Jeeva (2014 film)

Jeeva is a 2014 Indian Tamil-language sports film written and directed by Suseenthiran, who also produces the film along with cinematographer R. Madhi and art director Rajeevan under the banner of Vennila Kabadi Team. The film stars Vishnu and Sri Divya, while Soori and Lakshman Narayan plays supporting roles. Its music was composed by D. Imman, cinematography was handled by R. Madhi and editing was by Anthony L. Ruben, while dialogue was written by Santhosh. The film opened to positive reviews from critics on 27 September 2014 and become a successful venture at the box office.

Plot
This film is about a young aspiring cricketer Jeeva, who dreams of playing for the India national cricket team one day. The films begins with Jeeva, who sits on a park bench and starts to narrate his life story. He is a lower middle-class boy, who from a young age is interested in cricket. He sees Sachin Tendulkar as his idol. Though his father initially does not support him, he later starts to do so on the request of his friend. Jeeva grows up and becomes a part of the school team. He excels in his game and turns out to be a star player. Seeing his performances, a local cricket club offers him a chance to join and train with them, for which his father disagrees saying that his academic performance is poor due to cricket and he may not get a job in future. In between Jeeva falls in love with his neighbour, Jenny, and they are broken up when their family discovers this. Jeeva starts to drink due to this heartbreak. To make him concentrate on good deeds again, Jeeva's father agrees to let him join the cricket club.

Jeeva becomes a sensation at the club, scoring good runs in every game. His opening partner Ranjith initially has ego clashes with Jeeva, but later they become friends and produce great performances. They both develop and their team starts to enter higher division competitions. In the meantime, Jeeva's school crush Jenny meets him after a long time and they start loving again. However, he is pressured into marrying her and pleads for a chance after being selected. Then comes the tournament that selects the players for the Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy team and as expected both Jeeva and Ranjith are selected. But the real trouble starts after joining the Team. The Tamil Nadu team mostly comprises players from a particular community and since Jeeva and Ranjith are from a different community, they are sidelined for most of the games. They are given chances in tough conditions where it's hard to score more runs, but still manage to put up a decent performance. Jeeva even once gets applauded by the captain of the Rajasthan team, who is a veteran national team member, but being dropped in the upcoming games affects their average and their subsequent chances of joining the team for future games.

Angered by being rejected from the team, Ranjith storms into the Association office and blasts at the chairman for showing partiality towards the Brahmin community and leaves with a heavy heart. Both Jeeva and Ranjith feel that their cricketing careers are over. Ranjith commits suicide and Jeeva is heartbroken. Jenny's father even agrees for their marriage and promises a job for Jeeva, provided he converts to Christianity and quits cricket. Jeeva initially agrees but immediately tells Jenny that he cannot live without cricket and Jenny leaves him. Jeeva returns to training and he practices even harder waiting for a miracle to happen that will revive his cricketing career.

That miracle occurs when his coach gets a call from the Rajasthan CPL (IPL) team franchise, to offer Jeeva a chance to play in the upcoming season of CPL. Jeeva learns that it was the Rajasthan Team Captain, Irfan, who applauded him during the Ranji Trophy match, who has suggested his name for the CPL. Jeeva is awestruck and is happy as his coach says that if he performs well in the CPL, he can directly enter the national team. He and his family celebrate this as he reunites with Jenny.

The story returns to the present, where Jeeva is being interviewed by TV channels, as a star player of the national cricket team. He narrates his experience on his debut CPL match, where he smashes the first ball he faces for a sixer, and he consistently puts up great performances which seals his place in the national team. Jeeva ends his interview by saying that "in other countries, players lose by playing; but only in India, the players lose even without getting a chance to participate".

Cast

 * Vishnu as Jeeva
 * Sri Divya as Jenny, Jeeva's high school love interest
 * Soori as David (Senior)
 * Lakshman Narayan as Ranjith
 * Sanyathara as Preethi, Ranjith's love interest
 * Ravi as the cricket club coach
 * Charlie as Arul Pragasam
 * Madhusudhan Rao as Partha Sarathy, the head of the Tamil Nadu selectors committee and leader of the DCI cricket club
 * T. Siva as Jenny's father
 * G. Marimuthu as Jeeva's father
 * Akila as Jeeva's sister
 * Monica Chinnakotla as Ebbie, Jenny's sister
 * Sanjay Bharathi as DCI Team cricketer
 * Udhayabhanu Maheswaran as Raghavan
 * Bava Lakshmanan as Murugan, a selector on the Tamil Nadu Ranji team
 * Arya as the CPL cameraman (cameo appearance)
 * Natarajan Subramaniam in a cameo appearance in the song "Oru Rosa"
 * Surabhi in a cameo appearance in the song "Oruthi Mele"
 * Varun Chakravarthy in a cameo appearance as a DCI club cricketer

Production
Soon after wrapping up production works of Rajapattai, Suseenthiran announced in October 2011 that he would shortly start his next venture featuring Vishnu. The film titled Veera Dheera Sooran was said to be an original story, to be made simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu. In early 2012, it was reported that director Pandiraj would write the film's dialogues. However the director opted to concentrate on other projects before starting the film. He subsequently began a different project with Vishnu and production work on the film began again in August 2013. The project initially began as a bilingual, with Sundeep Kishan selected to portray the lead role in the Telugu version, but scheduling problems meant that the version was dropped. Sri Divya was signed on to play a college girl in the film after the director was impressed with her performance in Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam. Surabhi, who debuted in Ivan Veramathiri was signed as another heroine. She had to opt out later due to conflicting schedules. Vinoth Kishan was initially signed to play a supporting role, but was later replaced by Lakshman Narayan, who had played the lead role in Bharathiraja's Annakodi (2013). The title of the film was officially announced to be Jeeva in January 2014.

Soundtrack
The film's score and soundtrack are composed by D. Imman under Sony Music India's label. The film notably had its songs' lyrics written by Vairamuthu and his two sons Madhan Karky and Kabilan Vairamuthu, becoming the first such album to have the trio from the same family. A launch event was held on 12 September 2014.

Release
Actors Vishal Reddy's Vishal Film Factory and Arya's The Show People banner bought Tamil Nadu theatrical rights of the film in September 2014. The satellite rights of the film were sold to STAR Vijay. The film was released on 27 September 2014

Reception
The film was released to positive reviews. The Times of India gave the film 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Suseenthiran pads up the film with the tropes that the genre needs. Though it has its heart in the right place the problem with Jeeva is that it is uneven. Cricket takes a backseat every time the director decides to focus on the love angle, taking some fizz out of the film". The Hindu wrote, "A film has stayed true to its soul if it replays in your mind long after you’ve left the theatre. In most parts, Jeeva does that". Indo-Asian News Service gave 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Jeeva is gripping with a moving second half, but not as inspiring as Nagesh Kukunoor's Bollywood film Iqbal. Suseenthiran's desperate act to portray his film as a commercial entertainer and not as a sports-drama doesn't go down too well. It somehow distracts you from the film's core subject and that's a big letdown. If only these crucial comprises were handled with care, the film would've been highly satisfying". Sify wrote, "Jeeva is sure to provide inspiration to many youngsters with similar cricket dreams and aspirations...it is a nice entertaining film, and another feather on the director's cap". Rated 3.25 out of 5 by Cinemalead-" Commendable cricketer!"