Mambattiyan The man with the shovel is a 2011 co written, produced and directed by , starring his son as the title character. The film, also starring , , and in other pivotal roles, is a remake of the 1983 Tamil blockbuster that starred Thiagarajan himself and. The film released on 16 December 2011 to above average reviews from critics. Mambattiyan IG Ranjith recalls the memories of a criminal whom he failed to capture. Annachchi rules a village in western Tamil Nadu. When he is opposed by Mambattiyan's father , the 'jameen' kills him. Coming to know of this, Mambattiyan kills the influential person and those in support of him. A group of youngsters in the village join hands with Mambattiyan. They lead a life in a forest. By robbing the rich and distributing the wealth to the poor, Mambattiyan becomes the local Robin Hood. Meanwhile, police forces led by Ranjith go from pillar to post to nab Mambattiyan. This is the start of a cat-and-mouse game between the two. Also, Mambattiyan has romance in the form of Kannathal and Sornam. When Sornam raises a green flag, that means she needs him to come. An officer in disguises realizes this and reports it to Ranjith, so one by one, all his gang members die. Meanwhile, Kannathal panicked and asked Mambattiyan to go to a faraway place and forgo his Robin Hood job. Mambattiyan agrees and asks her to wait at the river. So with the help of Bullet, a villager, Kannathal waits at the river. Mambattiyan defeats the police forces and escapes. Bullet shoots him because whoever captures Mambattiyan gets a rewards of money and land, so Kannathal hits him and he dies, then she dies too. At the end, Ranjith is sad that the whole village is crying and takes Mambattiyan's chain. It was first reported in September 2008, that would remake 's successful 1983 film , with his son Prashanth portraying the lead role of a -esque figure. The team began filming in early 2009, with Thiagarajan noting that apart from the plot, most features in the film would be different from the original. Prashanth grew his hair and put on weight for this film and the team shot in the forests of , and. The team also filmed scenes in virgin locales across in the backdrop of waterfalls. By April 2010, production had been ongoing for fifteen months and the film was still incomplete. The team also announced that they were planning to bring in to play a role depicted by in the original, but it did not eventually materialise. Thiagarajan approached to compose the film's music only after completing the film's shoot and asked him two retain two songs from the original film. Prashanth and Thiagarajan then briefly postponed the film and began work on another venture, the historical , and subsequently released that film earlier than Mambattiyan. The film finally geared up for release in December 2011, more than three years after production began, when the son of a tribal leader called Mambattiyan filed a petition preventing the release of the film. He withdrew the claims shortly after, gaining an out of court settlement. Prior to the film's release, Thiagarajan considered a possible sequel to the venture, stating he would decide after seeing the audience's response. The film opened in December 2011 to above average reviews from film critics. But, Thiagarajan has managed to recapture the essence of his earlier work, even while giving the rustic saga a more contemporary feel. The screenplay is taut, the director rarely losing his grip on his narration. No single scene could be cited as well conceived or well made. A critic from Behindwoods. The film took a good opening at the box office, but petered out to do average business commercially and due to its big budget, failed to recover costs. The film was later dubbed and released in Telugu as Bebbuli. Mambattiyan by Released 23 November 2011 2011-11-23 Saga Music chronology 2011 Mambattiyan 2011 2011 The soundtrack was composed by and was released live on Sun Music's channel on 23 November 2011. Actor recorded a song for the film, with the making of the song video being used for promotional purposes.
