Chocolate (2001 film)
Chocolate | |
---|---|
DVD Cover | |
Directed by | A. Venkatesh |
Produced by | R. Madhesh |
Written by |
Pattukkottai Prabakar (Dialogue) |
Screenplay by | A. Venkatesh |
Story by | R. Madhesh |
Starring |
Prashanth Jaya Re Mumtaj Suhasini Mani Ratnam Livingston |
Music by | Deva |
Cinematography | S.D. Vijay Milton |
Edited by |
B. Lenin V. T. Vijayan |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Movie Magic |
Release dates |
|
Country | India |
Language | Tamil |
Chocolate is a 2001 Tamil film directed by A. Venkatesh alone written and produced by R. Madhesh. Featuring Prashanth and Jaya Re in the lead roles, the film also has Livingston, Suhasini, Mumtaj and Nagendra Prasad in supporting roles, while the film's score and soundtrack are composed by Deva. The film opened to a positive response at the box office in September 2001.[1]
Plot
Aravind (Prashanth) meets Anjali (Jaya Re) & falls in love at first sight without knowing her background. When this two meets Anjali tells Aravind that she would like to go for a trial-romance for a week, which might lead to a long-term romance, for which Aravind agrees.
Meanwhile, Anjali is the daughter of Jayachandran (Livingston) – (the Commissioner of Police) & Saradha (Suhasini). Aravind maintains a cordial acquaintance with both of them, not knowing that Anjali is their daughter. Anjali acknowledges them as her parents. Jayachandran convinces Anjali to dispense with this trial romance, & make a deeper commitment as he finds Aravind a gentleman. Aravind convinces Anjali's mother Saradha to support him as her suitor and so Saradha makes Aravind marry Anjali .
Cast
- Prashanth as Aravind
- Jaya Re as Anjali
- Mumtaj as Nirmala (Nimmi) & Bhama
- Suhasini Mani Ratnam as Saradha
- Livingston as Jayachandran
- Dhamu
- Charlie as Sasi
- Nagendra Prasad as Guru
Production
The film began production in January 2001 and scenes were shot at Mayajaal for three days later that month.[2] At an official launch event held soon afterwards, producer R. Madhesh donated seventy five kilogrammes of chocolate to poor children, equivalent to the weight of the film's actor Prashanth. Richa Pallod was initially considered to play the heroine, though her high remuneration meant that the makers signed on Jaya Re, a former Miss Goa pageant winner.[3] A fight scene was shot at Koyambedu Market Road near Chennai with 16 cameras, while a song was shot on a cruise ship between Cambodia and Vietnam.[4]
Release
The film opened to mixed reviews in September 2001, after having an initial premiere at Bay Area, San Francisco. A critic from Sify.com noted "The film tantalises in the beginning only to loose its fizz halfway through", adding "our heart goes straight out to Prashanth who despite the odds, comes up with a decent performance."[5] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu reviewed the film and added that "this youthful bonanza gets stretched, testing one's patience towards the end, none but the screenplay is to blame."[6] Rediff.com meanwhile gave the film a negative review noting "Matters are built towards a loud, dramatic, implausible climax. This one's a mess and what you keep wondering is why an accomplished actress like Suhasini Mani Rathnam had to make this the vehicle for one of her rare celluloid appearances."[7] A critic from Cinesouth.com noted "The film is bubbling with youthful feelings. It contains some admirable scenes also. Thus, movie manages to make its mark with a lot difficulties."[8]
The film was later dubbed and released in Telugu in March 2002 with the same name and won positive reviews from critics.[9] The success of the film led Prashanth and A. Venkatesh re-unite and announced a project called "Petrol" in 2005[10][11] but Prashanth's marital problems eventually led to delays in the director's schedule and the film remains uncompleted.[12]
Music
The film features song composed by Deva. Producer R. Madhesh opted against having a traditional audio cassette release function and chose to distribute the cassettes to music shops enclosed with Cadbury chocolate.Lyrics by Vaali[13]
Chocolate | |
---|---|
Soundtrack album by Deva | |
Released | July 2001 |
Genre | Feature film soundtrack |
Label | The Best Audio |
Track | Song | Singer(s) |
---|---|---|
1 | "Anjumani" | Mathangi |
2 | "Chocolate" | |
3 | "Dhuryodhana Dhuryodhana" | Shankar Mahadevan, Mahalakshmi Iyer |
4 | "Hosima Hosima" | Devan Ekambaram, Anupama |
5 | "Kappaleh Kappaleh" | Hariharan, Mahalakshmi Iyer |
6 | "Kokaragiri" | Sabesh-Murali, Mathangi |
7 | "Malai Malai" | Anuradha Sriram, A. R. Reihana |
8 | "En Nizhalai " | Srikanth, Timmy, Mathangi |
9 | "Oru Five Star Paarvai" | Niruban |
References
- ↑ http://movies.bizhat.com/review_chocklet.php
- ↑ http://hindu.com/2001/01/26/stories/0426401s.htm
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20040426142215/http://www.chennaionline.com/entertainment/filmplus/stars.asp
- ↑ http://www.cscsarchive.org:8081/MediaArchive/art.nsf/(docid)/5AFC40D11412FD4BE5256B35003316F3
- ↑ http://www.sify.com/movies/chocklet-review-tamil-6348629.html
- ↑ http://www.hindu.com/2001/09/14/stories/09140222.htm
- ↑ http://www.rediff.com/movies/2001/oct/04choc.htm
- ↑ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/soc.culture.singapore/HrQWkePNyL0
- ↑ http://www.idlebrain.com/movie/archive/mrg-chocolate.html
- ↑ http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2006/01/06/stories/2006010600210401.htm
- ↑ http://www.behindwoods.com/features/News/News39/24-11-05/tamil-movies-news-prasanth.html
- ↑ http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/33844.html
- ↑ http://tamilmovies.com/cgi-bin/news/archives.cgi?category=1&view=7-01