Singam II

Plot

After having killed extortionist Mayil Vaaganam in the first film, Durai Singam (Suriya) has gone undercover after meeting the Home Minister, Ramanathan (Vijayakumar) and is working as an NCC officer in a school in Thoothukudi. The only people who know about this operation are the Chief Minister (K. Viswanath) and Ramanthan. Sathya (Hansika Motwani) is a student who falls for Durai Singam though he is waiting to marry Kavya (Anushka Shetty), his love interest. Durai Singam's father, Soundara Pandi is angry about him leaving the police force and refuses to speak with him. He also forbids the marriage between Durai Singam and Kavya, as he fears Kavya's father Mahalingam (Nasser) might take Durai Singam away to manage his business empire and that Durai Singam will lose respect within his relatives.

Susai (Santhanam), a local who works in the same school shows Durai Singam parts of Thoothukudi and tells him about the rogue elements dominating the area helping him in his surveillance. He requests Ramanathan to transfer Erimalai (Vivek) and another cop to assist him. Sathya's moves are frequently repulsed by Durai Singam who learns that Sathya is the niece of rich exports businessman Thangaraj (Rahman). Bhai (Mukesh Rishi) and Thangaraj, pretend to be enemies, but are two criminals who control the south-east coastline of Tamil Nadu. Bhai and Thangaraj have connections with an international gangster and drug lord Danny (Danny Sapani), and are trafficking cocaine. Durai Singam doesn't know about their connection and keeps Bhai in his off duty surveillance.

One day, due to a verbal fight in a pub, Bhai's chief drug importer, Saghayam (Rajendran) kidnaps a girl from another caste and holds her ransom until sunset and then releases her to damage her family name. This causes a communal problem in the city, and Durai Singam's school principal is advised to close the school for the day. With his info connections, Durai Singam learns of the problem, and takes charge as new Deputy-Superintendent of Police for the urban, and rescues the girl. He is lauded by the press and his father forgives him. Meanwhile, Sathya learns that Kavya and Durai Singam are strongly in love and distances herself from them.

Then Durai Singam finds out about Thangaraj and Bhai's partnership. He plans to arrest Saghayam first, gathering evidence while Saghayam is out to sea, and waits to arrest him at the harbour. But Saghayam is bringing Danny with him to attend Thangaraj's new hotel's party. Sagyam is arrested by plan, and Durai Singam arrest Danny without knowing his identity, but due to lack of visa. Thangaraj tries multiple power levels to make Durai Singam release the duo, but it is not of any use. Finally they take Durai Singam to his superior's office, and then break open his station to release Danny and Saghayam. Durai Singam finds that Danny has escaped, the police station in ruins, and his fellow officers injured. All of Durai Singam's effort is spoiled due to his superior and the next morning he is suspended for unruly behaviour. Though without power, he warns Bhai that he knows about Danny and will return soon.

Durai Singam meets Ramanathan at Chennai, and plans an operation to eliminate all gangs. He then gets re-appointed and gets his superior suspended. He gets authorization to kill drug dealers on sight even without evidence. Since the next load of drugs is ready to be delivered by Danny, Bhai decides that Saghayam will deliver the drugs to him in Kerala, and he will bring it back. But he is arrested by Durai Singam, drugs in hand.

The next day, at Durai Singam's engagement function, a former adversary, Harbour Shanmugam informs him that Thangaraj has hired goons to attack his home at night and kill everyone. Durai Singam foils that plan also, by breaking his gun, giving it in the armoury and then killing the goons single-handedly. Durai Singam then places a drug bag insides Thangaraj's house and arrests Thangaraj and jails him. After a moment, Durai Singam gets a phone call from someone to inform him that Sathya has died. He rushed to Thangaraj's house and there, he sees Sathya lying dead in her bed.

He further analyzes that Sathya was killed by her own dad who poisoned her. Durai Singam seeks permission from Kavya for moving to South Africa as his marriage will take place in 3 days. Meanwhile, Durai Singam traces Danny to South Africa to do drug business again. Durai Singam goes to Africa to arrest Danny, and locks him in the same cell from where Danny had escaped.

Production

Reprising their roles from the original film are Anushka Shetty, Vivek, Vijayakumar, Nassar and Radha Ravi while Hansika Motwani was signed on as the second female lead. British actor Danny Sapani plays the main antagonist. The actress Anjali is also featured in an item number. Prakash Raj did not return for the sequel, but he can be seen in clips from Singam that are intermittently featured during Singam II. The film was shot mainly in Kerala, Tuticorin, Chennai, Tirunelveli and Karaikudi. The director has also filmed some of the key songs, stunts and talkie portions in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, as well as Malaysia and Kenya. Primary production began in September 2012 and lasted for seven months until filming was wrapped up on 30 April 2013.

Soundtrack

Devi Sri Prasad, who had also worked on the score of Singam, returned for Singam II. Bollywood singer Baba Sehgal had recorded a song in the film following the success of his "Kadhal Vandhale" number from the original. The soundtrack was released on 2 June 2013, a day after its originally scheduled launch in a grand event attended by several celebrities.

Times of India gave the album 3/5 stars and stated that "DSP gets a foot-tapping album in Singam 2, though it sounds uncomfortably very similar to Singam." BehindWoods gave the album 2.5 stars out of 5, stating that it is "a straight forward, nothing fancy, DSP album." IndiaGlitz also gave it 2.5 stars in a scale of 5, concluding that the album is "strictly for the masses, targeting the masala aspect."

Track List

All lyrics written by Viveka.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board. The release date was confirmed to be 5 July 2013. Singam II released in about 1500 screens worldwide, one of the largest releases for a Tamil film. The film released in a record 151 screens in Kerala and 63 screens in USA. The film's Telugu version was distributed by K. E. Gnanavel Raja's Studio Green.

Critical reception

Oneindia stated, "Singam 2 is a typical Hari style movie, which is routine, loud, long and racy. But he has made it an enjoyable action entertainer." Indiaglitz gave 3 of 5 stars and wrote, "Singam 2 is everything you would look for, love, masala, sentiment, raw Action and so on, however adding a slight overdose to every single element mentioned, as a whole it almost topples over.yet watch it for Suriya." Rediff also rated it 3 out of 5, stating; "the film has a lot of power-packed action sequences and the story races along with a tremendous pace keeping you engaged throughout. In spite of the number of characters in the film, the screenplay is extremely clear cut, with every role outlined beautifully. The only negative would be the length – the movie runs for almost three hours. A slightly shorter version would have created a greater impact".

Behindwoods gave a 3.25 out of 5 rating and said; "From the word go, Singam 2 clearly establishes that its fulcrum is only action and the quantity of romance, sentiment and comedy that occupied equal proportion in Singam is less here. Yet, Suriya shoulders the film big time. The sincerity and dedication of this artist is something that needs to be lauded." Deccan Chronicle gave it the verdict: "Even if you are not a Suriya fan, Singam 2 is worth a watch. The film roars rather well." Zee News commented, "the movie was directed without a soul. Suriya is the only character that makes you feel satisfied in the entire movie." Times of India rated it 3.5 out of 5 and wrote; "If Singam was mass masala, then Singam-2 is doubly so. Hari is clear about what entertainment he wants to dole out to his audiences, and goes about delivering it unapologetically."

Box office

Singam II had a sold-out opening with as much as 95–100% occupancy. The film collected ₹92.5 million (US$1.4 million) on its opening day in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, while the Telugu dubbed version Yamudu II collected ₹37.5 million (US$580,000). The film grossed a record ₹500 million (US$7.8 million) on its first weekend worldwide.

It collected ₹200 million (US$3.1 million) in Tamil Nadu, with ₹27 million (US$420,000) in Chennai alone on the three-day weekend. In the UK and USA, it earned ₹5.96 million (US$93,000) and ₹16 million (US$250,000) respectively on its opening weekend. The film earned ₹118 million (US$1.8 million) in Chennai by the fourth week. And after seven weeks, the amount totalled at ₹133 million (US$2.1 million). According to Sify.com, the film stayed inside the top five positions at Chennai box office continuously for eight weeks after its release and was declared a 'Superhit'. The film completed a 50 days theatrical run on 23 August 2013.

The film's Telugu version Yamudu II was an unusual success and earned ₹140 million (US$2.2 million) in ten days from Andhra Pradesh. The film was successful in Karnataka and Kerala as well, collecting about ₹69 million (US$1.1 million) and ₹46 million (US$720,000) in its first ten days, respectively.

It performed exceptionally well in the Malaysian market, earning around ₹99.8 million (US$1.6 million) within four weeks. The film was the third highest Tamil grosser in Malaysia after Enthiran and Sivaji at that point. The film's total business in UK after a one-month run was pegged at ₹17.9 million (US$280,000). Singam II completed 100 days in several screens across Tamil Nadu on 12 October 2013.

The film grossed approximately ₹2.3 billion (US$36 million) worldwide from all its versions with a lifetime distributor's share of ₹670 million (US$10 million).

Sequel

The third part of the Singam franchise was initially scheduled to enter production in December 2015. Suriya and Anushka will reprise their roles. Production on the film was, however, postponed due to climatic conditions in Chennai. Principal photography eventually began on 17 December with the filming of a song sequence, while regular shooting was scheduled to happen later in the month, though it was later moved to January 2016. Regular shooting commenced on 7 January 2016, with the film's title being revealed as S3. After a long gap, continuous postponement of the film release took place.In that while the film's title was changed from S3 to Si 3 for acquiring tax exemption.