Star (2001 film)

Murthy (Prashanth) earns his living taking the blame for the mistakes of other people, and so the jail is his second home. Dhanushkodi (Raghuvaran) has sworn to kill ex-collector Ramanathan's (Vijayakumar) son Santhosh (Praveen Gandhi), and so, Ramanathan has transferred Santhosh to Mauritius while telling the world he has run away. Wishing to save his son, he hires Murthy to act as him, hoping Dhanushkodi would kill him instead of his actual son. Murthy too accepts the gig since his lover Preeti (Jyotika) is Ramanathan's niece. In the climax, Santhosh supports Dhanushkodi for killing his father, but Dhanushkodi kills Santhosh. The film ends with Murthy taking the blame for killing Santhosh and surrendering himself to police.

The success of Jodi (1999) prompted director Praveen Gandhi to collaborate with Prashanth and Simran again in a project called Star, but Simran soon dropped out and was replaced by Jyothika.[3][4] After their successful association in Ratchagan and Jodi, Praveen Kanth wanted Rahman to provide the music yet again, but the composer was short on time so Rahman compromised to reinvent tunes earlier composed for films like Thakshak and Earth for the project.[5] Praveen Gandhi's sudden decision to act in the film irked Prashanth and his father, who threatened to opt out of the project, before the issue was mediated.[6]

The introduction of Jyothika's character was filmed on the streets of Chennai.[7] The team then went on a shooting stint to Kurinji village at Gobichettipalayam and during the time there provided Rs 2 lakhs to help renovate a temple, which had been closed for twenty years.[8]

Critic Malini Mannath gave the film a negative review adding that "an artist can rarely rise above a bad script, consequently Prashanth’s attempts to infuse some life through fight scenes and dance numbers turn futile" and that "Jyotika’s expressions are becoming repetitive.". The critic concluded that had "ruinously shoddy script" and "the director’s attempt to enter into the acting arena, and play one of the crucial characters in the film adds insult to injury".[9] Another critic added that the film would not give a boost to Prashanth's career as he had anticipated stating that it was a "below average movie".[10] Another reviewer described that "the messy screenplay in the second half ruins the story that admittedly has enough potential for romance, laughs, sentiments and action".[11]

The failure of the film ended the partnership between Rahman and Praveen Kanth, with the composer refusing to score the music for the director's next venture, Thullal. Plans were made in 2003 to remake the film in Telugu as Mahendra, but the venture never took off.[12] However, in 2005 it was dubbed and released in Telugu as Takkari Donga Chakkani Chukka.

The soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu, Piraisoodan and Palani Bharathi. The song "Rasiga Rasiga" was a chartbuster. Due to lack of time, Rahman could not accept the film, but the director sought permission to re-use some songs from his previous Hindi album, Thakshak and one song from Earth. The director followed the same approach in his previous film Jodi. Singer Karthik made his playback debut with this soundtrack.

Telugu soundtrack (Dubbed)