Saamy is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Hari and produced by Pushpa Kandasamy under the banner of Kavithalayaa Productions and presented by K. Balachander. The film stars Vikram in the titular role of DCP C. Aaru Saamy IPS. Trisha, Kota Srinivasa Rao (in his Tamil debut), Vijayakumar, Ramesh Khanna and Vivek play supporting roles. The music was composed by Harris Jayaraj, while the cinematography and editing were handled by Priyan and V. T. Vijayan, respectively.
Saamy was released on 1 May 2003 and became a major commercial success. The film was remade in Telugu as Lakshmi Narasimha (2004), in Kannada as Ayya (2005), in Hindi as Policegiri (2013), and in Bengali as Barood. Along with Kaakha Kaakha, the film popularised police genre films in Tamil cinema. A sequel titled Saamy Square was released in 2018.
Contents
Plot
Aarusaamy alias Saamy arrives in Tirunelveli city market as a drunk goon and wanders around the city for two days, where he learns about the socio-political situation. Saamy witnesses a pickpocketer in the guise of a cop trying to extort money from a person, and he thrashes him. The police arrive at the scene and Saamy reveals himself as the new DCP of Tirunelveli while ordering the police to arrest the swindler posing as a cop. Saamy later assembles the police force and rules out their procedures so that they can do whatever they wish, provided the public and the innocent are not harmed in the process. He also tells them to arrest any thug without second thoughts.
Due to Saamy's administration, the crime rate in Tirunelveli has decreased. At the outset, Saamy pretends to be a corrupt cop by accepting bribes from Perumal Pichai, an influential and corrupt politician, under the condition that his illegal activities will not be monitored while advising him to move his liquor stores elsewhere to avoid disturbance to the public. Perumal accepts, merely out of an assumption that Saamy belongs to his caste. Saamy falls in love with Bhuvana, a college-going Brahmin girl. Bhuvana's father Srinivasan is a government officer leading a noble life. Saamy and Bhuvana meet each other when he leaves with Inspector Punctuality Paramasivam in search of a home for rent.
Bhuvana misinterprets Saamy and Paramasivam as thieves and locks them in a room, only to reveal their identities to the police. Their frequent rendezvous turn to love. One day, Saamy seals Perumal's gas station because the workers assaulted a woman and others when they challenged them with a much less distribution of petrol than being promised. This infuriates Perumal, who storms into Saamy's quarters with Bhuvana being present, and they argue. Bhuvana gets upset when Perumal mentions the bribe Saamy had taken from him, leaving her home. The next day, Saamy meets Bhuvana at the temple and reveals his past.
Saamy's father Chokkalingam aspires to become a cop, but he is unable to fulfill his dream due to corruption. Chokkalingam takes care of agriculture as his living, but he wants to make Saamy a cop. Saamy passes the TNPSC exams but is asked for bribes. Chokkalingam mortgages his properties and makes him get the police job. Being an honest cop, Saamy is honoured with transfers all over Tamil Nadu due to political pressure. In Trichy, Saamy is accused of bribery and gets suspended. After 6 months, Saamy proves his innocence, and he is finally posted back to Tirunelveli. Saamy adopted a new policy, where he takes bribes from influential persons and donates them for the public's welfare.
Production
After Hari directed Thamizh (2002), the production company, Kavithalayaa Productions called him to direct a film for them since Hari assisted in some of their films. The film was titled as Saamy, with Ajith Kumar initially considered to play the lead role before he was replaced by Vikram. Though Vikram had earlier portrayed a police officer in Kaaval Geetham (1992), his father discouraged him from accepting Saamy, feeling he did not look like a police officer, but Vikram still signed the film. Trisha was selected as the makers wanted an actress who had never acted with Vikram as his pair before.
Some fight scenes were shot at the busy lanes in Karaikudi. The climax fight scene was shot for nearly five days. A set resembling Thirunelveli market designed by art director Kathir was built at Kumbakonam. Vikram worked on his body for the film, sporting a thick waist to show notable differences from his other police film, Dhill and also put on 8 kilograms (18 lb).
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album and background score were composed by Harris Jayaraj. The song "Kalyanam Thaan" brought recognition to its lyricist Snehan, but received criticism from women's lib organisations for the lyrics "Thaaliya thaan kattikitu petthukalaama, illai pullakutti pethukkittu kattikkalaama?" (Shall we have kids after getting married or shall we have the kids first and then get married?).
Tamil track list
Telugu track list
Release
Critical reception
Sify wrote "The patchy storyline merely serves as a pretext to spark off several skirmishes and bombastic dialogues. Director Hari packs in a sting, but Saamy is strictly for the no holds barred action addicts." Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote "Flaws there are — but when the maker has a finger on the pulse of the audience little else matters." Visual Dasan of Kalki panned Vikram's characterisation as misguiding society, while calling the film being riveting till the end. Cinesouth wrote "Too much of fights and a stale story makes this film only lukewarm-ish. It gives an impression of a mediocre film".
Box office
Saamy was released approximately in 100 screens in Tamil Nadu. The film had a huge opening as it was a summer vacation for the Tamil audiences. Theatres in Chennai had almost 100% occupancies and the film recovered all its budget within 4 to 5 days.
Remakes
The film was remade in Telugu as Lakshmi Narasimha (2004), and in Hindi as Policegiri (2013). Some of the plot details were also used in the Kannada film Ayya (2005).
Sequel
A sequel titled Saamy Square was released in 2018, again directed by Hari and starring Vikram.