Final Cut of Director

Final Cut of Director
Poster
Directed by	Bharathiraja
Written by	Bharathiraja
Produced by	Paul Pandian Dr. Raj T. Rajan
Starring	Nana Patekar Arjun Sarja Rukmini Vijayakumar Kajal Aggarwal
Cinematography	B. Kannan
Edited by	K. M. K. Palanivel
Music by	Songs: Himesh Reshammiya Score: Monty Sharma
Production company	Therkathi Kalaikoodam
Release dates	12 December 2008 (2008-12-12) (Tamil) 21 October 2016 (2016-10-21) (Hindi)
Country	India
Languages	Hindi Tamil

Final Cut of Director is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language thriller film written and directed by Bharathiraja. The film stars Nana Patekar and Arjun Sarja, with Rukmini Vijayakumar, Kajal Aggarwal, Niyamat Khan, Vatsal Sheth, Ranjitha and Mushtaq Khan in supporting roles. Himesh Reshammiya composed the music and cinematography was done by B. Kannan. The Tamil version of film has good collection with sleeper hit in box office but Hindi version proved false because in Hindi it is a flop. The film was released on 21 October 2016.

The film, which was originally titled Cinema, was retitled Final Cut of Director and had a limited release in 2016. Final Cut of Director marks Tamil director Bharathiraja's return to Hindi cinema after a gap. The film was intended to be the lead Hindi debut of Arjun Sarja but its release was delayed.

Final Cut of Director was first released in Tamil as Bommalattam (transl. Puppet show) in 2008. The Tamil version was mostly dubbed from the Hindi version, but additionally featured Manivannan (who replaced Mushtaq Khan) and Vivek. Despite being filmed in Hindi, Final Cut of Director failed financially in Hindi markets but the Tamil version was a success. Rukmini Vijayakumar's portrayal of a transgender woman was praised.

Plot

Film director Rana is filming a scene with the female lead of his upcoming film, Cinema. Rana is unhappy with the actor's behaviour, and he decides to find another female lead. He finally finds Trishna suitable but never discloses her identity to the media, and the film's wallpapers do not show the names of the male and female leads. The film is eventually completed, and Rana must attend a press meeting about his film's release, but he does not attend the meeting and is shown to have had an illegal relationship with Trishna. At this instant, the film's producer calls Rana, and the media discovers his location and who he is with. Press reporters gather at the hotel where Rana is staying; he escapes from them and gets into a car. The press chase him, and Rana kills Trishna by creating an accident-like situation.

SP Vivek Varma, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer, takes charge of this murder case along with two previous murder cases in which Rana is also a suspect. Rana is arrested and taken into CBI custody, and Vivek starts his interrogation. Meanwhile, a poet named Anitha, who is a superfan of Rana, is revealed to be Vivek's lover and worked as an assistant to Rana during his filmmaking. During the interrogation, Rana reveals how he met Trishna and their relationship.

Trishna was a dancer who performed in temples and at small-time shows across Andhra Pradesh. Rana hires Trishna as his muse, and they become lovers. When a hairdresser is left homeless, Rana offers her a place in his room; another unit member sees this and informs Rana's wife. The next morning, as Rana is having sex with Trishna, his wife arrives, beats up the hairdresser, and accuses Rana of being a womanizer. Rana continues filming, appearing to be unperturbed by the incident but cries while instructing his actors. His assistant notices this; she and Rana are also shown to be lovers, and she comforts Rana. At the village in which they are filming, the village chief is notorious and constantly lusts over Trishna. Rana states he will kill the chief if he causes more inconvenience. The next day, the chief is murdered. Vivek recalls this and states Rana committed this murder, but Rana neither agrees with nor denies this statement.

Rana faints shortly after the interrogation and is taken to the hospital. Vivek follows him there and recollects the incident of the second murder. After finishing their schedule at the village, the unit travels to Malaysia to continue the filming. There, Rana has to meet the financier's son, who is also the film's second male lead. The financier's son flirts with Trishna and constantly tries to approach her, with which she is uncomfortable. Shortly afterwards, the financier's son is also found murdered, and Rana again neither agrees nor denies this murder. Anitha, upon witnessing what Vivek is doing, confronts him and accuses him of trying to pin down Rana. Anitha offers Vivek her body in exchange for him leaving Rana alone. Vivek tells Anitha about the complications of the investigation. A badly burnt body in a car that fell from a cliff belongs to a man, and all of the evidence at the crime scene is fake and used as props for filmmaking.

With the mystery unsolved, Rana is released due to the absence of strong evidence to convict him. He goes to live in a secluded bungalow with his assistant. Vivek follows Rana there and uncovers the mystery. Trishna is revealed to be a man whose real name is Krishna and comes from a very poor background. Krishna's mother raised him as a girl, so his demeanour has become feminine since he is small. Rana sees an opportunity to introduce Krishna as a female hero and provide financial aid to his struggling family. Krishna killed the village chief, who discovered Krishna's true sex and demanded Krishna have sex with him in return for concealing the truth. Krishna also killed the financier's son, who falsely told Krishna he had photographed Krishna while he was bathing. Rana asks Vivek to give Krishna the lightest-available sentence, but Vivek decides to release him. Rana thanks Vivek, who says Rana is a greater human being than he is a director.

Cast

Cast (Hindi)	Cast (Tamil)	Role
Nana Patekar		Rana
Arjun Sarja		Vivek Varma IPS, SP in CBI
Rukmini Vijayakumar		Trishna / Krishna
Kajal Aggarwal		Anitha
Niyamat Khan		Rana's shooting assistant
Vatsal Sheth		Nitish Kumar
Ranjitha		Rana's wife
—	Vivek	Madurai
Mushtaq Khan	Manivannan	Village chief
Baby Ankitha		Rana's daughter
B. Kannan		doctor and himself
—	Chitra Lakshmanan	Rana's makeup man
—	Joe Malloori	Rana's crew member (uncredited)

Production

Final Cut of Director was launched in Malaysia in 2006 with the title Cinema for the Hindi version and Bommalattam for the Tamil version. ^{[1] [2]} Bharathiraja decided to make the film in Hindi after casting Nana Patekar to play Rana. ^{[3] [4] [5]} Vikram was initially considered to play Arjun's role. ^[6] Arjun Sarja was cast as Vivek, a CBI officer although he was not fluent in Hindi. ^[7] Rukmini Vijayakumar was cast in an important role. ^[8] The film was to be made in Hindi and dubbed into Tamil. ^[9] Cinema was based on a true incident that took place in Hampi. ^[4] The film was mostly made in Mumbai and Goa. ^{[9] [10]} Scenes involving Nana Patekar and Arjun Sarja were shot in Chennai. ^[9] Nana and Bharathiraja fought during filming; according to Bharathiraja; "We fought with each other a couple of times. However the fights helped us to sharpen our thoughts and to shape the movie in a nice way." ^{[11] [4]} Nagravi of Insight Media bought the film's rights. ^[12] Bharathiraja and cinematographer Kannan said Final Cut of Director is one of the best films they had made. ^{[13] [14]}

Final Cut of Director was originally the film lead debut of Kajal Aggarwal, who appeared in a Hindi film called Kyun! Ho Gaya Na... , ^{[15] [16]} but Final Cut of Director was delayed and Lakshmi Kalyanam became her first release. ^[17]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Himesh Reshammiya. ^[18]

Hindi version ^[19]

Lyrics by Sameer.

• "Zindagi" – Sunidhi Chauhan
• "Dhola Dholiya" – Afsar, Sneha Panth
• "Chakle Chakle" – Akriti Kakkar
• "Aaha Aaha" – Himesh Reshammiya, Manjeera Ganguly
• "Leja Leja" – Gayatri Iyer Ganjawala

Tamil version ^{[20] [21]}

Lyrics by Snehan, Thenmozhi Das and Viveka. ^[20]

• "Aaha Aaha" – Karthik, Pop Shalini
• "Check Check" – Suchithra
• "Nenjil Dola" – Anuradha Sriram
• "Va Va Thalaiva" – Gayathri
• "Koyambedu" – Mathangi

Release

The Hindi and Tamil versions of Final Cut of Director were scheduled for release in 2008 but the Hindi version's release was postponed. ^[13] The Tamil version was scheduled to release in June 2008 but was delayed until December. ^[22] The Tamil version was a box office success. ^[23] The Hindi version of Final Cut of Director was released in October 2016 and went unnoticed due to lack of promotion. ^{[24] [25]}

Critical reception

Nowrunning wrote: "Like aged and mellowed spirits, director Bharati Raja has matured and levitated towards one of his first loves—a whodunit". ^[26] Behindwoods wrote: "Bommalattam is a perfectly crafted and executed investigative thriller. The surprise factor being Bharathiraja’s tautly woven screenplay—it negates the chance of tedium, even for a fraction of a second." The critic added; "Irregular lip-sync of actors also reveal that the movie is in fact dubbed into Tamil after having been shot in Hindi directly". ^[27] Sify wrote; "hats off to Bharathiraja for creating a taut thriller which is a masterpiece of moods, anxieties and dread. Quite simply, unmissable." ^[28] Rediff wrote: "Bharathiraja's screenplay lacks punch. He seems to have been confused about whether to give importance to the characters themselves, or the thriller portion." ^[29] The Hindu wrote: "The pluses of Bommalattam place Bharatiraaja on a pedestal. The minuses play spoilsport." The critic said; "It’s obvious that many of the scenes have been filmed in Hindi alone—flawed lip sync makes a mockery of some of the serious scenes". ^[30]

Accolades

• 2008
  • Vijay Award for Best Make Up Artistes – Vanitha Krishnamoorthy, Harinath – Nominated
  • Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards – Best Debut Actress – Rukmini Vijayakumar – Won

References

1. • Shobha Warrier. "Tamil film set for Hollywood premiere". Rediff. Archived from the original on 14 April 2009. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
   • "Kannada cinema's Bruce Lee comes to Bollywood!". Rediff. 26 May 2009. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
   • "A Tamil film gets prescribed in German University". Behindwoods. 8 March 2008. Archived from the original on 16 March 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
   • "Bommalattam Preview". Indiaglitz. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
2. • "Arjuns' dream for Bharathiraja's Bommalattam". Behindwoods. 28 August 2006. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
   • "Bharathiraja surprises everyone". IndiaGlitz. 1 September 2006. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
   • "Bharathiraja completes talkie part – Bommalattam". Indiaglitz. 20 June 2007. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
   • "B'day for Bharathiraja". Indiaglitz. 17 July 2007. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
   • "Bollywood Buzz – November 16, 2006". Gulf News. 16 November 2006. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
3. "BOMMALATTAM". Indiaglitz. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
4. Pillai, Sreedhar (13 December 2008). "Corporates meltdown". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 29 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
5. "Arjun is still willing". Indiaglitz. 11 November 2006. Archived from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
6. "Bheema kicks off. What's next for Vikram?". Behindwoods. 15 April 2006. Archived from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
7. • "Arjun and Amitabh as army officials!". Indiaglitz. 31 October 2007. Archived from the original on 29 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
   • "Nana Patekar set to debut in south". Hindustan Times. 8 December 2008. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
   • "Exclusive Official website of 'Bommalattam'". Indiaglitz. 1 December 2007. Archived from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
8. Srinivasa, Sudhir (5 June 2014). "It was a privilege to work with Rajinikanth". Rediff. Archived from the original on 9 June 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
9. "Nana in Chennai". IndiaGlitz. 11 November 2006. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
10. "Arjun as CBI cop in Bharathiraja's 'Cinema'". Behindwoods. 25 April 2006. Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
11. "Bharthiraja's hope on Bommalattam". IndiaGlitz. 2 August 2007. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
12. "Going gaga over Bommalattam". IndiaGlitz. 1 August 2007. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
13. "It's one of my best: Bharathiraja". IndiaGlitz. 3 December 2008. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
14. "Kannan Going Gaga Over Bommalattam". Indiaglitz. 3 August 2007. Archived from the original on 24 September 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
15. "Bharath to act under Perarasu". Indiaglitz. 16 May 2007. Archived from the original on 29 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
16. "Kajal Aggarwal engaged to a billionaire?". Sify. 18 August 2020. Archived from the original on 8 September 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
17. Aravind, C. V. (11 February 2012). "Taking the glamourous [sic] route to success". Archived from the original on 5 March 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
18. "Bommalattam and the Korean connection". The Times of India . 4 December 2008. Archived from the original on 29 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
19. "Final Cut Of Director". MySwar. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
20. "Bommalattam Music Review". IndiaGlitz. 1 August 2007. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
21. "Bomalattam's Music Review". Behindwoods. Archived from the original on 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
22. • "Kajal's statement on Telegu industry". Indiaglitz. 29 January 2014. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
    • "Veterans back on centre stage". Indiaglitz. 6 October 2006. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
    • "Bommalattam to hit screens from 27 June". Indiaglitz. 16 May 2008. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
    • "It's finally starting off!". The Times of India . 11 December 2008. Archived from the original on 29 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
23. S. Saraswathi (28 June 2013). "Review: Annakodi is a disappointment". Rediff. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
24. • "Nana Patekar plays a director in 'Final Cut'". Sify . Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
    • "Nana Patekar's decade old film set to release". DNA India. 24 October 2015. Archived from the original on 29 April 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
    • Srinivas, Saraswathy (22 August 2007). "Himesh fails to impress in Bommalattam". Rediff. Archived from the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
    • "Bommalattam soon!". Behindwoods. 2 January 2008. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
    • "Kajal in safe hands". 17 May 2007. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
    • R G Vijayasarathy (20 July 2009). "Romancing Ram Charan Teja". Rediff. Archived from the original on 28 October 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
25. • "Box Office Predictions: 31st October, 1:13:7 – Ek Tera Saath, My Father Iqbal, Love Day, Gandhigiri". Koimoi. 20 October 2016. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
    • Tuteja, Joginder (28 October 2016). "Box Office: All new releases fail, hopefully end of harrowing times for Bollywood". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 25 January 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
26. Prasad, Ayyappa (13 December 2008). "Bommalattam Tamil Movie". Nowrunning. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
27. "Bommalattam– Movie Review". Behindwoods. Archived from the original on 9 June 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
28. "Bommalattam". Sify . 12 December 2008. Archived from the original on 29 April 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
29. "Bommalattam lacks punch". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
30. Rangarajan, Malathi (19 December 2008). "The puppet shocks! -- Bommalattam". The Hindu . Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2012.

External links

• Final Cut of Director at IMDb