Vetri Kodi Kattu

Vetri Kodu Kattu (English: Raise the flag of victory) is a 2000 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by Cheran, and starring Murali, Parthiban, with Meena, Manorama and Malavika in supporting roles. The film's score and music was composed by Deva.

Plot

Sekar (Murali) lives in a village near Tenkasi with his mother Deivanai (Manorama) and two sisters. Drought hits their village and agriculture does not prove to be profitable which prompts Sekar to grab the opportunity to leave for Dubai. He sells a portion of his land and gives Rs.1 Lakh to Anandaraj who manages a firm dealing in arranging work visas to people and enabling them to migrate to Dubai.

Muthuraman (Parthiban) lives in a village near Coimbatore and works for a landlord Vijayakumar. Muthu falls in love with his landlord’s daughter Valli (Meena) and the couple get married without the consent of Vijayakumar. Valli challenges her father that she will lead a good life with Muthu. To earn money, Muthu also enrols with Anandaraj’s firm to go to Dubai. Anandaraj takes all the persons enrolled with him to Chennai and the flight is scheduled to leave the next day. But to everyone’s shock, Anandaraj runs away with the corpus fund collected the same night. Police informs that Anandaraj is a fraud involved in looting money.

Everyone leaves the place with much disappointment except Sekar and Muthu as they are scared much thinking of the consequences to their family if they get to know about the loss of money. Sekar and Muthu get to know about each other’s family situation and come up with a plan. Sekar goes to Muthu’s home while Muthu goes to Sekar’s home. Sekar introduces himself as the friend of Muthu and has returned from Dubai. Similarly Muthu introduces to Sekar’s family as friend of Sekar from Dubai.

Muthu understands that the soil in Sekar’s land is not fit for agriculture and decides to buy a couple of cows with the help of Sudalai (Vadivelu) and starts milk business. Meanwhile Sekar starts a small hotel business as Valli cooks very well. Muthu’s sister Amudha (Malavika) falls in love with Sekar but Sekar does not reciprocate thinking it would be betraying the trust of Muthu. Both the family situations improve and Valli feels proud that she has won the challenge against her father. Valli gets pregnant.

Valli gets furious knowing about Amudha’s love towards Sekar and asks Sekar to leave home. Sekar stays in a place opposite Valli’s home. That night, Valli suffers the pangs of labour and Sekar admits Valli in a hospital and also informs Muthu about the situation and asks him to come immediately. Deivaanai overhears Muthu’s telephone conversation with Sekar and understands that her son is not in Dubai as believed by everyone. Muthu apologizes to Deivaanai and everyone leaves to Muthu’s village to visit Valli where she gives birth to a baby. Everyone comes to know about Muthu and Sekar’s plans and they feel proud about their sacrifice for the well-being of their family members.

Pazhani (Charle), who is also cheated by Anandaraj finds him in Coimbatore and informs Muthu and Sekar. Now Muthu and Sekar rush to place and beat Anandaraj and his men for looting the hard earned money from the poor. Anandaraj is handed over to the police and police assures everyone that the money lost will be recovered. Meanwhile Muthu and Sekar realize that there are plenty of opportunities available in India to earn money and instead there is no need to leave to another country to make money leaving all the relatives and family members back here. Also Muthu and Valli agree to get Amudha married to Sekar.

Cast

Murali as Sekar

Parthiban as Muthuraman

Meena as Valli

Manorama as Deivane, Sekar's Mother

Malavika as Amudha, Muthuraman's sister

Vijayakumar as Valli's father

Sathyapriya as Valli's mother

Vadivelu as Sudalai

Ramesh Khanna as Sekar's friend

Charle as Pazhani

Crane Manohar as Sekar's friend

Anandaraj as Dubai Job Agency's Middleman

Rajeev as Police Commissioner

Dhamu - (Special Appearance) in the song Sirippu Varudhu Sirippu Varudhu

Kovai Sarala - (Special Appearance) in the song Sirippu Varudhu Sirippu Varudhu

Pandu - (Special Appearance) in the song Sirippu Varudhu Sirippu Varudhu

Bayilwan Ranganathan - (Special Appearance) as Bus Ticket Inspector

Awards

The film won the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues in 2000.

Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film (Third prize) in 2000.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features five songs which is composed by Deva. 'Karupputhan Enakku' was a huge hit that time.

Siruppu Varadhu - Deva

Thillele Thillele - Shankar Mahadevan, Krishnaraj

Valli Valli - Mano, K. S. Chitra

Karupputhan Enakku pidicha colouru - Anuradha Sriram

Latcha Latchama - Shankar Mahadevan

Production

This film was Cheran's third and last combo with Murali and second with Parthiban. Thangar bachan was replaced by Priyan as cinematographer. The shooting for the film was held at places like Gobichettypalayam, Dindugal and Palani among other places.

Reviews

Indolink wrote:"Vetrikkodi Kattu is your average, predictable, clean, and reasonably engaging tamil movie fare". Chennaionline wrote:"'Vettrikkodi Kattu' is a well-intentioned film and fairly entertaining too. It may not be as neatly scripted and as good as Cheran's first two films. But it proves that he is on the right track". Subash of oocities.org wrote, "Wonderful story, JUST DON'T PREACH SO MUCH, Cheran."

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