Jambhavan

Plot

The movie is about Velan (Prashanth), a responsible son of a village landlord (Vijayakumar). Adored by the villagers for his good deeds, Prashanth gets a shock when Vijayakumar informs that he is his foster son.

A shocked Velan sets out on a mission to know about his past. He reaches Chennai and comes to know that his family members were killed by a dreaded gangster Deva (Vijayan). He had then vowed to kill him and his gang. In the name of Jambhavan, he starts to kill rowdies in the society.

Suffering an injury in his head, Velan loses memory and is later adopted by Vijayakumar. He comes to know that his job was just half-done. The rest is how he puts an end to Fefsi Vijayan and his men coming to Chennai.

Cast

Production

The film was announced in December 2005 and began production shortly after a launch event held in Tirupathi. Directed by debutant Nandakumar, it was reported that actor Prashanth would sport three different appearances in the movie and a special make-up man and physical instructors were brought in from Mumbai for the movie. Nila and Meghna Naidu were signed to portray the film's lead heroines, while Carnatic vocalist T. N. Seshagopalan was also selected to play a pivotal role, in his second film. A third leading female role was considered, but later dropped after actresses had refused the offer. The team then began shoot with a thirty-day schedule in Tenkasi in Southern Tamil Nadu.

The making of the film was disrupted in January 2006, when actress Nila walked out of the film after falling out with the producers. It was revealed that for a bathing scene in Courtallam she had asked for the tub to be filled with mineral water and when the team could not satisfy that demand, she had a difference of opinion with the producers. Nila revealed that she was an asthma sufferer and was unable to get into the tub of water that the team had provided. During a press meet in late March 2006, Nila announced that she re-joined the team and shot for scenes in Taramani, Chennai and had put aside her differences after the producers apologised. The team then also went on to film song sequences in Thailand with the lead pair.

Release

The film opened on 8 September 2006 alongside Krishna's Sillunu Oru Kaadhal and Thirumurugan's Emmtan-Magan, and received predominantly negative reviews. A critic from Sify.com noted "this film is a slapdash enterprise that will make you groan", adding "it caters strictly to B and C class audiences and leaves you cold". Another reviewer noted the similarity to Baashha (1995) adding "the quality of these remakes has ranged from entertaining to outright bad and Prashanth's Jaambavan unfortunately comes in at the lower end of that scale." Indiaglitz.com also noted the similarity adding "director Nandakumar has taken cue from a few 'mass films', but just has not managed to cobble them with any sense of purpose."

Soundtrack

The film score and the soundtrack were composed by film composer Bharadwaj. The soundtrack, released in 2006, features 7 tracks .