Dhaam Dhoom

Dhaam Dhoom
Directed by	Jeeva P. C. Sriram Anees Murugaraj V. Manikandan
Produced by	Sunanda Murali Manohar
Written by	Jeeva S. Ramakrishnan[1]
Starring	Jayam Ravi Kangna Ranaut Jayaram Lakshmi Rai
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Cinematography	Jeeva P. C. Sriram V. Manikandan R. D. Rajasekhar
Studio	Ayngaran International
Release date(s)	29 August 2008
Running time	150 min
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Dhaam Dhoom (Tamil: தாம் தூம், Tām Tūm ^?) is a 2008 Tamil romantic thriller film. Directed and co-written by Jeeva shortly before his death and produced by Sunanda Murali Manohar, its stars Jayam Ravi, Kangna Ranaut and Lakshmi Rai in the lead roles. Jayaram and Srinath, prominent actors from the south Indian film industry, played other pivotal roles in the film.

The film revolves around a Tamil Indian doctor who, two weeks prior to his wedding, goes to Russia for a conference pertaining to his occupation, that of a doctor. There he struggles to cope with the language because of the Russian reluctance to speak English, and eventually, due to the gruesome murder of a local woman, finds himself in jail. How the doctor manages to get himself out of jail in order to get married to his sweetheart in India, with the help of an Indian female lawyer, forms the crux of the story.

The film opened to worldwide audiences, after several delays, on 29 August 2008. Dhaam Dhoom was the last film that director Jeeva undertook before his death which occurred half way through the project's production.^[2] The film, released as a tribute to Jeeva, was completed by his assistant, Manikandan, amd his wife Anees, and was overseen by veteran cinematographer P. C. Sriram. The movie is loosely based on the 1997 Hollywood thriller Red Corner.

Plot

Gautham Subramaniam (Jayam Ravi) is a well educated, handsome son of an Indian family. Since his father (Nizhagal Ravi) and mother are doctors, Gautham aims to become a doctor and achieves it. Gautham gets a golden opportunity from the government to go to Russia to represent India in a week long medical conference, along with five other young doctors. Gautham is delighted to receive this offer and packs his bags to fly to Russia. Meanwhile, Gautham’s beloved is introduced on the frame which happens to be Shenba (Kangna Ranaut). Shenba happens to be the same village girl in which his sister Sarasu, (Anu Haasan) resides with her husband (Chetan) and so they two meet and fall in love. Despite initial frictions between her father and uncle (Mahadevan and Bose Venkat) with Gautham, they eventually agree to get the pair married. Gautham’s parents agree to the marriage and as a happy man Gautham is ready to marry Shenba after his return to India from his Russia trip.

Finally, the journey to Russia happens and Gautham reaches Moscow and completes his immigration procedures. Incidentally, Gautham meets Anna (Maria Kojernikova) and unknowingly the sexy lady drops her jacket at the hero. In a quick situation the hero has no time to return the jacket and exits from the Moscow airport accompanied by his medical team. Gautham is flabbergasted by the roads and buildings of the city and is surprised to see the city of Moscow from his hotel view. Gautham learns that the only hiccup with Russians is that the people are ignorant about the English language and the whole conversation with them must be made in Russian national language.

Soon after, Gautham discovers Anna and takes the prospect to return her coat. The two get together well and part the ways. Meanwhile, Gautham medical conference takes place successfully and in order to celebrate its success the whole team head to a club. Gautham bumps into Anna in the night club and they two have an enjoyable time in the club. Anna, due to heavy consumption of Liquor, intoxicates and Gautham has no other choice than to accompany her to her room. When the two reach Anna’s apartment in they settle down and sleep. Gautham is brutally dragged onto the floor by a Russian police officer the next day morning and the reason is that Anna is murdered on her sofa.

Consequently, Gautham's situation changes; he gets abused, accused and is imprisoned by the Russian police. The language, people and the surroundings are totally new and confusing to the hero. Aarthi Chinnappa (Lakshmi Rai) is appointed as a defendant lawyer to the culprit Gautham. The Indian consulate sends Raghavan Nambiar (Jayaram) to Gautham's rescue. When Gautham tries to run away from the Russian Police he gets drowned in a lake and Aarthi finds him at the shore. Aarthi kisses Gautham to rescue him and she releases that Aarthi has fallen in love with Gautham, but suppresses her feelings when she learns about Shenba. Gautham escapes from the police and is running around St. Petersburg with Aarthi, trying to figure out who murdered Anna and why he was caught up in the scandal. Whilst, fleeing from the police, Gautham gets shot by the mafia and manages to escape narrowly. After taking care of his wounds, Aarthi and Gautham decide to seek down those who misled them. With the eventual villainous figure being revealed as Raghavan.

Before a shoot off, Raghavan reveals that Anna was a drug trafficker from Chennai to Russia, and by dropping her coat, consisting of drugs, off at the airport manages to evade being caught. Soon after Anna had changed her ways and was ready to tell the police about Raghavan's drug dealing, but before that happened Raghavan along with the mafia had her killed off. In the final scene, Raghavan is killed by the police, and Gautham is set free to reunite with Shenba for their wedding.

Cast

• Jayam Ravi as Gautham Subramaniam. Gautham is a successful doctor, preparing to leave for Russia on a five-day conference. He's happy, carefree, backed up by a loving family and is depressed at leaving behind his fiancee, whom he will wed in a few days. However, his emotions change when he reaches Russia.
• Kangna Ranaut as Shenba. Shenba is Gautham's fiance back in Pollachi, the pair are deeply upset about their parting for his conference to Russia.
• Lakshmi Rai as Aarthi Chinappa. Aarthi, who acts as Gautham's interpreter, and is his lawyer. Together, the two run from one point to another, trying desperately to search for a few clues. She has initial love feelings towards Gautham and also kisses him on lips (to give him air after he was drowned in the water). But she opts to stop it after finding out about Shenba
• Maria Kojernikova as Anna. Anna is a Russian model, who befriends Gautham at Moscow Airport. They meet again afterwards with the pair becoming good friends, only to be ended by her mysterious murder. The murder of her, forms the crux of the story.
• Jayaram as Raghavan Nambiar is the Indian embassy's representative for Russia, who promises to help Gautham free from the police. However, he turns out to be the villain of the film, bring Gautham in to protect his own identity.
• Anu Hasan as Sarasu. Her character portrays Gautham's sister who is married in the village where Shenba lives.
• Srinath as Chinnavar. Chinnavar is a servant in Sarasu's household, Chinnavar provides comic relief in the film.

Production

Casting

The film was launched initially with Jayam Ravi paired opposite Genelia D'Souza, however she opted out of the project due to fully booked dates for her Telugu film, Dhee. After Genelia's removal from the project other leading actresses such as Asin and Mamta Mohandas were approached for a key role in the film, but they also rejected the offer, citing commitments to other projects.^[3]

Reema Sen was then roped in for a significant role in the film; however, 14 days after her confirmation, she pulled out of the project, citing differences with the director, Jeeva. The role offered to Reema Sen, that of a lawyer, had no songs and was the second heroine role. Reema Sen confirmed later to Kumudham magazine that she did not want to play second lead in the film, and opted out of the project.^[4] On 19 February 2007, the producers confirmed they had roped in Lakshmi Rai to essay the role dropped by Reema Sen. Kangna Ranaut made her debut in the Tamil film industry with the film. Ranaut's payment of 75 lakh Indian rupee for the project, an all Indian record for a regional newcomer actress.^[5] The project was also Lakshmi Rai's biggest film of her career til then, despite being the second female lead in the project. Jayaram was later selected to portray the villain in the film, appearing in a such a role for the first time in his career.^[6]

As per Jeeva's previous films, Jeeva himself took charge of the cinematography, though, after his death, P. C. Sriram took charge. Although Jeeva had been reworking his final draft during filming, S. Ramakrishnan was brought in after his death to find a way to connect the climax with the previous draft to the final one; the two would not come together properly, otherwise.

Filming

The film started in January 2007 in India, with the initial shoot taking place in Chennai, consisting of Jayam Ravi surrounded by duplicate snow.^[7] The first schedule was shot in February 2007, in and around Pollachi, featuring the countryside backdrop, with scenes involving actors Jayam Ravi and Kangana Ranaut, among others.^[8] The film's crew originally had problems maintaining a visa to film in St. Petersburg, Russia, and decided to relocate the scenes to Prague in the Czech Republic; however, they eventually obtained visas to shoot in Russia. While shooting their schedule in Russia, on 26 June 2007, director Jeeva died after suffering nujtf arrest. The film was suspended indefinitely following the director's demise.

In early July 2007, it was announced that M. Raja, elder sibling of Jayam Ravi, would complete the project, but subsequently, veteran director P. C. Sriram signed to complete the project with Jeeva's widow Anees.^[9] Finally, Anees Murugaraj announced that the film would be completed by her and Jeeva's assistant Manikandan, whilst Sriram would overlook their efforts. Eventually, the team returned to Russia and canned the remaining scenes within 40 days.^[2]

Release

Reception

The film opened to worldwide audiences on 29 August 2008 alongside Jayamkondaan. The film became Jayam Ravi's largest release til date with over 200 prints being published worldwide.^[10]

The film opened in Chennai strongly, with advance bookings full for the opening weekend at Inox and Sathyam Cinemas, while at Mayajaal, there were 22 shows daily of the film,^[10] leading to a successful opening of 92% full attendance.^[11][12] Rs. 49,29,778 was grossed on the first weekend in Chennai multiplexes, which had a total of 166 shows over three days.^[13] After the first week the film, maintained its place at top spot, despite the entry of Saroja, gaining Rs. 37,31,124, with a total attendance percentage in Chennai of 70%.^[14]

Overseas, in the United Kingdom box office, the film opened at number 22, earning £21,634 during the first weekend, after opening across four Cineworld screens.^[15] After the second week the cumulative gross increased to £37,050, retaining the amount of screens, but slipping to 34th in the weekly rankings.^[16]

Soundtrack

Dhaam Dhoom
Studio album by Harris Jayaraj
Released	19 March 2008
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	27:06
Harris Jayaraj chronology
Sathyam (2008) Dhaam Dhoom (2008) Vaaranam Aayiram (2008)

The film has six songs composed by Harris Jayaraj with the lyrics primarily penned by Na. Muthukumar and Pa. Vijay. The audio of the film released worldwide on 19 March 2008, five months prior to the release. The soundtrack was successfully received with praise, with Indiaglitz.com labelling the album as "delightful" .^[17]

Song title	Singers	Length (m:ss)	Description
Thikku Thikku	Benny Dayal and Sayanora Philip	5:25	A song picturized in the nightclubs of St. Petersburg with Russian bar dancers.
Sakiyae	Bombay Jayashree and Krish	5:09	A montage featuring Jayam Ravi, Kangana Ranaut and Lakshmi Rai's struggles to be with their loved ones.
Anbe En Anbe	Harish Raghavendra	4:49	A romantic interlude featuring Kangana Ranaut and Jayam Ravi. Picturized in Coorg.
Pudhu Pudhu	Benny Dayal, Suchitra and Guna	4:22	Introduction song for Jayam Ravi. Shot in Chennai.
Uyyaalalo Uyyaalalo	Kailash Kher and Sujatha	4:42	Only a part of the soundtrack.
Azhiyilae	Haricharan	2:39	A romantic interlude picturized in a car.

References

1. ^ "Dhaam Dhoom Begins Today". Indiaglitz. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/27773.html. Retrieved 15 December 2006. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Jeeva’s ‘Dhaam Dhoom’ ready for release". The Hindu. http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/17/stories/2008041759280200.htm. Retrieved 6 July 2007. 
3. ^ "Jayam Ravi starts with Dhaam Dhoom". Indiaglitz.com. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/28408.html. Retrieved 29 August 2008. 
4. ^ "Reema Sen opts out of Dhaam Dhoom". Indiaglitz.com. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/28896.html. Retrieved 29 August 2008. 
5. ^ "Kangana Ranaut in Tamil!". Sify.com. http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14392361. Retrieved 19 February 2007. 
6. ^ "Jeyram as a villain". Behindwoods.com. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-news-1/july-08-02/jeyaram-11-07-08.html. Retrieved 16 July 2008. 
7. ^ "50% in Russia". Behindwoods.com. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-news/dec-06-03/22-12-06-jayam-ravi.html. Retrieved 22 December 2006. 
8. ^ "Russia beckons Jeyam Ravi". Indiaglitz.com. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/28408.html. Retrieved 29 August 2008. 
9. ^ "P C Sreeram takes over Dhaam Dhoom". Behindwoods.com. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-news/july-07-01/06-07-07-pc-sreeram.html. Retrieved 6 July 2007. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "Fantastic advance booking for Dhaam Dhoom". Sify.com. http://sify.com/movies/fullstory.php?id=14748248. Retrieved 29 August 2008. 
11. ^ "Confusion over ownership of Dhaam Dhoom". Sify.com. http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14749515. Retrieved 29 August 2008. 
12. ^ "Chennai Box Office (29 August to 31)". Sify.com. http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14751159&cid=13525926. Retrieved 2 September 2008. 
13. ^ "Chennai Box Office". Behindwoods.com. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-2/top-ten-movies/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-dhaam.html. Retrieved 2 September 2008. ^{[dead link]}
14. ^ "Chennai Box Office". Behindwoods.com. http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movies-slide-shows/movie-2/top-ten-movies/tamil-cinema-topten-movie-dhaam.html. Retrieved 2 September 2008. ^{[dead link]}
15. ^ "United Kingdom Box Office (Aug. 29, 2008 - Aug. 31, 2008)". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2008/09/04/movies/boxoffice/weekend_uk/index.html. Retrieved 31 August 2008. 
16. ^ "United Kingdom Box Office (Sept. 5, 2008 - Sept. 7, 2008)". New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/pages/movies/boxoffice/weekend_uk/index.html. Retrieved 7 September 2008. 
17. ^ "Dhaam Dhoom Music Review". Indiaglitz.com. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/musicreview/8958.html. Retrieved 29 August 2008.