Durai Singam
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| Durai Singam | |
|---|---|
| Singam (film series) character | |
 | |
First appearance |
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Last appearance |
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| Created by | Hari |
| Portrayed by | Suriya |
| In-universe information | |
| Occupation | Police officer, NCC master (formerly) |
| Spouse | Kavya Mahalingam |
Durai Singam is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Singam franchise, introduced in the 2010 self-titled film. He is introduced as an honest but ferocious police officer who come into conflict with criminals, gangsters and high-ranked to put an end to their reign of terror. Singam would later appear in the sequels Singam II (2013) and Si3 (2017), as well as Karuppu (2026). The character was created by Hari and continually portrayed by Suriya.
Development
[edit]Singam, the 25th film for Suriya as lead actor, was announced in April 2009. It is his third collaboration with director Hari after Aaru (2005) and Vel (2007), as well as Suriya's second film as a police officer after Kaakha Kaakha (2003) and the second police film directed by Hari after Saamy (2003). Suriya revealed that he and Hari initially did not want to do another police film as they felt the previous two were "still fresh in the minds of the audience" but decided to proceed after Suriya liked the pitch provided by Hari. Many aspects of the character were either maintained or developed through the upcoming instalments. The actor sported a handlebar moustache for his role. Hari stated that while the first film was primarily shot within Tamil Nadu and the second featured a few scenes in South Africa, the third part would be more "international" and would be set in three countries as the protagonist tackles a global issue.[1][2] In preparation for his role, Suriya bulked up his physique by spending more hours in the gym and by adopting a strict oil-free diet.[3]
Fictional character biography
[edit]Conflict with Mayil Vaaganam
[edit]Sub-Inspector Duraisingam "Singam", an honest police officer, lives in Nallur, a small village in Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil Nadu, and is assisted by his bumbling colleague Erimalai. Singam belongs to Nallur with his father, Soundarapandi, having a respectable status in the village. His family business is provision stores, and Singam wants to join it, but he joined the police force due to Soundarapandi's wishes. Singam resolves most of the problems in his village with non-violence and mutual counselling. He uses force only when the situation demands it, thereby earning great respect and affection from the villagers.
Mahalingam, an industrialist in Chennai and a friend of Soundarapandi, arrives at the village with his daughters Kavya and Divya. Singam initially assumes Kavya is a prankster when she is about to prank her cousin by wearing a tiger costume. While roaming around the village, Singam accidentally slaps Kavya, but later apologises to her. Kavya gets moved by this and slowly falls in love with him. After some hilarious incidents, Kavya professes her love to Singam. Initially taken aback, Singam reciprocates Kavya's love.
Mayil Vaaganam, a Chennai-based thug infamous for extortion and kidnapping, who often earns money by blackmailing industrialists about their black money to the income tax. One day, Mayil threatens an old industrialist with payment of extortion money, otherwise trapping him in a fake rape case. The old man commits suicide and for that, Mayil is required to travel to Nallur to sign a conditional bail. Mayil instead sends one of his allies to do the formalities, enraging Singam. Singam demands that Mayil sign the bail in person. A humiliated Mayil reaches Nallur, but is unable to take any revenge on Singam, fearing the immense love and devotion of the entire village towards Singam. Using his political contacts, Mayil gets Singam transferred to Chennai to teach him a lesson. Unaware of Mayil's hand behind his transfer, Singam joins the Thiruvanmiyur police station. His co-worker, SI Ravi, hates Mayil for his crimes, but is unable to take any action because of Mayil's political powers. Singam's senior Rajendran is on Mayil's payroll and takes care in concealing and eliminating evidence of Mayil's crimes.
The police commissioner does not help Singam because there is a lack of evidence against Mayil. Rajendran warns Singam to stay away from Mayil's case. Unable to take on Mayil in his stronghold, Singam wants to return to his village, but is stopped by Kavya, who encourages him to fight against Mayil and end his crime network. Being mentally tortured by Mayil, Singam decides to quit the job but is motivated by Kavya and as a result, Singam arrests Mayil's brother, Vaikuntam, in a fake case of illegally smuggling alcohol. He thwarts Rajendran in full view of the public when Rajendran, bound by his duties to Mayil, tries to protect the henchmen. Mayil kidnaps Divya for ransom from Mahalingam. Singam rescues her and arrested some hooligans of Mayil. Mahalingam, who was hostile to Singam following an altercation with Soundarapandi back at Nallur, softens up and agrees to give him Kavya's hand in marriage.
Singam successfully traces the origins of the kidnapping racket to Mayil and also gets promoted to ACP of the specially-formed Anti-Kidnapping Task Force by the Home Minister Ramanathan.
The entire police force, including the police commissioner and Rajendran, is now on Singam's side and helps him to fight Mayil.They manage to kill Mayil's henchmen in an encounter at a hospital and begin to target everyone and everything related to Mayil. In retribution, Mayil starts targeting everyone close to Singam, including Kavya, but is saved by Singam and Ravi, who is hacked to death by Mayil. To escape from getting arrested, Mayil kidnaps the daughter of the Karnataka Home Minister.
Mayil falsely tells Singam that he is going to Pondicherry with her, but he is going to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh to put the police off the track. However, Singam manages to pursue them till Gudur near Nellore, where he rescues her and kills Mayil in an encounter. Singam resigns from his job publicly in a felicitation function organised for him, where he heads back to Nallur with Kavya. Singam is stopped briefly by Ramanathan, who offers an undercover mission, to which he willingly agrees.
Stopping a drug cartel
[edit]Eight months after killing the extortionist Mayil Vaaganam,[d] resigned police officer 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 12th grade student who falls in love with Singam, though Singam is waiting to marry his lover 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 Karim Bhai 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 alias 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 the new DSP and saves the girl, where he is praised by the public and also forgiven by his father. Sathya learns that Singam and Kavya 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 is dead by consuming poison, despite previously being told by Singam about her uncle's illegal activities. He realises that she didn't die by suicide, but Thangaraj killed her as she knew the truth and to save Danny. Enraged, Singam seeks permission from Ramanathan for traveling to South Africa as his marriage with Kavya 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 a Durban-based don Alex. Singam and the Durban police chases them, where he defeats Alex's and Danny's men and during the chase Alex gets killed. After a long fight, Singam confronts Danny in his ship and arrests him. Singam drags Danny and puts him back to the same cell from which he escaped and made him realise the power of Indian Police. Singam reunites with Kavya and gets promoted to DCP for his efforts.
Transfer to Andhra Pradesh
[edit]A debate occurs within an Andhra Pradesh state assembly about the long-pending murder case of Visakhapatnam city commissioner Ramakrishna. The Home Minister of Andhra Pradesh proposes recruiting Singam from Tamil Nadu to Vizag as the new DCP, by order under the CBI. As Singam arrives in Vizag station, he fends off an attack from a thug, Ravi, who works for Vizag's most influential and powerful don, Madhusudhana Reddy. Singam starts to pretend to be a corrupt cop and secretly investigates the murder of the commissioner.
Singam is followed by Vidya, a journalist disguised a student hoping to write a story on Singam. Singam had previously kept his marital status a secret to protect his wife, but after curiosity from constable Veeram, he lies and closes it as a divorce, revealing the truth only to Inspector Subba Rao. After briefly confronting Bheemli Selvam, Reddy's man who ordered the attack at the train station, Singam finds that a constable at the station has gotten sick from consuming an expired medicine tablet. With help from a paroled hacker named Murali, Singam tracks Mallaiya, who drove Ramakrishna to Vizag harbour on the night of the murder. A local schoolteacher informs Singam that a toxic smoke attack from the nearby dump killed his 32 students, including his grandchildren.
Singam realises that Ramakrishna intended to expose illegal dumping of mediwaste and electronic waste, which included recycled tablets being sold to the public and the smoke attack on the school. The garbage is being imported by Vizag Scraps owner Rajeev Krishna in exchange for free metal scrap delivery to steel companies in Australia. Mallaiya confirms that Reddy, who authorises this business in India, killed Ramakrishna to prevent him from thwarting his operation and witnessed the murder. Reddy and Rajeev's activities are supervised by a wealthy, powerful and corrupt current Commercial Minister of Australia and businessman Vittal Prasad, who receives full support from his father, Union Minister Ram Prasad.
Meanwhile, Vidya writes an article on Singam claiming that he exported Reddy for personal gain and that he is corrupt, putting Singam's reputation on the edge. As a result, Singam has Vidya arrested and fined for discrediting him. Singam begins to eliminate and arrest criminals all over the city, including Selvam, whom he guns down. Later, Singam heads to Vizag harbour to obtain evidence from Reddy's containers, but is attacked by his men while Ravi murders the school teacher. Vittal calls Singam anonymously and threatens to use his influence to kill Singam's family if he doesn't stand down. The next day, Singam chases down Ravi and arrests Reddy. He pays a personal visit to Vittal in Australia while looking into Reddy's contacts, and confirms that he is the one behind the illegal dumping.
Singam narrowly escapes Vittal and returns to India, where he finds that Reddy has been bailed by three criminals, who framed the commissioner for supposed assault on one of their wives, and justify the murder as vengeance. Singam is also fired from the CBI for speaking out of turn, but the Home Minister transfers him as an officer in Vizag to continue pursuing Reddy's men. Singam exposes the garbage containers to the public, forcing Vittal to arrive at Vizag. When Vittal warns him again to stay out of his way, Singam responds by having Subbu Rao kill Reddy, whom previously killed his 9-year-old son in a city riot to defend Ram Prasad's position. Singam brings Vittal to his station and gives him another chance to repent. Singam and Kavya later visit Thoothukudi to attend Kavya's grandmother's funeral. They are followed by Rajeev, who is arrested. When Vidya attempts to interview Vittal, she is captured and drugged. With help from Murali, Singam rescues Vidya, but is targeted by Vittal's men, who bomb the police station.
Singam decides to finish this once and for all and gets an arrest warrant for Vittal using computer evidence of agreements signed with medical companies, hacked by Murali. The next day, Singam pursues Vittal all the way to Hyderabad Airport in Telangana and has him arrested. Vittal escapes police custody and runs into a nearby forest, where Singam catches him and fights with him. After a long fight, Vittal dies there, encountered by Singam. Singam regains his post and respect while Ram Prasad is removed from the cabinet position for assisting his son. Kavya is revealed to be 6 months pregnant, and Vidya severs contact with Singam after getting engaged to a good prospect. Singam receives a call from Home Minister Ramanathan, who calls him for another mission.
Reception
[edit]While the first two movies received positive reviews, the third one received mixed reviews. Despite that, they all emerged as commercial successes. For the first movie, Suriya was nominated for Best Actor – Tamil, at the 58th Filmfare Awards South.[4] For Singam II, Suriya was once again acclaimed for his portrayal of Durai Singam and his performance was hailed as "the film's backbone".[5] Suriya also received his eleventh nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil for his performance in the film.
Legacy
[edit]Suriya's performance as Durai Singam placed him as an important part of Indian pop culture. Vivek, Santhanam and Soori parodied Suriya's character in the Malayalam film Oru Nunakkadha (2011),[6] Vellore Maavattam (2011),[7] and Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam (2013), respectively.[8] Coincidently, they all played in the Singam film series, as Erimalai, Susai, and Veera Babu, respectively. Suriya eventually reprises his role in the 2026 film Karuppu. This version is a form of the deity Kaaval Karuppu coming to defeat the antagonist Baby Kannan, played by RJ Balaji.[9]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ↑ One scene show characters in a movie theater releasing Unnaipol Oruvan.
- ↑ A character mentions Vishwaroopam.
- ↑ As shown in files.
- ↑ As depicted in Singam.
References
[edit]- ↑ "Suriya's 'Singam 3' to be shot across four countries". The Indian Express. 10 September 2015. Archived from the original on 21 June 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
- ↑ "In one hell of a Hari". The Hindu. 21 January 2017. Archived from the original on 1 December 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
- ↑ "Singam 3 Si3: Here's Suriya's workout and diet regime for 'Singam 3'". The Times of India. 9 February 2017. Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
- ↑ "58th South Filmfare Awards – Nominees (Tamil)". NDTV. p. 36. Archived from the original on 4 July 2011. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
- ↑ "Singam 2 completes 50 days". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2026.
- ↑ Film World (12 September 2024). Oru Nunakkadha Malayalam Full Movie | Vivek | Jagathy Sreekumar | Suraj Venjaramoodu | Comedy Movie (in Malayalam). Retrieved 21 May 2026 – via YouTube.
- ↑ Comedy Express (20 July 2017). Santhanam Comedy Scenes From Vellore Maavattam (in Tamil). Retrieved 21 May 2026 – via YouTube.
- ↑ AP International. Sivakarthikeyan – Soori Comedy | Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam Comedy Scenes | Part 1 | Sri Divya (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 16 August 2025. Retrieved 15 June 2022 – via YouTube.
- ↑ "RJ Balaji Admits 'CG Mistake' In Suriya's Singam Scene After Karuppu OTT Release Response". Times Now. 23 June 2026. Retrieved 11 August 2026.