Vandae Maatharam (lit.'Mother, I bow to thee') is a 2010 Indian bilingual action film directed by T. Aravind. The film features Mammootty and Arjun Sarja in the lead roles, along with Sneha, Deepak Jethi, Shraddha Arya, Raj Kapoor, Nassar, Jai Akash, Jagadish and Rajan P. Dev in supporting roles. The film was simultaneously made and released in Malayalam and Tamil.

Vandae Maatharam
Theatrical release poster in Malayalam
Directed byT. Aravind
Written byHenry
R. N. R. Manohar
Produced byHenry
StarringMammootty
Arjun Sarja
Sneha
Nassar
Jai Akash
Deepak Jethi
CinematographyRajesh Yadav
M. V. Panneerselvam
Edited byG. Ramrao
V. M. Udhayashankar
Music byD. Imman
Production
company
Release dates
  • 17 September 2010 (2010-09-17) (India)
  • 10 September 2010 (2010-09-10) (Overseas)
LanguagesMalayalam
Tamil

The story revolves around the investigation and how two police officers, played by Mammootty and Arjun, eradicate the terrorists from entering the border. The film was released overseas on 10 September 2010 and later in India on 17 September 2010.[1]

Plot

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In a high-level meeting, top government officials analyze farmers' struggle and related social violence to put forward an amicable solution to have lasting harmony. Their plans are threatened by the terrorists' infiltrations.

Anandharaman IPS, Director IB, forms a task force to handle the imminent threat. Gopikrishnan IPS, Deputy Director IB, leads the anti-terror operation in the south zone. He recruits SSP Anwar Hussain IPS to lead the task force and interrogations. Nandini, an aviator, is Gopi's wife, and they are sad that they do not have a child. IB gets information from R&AW, the foreign intelligence agency, that a terrorist code named Malik (real name Abul Hassan) has infiltrated the country via sea border and has already killed a man in the process. A peculiar taqiyah obtained from the crime scene leads them to Sheikh Muhammad, a local heavyweight who in turn leads them to Balan, a man who deals in ship breaking. Balan, on severe and rigorous interrogation, reveals that Dr. Nayeem of the Metro Hospitals is their handler, and he is in contact with the terror command. When the team proceeds to arrest Nayeem, he commits suicide, where it is also revealed that he (Nayeem) had worked for the terrorist gang under the code name 'RJ-1'. Nayeem's mobile phone leads them to Malik. The IB command center intercepts the call between Malik and his terrorist leader and cracks their plans to communicate via migratory birds. Following the information, Gopi, Anwar, and the team catch Malik.

A series of severe interrogative tortures do not break Malik, proving him immune to these, and fail to open him up or reveal any of his plans, for which Gopi and team tries to break him emotionally and psychologically, through drug treatment. Gopi finds a video of Malik showing his little daughter Kurshid. With this video background, they make changes in Malik's face and try to make him believe that he has been in a coma for 20 years. Since the IB agent who is supposed to play the role of Kurshid was KIA during another mission, Gopi decides to send Nandini (who is now pregnant) as Kurshid, to get Malik's emotional with sentiments and thus making him to speak out his plans. But Malik finds out this trap and kills Nandini and escapes, thus making Gopi furious. Finally, Gopi and Anwar catch Malik before he could execute his plans, and Gopi kills Malik in an encounter.

Cast

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Production

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The shooting started by the middle of 2007 and was finished by feb 2009[2] and later on the story was modified due to some personal problems. The film was started with Karthi as the director, but after the first schedule the producer Henry, who also wrote the script, replaced him with debutante T. Aravind.[3] The film was shot at locations in Kochi, Chennai, Marthandam and Thengapattanam.[4] It took 100 days of shooting and ten schedules to complete the film. The Tamil version was initially titled Aruvadai but was later changed to Vandae Maatharam too.[5] The audio launch was held on 3 July 2010 and the movie was all set to release on the eve of Ramzan, 10 September 2010 in both Tamil and Malayalam.[6] But at the last moment, it couldn't make it to the theatres. Then, it was released on 17 September 2010.[7]

Amitabh Bachchan was approached to do a pivotal role in the movie,[8] but as he was not able to allocate the call sheets, Nassar played the role. Two heroines were signed, Sneha was paired with Mammootty and played the role of a pilot, the other heroine Shraddha Arya was paired with Arjun and played the role of an ornithologist. However, Shraddha Arya's role was dropped.[9] In 2007, A. R. Rahman was approached to score the music of the film. But during that time, he was busy with the composing work of Jodhaa Akbar. Vidyasagar was reported to compose five songs;[9] but at the end it turned out that D. Imman was the composer. Stunts director for the film was the renowned stunt director Allan Amin.

Soundtrack

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The soundtrack features six songs composed by D. Imman, with lyrics penned by Mankombu Gopalakrishnan and Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma for the Malayalam version and Vairamuthu, Snehan, Nandalala and Viveka for the Tamil version. The albums were released on 3 July 2010. A patriotic song penned by Vairamuthu was rendered by ten singers: Benny Dayal, Harish Raghavendra, Vijay Yesudas, Haricharan, Naresh Iyer, Krish, Pop Shalini, Mathangi, Srilekha Parthasarathy and Chinmayi.

Vandae Maatharam
Soundtrack album by
Released3 July 2010
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length25:18
LanguageTamil
ProducerD. Imman
D. Imman chronology
Vilai
(2010)
Vandae Maatharam
(2010)
Vaadaa
(2010)
Malayalam
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Saaragiyil"Vayalar Sarath Chandra VarmaKalyani5:00
2."Gala Gala Gala Gaaley"Mankombu GopalakrishnanJassie Gift, Roshini4:24
3."One Two Three"Mankombu GopalakrishnanRamya, Farazuddin, D. Imman4.39
4."Chirichonnurangum"Vayalar Sarath Chandra VarmaJyotsna5:01
5."Vande Maatharam"Vayalar Sarath Chandra VarmaBenny Dayal, Harish Raghavendra, Vijay Yesudas, Haricharan, Naresh Iyer, Krish, Pop Shalini, Mathangi, Srilekha Parthasarathy, Chinmayi 
6."Intelligence Is The Keyword"(Instrumental)D. Imman on keyboard2:02
Tamil
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Vandhe Maatharam"VairamuthuBenny Dayal, Harish Raghavendra, Vijay Yesudas, Haricharan, Naresh Iyer,
Krish, Pop Shalini, Mathangi, Srilekha Parthasarathy, Chinmayi
4:12
2."Sanjeevana"SnehanKalyani5:00
3."One Two Three"NandalaD. Imman, Ramya, Farazuddin4:39
4."Thirumbi Thirumbi"VivekaSuchith Suresan5:01
5."Gala Gala Gala Gaaley"SnehanJassie Gift, Roshini4:24
6."Intelligence Is The Keyword"(Instrumental)D. Imman keyboard2:02

Reception

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Sify gave the film 2/5 saying, "The done to death patriotic theme receives no fresh makeover in the film. If only it had paid more attention to that feeble script instead of raking up all that clatter and clamor on screen, would it have made more sense".[10]

References

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  1. ^ Sampurn Wire. "Vande Mataram releases first in overseas". Thaindian. Archived from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  2. ^ "Vande Mataram to release on July 15". Sify.com (30 June 2010). Retrieved on 2015-10-25.
  3. ^ T Aravind to direct Vande Matharam – Bollywood Movie News. Indiaglitz.com (25 July 2007). Retrieved on 2015-10-25.
  4. ^ The big picture – TVDM. The Hindu (22 February 2008). Retrieved on 2015-10-25.
  5. ^ Aruvadai becomes Vande Mataram. Sify.com (9 December 2009). Retrieved on 2015-10-25.
  6. ^ Moviebuzz. "Vande Mataram on Ramzan". Sify. Archived from the original on 26 August 2010. Retrieved 22 August 2010.
  7. ^ "Vande Matharam fails to turn up at theatres!". Sify. Archived from the original on 15 September 2010. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
  8. ^ Big B in Vande Mataram Archived 26 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Movies.bizhat.com. Retrieved on 25 October 2015.
  9. ^ a b Vande Matharam-A big-budget bilingual. Sify.com (12 March 2008). Retrieved on 2015-10-25.
  10. ^ "Aruvudai". Sify. Archived from the original on 27 May 2008.
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