Seemaraja

Seemaraja is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language masala film written and directed by Ponram, marking his 3rd collaboration with Sivakarthikeyan, after Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam and Rajinimurugan. The movie was produced by R. D. Raja. The film stars Sivakarthikeyan in a double role with Simran and Lal playing negative role along with Samantha, with a supporting cast including Soori, Napoleon, and Keerthy Suresh in a cameo appearance. The film features music composed by D. Imman and cinematography by Balasubramaniam. The movie was released on 13 September 2018, coinciding with the festival of Vinayagar Chathurthi.

Plot
There's this guy, Seema Raja, right? He’s a king from this place called Singampatti, and he’s basically royalty because he comes from a Zamindar family. His grandpa is this legendary dude named Kadambavel Raja. Seema Raja is always hanging out with his accountant buddy, Kannaku.

One day, the principal from a nearby school invites Seema Raja’s dad, Ariya Raja, to some awards ceremony. But his dad’s super busy, so Seema Raja decides to go instead. There, he meets this amazing sports teacher named Suthanthira Selvi, who’s also a total Silambam expert (that's this cool martial art with sticks). He falls head over heels for her the moment he sees her.

Now, let’s talk about the bad guys: Kaaleeshwari and Kathaadi Kannan. Kannan used to be a butcher but got into buying up tons of land to make wind farms. He’s all about the money and doesn’t care that his plans are wrecking agriculture. This, of course, makes him Seema Raja’s enemy.

Kannan kidnaps Selvi and locks her up at his place. Then we get this flashback revealing that Selvi is actually Kannan’s daughter from his first marriage. Kannan ditched his first wife for Kaaleeshwari, and his ex-wife was so heartbroken she ended her life. Ariya Raja tries to stop Kannan’s land grab, but the villagers, who feel abandoned, mock him, and he dies of a broken heart. At the funeral, Seema Raja is super sad, and his grandpa gives him a serious pep talk about their brave ancestor, Kadambavel, and all his epic battles against invaders. This gets Seema Raja all fired up to take on his responsibilities.

Meanwhile, Selvi is stuck, and she’s got to pretend everything’s okay because Kaaleshwari threatens to kill her sister if she tries to escape. When Seema Raja tries to get her out legally, she keeps saying, "ask my father" to every police question, and the case gets shut down. But Seema Raja, being clever, figures out she’s speaking in code. He talks to her foster father and learns she loves him.

Seema Raja then comes up with this genius plan. He makes a deal with the Raj of Udaipur to set up wind farms while still allowing the villagers to farm and earn money from the land. The villagers are skeptical at first but eventually agree. Kannan is livid. Seema Raja goes to rescue Selvi, but Kannan and Kaaleeshwari chase them down, recapture her, and try to hang her from a wind turbine. Just in time, Seema Raja swoops in, saves her, and in the big showdown, Kaaleeshwari gets crushed by the wind turbine, and Kannan is defeated.

In the end, Seema Raja and Selvi live happily ever after. Epic, right?

Production
On 17 August 2016, R. D. Raja announced that he would produce a film directed by Ponram starring Sivakarthikeyan in the lead role, with the film marking the third collaboration of the pair after the successful ventures of Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam (2013) and Rajini Murugan (2016). D Imman has composed the music score for the film which is being bankrolled by 24 AM Studios and slated to hit the screens on Vinayakar Chathurthi. Raja announced that the film would begin in early 2017 and be released for the Diwali season of 2017. Samantha was signed on to star in the film as the lead actress and Soori was also confirmed to be a part of the cast during mid-August 2016. Music composer D. Imman, cinematographer Balasubramaniem and editor Vivek Harshan were also retained to be a part of the project from the director's previous films. Meanwhile, T. Muthuraj was signed as an art director for this film, replacing G. Durairaj who earlier works for Ponram's earlier films. For her role in the film, Samantha began learning the art of silambam in late 2016. However, production on the film was postponed to allow Sivakarthikeyan to finish his commitments for Raja's two other ongoing ventures, Remo (2016) and Velaikkaran (2017). During the delay, Ponram also denied reports of it being a period film and revealed it would along the lines of his previous ventures.

The film commenced with a launch event held on 16 June 2017, with Simran, Napoleon and Lal joining the cast. Simran was revealed to play a character with negative shades along with Lal, while Napoleon was signed to portray the father of Sivakarthikeyan. The first schedule started in Thenkasi on the following day, with scenes involving the lead cast shot. By late November 2017, the team revealed that "fifty five per cent" of the film's shoot was over, before starting the third schedule of the shoot. The film progressed untitled until February 2018 when the title of Seema Raja was announced to the public through a first look poster. In this film, actress Keerthy Suresh got the third chance to act with Sivakarthikeyan in a cameo role. Actor Soori is sporting a six pack for the film. This film shooting wrapped up on 19 June 2018. The film has some historical portion in which Sivakarthikeyan appears as a King, and Keerthy Suresh puts in a special appearance as Sivakarthikeyan's Queen.

Release
The distribution rights for Seema Raja in Poland were acquired by 7th Sense Cinematics. The film released on 13 September 2018. This film satellite rights was acquired by Sun TV.

Development
In 2016, during the announcement of the next venture of R. D. Raja's production company 24AM Studios, which was directed by Ponram, D. Imman was roped in to compose the soundtrack, which will be their third collaboration with Sivakarthikeyan-Ponram combo.

Release
The first single was released on 25 July 2018. The audio launch was held on 17 August 2018, at Madurai, featuring the cast and crew and all other celebrities in attendance. After the audio release, 24AM Studios and Think Music India teamed up with Can-Lah Studio, to organise a Karaoke Booth, for the film's promotional purposes. The first Karaoke Booth event held on 25 August 2018, at Phoenix Marketcity, Velachery, Chennai and another Karaoke Booth held on 30 August 2018, at Madurai and Coimbatore respectively.

Track listing
The soundtrack album features twelve songs composed by D. Imman, with four songs as Karaoke versions, and one instrumental version.

Box office
The film was Sivakarthikeyan's biggest opening and collected inr 220000000 at the opening weekend at the box office.

Critical reception
Seemaraja received mostly mixed reviews from critics. Janani.K of Indiatoday wrote "Director Ponram's Seema Raja starring Sivakarthikeyan and Samantha is a pointless rural drama that has nothing new in it. It is a brainless mass film."

Srinivasa Ramanujam of The Hindu says "Director Ponram seems to have clearly missed a trick by trying out to put in too many commercial elements and excelling in none."

Priyanka Sundar of Hindustan Times wrote "This Sivakarthikeyan movie is a colourless comedy."