Mr. Romeo

Mr. Romeo is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film directed by K. S. Ravi and produced by R. B. Choudary. The film stars Prabhu Deva in a dual roles with Shilpa Shetty and Madhoo playing the female leading roles, while Surendra Pal, Vadivelu and Vijayakumar play supporting roles. It was released on 10 November 1996 and failed at the box office. The film marked Shetty's only Tamil film to date.

Plot
In Bangalore, Romeo lives a privileged life as a celebrity with his widowed mother. He receives considerable assistance and encouragement from Sathyamoorthy to dance and sing. He meets and is attracted to Madhoo, who is also his fan. His mother meets with Madhoo's grandfather and both arrange their wedding. Then Romeo finds out that Sathyamoorthy has been stealing body organ from patients in the Sathyamoorthy Hospital, and then stages their deaths via bus accidents. He meets with Sathyamoorthy and warns him that he is going to expose him publicly. Before he could reveal their activities Romeo is shot and thrown off of a cliff. His friend Prakash is framed for his murder and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

In Dharavi, Prakash's sister Shilpa comes across Madras a poor funeral dancer who is a lookalike of Romeo and convinces him to impersonate Romeo to clear her brother's name as well as to find the real perpetrator of the crime. After getting thrown off the cliff, Romeo is taken in by tribals living in the hills and manages to survive. Upon finding Madras impersonating him, Romeo realises that Madras is his twin brother long presumed dead, using this to his advantage he starts taking revenge on Sathyamoorthy. Meanwhile, Madras and Shilpa fall in love with each other. Madras and Romeo eventually expose Sathyamoorthy's illegal activities to the public and Sathyamoorthy is sent to jail.

Production
Prabhu Deva signed the film after securing a blockbuster with Shankar's Kadhalan (1994) and demanded inr 6000000 for his work in the film. Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty was chosen to star in her first Tamil film, while Madhoo, who appeared in Mani Ratnam's Roja and Shankar's Gentleman was signed on to play second lead. The producer of the film asked the director, K. S. Ravi to be credited simply as Ravi in the film, to avoid confusion with another director K. S. Ravikumar. Mitchell camera weighed 50 kg was used for all the "double action" shots.

Soundtrack
The music is scored by A. R. Rahman for the lyrics penned by Vaali and Vairamuthu, while the soundtrack was distributed by Pyramid AV International. The lyrics for the Hindi version was penned by P. K. Mishra.


 * Original Version


 * Hindi Version (Mr. Romeo)


 * Telugu version

Release and reception
The film was released on 10 November 1996, and failed to meet the expectations at the box office, becoming Prabhu Deva's second consecutive average after Love Birds.

A. R. Rahman played a role in recommending the director K. S. Ravi to work in En Swasa Kaatre, a production of Rahman's acquaintances. Mr. Romeo was also belatedly dubbed and released in Hindi and Telugu under the same title.