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Devan
Devan
	Poster
Directed by	Arun Pandian
Written by	Arun Pandian
Produced by	Arun Pandian
Starring	Vijayakanth; Karthik; Arun Pandian; Meena; Kausalya
Cinematography	P. Selvakumar
Edited by	B. S. Vasu; Saleem
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Production; company	Friends Creations
Release date	14 June 2002;
Running time	175 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Devan is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Arun Pandian marking his debut as a director. The film stars himself in the title role being his 50th project as an actor^[1] with Meena and Kausalya, while Vivek and Malayalam actor Sai Kumar play supporting roles. Actors Vijayakanth, Karthik and Senthil make guest appearances. Sai Kumar made his Tamil debut with this film. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The film was released on 14 June 2002.^[2]

Plot

The movie opens with Alex Devan murdering photographer Jeeva in cold blood in the latter's house. Jeeva strategically positions a video camera to capture the impending murder, but Devan's face is not captured on it. Jeeva shouts out the name of his killer before dying, but the audio is lost at that point.

While the police search for the killer, Devan zeroes in on Chetta Raghu as his next target. He follows Chetta to Chandigarh but is apprehended by CBI officer Rathnavel. Rathnavel is a tasked with bringing down hoarders and black marketers of India's staple grains. Once Rathnavel realises that Chetta is a mastermind of the hoarding operation, he begins to help Devan, even hiring successful lawyer Chakravarthy to fight for him.

The flashback shows that Devan's sister Jacqueline was killed by Chetta. Earlier, Chetta and Devan were friends, but Chetta stalks and harasses Jacqueline. He peeps on her when she is bathing, and when she finds out about it, she slaps him in public. Chetta decides to take revenge. On Jacqueline's wedding day, he drugs her and sends her to church in the bridal costume with no dress underneath. Chetta then grabs her costume from the car, thus rendering her completely naked in public. He then shoots her and her groom. Devan is framed for the crime and wants to avenge his sister's death.

In the end, Chetta is killed.

Cast

Vijayakanth as Rathnavel IPS, Deputy Director CBI (guest appearance)
Karthik as Lawyer Chakravarthy (guest appearance)
Arun Pandian as Alex Devan (director)
Meena as Uma
Kausalya as Jacqueline, Devan's sister
Vivek as Saravanan
Sai Kumar as Chetta Raghu
Chandrasekhar as Chandran
Senthil as Police officer (guest appearance)
Vijayan as the Police inspector
Thalaivasal Vijay as Jeeva
Pandu as Kaalimuthu
Vinu Chakravarthy as Politician
Karikalan as Inspector Ravikumar
Ajay Rathnam as Police Officer
Rajmohan as Shiva
Nandha as Nandha
Mohan Raman as Anantharaman
Bayilvan Ranganathan as Parrot astrologer
Kovai Senthil as a Company worker
Marthandan as a Company worker
Citizen Mani as Mani
Boys Rajan as Travel agent
Mudhalvan Rajendran as the Police inspector
Srilatha as a Company worker
Minnal Deepa as Bhavana

Production

The film was Arun Pandian's 50th film as actor and debut film as director. The climax scene was shot in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, at the harbour, where underwater sequences were shot, using helicopters and ships, 3000 tractors, 50 buses, and 200 camels. Says Arun Pandian, "It's a story that I penned about 10 years back. Earlier when I casually talked to Vijayakanth about my intention of directing a film he had said that he would definitely act whenever I directed it. I reminded him of it and he promptly agreed. He was confident and didn't have any apprehension that I being the actor-director would give more footage to myself!".^[3]^[4] Vijayakanth made a special appearance, and charged no remuneration for doing so.^[5]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack and background score were composed by music director Ilaiyaraaja. ^[6]^[7]

No.	Song	Singers	Lyrics
1	"Intha Ezhai Geetham"	Ilaiyaraaja	Palani Bharathi
2	"Kanda Kanda Pasanga"	S. N. Surendar, P. Unnikrishnan
3	"Sexy Bomb"	Mathangi, Ganga, Viji Manuel
4	"Teenagela"	Mathangi, Febi Mani
5	"Thaalaattum Kaatre"	Sujatha, Hariharan
6	"Thaalaattum Kaatre"	Ilaiyaraaja

Release and reception

A reviewer wrote:"An interesting screenplay, with suspense, action, vendetta and patriotism weaved in, the male characters are well-etched, and the female characters given just enough scope to justify their presence in the film. Only that the film is a bit too lengthy and could have been trimmed a little".^[8] Chennaionline.com wrote "‘Devan’ is an impressive debut by actor-turned-director Arun Pandian".^[9] The Hindu wrote "There is a laudable theme that has been touched upon and, of course, plenty of action. Probably proper pruning and crisp narration would have done "Devan" a world of good".^[10] Cinesouth wrote "Story, Screenplay, Produced and Directed by- Arun Pandian. He had done a good job as he blended suspense and realistic screenplay very well initially, but as soon as Vijayakanth makes his entry, Arun Pandian begins to loose his grip on the screenplay. Even a newborn could easily predict the next step that he intends to take when the court releases him. The screenplay is so predictable and routine. However, all these drawbacks are very well covered up by the excellent performances by the lead artists and the magnificent cinematography of Selvakumar. These two factors have together rescued 'Devan' from being an utter disaster".^[11]