Singam Puli

☆ Save On Wikipedia ↗
Singam Puli
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySai Ramani
Written bySai Ramani
Produced byS. Parthiban
S. Srinivasan
StarringJiiva
Divya Spandana
Honey Rose
CinematographyBalasubramaniem
Edited byV. Jaishankar
Music byMani Sharma
Production
company
Silverline Film Factory
Release date
  • 4 March 2011 (2011-03-04)
Running time
163 minutes[1]
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Singam Puli (transl. Lion, Tiger)[2] is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Sai Ramani in his debut. It stars Jiiva in dual roles as the hero and villain, co-starring Divya Spandana, Honey Rose and Santhanam. With its release delayed multiple times, the film saw a theatrical release on 4 March 2011. It was dubbed in Telugu as Simham Puli.[3]

Plot

The film has a deceptively casual beginning: a middle-class family consisting of parents, a daughter and identical twin sons: Shiva and Ashok Kumar. Shiva works in a fish market, and Ashok is a lawyer. Shiva is a typical hero who attacks baddies with his bare fists; a rugged man who will brook no injustice. Devout Ashok's goodness is a facade that hides his womanising nature. Both have romantic interests. Shweta is Shiva's long-time sweetheart, while Ashok's life is one long, lustful journey as he charms every woman he meets into his bed.

Shiva can do nothing right as far as his parents are concerned; they trust Ashok and always misunderstand Shiva's righteous anger, and Shiva's every attempt to show up his Machiavellian twin fails. Ashok, on the other hand, is pally with the local goons and uses his brains to assist them in their nefarious activities. Matters come to a head when Ashok lures a girl called Gayatri with false pretenses, pretending to be falling in love with her at first, ending up in having sex with her, and eventually killing her by pushing off the terrace when he learns that she becomes pregnant.

Shiva lodges a complaint on Ashok, but this fails as he could not prove that whether it was him or Ashok who did the crime due to their faces. Shiva learns that a security guard saw Ashok pushing Gayatri from the roof. He tells the guard to meet him in the evening, but the guard is killed by Ashok as the guard saw him in the evening and thought he was Shiva. Shiva learns this, and a cat-and-mouse game begins between the siblings. This angers Ashok, who he tries to kill Shiva and employs a gang to do so. Eventually, Shiva learns of this plot and confronts Ashok. During the fight, Ashok is killed by his own man. Shiva walks with his father, who for the first time accepts him.

Cast

Production

Singam Puli is the directorial debut of Sai Ramani, and the first film to feature Jiiva in two distinct roles.[4][5]

Soundtrack

All songs were composed by Mani Sharma.[6] The song "Figaru" is based on "Hare Rama" from the Telugu film Okkadu.[7]

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Figaru"VivekaNaveen 
2."Poove Poove"VivekaRahul Nambiar 
3."Varrale"AnnamalaiRanjith, Saindhavi 
4."Kangalal"Na. MuthukumarKarthik, Rita 
5."Ullasame"Sai RamaniRanjith, Janani Madhan 
6."Naadilla"VivekaMukesh 

Release

Singam Puli was completed by late 2010, with the makers initially aiming to release the film for Diwali that year.[8] It was later scheduled to release on 11 February 2011,[9] but was finally released on 4 March 2011.[10]

Critical reception

Sify wrote, "Sai Ramani directed Singam Puli, is an uninspiring 2 hours 45 minutes masala film that takes the viewers for granted. The film is loaded with action, drama, fights, comedy and double meaning dialogues and crass comedy."[11] IANS wrote "Debutant Sai has chosen an advanced theme of fight between twins who represent good and bad. This could have been forgiven if he had worked up a good script to tell this tug-of-war between the brothers".[12] The New Indian Express wrote that Jiiva "could have put in more effort to demarcate the two roles", also criticising the "jerky and inconsistent" narration and loopholes in the script.[13] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote, "As the naïve Mr. Right and the murderous Mr. Wrong, Jiiva has done a good job. The real villain of Singam Puli is the long-winding screenplay, which makes you fidgety".[14]

References

  1. "Singam Puli". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 26 March 2026. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  2. Srinivasan, Sudhir (17 January 2015). "Going wild over titles". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 12 April 2025. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  3. "Jiiva's Singam-Puli in Telugu". The New Indian Express. 10 March 2012. Archived from the original on 26 March 2026. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  4. "Jeeva romances Divya in Singam Puli". NDTV. 20 December 2010. Archived from the original on 28 November 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  5. "Jiiva plays dual role in Sai's next". The Times of India. 28 February 2011. Archived from the original on 26 March 2026. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  6. "SINGAM vs PULI - Manisharma Tamil Audio Cd". Audio CDs World. Archived from the original on 5 October 2025. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  7. Karthik (8 December 2010). "Singam Puli (Music review), Tamil – Mani Sharma". Milliblog. Archived from the original on 17 January 2026. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  8. "Jiiva enjoys his huge popularity". The Times of India. 6 October 2010. Archived from the original on 26 March 2026. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
  9. "Jiiva's next release Singam Puli will release on February 25". The Times of India. 17 February 2011. Archived from the original on 7 September 2023. Retrieved 17 February 2011.
  10. Sharma, Smrity (22 February 2011). "Why is Jiiva so frustrated?". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 21 March 2026. Retrieved 24 March 2026.
  11. "Singam Puli". Sify. Archived from the original on 14 March 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  12. "Movie review: Singam Puli – A mind blowing experience". Mid-Day. IANS. 7 March 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  13. "Singam Puli". The New Indian Express. 9 March 2011. Archived from the original on 26 March 2026. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  14. Rangarajan, Malathi (5 March 2011). "Where was the pruner?". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 12 December 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2020.