Ji (film)

Plot

Vasu (Ajith), a final year college student is happy go lucky. But he is forced to contest elections in the college after being persuaded by his friends (Arun (Nithin Sathya) and Venkat Prabhu). He, however, incurs the wrath of the local MLA Varadharajan (Charan Raj), whose son, studying in the same college, also contests the elections.

In the course of events, the MLA's gang attacks Vasu and his friends. It's here that Vasu's father (Vijayakumar), a tea shop owner, advises the students to take a plunge in politics and teach the bad apples like Varadharajan a lesson. Taking cue from his words, Vasu does indeed take the plunge in politics with the backing of college students and even files nomination for the Assembly election in Kumbakonam constituency. Varadharajan is naturally annoyed and angry at the presumptuousness of Vasu and tells him to back off from the elections. But a relentless Vasu goes ahead with his plans. The rest is a sequence of events by which Vasu wins the admiration of masses and succeeds in getting elected as a MLA.

Unfortunately, Varadharajan, unable to digest the defeat, plays a trick and burns a primary school and Vasu is blamed for the death of innocent children. He gets sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment. After serving the term, Vasu comes out of prison only to take revenge on Varadharajan. It's a happy ending with Vasu holding the hands of his long-love Bhuvana (Trisha Krishnan).

Cast

Production

After the success of Run, N. Linguswamy announced his plans of re-collaborating with Madhavan in Sathyam, a film about student politics to be produced by A. M. Rathnam, but Madhavan opted out due to his work in Mani Ratnam's Aayutha Ezhuthu. The team also approached Srikanth, but he was later not signed. Linguswamy then approached Ajith Kumar in September 2003 to star in the film and the actor accepted with S. S. Chakravarthy taking over as producer for the film newly re-titled Ji. Initial reports suggested that either Jyothika, Kutty Radhika, Pooja or Nisha Kothari would be signed on as heroine, though the role was later given to Trisha Krishnan.

In January 2004, Linguswamy and Ajith clashed over the script of the film during the shoot in Kumbakonam, giving first indications of the instability of the unit. Linguswamy revealed that half way through the production of Ji, he had a bad gut feeling about it and was quick to move on to the production of his next venture, Sandakozhi. Ajith Kumar suddenly moved on to work in A. R. Murugadoss's Mirattal in March 2004, leaving Ji temporarily shelved. He returned in July 2004 and was injured during the shoot of the film. Shooting was again cancelled by the producer in August 2004 as he ran into financial troubles with the cancellation causing Trisha and Ajith Kumar to give priority to other films.

The first release date set for the film had been August 2004 although this was passed due to the delays of Ajith's other films at the time – Attagasam and Jana. Subsequently several release dates were mentioned across late 2004 and then a promotional spree began signalling that the film would be released on 14 January 2005. Trisha's other commitments had left three songs unshot and the film was postponed from that date to 4 February. It later released on 11 February 2005.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Jaya TV.

Reception

Made on a high budget of ₹7 crore, Ji opened to mixed reviews. A critic from Indiaglitz.com praised the film citing that "Lingusamy should be appreciated for giving a movie with pulsating sequences. He has infused the script with all the right ingredients and keeps the tempo of the narration on an even keel." Critics from The Hindu claimed that the film "could have been better", with a claim that Ajith "often looking either subdued or confused, and goes through the motions with very little involvement".

Box office

The film took a large opening all over Tamil Nadu with over ₹20 lakh distributor share in Chennai on first weekend, but collections began to slide after three days. Two days after the release director Lingusamy edited 1350 feet (17 Minutes) of the film in the second half as people complained about the length of the film. Ji later turned out to be a box office disaster and sustained a considerable loss for the producer. In the second week the competition from Vijay's Sukran also affected Ji and from a 100 percent opening the film has fallen to 30 percent collections in its second week in all stations.

Soundtrack

Acclaimed music director Vidyasagar has composed the soundtracks and background music for the film.