to be playing an important role. The following month, Nassar was selected to portray a police officer.Reports further claimed that Jiiva and Narain would undergo special training in martial arts with experts from the Shaolin Temple in China. A large group of young aspiring artists were roped in to be part of the fight sequences which are touted be the highlight of the film. The artists were trained for over 6 months at Mansuria Kung Fu YMCA, Nandanam, Chennai. A lot of the kung fu content of the film were handled by R. Shekhar.===Effects and design===High-end gadgets to be used in the film were reportedly designed by the IIT, while teams from the NIFT were roped in to create the costumes and looks of the characters. Furthermore, a Los Angeles-based firm would handle special effects, while action sequences are planned to be choreographed by action choreographers from Hong Kong. The costumes are designed by Gabriella Wilkins, where it is said that Jiiva's superhero outfit weighs more than 10 kg.===Filming===The shooting of the film started officially on 12 December 2011 with the opening scene of kung fu as that was spoken about. The film is expected to be released during Summer 2012.The film was being canned in the nights in and around Triplicane in Chennai where the fight scene of Jiiva and Narain was shot in terrace. Mysskin is planning a 20-day schedule to shoot the climax at Karaikal. The shoot concluded at Karaikal where daredevil stunts were performed by the lead actor at an altitude of 180 feet high where in the Karaikal port's conveyor belt passes over. Many scenes were also filmed at AVM studio where huge hospital set was erected and also at Victoria hall, Deaf and Dumb school. Tony Leung Siu Hung, a stunt coordinator from Hong Kong, has joined the climax shoot of the film that is being canned in a massive scale at Karaikal.
Music ''Mugamoodi'''s score and soundtrack were composed by K, who had worked on Mysskin's previous venture ''Yuddham Sei'' as well. The soundtrack features eleven tracks, including a number of instrumentals. The lyrics were written by Madhan Karky and Kabilan. The soundtrack album was released on 20 July 2012 at Sathyam Cinemas; it was presented by Vijay and received by Kannada lead actor Puneeth Rajkumar. ''Rediff'' wrote "''Mugamoodi'''s numbers grab your attention and carry you with them." Milliblog wrote "Tepid soundtrack from K." ''Behindwoods'' wrote "On the whole, the music has provided a good platform for the superhero to soar."
Release The film was released worldwide screens on 31 August 2012 and it would be the 100th film to be released in 2012.The first look and trailer of Jiiva's 'Mugamoodi' took place in a grand scale on 29 June 2012 at Sathyam Cinemas. The trailer was launched by Suriya and received by director N. Lingusamy while the first look was released by Suriya and Gautham Vasudev Menon. ''Mugamoodi'' was released in over 500 screens in Tamil Nadu, and also opened in neighbouring states in good number of screens as well as in northern parts of India including Delhi and Mumbai. The film was released simultaneously in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom, US and other parts of the world.=== Home media ===The satellite and digital rights of the film were sold to Sun TV and Sun NXT.
Reception ===Critical response===''Mugamoodi'' received mixed reviews from critics. Prakash Upadhyaya of ''Oneindia'' gave 3.5/5 stars and recommended the film. ''Behindwoods'' gave 3/5 starts and told that it had a "pacy first half, a slow second half but was compensated by the overall performance and effort of the cast & crew." Pavithra Srinivasan of ''Rediff'' gave 2/5 stars and wrote "This superhero might have the best of intentions, but Mysskin's screenplay fails him spectacularly." Vivek Ramz of ''In.com'' gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "Mugamoodi lacks the spark needed for superhero flick. "''IBNLive'' cited that the film had a "different flavour" and wrote "For those who love the West and East's action films, ''Mugamoodi'' combines both to give some pleasure." Malathi Rangarajan of ''The Hindu'' noted that it "travels on a terrain that’s new to Tamil cinema" and wrote "Mysskin's effort to make Mugamoodi appear as authentic as possible deserves to be commended." ''Sify'' termed it as average and wrote "Mugamoodi is a one-time watch for Mysskin and Jiiva’s attempt to do something different. It has very good music and background score by K, but lacks a proper script and a racy presentation." ===Accolades=== Year Award Category Nominee Result Ref.20132nd South Indian International Movie Awards Best Female Debutant - Tamil Pooja Hegde Best Actor in a Negative Role - TamilNarain
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