Mugamoodi

Mugamoodi ( Mask), subtitled onscreen as The Superhero Within, is a 2012 Indian superhero film directed by Mysskin and produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur. The film stars Jiiva, Narain, Pooja Hegde, Nassar, Selva, and Girish Karnad. The film is about Anand, a martial artist who wears a cosplay superhero costume and shows off his gimmicks, in order to impress his love Shakthi. However, he gets framed for his friend's death and now he has to prove his innocence by becoming a real vigilante superhero of Chennai City.

The film was dedicated to Bruce Lee. Principal photography began in December 2011 and took place in India, Switzerland, and other parts of Europe. The post-production involved the application of visual effects. The film has music composed by K, cinematography was handled by Sathyan Sooryan, and editing by Gaugin.

Mugamoodi was released worldwide on 31 August 2012. Upon release, Mugamoodi earned praise for the VFX, action sequences, direction, music and the lead casts performances, but criticism for the script.

Plot
Anand alias "Bruce Lee" is a college graduate who hates the idea of 9-5 jobs and studies martial arts with a group of similarly jobless friends. Attempting to recruit new students to pay tuition fees and save their school, Anand gets involved in a brawl and falls for Shakthi, who is the daughter of DCP Gaurav. In Chennai, a series of heists are happening across the city, which has left dozens dead and countless amounts of money stolen. The police believe that a new robbery is about to take place. Anand's grandfather advises him to make Shakthi see him as a hero.

Anand wears a borrowed superhero costume and introduce himself as Mugamoodi to Shakthi, where he tries to impress the children with his skills and accidentally ends up in the middle of a police chase. Anand helps the police capture one of the bandits, but the gang shoots the captured member dead when they are transferring him. The news which Mugamoodi captured one of the suspects, which police could not catch them in many months, spreads across the city and makes Shakthi begin to like Mugamoodi. Gaurav finds a match between a fingerprint from the crime scene and one from police records.

Anand decides to visit Shakthi again unmasked to reveal his identity and confess his love to her. While arriving to meet Shakthi, Anand encounters a gang member, who shoots Gaurav. Anand tries to seize him, but the gunman escapes after the gun is seized by Anand and the family believe Anand shot Gaurav. Anand is being chased by the police and is on the run. The gang kills Anand's friend Viji, who went with him to visit Shakthi. Anand is again seen by police alone with a dead body and is naturally thought responsible for the killing. Anand's grandfather and brother create a superhero costume.

Gaurav survives and the gang decides to kill him and his family in the hospital. Anand (masked himself as Mugamoodi) saves them by defeating the gang and takes Gaurav's police documents containing the latest findings of the case, including the fingerprint match, as he wants to avenge Viji's death. To Anand's shock, The police findings in the documents are against his martial arts teacher Sifu Chandru. Chandru reveals that he is not connected to those cases and reveals that Anguchamy alias Dragon is behind the crimes. Chandru and Dragon learnt kung-fu in the same school 22 years ago.

Meanwhile, Dragon also learns that Mugamoodi is Anand, where he and his gang raids Chandru's school to kill Anand, but they kill Chandru when he is nowhere to be seen. The gang seizes a port and kidnaps 30 children, along with three adults including Shakthi, as hostages to blackmail the police. They demand the police to arrange a ship which guarantees their safety across the Indian border, while they also demand Mugamoodi to drive a van of gold alone. The gang threaten to kill the hostages if their demands are refused. Mugamoodi agrees to drive the gold, where a fight ensues between him and Dragon.

During the fight, Dragon takes off Mugamoodi's mask and reveals his identity to Shakthi. Dragon also confesses that his brother Anthony had shot Gourav earlier. With the help of his grandfather and friends that had him sneaked into the port, Anand kills some key members of the gang. A fight ensues between Anand and Dragon, where Dragon falls to his death in the sea. Anand manages to release all the hostages and Shakthi tells him to continue his service as Mugamoodi.

Cast

 * Jiiva as Anand (Bruce Lee) / Mugamoodi
 * Narein as Anguchamy (Dragon)
 * Pooja Hegde as Shakthi (voiceover by Savitha Reddy)
 * Nasser as DCP Gaurav, Shakthi's father
 * Selvaah as Master Sifu Chandru
 * Girish Karnad as Anand's grandfather
 * Aadukalam Naren as Anand's father
 * Anupama Kumar as Roshini, Shakthi's mother
 * Aadukalam Murugadoss as Anand's friend
 * Kalaiyarasan as Viji
 * Ray as Shakthi's brother
 * Vaishnavi as Shakthi's sister
 * Misha Ghoshal as a cop's wife
 * Darshan as Dragon's sidekick
 * Krishna Kumar as police commissioner (uncredited cameo appearance)

Development
Mysskin wrote Mugamoodi's story in 2005. In September 2008, it was reported that Suriya signed a film titled Mugamoodi (Mask), which will be directed by Mysskin and produced by UTV Motion Pictures. It was reported that A. R. Rahman would compose the music for the film. The film was reported to made on a budget of ₹35 crore, as the film involved extensive computer graphics and visual effects. Suriya was also intended to learn martial arts for the film. In July 2009, Suriya opted out due to schedule conflicts and it was reportedly that Vishal would play the role. As the project remained dormant, Mysskin moved on to script a horror film. Later, it was reported that Jiiva would play the main lead.

The film is produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur of UTV Motion Pictures. The film was made on a budget of ₹20 crore. Mugamoodi was the first superhero film in Tamil Cinema.

Pre-production
Pre-production of the film began in late 2008. Mysskin started scripting the film after completing Nandalala (2010). In July 2011, it was reported that the makers began location scouting for the film. The shooting of the film was reported to start in late November 2011. Reports further claimed that Jiiva and Narain would undergo special training in martial arts with experts from the Shaolin Temple in China. In September 2011, it was reported that the lead casts would go to Bangkok to learn Kung Fu. Both Jiiva and Narain went through three months of Kung Fu training.

Mysskin revealed that the film will be made in his style, with tout-thrilling moments. "Taking into consideration that I am making an Indian film, I can’t showcase something that is impossible. I want my audience to accept my films and not make a joke of it. This is real cinema and I have shown what any superhero can exhibit in his zone," he added. The film was launched with a formal puja ceremony, which was held in December 2011 at Santhome school auditorium, Chennai.

K, who had scored for Mysskin's Yuddham Sei (2010), was selected as the film composer over two other music directors, while Madhan Karky would pen the lyrics, associating for the first time with Mysskin. Action sequences were choreographed by Tony Leung, who has worked with Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan action choreographers from Hong Kong. Other technicians includes cinematographer Sathyan Sooryan, editor Gaugin, dance choreographer Radhika, art director Bala, and costume designer Amritha Ram.

Casting
In October 2010, Arya signed on for the film with N. Linguswamy's Thirupathi Brothers production house replacing UTV as producers. However, within months, Arya had pulled out as had Linguswamy. In June 2011, a new Mumbai-based company had taken the production reins whilst Jiiva, after the commercial success of his political thriller Ko, had signed on to portray the lead role. Jiiva who plays Anand in the film would called as Bruce Lee in the film. Later that month, it was announced that Narain, who had worked with Mysskin in both Chithiram Pesuthadi and Anjathe, would portray the role of the lead antagonist in the film. . The film was his highest paid film till then. Narain claimed that his villainy in the film would be totally brutal, where his character in the film has no shades and is absolutely negative. In early July 2011, it was reported that Amala Paul would portray the lead female character in the film, but, Dhananjayan of UTV confirmed that Amala was not approached for the role. Pooja Hegde, who is the second runner-up of the 2011 Miss Universe India, was eventually finalized as the female lead. Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao was added to the cast in November 2011, which proved false, and he was replaced by Girish Karnad, while Prakash Raj was also reported to be playing an important role. The following month, Nassar was selected to portray a police officer.

A large group of young aspiring artists were roped in to be part of the fight sequences which are touted be the highlight of the film. The artists were trained for over 6 months at Mansuria Kung Fu YMCA, Nandanam, Chennai. A lot of the kung fu content of the film were handled by R. Shekhar.

Effects and design
High-end gadgets to be used in the film were reportedly designed by the IIT, while teams from the NIFT were roped in to create the costumes and looks of the characters. Furthermore, a Los Angeles-based firm would handle special effects of the film. The team travelled four countries to finalize the Jiiva's suits and finalized in Hong Kong. The costumes were designed by Gabriella Wilkins. Wilkins and her 10 assistants took six months to design the costume, including suit, mask, cap and the belt. A dozen suits and more than 30 different masks were created for the character, out of which Mysskin chose the best. Costume designer Amritha Ram also worked on Jiiva's costume which weights more than 10 kg.

Filming
The shooting of the film started officially on 12 December 2011, with the opening scene of kung fu as that was spoken about. The film is expected to be released during Summer 2012. The film was being canned in the nights in and around Triplicane in Chennai where the fight scene of Jiiva and Narain was shot in terrace. Mysskin is planning a 20-day schedule to shoot the climax at Karaikal. The shoot concluded at Karaikal where daredevil stunts were performed by the lead actor at an altitude of 180 feet high where in the Karaikal port's conveyor belt passes over. Many scenes were also filmed at AVM studio where huge hospital set was erected and also at Victoria hall, Deaf and Dumb school. Tony Leung Siu Hung, a stunt coordinator from Hong Kong, has joined the climax shoot of the film that is being canned in a massive scale at Karaikal in May 2012. The team moved to Europe to shoot two song at Alps in late July 2012. Later, the team moved to Switzerland to shoot a song and filming wrapped in early August 2012.

Post-production
Post-production for the film begin once the film completed its shooting and went for several months as the film involved extensive computer graphics and visual effects. A Los Angeles-based firm handled special effects of the film.

The final copy of the film was ready by mid August 2012, and was submitted to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) that month. On 21 August 2012, the film received a U certificate from the Censor Board, with a finalized runtime of 162 minutes.

Music
Mugamoodi's score and soundtrack were composed by K, who had worked on Mysskin's previous venture Yuddham Sei as well. The soundtrack features eleven tracks, including a number of instrumentals. The soundtrack album was released on 20 July 2012 at Sathyam Cinemas; it was presented by Vijay and received by Kannada lead actor Puneeth Rajkumar.

Marketing
In June 2012, it was reported that the film's marketing would begin soon. The first look and trailer launch of Mugamoodi took place in a grand scale on 29 June 2012 at Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai. The trailer was launched by Suriya and received by director N. Lingusamy while the first look was released by Suriya and Gautham Vasudev Menon. Including the film's cast and crew, K. V. Anand, A. L. Vijay, Yaar Kannan, S. P. Jananathan, Lakshmy Ramakrishnan, Elred Kumar, Kalaipuli S. Thanu, R. B. Choudary, K. E. Gnanavel Raja, T. Siva were also present at the event.

Theatrical
The film was released worldwide screens on 31 August 2012 and it would be the 100th film to be released in 2012. The film was dubbed and released in Telugu as Mask and in Hindi as Mahabali Ek Super Hero.

Mugamoodi was released in over 500 screens in Tamil Nadu, and also opened in neighbouring states in good number of screens as well as in northern parts of India including Delhi and Mumbai. The film was released simultaneously in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, United Kingdom, US and other parts of the world.

Distribution
In July 2012, it was reported that the film would be released simultaneously in Telugu and Hindi languages. Later, Jiiva's father R. B. Choudary acquired the Telugu dubbing rights of the film. The Telugu version titled Mask was released by Mega Super Good Films. The Hindu version titled Mahabali Ek Super Hero was distributed by UTV Motion Pictures.

Home media
The satellite rights of the film was acquired by Sun TV. The digital rights of the film were sold to Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar and Sun NXT.

Critical response
Upon release, Mugamoodi earned praise for the VFX, action sequences, direction, music and the lead casts performances, but criticism for the script.

Prakash Upadhyaya of Oneindia gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and recommended the film and wrote "Mysskin's approach to Mugamoodi is realistic, like before, and he has not tried to add unnecessary commercial elements." The Times of India rated the film with 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote "Jiiva easily slips into the skin of the character (and also his superhero costume), and his hard work on the kung fu sequences shows on screen." Behindwoods gave 3/5 starts and told that it had a "pacy first half, [a] slow second half but [was] compensated by the overall performance and effort of the cast & crew." R S Prakash of Mumbai Mirror rated the film with 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote "In comparison, the film’s first half is better than the second. The opening scenes are deadly till the director opts for a different route to tell the tale." Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff gave 2/5 stars and wrote "This superhero might have the best of intentions, but Mysskin's screenplay fails him spectacularly."

Reviewing the film News18 wrote, "The whole story is woven around a youth (Jiiva), who loves kung fu legend, Bruce Lee and call himself as Lee." IBNLive cited that the film had a "different flavour" and wrote "For those who love the West and East's action films, Mugamoodi combines both to give some pleasure." Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu noted that it "travels on a terrain that’s new to Tamil cinema" and wrote "Mysskin's effort to make Mugamoodi appear as authentic as possible deserves to be commended." Sify termed it as average and wrote "Mugamoodi is a one-time watch for Mysskin and Jiiva’s attempt to do something different. It has very good music and background score by K, but lacks a proper script and a racy presentation."

Box office
Mugamoodi had higher occupancy on its opening day. The film grossed ₹10 crores in 3 days of its release. The Tamil and Telugu versions alone got ₹9 crores in India, with ₹2 crores from Andhra Pradesh. The film was also well received at Malaysia. The film was box office success at the end of its theatrical run.

Potential sequel
Reports of a planned sequel of Mugamoodi began surfacing prior to the film's release, stating Mysskin planned to release sequels every year. Later, the reports suggested that Mysskin had the script of Mugamoodi 2, with same casts part of it. Later, it was reported that the film would shot bigger in scale, in 3D. Jiiva in an interview said that he will only do sequel if the makers find lighter and friendlier costume.