Velayudham is a 2011 Indian Tamil action masala film written and directed by M. Raja. It stars Vijay in the title role, alongside Genelia D’Souza as the female lead with Hansika Motwani, Abhimanyu Singh, Saranya Mohan and Santhanam in supporting roles. The film revolves around a villager who arrives in the city to collect money, is forced to take upon the disguise of superhero and starts to eradicate the evils that pertains within the society such as corruption, prostitution, terrorism etc. In the process, he loses his younger sister. The rest of the story is how Velu avenges the death of his sister and thwarts the plans of a terrorist and an evil minister who is behind the misdeeds.
Velayudham released on 26 October 2011 to positive reviews and became a major commercial success among Tamil Diwali releases despite competition with 7aum Arivu. The movie went on to complete its 100-day theatrical run on 3 February 2012 at many centers. The movie was dubbed into Hindi as Super Hero Shahenshah.
A young journalist Bharathi (Genelia D’Souza), along with two of her friends, investigate a series of terrorist attacks which have taken place in Chennai and also illegal activities like women trafficking. When they are caught video-recording illicit activities happening in a secluded house one night by a group of thugs, they attempt to flee from them. While Bharathi’s friends are killed, Bharathi manages to escape despite being stabbed by one of the thugs. But after the attack on Bharathi and her friends, the thugs’ vehicle explodes due to a small mishap when a matchstick falls over petrol packets stored in the vehicle, killing all the thugs. Bharathi comes up with a new idea to eradicate society’s evils by creating and propagating a fictional character called “Velayudham” who wants to clean up the city of terrorism and other illegal activities.
The scene then shifts to a village called Pavunoor, where a milk vendor named Velayudham aka Velu (Vijay) is residing with his younger sister Kaveri (Saranya Mohan), whom he loves dearly. He has a cousin Vaidehi (Hansika Motwani), who is infatuated by him. One day, Velu, Kaveri and Vaidehi leave for Chennai to collect money from a chit fund for Kaveri’s marriage. At the Chennai Egmore railway station, Velu’s money is stolen by Speedu (Santhanam), a petty thief. He pursues Speedu on a motorbike parked at the station and manages to get back his money, but moments after alighting from the bike, the bike explodes. The parked bike was meant to ensure a terrorist attack at the railway station, and thus, Velu inadvertently thwarted a deadly terrorist attack which would have killed several people. After a few more incidents where Velu unknowingly prevents more terrorist attacks, he comes to the attention of Bharathi. She convinces him to take up the role of Velayudham and provide hope to the people. In the avatar of Velayudham, Velu starts to eradicate the evils that pertain within the society such as corruption, prostitution and terrorism among others. He soon gains wide support and acceptance among the public and even the police.
A few months later, Velu returns to Pavunoor for Kaveri’s marriage. Unknown to him, the leader of a terrorist group Muzamin Ibrahim (Abhimanyu Singh) follows him to the village. Ibrahim wants to kill him since he, in the garb of Velayudham, had thwarted every terrorist attack he had planned in Chennai. On the day of Kaveri’s marriage, a bomb planted by Ibrahim at Velu’s house explodes, killing Kaveri.
A few days after Kaveri’s death, a grieving Velu learns from Bharathi that the corrupt Home Minister of Tamil Nadu Ulaganathan (Vineet Kumar) is responsible for the terrorist attacks and also Kaveri’s death. He allowed Ibrahim to carry out terrorist attacks in exchange for money. He even tries to gain popularity by claiming Velayudham as his idea, planning to reveal Ibrahim as Velayudham’s real identity in a function at the Nehru Stadium, Chennai. Velu returns to Chennai, kills Ibrahim, exposes Ulaganathan’s misdeeds and reveals himself as Velayudham to the whole world.
Directed by M. Raja
Produced by V. Ravichandran
Written by Subha (dialogues )
Screenplay by M. Raja & R. T. Neason
Story by M. Raja
Starring Vijay, Genelia D’Souza, Hansika Motwani, Abhimanyu Singh, Saranya Mohan, Santhanam, Soori, Vineet Kumar
Music by Vijay Antony
Cinematography Priyan
Edited by V. T. Vijayan
Production Aascar Film Pvt. Ltd
Distributed by Aascar Film Pvt. Ltd & Ayngaran International, GK Media(USA), ASM Media(CH)
Release dates 26 October 2011
Running time 166 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
