Singam II

Singam II is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Hari and produced by S. Lakshman Kumar. A sequel to the 2010 film Singam and the second installment in the Singam film series, the film stars Suriya, Danny Sapani, Anushka Shetty, Hansika Motwani, Mukesh Rishi, Rahman, Santhanam and Vivek. The music was composed by Devi Sri Prasad, while cinematography and editing were handled by Priyan and V. T. Vijayan.

Singam II was released on 5 July 2013 to positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success at the box office. A sequel titled Si3 was released on 9 February 2017.

Plot
Eight months after the events from the previous film, Durai Singam goes on an undercover mission working as an NCC master in a Thoothukudi school and studies the illegal activities happening in the city. The only people who know about the operation are the Chief Minister Kumaravel and Home Minister Ramanathan. Sathya is a +2 student who has heavy infatuation on Singam, though he is waiting to marry his love interest Kavya. Singam's father Soundarapandi is enraged about him leaving the police force, where he also forbids the marriage between Singam and Kavya, as he fears that Kavya's billionaire father Mahalingam might take Singam away to manage his business empire and that Singam will lose respect with his relatives.

Susai, a local who works as peon at Singam's school, shows the parts of Thoothukudi and tells about the rogue happenings in those places to Singam. Singam requests Ramanathan to transfer his colleagues Erimalai and Damodarai to assist him. Singam later learns that Sathya is the niece of an influential crime boss named Thangaraj, who is involved in Financial and Seaway scams. Thangaraj is in partnership with Bhai, who controls the southeast coastline of Tamil Nadu. Bhai and Thangaraj have connections with the international gangster and drug lord Michael Kong aka Danny. Singam does not know about their connection and keeps Bhai in his off-duty surveillance. Due to a verbal fight in a pub, Bhai's chief Saghayam, a drug importer, kidnaps a girl from another caste after her brother insults him, and holds her ransom until sunset. This causes riots between both gangs in the city, and Singam's school principal has to close the school for the day.

With his connections, Singam takes charge as new DSP and saves the girl, where he is praised by the public and also forgiven by his father. Sathya learns that Kavya and Singam are strongly in love and distances herself from them. Later, Singam finds out about Thangaraj and Bhai's partnership, where he decides to arrest Saghayam at the harbour, who has brought Danny with him to attend Thangaraj's new hotel party. Sagayam is arrested, along with Danny for insulting the police. Thangaraj tries to make Singam release the duo, but to no avail. Bhai sends an army of goons to bust Danny and Saghayam out of prison. Singam's efforts are spoiled and is suspended for unruly behavior. Singam warns Bhai that he knows about Danny and will return soon. Singam meets Ramanathan at Chennai and proposes plans for an operation to arrest all of Danny's associates in India. Singam is re-appointed and gets his superior suspended. He gets authorization to kill drug dealers on sight even without evidence.

Since the next load of drugs is ready to be delivered by Danny, Bhai decides that Saghayam will deliver the drugs to him in Kerala and will bring it back, but is arrested by Singam. At Singam's engagement function, Mayil Vaaganam's former ally "Harbour" Shanmugam informs him that Thangaraj has hired goons to attack his family that night. Singam fights the goons himself where he places a drug bag inside Thangaraj's house and imprisons him. The next day, Singam learns that Sathya been murdered in an honor killing by consuming poison, despite previously being told by Singam about her uncle's illegal activities. Enraged, Singam seeks permission from Ramanathan for traveling to South Africa as his marriage will take place in three days. Singam arrives in South Africa and joins Major Kyle Ambrose and the police to confront Danny, who has taken sanctuary with Durban-based gangster Alex. Singam and the Durban police chases them, where he defeats Alex's men and arrests Danny. Singam drags Danny to the same police station from which he escaped. Singam reunites with Kavya and gets promoted to DCP for his efforts.

Production
Reprising their roles from the original film are Anushka Shetty, Vivek, Vijayakumar, Nassar, and Radha Ravi while Hansika Motwani was signed on as the second female lead. British actor Danny Sapani plays the main antagonist. The actress Anjali is also featured in an item number. Prakash Raj did not return for the sequel, but he can be seen in clips from Singam that are intermittently featured during Singam II. The film was shot mainly in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Tuticorin, Chennai, Tirunelveli and Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu. The director has also filmed some of the key songs, stunts and talkie portions in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, as well as Malaysia and Kenya. Primary production began in September 2012 and lasted for seven months until filming was wrapped up on 30 April 2013.

Development
Devi Sri Prasad, who had also worked on the score of Singam, returned for Singam II. Bollywood singer Baba Sehgal had recorded a song in the film following the success of his "Kadhal Vandhale" number from the original. The soundtrack was released on 2 June 2013, a day after its originally scheduled launch in a grand event attended by several celebrities.

Reception
Times of India gave the album 3/5 stars and stated that "DSP gets a foot-tapping album in Singam 2, though it sounds uncomfortably very similar to Singam." BehindWoods gave the album 2.5 stars out of 5, stating that it is "a straight forward, nothing fancy, DSP album." IndiaGlitz also gave it 2.5 stars in a scale of 5, concluding that the album is "strictly for the masses, targeting the masala aspect."

Release
The release date was confirmed to be 5 July 2013. Singam II released in about 1500 screens worldwide, one of the largest releases for a Tamil film. The film released in a record 151 screens in Kerala and 63 screens in USA.

Critical response
Shekhar of Oneindia wrote "Singam 2 is a typical Hari style movie, which is routine, loud, long and racy, but he has made it an enjoyable action entertainer." S. Saraswathi of Rediff gave 3/5 stars and wrote "The Hari-Suriya combination seemed to have worked its magic once again. The screen presence and charisma of Suriya coupled with brilliance of Hari’s screenplay and direction makes Singam 2 a joyful experience." Behindwoods gave 3.25/5 stars and wrote "To sum it all, with Hari’s racy screenplay and Suriya’s terrific screen personality, Singam 2 strikes big time. Mass masala guaranteed!." Deccan Chronicle wrote "Even if you are not a Suriya fan, Singam 2 is worth a watch. The film roars rather well." Zee News wrote "‘Singam 2’ is definitely bigger, but it never gets better in the process of entertaining its viewers. It has a storyline that could keep you hooked but what doesn`t work in the favour of the film is the presence of too many characters and a weak screenplay." The Times of India gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "If Singam was mass masala, then Singam-2 is doubly so. Hari is clear about what entertainment he wants to dole out to his audiences and goes about delivering it unapologetically." Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu wrote "Hari keeps his scenes extremely short, and if this prevents us from forming any sort of lingering attachment with the characters, at least we aren't allowed to dwell on anything long enough to get bored." News18 gave 2/5 stars and wrote "'Singam 2' is definitely bigger, but it never gets better in the process of entertaining its viewers."

Other versions
The Telugu dubbed version simply titled Singam, also known as Yamudu II was also released along with the original version on 5 July 2013. The film's Telugu version was distributed by K. E. Gnanavel Raja's Studio Green. A Hindi dubbed version entitled Main Hoon Surya: Singham II was released later on 2 August.

Box office
Singam II had a sold-out opening with as much as 95–100% occupancy. The film collected inr 92500000 on its opening day in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, while the Telugu dubbed version Yamudu II collected inr 37500000. The film grossed a record inr 500000000 on its first weekend worldwide.

In the UK and USA, it earned inr 5960000 and inr 14700000 respectively on its opening weekend. The film earned inr 118000000 in Chennai by the fourth week. And after seven weeks, the amount totalled at inr 133000000. According to Sify.com, the film stayed inside the top five positions at Chennai box office continuously for eight weeks after its release and was declared a 'Superhit'. The film completed a 50 days theatrical run on 23 August 2013.

The film's Telugu version Yamudu II was an unusual success and earned inr 140000000 in ten days from Andhra Pradesh. The film was successful in Karnataka and Kerala as well, collecting about inr 69000000 and inr 46000000 in its first ten days, respectively.

It performed exceptionally well in the Malaysian market, earning around inr 99800000 within four weeks. The film was the third highest Tamil grosser in Malaysia after Enthiran and Sivaji at that point. The film's total business in UK after a one-month run was pegged at inr 17900000. Singam II completed 100 days in several screens across Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh on 12 October 2013. The film was the second highest-grossing Tamil film of the year 2013 after Vishwaroopam.

The film grossed approximately ₹1.36 billion worldwide in its lifetime.

Sequel
The third part of the Singam film series was initially scheduled to enter production in December 2015. Suriya and Anushka will reprise their roles. Production on the film was, however, postponed due to climatic conditions in Chennai. Principal photography eventually began on 17 December with the filming of a song sequence, while regular shooting was scheduled to happen later in the month, though it was later moved to January 2016. Regular shooting commenced on 7 January 2016, with the film's title being revealed as Singam 3. After a long gap, continuous postponement of the film release took place. In that while the film's title was changed from Singam 3 to Si 3 for acquiring tax exemption.