August 16 1947
Theatrical release poster
Directed byN. S. Ponkumar
Written byN. S. Ponkumar
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySelvakumar S. K.
Edited byR. Sudharsan
Music bySean Roldan
Production
companies
A. R. Murugadoss Productions
Purple Bull Entertainment
God Bless Entertainment
Release date
  • 7 April 2023 (2023-04-07)
Running time
144 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil
Box officeest.₹1 crore[1]

August 16 1947 is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language historical drama film written and directed by N.S. Ponkumar, and produced by AR Murugadoss, Om Prakash Bhatt, Narsiram Choudhary, Vakil Khan Under the banner of A. R. Murugadoss productions, Purple Bull Entertainment, and God bless entertainment. The film stars Gautham Karthik, Jason Shah, Pugazh, Junior MGR, Richard Ashton, and Revathy Sharma in lead roles. It was released on 7 April 2023.

Plot

The film depicts Paraman's (Gautham Karthik) struggle against the brutality of British general Robert Clive against the villagers of Sengadu near Puliangudi. A British general named Robert, called 'Durai' by the natives, is cruel and kills many natives to ensure efficient production of cotton. He makes them work 16 hours a day. His son, Justin tortures many native girls for his happiness. When India gets independence, Robert does not inform the natives so they are mislead to think they are still slaves. Justin sets his eyes on a 'zamindar's daughter. The ensuing struggle to save themselves and the girl forms the remaining story.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Sean Roldan.[2]

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Seenikaari"Mohan RajanSean Roldan and Sathyaprakash Dharmar4:04
2."Kottikara Payalae"NS PonkumarSean Roldan and Meenakshi Ilayaraja4:10
Total length:8:14

Release

The film was released worldwide in theatres on 7 April 2023 in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam and English languages.[3] It began streaming on Amazon Prime Video from 5 May 2023.[4][5]

Reception

Bhuvanesh Chandar for The Hindu wrote "The film never redeems itself from these issues and that's the biggest problem with August 16, 1947: the freedom fight that is meant to be the very purpose of this story is nothing but the result of one man's glorious clarion call of a speech, and the course of action that they do isn't clever enough either."[6] Saibal Chatterjee for NDTV rated 1 star out of 5 stars and wrote "It seems to have been written in haste and staged without much thought. The storyline is a maze, the characters are riddled with contradictions and the general tone of the drama is beyond shrill."[7]

Kirubhakar Purushothaman for The Indian Express wrote "In essence, August 16, 1947 and Vetrimaaran's Viduthalai are pretty much about the same subject, freedom. Even their plots have obvious similarities. Both films are about villages suffering from authoritative forces."[8] Dhaval Roy for The Times of India rated the film 3 stars out of 5 and wrote "The scenes of atrocities on the people are created realistically and are disturbing in many instances. T Santhanam's art direction and the tribals' look (one person wears massive padlocks on his elongated earlobes) deserve mention."[9]

Vinamra Mathur for Firstpost wrote "Murugadoss' films, even the ones wholly underwhelming, have had some moments of pathos and genuine thrill, even Darbar and Spyder. August 16, 1947, I'm afraid, is devoid of tension and thrill."[10] Janani K of India Today wrote "Gautham Karthik as Paraman delivered an earnest performance in the film. Pugazh is his sidekick and gets to play a serious role. In the second half, his performance stood out."[11]

Nandini Ramnath for Scroll.in wrote "Director Ponkumar has simply been too swept away by his RRR knockoff to bring his saga of suffering to a close. Emancipation from the unremitting histrionics never quite comes."[12] Mudit Bhatnagar for Zoom TV praised Gautham Karthik's performance and wrote "Gautham Karthik as Param is extremely believable. He hasn't gone overboard in the emotional scenes, thus making a movie packed with disturbing elements a little less heavy."[13]

However, a critic from Dinamalar gave 2.75 out of 5 stars and gave a mixed review.[14] Umesh Punvani of Koimoi rated the film 1/5 and said "All said and done, it had an emotional subject in hand, but still, what's lacking from the film are emotions."[15]

References

  1. ↑ "August 16 1947 Box Office". Bollywood Hungama. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 17 April 2023.
  2. ↑ B, Jayabhuvaneshwari (13 March 2023). "Second single from August 16 1947 out". Cinema Express. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  3. ↑ "August 16, 1947 new poster teases an untold story about India's independence, announces release date". The Indian Express. 3 March 2023. Archived from the original on 12 April 2023. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  4. ↑ B, Jayabhuvaneshwari (5 May 2023). "August 16 1947 gets an OTT release date". Cinema Express. Archived from the original on 5 May 2023. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  5. ↑ "Tamil period drama 'August 16, 1947," starring Gautham Karthik, will stream on OTT from today onwards". The Times of India. 5 May 2023. Archived from the original on 21 November 2023. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  6. ↑ Chandar, Bhuvanesh (7 April 2023). "'August 16, 1947' movie review: Insipid screenplay kills an intriguing freedom struggle story". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  7. ↑ Chatterjee, Saibal (7 April 2023). "August 16, 1947 Review: Does Any Of It Make Sense? Nope". NDTV. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  8. ↑ Purushothaman, Kirubhakar (7 April 2023). "August 16 1947 review: Tedious screenwriting spoils a promising premise". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  9. ↑ Roy, Dhaval (6 April 2023). "August 16 1947 Movie Review : High production value makes this worth a watch". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  10. ↑ Mathur, Vinamra (7 April 2023). "Gautham Karthik, Pugazh, Revathy Sharma's August 1947 movie review". Firstpost. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  11. ↑ K, Janani (7 April 2023). "August 16 1947 Movie Review: Gautham Karthik's film is a flavourless period drama". India Today. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  12. ↑ Ramnath, Nandini (7 April 2023). "'August 16 1947' review: A brain-numbing emancipation saga". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  13. ↑ Bhatnagar, Mudit (6 April 2023). "August 16 1947 Movie Review: Gautham Karthik, Revathy Sharma's Love Story Fuels Uprising Against British Dictator". Zoom TV. Archived from the original on 9 April 2023. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  14. ↑ "ஆகஸ்ட் 16 – 1947 - விமர்சனம்". Dinamalar (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
  15. ↑ Punwani, Umesh (8 April 2023). "August 16 1947 Movie Review: Ghajini Director Has Produced This, Why Didn't He Forget About This Idea?". Koimoi. Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2023.
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