Virudhagiri

Virudhagiri (transl. Award) is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Vijayakanth, making his directorial debut, besides playing the title character as well. This was also his final film in his cinematic career before his full-fledged career into politics. The film, co-starring Madhuri Itagi, Arun Pandian and Mansoor Ali Khan among others, released on 10 December 2010 It is a remake of the English-language French film Taken.^[1]

Virudhagiri
Poster
Directed by	Vijayakanth
Written by	Vijayakanth
Produced by	Vijayakanth L. K. Sudhish
Starring	Vijayakanth Madhuri Itagi Arun Pandian
Narrated by	Vijayakanth
Cinematography	K. Boopathy
Edited by	S. Saleem
Music by	Sundar C Babu
Production company	Captain Cine Creations
Release date	10 December 2010 (2010-12-10)
Running time	143 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Although this movie is supposed to occur in Albania and Australia, it was actually shot in Malaysia.

Plot

Virudhagiri (Vijayakanth), a sincere police officer endeavors in safeguarding the societal peace. Gaining international recognition for accomplishing a security task in foreign countries, he returns to Chennai handling a serious case of transgenders being scourged to death for organ racketing. On an unexpected turn, when his niece Priya (Madhuri Itagi) was undertaking a trip to Australia, she gets kidnapped by a group of strangers. Using his high-skilled intelligence activities, Virudhagiri flies down to the foreign land of Albania for the rescue.

Cast

• Vijayakanth as Virudhagiri IPS
• Arun Pandian as Franklin Williams, Australian police officer
• Madhuri Itagi as Priya
• K. C. Shankar as Mike Anderson
• Russell Geoffrey Banks as Chief of Australian police
• Mansoor Ali Khan as Police inspector
• Shanmugarajan
• Santhana Bharathi as Police commissioner
• Chaams as Saamy
• Peeli Sivam as Virudhagiri's father
• Kalairani as Virudhagiri's mother
• Uma as Priya's mother
• Aman Deep Singh
• Meesai Rajendranath

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Sundar C. Babu.^[2]

Virudhagiri
Soundtrack album by Sundar C. Babu
Released	2010
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	22:19
Language	Tamil
Producer	Sundar C. Babu
Sundar C. Babu chronology
Agam Puram (2010) Virudhagiri (2010) Aadu Puli (2011)

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Lyrics	Length (m:ss)
1	"Makkal Oru Puram"	Shankar Mahadevan	Vaali	05:07
2	"Devathai Ondru"	Hariharan, Chinmayi	Snehan	04:11
3	"Mannavane Mandhirane"	Senthildass Velayutham, M. M. Srilekha, Manikka Vinayagam	Yugabharathi	04:29
4	"Pookal Endrom"	Sadhana Sargam	Na. Muthukumar	04:02
5	"Yezhaigal Thozhaa"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam	Snehan	04:30

Reception

Rediff wrote "It might not be a great movie, or even a good one, but Virudhagiri was made for only one purpose: To be a political vehicle for Vijaykanth. And it serves that purpose admirably".^[3] The Indian Express wrote " Vijayakant has bounced back with a vengeance. With the script racy and fast paced, and going full throttle on an unabashed image-boosting exercise, he has projected himself in the most flattering way possible. It should be an ideal treat for the Captain fans!".^[4]