Appa (film)

Cast

Plot

Dhayalan (Samuthirakani), Singamperumal (Thambi Ramaiah) and Nadunilayan (Namo Narayana) live in the same community, a town near Neyveli, Tamil Nadu. They are expecting the arrival of their respective children. During the pregnancy, they have different approaches towards the care of their respective wives. Dhayalan wants his wife to follow traditional food and exercising practices, Singamperumal wants to give the best of medical attention to his wife and forces his wife to follow a pre-defined time table for daily chores, while Nadunilayan is neither an enforcer nor a supporter. Dhayalan tells his wife to go for a traditional delivery at home, while Singamperumal instructs the doctor to perform a C-section on a scheduled date and time, in order for his child to have the best possible horoscope, pre-calculated based on the date and time of birth.

All three of them have baby boys. Dhayalan names his son Vetriswaran, Singamperumal names his son Chakravarthy and Nadunilayan names his son Mayilvaganam.

Trouble brews at Dhayalan's home, when he refuses to put his son in play school at the age of two. Dhayalan's wife wants their child to be sent to a specific play school, since the other children in the community are being enrolled and is considered prestigious, while Dhayalan's view is that the toddler need to enjoy his childhood by playing and learning and join a school at the age of 5. After a heated argument, Dhayalan's wife threatens to commit suicide, if their son is not enrolled in the play school. Dhayalan agrees against his conscience and enrolls their son in the play school. As the boys grow, their fathers imbue different social aspects into their children.

Dhayalan teaches his son to be friendly to society, trust people, enjoy every moment of life and do good to the community. He teaches his son to follow a path of truth and integrity, considering human values above everything else. He also teaches his son how to behave friendlily and with respect towards the opposite gender. Singamperumal teaches his son not to trust anyone, focus only on academics, asks him to follow a timetable for everything and the goal is to achieve state topper in Class 10th and 12th exams, join a medical degree in a prestigious college and take up a master's medical degree in one of the United States's top medical colleges. Nadunilayan teaches his son, not to standout on any particular aspect. His theory is to live a low profile life as he feels if one is very good or very bad in any of the aspects, he attracts the attention of society. When Vetriswaran is in 2nd grade, Dhayalan is furious with the teaching approach of this school, gets into an argument with the school management and moves his son out of the private school to a government school. Dhayalan's wife is angered by this event and separates from him; goes to her parent's house and seeks divorce and custody of her son. However, her father rejects this idea and lets Dhayalan have custody of his son.

The babies grow into boys and become teenagers. Vetriswaran grows into a self-confident teenager excelling in both sports and studies; Chakravarthy as a studious but timid and indecisive boy whereas Mayilvaganam grows up with an inferiority complex about his looks and studies. Dhayalan identifies that Vetriswaran is interested in swimming. He enrolls Vetriswaran in swimming classes, where he does well and goes on to achieve a Guinness World Record at the age of 15. Dhayalan also identifies the ability of Mayilvaganam to write poems, compiles all his works and sends them to a leading lyricist (Pa. Vijay). Mayilvaganam's book gets a good recognition and he is felicitated by the renowned persons of the industry. Chakravarthy tops 10th class with 99%. Singamperumal enrolls him in one of the strictest higher secondary boarding schools in the locality. Chakravarthy is given a target by his father to top in Class 12th as well. He longs for the affection of his mother in the boarding school, succumbs to the rigorous rules and unforgiving pressure of school management and meets an unfortunate end.

Production

In September 2015, Samuthirakani chose to postpone the production of his Kitna, after the lead actress Dhansika got an offer to appear in Pa. Ranjith's Kabali (2016). He chose instead to use his time directing and producing a sequel to his earlier film, Saattai (2012), and revealed that the film would be titled Appa. He revealed that the film would bear no resemblance to the first film, but would be a spiritual sequel and would revolve around the education system like the previous film. He initially approached Anbazhagan to direct the film, but the director's commitments to making Rupai produced by Prabhu Solomon, meant that Samuthirakani directed the film himself. Samuthirakani also revealed that the film's plot line had been taken from a real life incident, which happened when choosing a school for his son.

The film was shot in 34 days, with Samuthirakani expressing his interest in remaking the film in 12 different Indian languages and revealed that he had begun talking to Telugu actors Nagarjuna and Venkatesh about reprising the lead roles. A teaser for the film was released during December 2015.

Release and reception

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Polimer. Behindwoods stated, "Appa has moments of greatness but because of its opinionated presentation, at no level, it gives you a good degree of satisfaction nor makes you accept the flaws that have been pinpointed". Sify.com labelled the film as "below average" and added "to conclude, Samuthirakani’s Appa has lost track as the director carried away by the message and missed the target by a mile".