The film follows the journey of three young men, Vinayagam, Ramarajan and Saamikannu, who flee from their remote, conservative village to escape their overly strict families and travel to the international tourist-destination Goa, after encountering a friend who had fallen in love with a Caucasian girl whilst on holiday there. The film explores their time in Goa, the people they meet ranging from gay hoteliers to suave casino owners, and dwells on the relationships they encounter in the region.
The film, which began pre-production work in August 2008, became highly anticipated before release due to the successes of the director's prior two films Chennai 600028 and Saroja. Filming began in April 2009 and took place in various locations: in the title location of Goa as well as in Pannapuram, Tamil Nadu and Langkawi, Malaysia with the latter being used due to the monsoon season of Goa, forcing the team to relocate.[1] Before release, the film was given an adult rating by the Central Board of Film Certification, despite much contention from the team with the film also avoiding a court case in regard to the producer's loan.[2] The film released on 29 January 2010 to mostly positive reviews. The film was remade in Kannada language using the same title and released in 2015.
Plot
The plot begins in Pannaipuram, a village in Theni district, Tamil Nadu. The director Venkat Prabhu wished to the god for the movie to launch. Samikannu (Premgi), the son of a karagattam artist named Karagattakkarar (Shanmugasundaram); Vinayakam (Jai), the son of a military man named Manickam (Chandrasekhar); and Ramarajan (Vaibhav), the son of the local bigwig Nattamai (Vijayakumar) and the village casanova are three rebellious youths who repeatedly attempt to flee their village and see the outside world but are usually caught and punished by the conservative elders. After being punished harshly, they attempt one last escape and succeed. The trio runs away to Madurai, hoping to stay with Vinay's friend Azhagar.
On arriving at Azhagar's place, they find him marrying an American named Angelina Jolie. Azhagar tells them that he had met her in Goa months ago and they fell in love. He tells the trio that they will spend their honeymoon in London and after that he will be moving over to London as his father-in-law has secured him a nice job there. The three friends are inspired to travel to Goa, meet a foreign woman there, and marry her to escape from their miserable life in India. The next day, on finding out that Samikannu had mistakenly brought along a pile of sacred golden jewels from their village temple and thus the 3 can never return, they pack their bags and head to Goa.
At Goa, they meet a fellow Tamil named Jack (Aravind Akash), who provides food and shelter and introduces them to the party culture of Goa. Jack also hosts a party which Ramarajan meets Suhashini (Sneha) . Vinay falls in love with Roshini (Piaa Bajpai), a club singer, while Sam attempts to woo an American named Jessica Alba (Melanie Marie), whom he had seen earlier at the wedding in Madurai. The three friends are given a makeover by Jack and Roshini, and they begin a new lifestyle in Goa.
At this point, enters hotelier Daniel (Sampath Raj), who is Jack's lover. Danny is attracted by Sam's innocence and begins making affectionate advances toward him; Sam is oblivious. This invokes the jealousy of Jack, who hires ninja-themed henchmen to beat up Sam. In an awkwardly heroic scene, Sam nullifies their attack.
Ram's life takes a twist after he comes across Suhasini Fernando (Sneha). They begin dating, and Ram learns that she is a wealthy entrepreneur who owns a luxury cruise ship named Casino Royale. The two eventually get married, and Ram gifts her the golden jewel from his village, which she locks in a secret room aboard her yacht. Soon, the trouble starts. Ram learns that Suhasini is slightly neurotic: a fact revealed to him by her former husband Shakthi (Prasanna). The marriage takes a bitter turn, and Ram turns to his friends for help. Together, they plan a covert mission and successfully retrieve the jewel.
Vinay and Sam are successful in their romance. The three boys eventually return to Pannaipuram, along with Roshini, Jessica, Danny, and Jack. There, a surprise awaits Ram, in the form of Nayantara. The epilogue takes place in Goa, showing Suhasini falling in love with Madhan Kumar (Silambarasan Rajendar). As they hug, Madhan's nose begins to bleed, indicating that Suhasini has become a victim of Manmadhan.
The film parodies various themes prevalent in Tamil cinema, as well as many popular Tamil songs. Director Venkat Prabhu makes several cameos throughout the film.
Cast
Jai as Vinayagam Manickam alias Vinay, a young boy from village ran to Goa with his friends
Vaibhav Reddy as Ramarajan Ambalavanar alias Ram, an ambitious boy and Vinay's friend from that village
Premji Amaren as Samikannu alias Sam, the temple caretaker, timid in nature
Aravind Akash as Jack, a six-packed gay guy who falls in love with Danny
Sampath Raj as Daniel 'Danny', Jack's friend / partner
Ravikanth in many characters, such as a lorry driver, a priest at marriage, casino player, newcomer at village, police officer, custom official, sardarji, and a foreigner
The film was to be produced by the American production company Warner Bros. in association with Soundarya Rajinikanth's production company Ocher Studios. Despite reports in April 2009 that Warner Bros. backed out of the project,[3] in May 2009, Soundarya denied that Warner Bros. opted out of the project, disclosing that "any rumor that suggests otherwise is simply not true", that Warner Bros. and Ocher Studios have "established a very successful relationship" and that they are still a part of the Goa project.[4] According to the director Venkat Prabhu, Goa would be in the same genre like the American films American Pie and Road Trip.[5]
Casting
At a press conference in December 2008, Venkat revealed that there would be three lead female roles in the film, one of which would be a non-Indian, "white girl", playing a foreigner in Goa whilst declaring his interest in signing Hollywood actress Jessica Alba with Sneha and Genelia D'Souza.[6][7] Alba ultimately did not sign the project. Kartik Gangadharan, chief marketing officer of Ocher Studios, said the reason for Alba's drop out was not the money, which "was not an issue" and "could have been negotiated", but her unavailability and the impossibility of reworking the schedules "around her dates".[8] Since Alba's departure, unsuccessful talks were held with Amanda Seyfried,[9] before the role was eventually handed to popular American television actress and model Julie Fine.[10][11] However Fine, too, was no longer part of the project, as she was surreptitiously replaced by a Swedish actress and model, Nouva Monika Wahlgren, who predominantly works in India, having earlier acted in several Indian films, including Fun Aur Masti and the Shriya Saran-starrer The Other End of the Line. She also appeared in Indian advertisements and who was finally said to be confirmed to play the foreign character. Before Wahlgren was hired, it was reported that an Australian actress, Melanie Marie Jobstreibitzer, was approached and confirmed for the role.[12] Eventually, it turned out, that indeed Melanie Marie was chosen for the role. Early rumors suggested, that the foreign girl would play the murdered Scarlett Keeling, which were later revealed to be fictitious,[8] with the character actually portraying Premji's pair.[10]
Regarding the other two lead female roles, it turned out that discussions with Genelia D'Souza proved to be unsuccessful, with the actress citing she had no available dates until June 2009, having already signed up for a couple of Hindi films,[citation needed] whereas talks with Sneha resulted in success as the actress signed on to be a part of the film in late January 2009.[13] The role initially offered to Genelia was subsequently taken over by Pooja.[14] According to reports, Pooja was signed after Preetika Rao, sister of Hindi film actress Amrita Rao, who was supposed to do the role, backed out at last-minute for reasons unknown.[14] In June 2009, however, Piaa Bajpai, who had acted in films like Poi Solla Porom and Aegan earlier, joined the crew,[15] and was said to have replaced Pooja again, who was apparently busy completing her Sinhalese projects.[15] Bajpai's role plays the love interest of Jai.[15]
In November 2009, additionally Nayantara was hired for a cameo appearance in the last scene of the film.[16][17] Reports indicated that she shot for the scene, involving herself and the lead cast, for one day without taking any remuneration as she was a "big fan of Venkat Prabhu's movies".[16]
The technical crew remained mostly the same as in Venkat Prabhu's earlier ventures. His cousin Yuvan Shankar Raja composes the musical score, whereas his songs featured lyrics provided by veterans 'Kavignar' Vaali and Gangai Amaran. Sakthi Saravanan, Videsh and Vasuki Bhaskar were signed as the cinematographer, art director and costume designer, respectively, joining Venkat Prabhu for the third time in his third venture. Praveen K. L. and Srikanth N. B. were selected to edit the film, whilst dance moves were choreographed by Kalyan again, who is joined by Ajay Raj and Saravana Rajan. Whilst the former had worked with Venkat Prabhu in his debut venture, Chennai 600028, the latter was part of Prabhu's second film, Saroja. Kalyan was a choreographer in all Venkat Prabhu films.
Filming
Initially, the film was intended to begin production from January 2009 but was postponed.[18] Before the production began, a photo shoot of the film was held in the "City studio" in the last week of February 2009, featuring Sneha and Premji.[citation needed] The shooting was slated to start on 11 March 2009 but had to be postponed, because of the complaint lodged against actor Jai at the Tamil Film Producers council, who had stated that some of his forthcoming films would flop at the box office.[citation needed] Producer Soundarya Rajinikanth is said to have approached the council and requested to lift the ban, explaining the loss due to the ban, after which the ban on Jai was revoked and the filming started.[19]
The first schedule of film shooting was held in Theni, Pannaipuram and surrounding places in Theni district in Tamil Nadu. It included a folk song, which is said to be the introduction song and which was shot from 31 March 2009 onwards in Goa featuring Jai, Vaibhav, Aravind Akash, Premji and Sneha, along with Ajay Raj, who choreographs the song, Payal and around 500 Goans.[citation needed]
The second schedule, lasting 40 days, was completely shot in Goa itself, which featured only the male lead actors: Jai, Vaibhav and Premji Amaran.[citation needed] It was completed in mid-June, after which the crew returned to Chennai.[citation needed] The third and last schedule was shot from 5 July onwards on the Langkawi Islands, an archipelago of around 100 small islands in the Andaman Sea, which belongs to Malaysia, where many popular Tamil and Hindi film were shot.[1] Though initially Venkat Prabhu had wanted to complete the remaining parts of the film in Goa as well, he eventually had to move to Langkawi, because of the monsoon season that had set in heavy rains, affecting the west coastal area of India.[1] He chose Langkawi as it has "very similar locations and looks" to Goa and has a very good climate.[1] It was reported that music director Yuvan Shankar Raja would perform one of the songs himself live on the beaches there.[1] In late 2009, two more songs were filmed in Kerala and Goa itself, with which the film's shooting was completed.
The film score and soundtrack for Goa are composed by Venkat Prabhu's cousin and regular music composer, Yuvan Shankar Raja. Since approximately the first twenty minutes of the film are set in the 1980s, it is known that the music for the affected scenes and a couple of the songs were recorded live (as it was done during that time) to "do justice to the scenes".[citation needed] Yuvan Shankar Raja had started the re-recording works for the film score on 21 December 2009, after having watched the entire film[citation needed] and had finished it within seven days with the help of his cousin and assistant Premji Amaran.[citation needed]
Contrary to earlier reports that suggested that merely three or four numbers would feature in the film,[16] seven out of the nine songs were used in their entirety, besides two more additional tracks.[citation needed]
Release
Goa was given an A certificate by the censor board, reportedly because of its content that "requires a mature audience",[5] while also describing it as a "path breaking entertainer which explores human sexuality very beautifully". The film released with over 200 prints in Tamil Nadu.[2] The film's release, initially expected to happen in late 2009, got postponed several times. It was released on 29 January 2010 worldwide with Tamizh Padam and Jaggubhai.[21]
Reception
Critical response
Sify wrote, "Venkat Prabhu operates on the belief that having funny people on screen is enough to get laughs. He simply has no story to tell, just some funny village bumpkins on a trip to Goa and their misadventures".[22] Gautaman Bhaskaran of Hindustan Times wrote, "Sadly, despite all the hype that Goa raised, it cannot even pass as one of those flicks that allow you to lean back and enjoy".[23]
R. S. Prakash of Bangalore Mirror wrote "Only if Venkat had worked harder on the script, it would have been a hattrick".[24] Y. Sunita Chowdary of The Hindu wrote "Bereft of any smart lines, the drama stands out visually and for most of its running time it will keep one engaged."[25] Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com wrote "Enjoy this holiday for what it is, with no great expectations about a story and Goa might keep you entertained."[26] The film was number one at the Chennai box office during its opening week.[27]
Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu noted that both Goa and Tamizh Padam (which also released on the same day) provided the essence of how "Tamil cinema learned to laugh at itself. The very concept of matinee idol took a beating and the sacred image of the quintessential Tamil film hero came crashing down." He noted Goa's pop culture references were "more celebratory than satirical", while Tamizh Padam being a full-length spoof film, where "is a no-holds barred review of the eccentricities, clichés and ridiculous conventions of Tamil cinema."[34] Even during the clash, both the film's crew members, took a dig at each other through their post-release promotional materials.[35]
Vinay's (Jai) comic sense where he speaks broken English was popular in the film.[36][37] Actor Ravikanth was also notable for his role where he played around 12 characters in the film.[38] Goa was the first mainstream film in Tamil cinema to feature a same-sex relationship, focused on Jack (Sampath) and Danny (Akash).[39][40] Venkat Prabhu tweeted in his X platform, that Sampath's performance as a gay character never received much accolades, in response to Kalidas Jayaram winning the SIIMA Award for his performance as a queer character in Paava Kadhaigal (2020).[41]
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