Dharma (1998 film)

Dharma  is a 1998 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by Keyaar. The film stars Vijayakanth and Preetha Vijayakumar. A remake of the 1997 Hindi film Ziddi, it was released on 9 July 1998.

Plot
Dharma (Vijayakanth) is an angry man who cannot tolerate injustice. He lives with his lawyer father Ranganathan (Jaishankar), mother Savithri (Vadivukkarasi), journalist brother Vijay (Thalaivasal Vijay), and beloved sister Geetha (Shilpa). Dharma and Sharmila (Preetha Vijayakumar) fall in love with each other. One day, Geetha is molested by the rowdy Raja, and Dharma kills Raja in public; thus, he is sent to jail. In the meantime, Dharma's friend Ranjith (Ranjith) becomes an ACP.

Upon his release from jail, Dharma becomes a powerful gangster who punishes rowdies in his own way and helps the poor. The honest chief minister Vedhachalam (S. S. Rajendran) then gives free hand to arrest all the goons including Dharma. Geetha then marries Ranjith.

The drug smuggler Daas (Mansoor Ali Khan), the notorious killer Khan (Ponnambalam), and the land grabber Amarnath (Kazan Khan) work under a corrupted politician Chakravarthy (Vinu Chakravarthy). They decide to kill Vedhachalam, but Vijay has listened to their plan and immediately informs Ranjith. Surprisingly, Ranjith kills Vijay from behind. In fact, Ranjith is Raja's brother and wants to take revenge on Dharma.

Later, the Vedhachalam is severely injured by the rowdies, but Dharma saves him and hides him in a secured place. Meanwhile, Geetha finds out that Vijay was killed by Ranjith, and Ranjith also kills her.

The police department seeks Dharma for kidnapping Vedhachalam. What transpires later forms the crux of the story.

Production
Since the climax of the original Hindi film took 90 days to shoot, Keyaar decided to reuse the bomb blast scenes from that film in the Tamil version, replacing Sunny Deol's portions with Vijayakanth thereby shooting the climax in three days.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics by Pulamaipithan and Vaasan.

Reception
Ji of Kalki gave a negative review, saying that despite suiting Vijayakanth's image, the film lacks freshness. D.S. Ramanujam of The Hindu wrote, "Vijayakanth plays the part with his known ease and vigour. His zeal for action has not diminished. Preetha is no match for him and is more of a showpiece".