Dhill

Plot

Dhil is the story about Kanagavel (Vikram), whose only dream is to become a police officer. He succeeds in passing the exams and wins a girlfriend, Asha (Laila Mehdin). One night, after having dinner at a restaurant near the beach, Kanagavel goes to pay the bill, leaving Asha behind. At that moment a corrupt police officer Shankar (Ashish Vidyarthi) drinks and behaves indecently to Asha. He then attempts to assault her but is beaten up by Kanagavel severely and receives a scar on his face. Angered by this he seeks revenge against Kanagavel. The rest of the story shows how Kanagavel fights Shankar and his goons finally killing the corrupt policeman.

Cast

Production

Vikram, after the success of the critically acclaimed Sethu, chose to sign on to appear in an action film directed by his Loyola College batchmate (classmate) Dharani. The director had previously worked under the name of Ramani and had made the Mammootty starrer Ethirum Pudhirum in 1999. To appear trim in the role of the aspiring police officer, Vikram went on a strict diet eating only fruits and drinking juice. He revealed that for the film when bulking, he was on 25 egg whites and one whole cooked chicken a day and also employed a body builder to train him.

Vikram often helped out during the shooting of the film by helping suggest changes to scenes. The film also marked the Tamil debut of Hindi actor Ashish Vidyarthi, who has since gone on to appear in several other prominent films. The actor had to wear prosthetic make-up for the film, noting that it took over one hour to put on.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack was composed by Vidyasagar and the lyrics were penned by Arivumathi, Pa. Vijay & Kabilan.

Release

The Hindu stated that "Vikram has the ability and potential" and that "Vikram has once again proved that his success in Sethu was not a fluke". Ayappa Prasad from Screen Magazine wrote that " Dhill stands out for its convincing storyline and a good performance by Vikram who has strained a lot to be a good action hero who can also emote". Dhill became Vikram's first success in the masala film genre and led the way for more such films in the same genre for him.

Dhill won six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for 2001 with Vidyasagar winning the Best Music Director award for his work in Dhill alongside Thavasi and Poovellam Un Vasam. The film also won the Best Male Playback Singer for Unnikrishnan, Best Female Playback Singer for Sujatha and the Best Make-up Artist award for Nageswar Rao. Furthermore, dubbing artistes Sai Ravi and Srija picked up the Best Male Dubbing Artist and Best Female Dubbing Artist respectively for their work in the film.

The success of Dhill prompted Vikram and Dharani to come together in 2002 for a project titled Dhool, which also went on to do become a large commercial success. Furthermore to capitulate on the hit pair of Vikram and Laila, a 1997 Malayalam film they had starred in together, Ithu Oru Snehagadha was dubbed and released in Tamil as Thrill. The film was later remade in Telugu in the year 2002 as Sreeram with Uday Kiran and Anita Hassanandani in the lead roles, while it was also remade as Dum in Hindi in 2003, starring Vivek Oberoi and Diya Mirza in the lead roles. In 2004, Dhill was also dubbed and released in Telugu despite an original version in Sreeram already in existence, but still performed well at the box office. Director P. A. Arun Prasad also remade the film in Kannada as Sye (2005) with Sudeep. In spite of a Hindi remake, the original was dubbed in Hindi named Meri Aan: Men At Work to capitalize on Vikram's popularity gained from Raavan (2010).