3 (2012 Tamil film)

Plot

The story opens with the death of Ram . His wife Janani realizes that her husband did not die naturally, as she finds his room stained with blood spatters. She recalls memories from when they first met and the story starts with a flashback when Ram and Janani were 12th grade students.

Ram is a rich happy-go-lucky boy. He sees Janani and has a crush on her straightaway. He begins to follow her around with his friends Senthil and Kumaran.

When Janani reciprocates his love, she is stopped by her family. When Janani's mother tells her that they are moving to America, Janani burns her passport so she can stay with Ram. She is then disowned by her family by her mother and she lands up at Ram's door. The two get married with Ram's father's help and lead a happy life.

The story then returns to reality with Janani finding a suicide letter in Ram's coat, and after reading it, she asks Senthil about his death. Senthil tells her the truth about Ram, that there were two sides to him. After Janani had told him she was leaving for America, the same night his best friend Kumaran had also planned to leave for Singapore. 

Ram couldn't take all this pain and he and Senthil were at the beach where Ram got drunk and saw Janani standing in the water and calling him near her. He hurried towards her only to find it was a vision and falls into the water. He is later dragged out by Senthil who scolds him for being crazy for Janani. Senthil had ignored this incident thinking it was the alcohol. But in the coming days, he noticed that Ram got angered very soon and reacted out of bounds. One night both of them went to Ram's house, stressed out from work. Ram started working on his laptop when Tom, the dog he had gifted Janani, started playing near his feet. 

He got irritated and kicked the dog away ruthlessly. Senthil sharply disapproved of this. After a while when Senthil went into the kitchen to get some water, he heard a squeal and came back running, only to find the dog lying dead. Ram had apparently kicked the dog so hard that it died. But that isn't what terrified him, but the fact that Ram was still working on his laptop as if nothing happened. When Senthil mentioned that Janani loved the dog like her own child, he came to his senses and panicked as to what if Janani found out. 

They buried the dog before Janani returned. When she came home and greeted Ram, he uncannily asked Janani where Tom was. They started searching for it and finally when Janani started crying, Ram felt very guilty and he also started crying yelling it was all his fault. That was when Senthil noticed that something was seriously amiss. He decided to consult a psychiatrist regarding Ram's condition and discovers that he is suffering from Bipolar disorder.

If something positive happened, Ram would jump in joy, but if a tiny negative thing happened, he wouldn't be able to control his rage. Senthil explains that once when he told Ram about his disease, Ram smashed a glass bottle on his head. Ram escaped from the house and while walking on the road, was suddenly hit by a vehicle. After that accident, Ram realised that Senthil was right. Ram agreed with Senthil to go see a doctor. But he rejected medications thinking that Janani would know about the situation. He loved her very much, and he didn't want to see her in tears. As a request of Ram, Senthil stayed at Ram and Janani's house for few weeks, in case the situation becomes dangerous and if Ram tried to hurt Janani.

The story moves forward to one evening at a nightclub, where Ram gets into a fight with a guy who misbehaves with Janani. Ram takes Janani to their car and sends her home. After she leaves, the guy who misbehaved with Janani shows up with his friends and attacks Ram and Senthil. In the course of the fight, Ram hits his head against the hood of a car. His medical situation is worsened as a result. He begins to experience bouts of rage. Owing to this, Ram manages to defeat the attackers. Meanwhile, Senthil injects Ram with a medicine the doctor had prescribed in case of an emergency, thus sedating him and dissipating his rage. Janani sees an injured Ram and cannot bear his pain, she falls sick. Seeing Janani's condition, Ram breaks down in dejection, he could see anything but not Janani in pain and thus decides to never tell her about his illness. Ram slowly loses his self-confidence and is scared to go to the hospital and take electric shocks and also starts hallucinating images of non-existent people. Sentil drags him for electric shock therapy and he has to stay the whole day in the hospital, which angers Janani as she is unable to believe that Ram is lying to her about being in office and doing something else. Janani slaps Ram for being a liar and showers her anger, rage and frustration over him for the current situation in their lives. 

A silent Ram rebukes when she insults Senthil. After the whole fiasco that night, Ram again loses his mental stability and tries to stab Janani with a knife, but Senthil stops him from doing it. Later on, when Ram comes back to his senses, he feels guilty, heartbroken and scared that he tried to kill his only love and decides to go to his father and transfer all his property in Janani's name.

On another day, while Ram and Senthil are in the car, Ram suddenly bashes Senthil's head against the steering wheel, rendering him unconscious. Ram says his last words to his friend, "Sorry dude, you have done so much for me" and leaves the car in order to go see Janani himself.

He remembers all the beautiful memories from their young age, and the ending takes onto the final scene of Ram's life, as he goes to Janani's bedroom and watches her sleeping. He tries to control his emotions and kiss her for the last time and suddenly he hallucinates seeing a young girl saying "Either kill her or you die". Terrified, he immediately gets away from her bed. The young girl and a Sadhu from his previous hallucinations now appear unnervingly in front of him.Dreaded, he goes to his office and writes a suicide note while hallucinating disturbing visions of the young girl and the Sadhu.

To avoid causing further harm to Janani, he picks up a knife and slits his throat, and kills himself, saying his final words "I love you, Janani". The film ends with Janani wailing in grief, as she learns her husband's fate.

Cast

Production

Aishwarya revealed that the script was written with Shruti Haasan in mind but the actress was unavailable to do the film initially. Subsequently, Aishwarya signed on Amala Paul, after being impressed by her work in Mynaa. This film’s press meet was held at the Star City Hotel on 5 August 2011 in Chennai with the director, the cinematographer and the lead pair, Dhanush and Amala Paul.

The film was originally meant to begin its first schedule in October 2011 but in a turn of events, Dhanush had free dates in August and September 2011. However Amala Paul was unavailable to start the film early and left the project, with Shruti Haasan joining the team after her Telugu film was delayed.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack and background score is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, cousin of Aishwarya. The single track "Why This Kolaveri Di", written and performed by Dhanush, was initially leaked on the internet. Having noticed its popularity, the makers launched the song as a single. The song became the most searched YouTube video in India, attracting more than 20 million views within 28 days, and was listed by YouTube under the "Recently Most Popular (Gold)" videos.

Aishwarya denied reports that suggested that another song from the album had leaked. The soundtrack was released by college students on 23 December 2011 at the St. George's School, Chennai. Although Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan were expected to attend the event, only Latha Rajinikanth was present.

Track list

All lyrics written by Dhanush, except where noted; all music composed by Anirudh Ravichander.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were secured by Sun TV for a whopping price. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board. The film released on 30 March 2012,and it become the blockbuster of the year along with a dubbed Telugu version with English subtitles, while its dubbed Hindi version remains unreleased. The film released with 1000 prints in Tamil. The film released in 1250 screens worldwide for both versions.

Telugu movie producer and distributor Natti Kumar reportedly said that out of the Rs. 60 million (1.33 million USD approximately) he spent on distribution rights and publicity, he had been able to recover only Rs. 47.0 million (0.83 million USD approximately).

Critical reception

3 received positive reviews. Vishnupriya Bhandaram of The Hindu wrote "Aishwarya R. Dhanush takes a twisted look at love and its meaning – when you put someone before your own existence – comes across as profound, underlining theme in the film. It fades out as a moving and tragic ode to romance, to the grand idea called 'love'". Moviebuzz of Sify called the film "poignant", quoting that "On the whole, 3 has its heart in the right place, though the second half seem scattered. Overlook these faults, and make it a point to watch 3". One India concluded that "3 is an engaging tale backed by wonderful performances of Dhanush and Shruti Hassan" and rated it 60 out of 100. Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff rated the movie 3 out of 5, saying that "There are certain moments in 3 that defy logic at times, and sentiment rules the roost, but Aishwarya Dhanush has chosen to present a take on romance that is appealing in its freshness. The lead actors help as well. Her little thriller-twist aside, 3 is a movie that is an ode to romance, above all else." L Romal M Singh of DNA India gave the movie 3 stars out of 5, commenting that "We do not think anyone would want to watch the movie again, only because it demands too much from you emotionally. We however, plan to watch this movie once more and walk out during the interval, we’d advise the romantics to do the same." I

In rated the film 3.5 out of 5, claiming that "3 is average and not worth watching in the theaters. Better wait for the DVD! It fails to meet the expectations and works only in parts, but Aishwarya had shown promise by taking a serious subject in her very first film". Behindwoods rated the film 3 stars out of 5, commenting that "3 has good performances, but is let down by slower narration". An IANS reviewer gave the movie a negative review, commenting that "Neither a joyous love story nor a serious movie, '3' actually stands in between." Rohit Ramachandran of NowRunning gave the movie a negative rating of 1.5 on a scale of 5, stating that "3 is a heartless comedy involving mentally imbalanced characters, only one of which is lucky to have been diagnosed. This is not a safe place for you to be."

Awards