Dev (2019 film)

Dev is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language romantic action adventure film based on road adventure written and directed by Rajath Ravishankar on his directorial debut.

The film stars Karthi and Rakul Preet Singh in the main lead prominent roles, while Prakash Raj, Ramya Krishnan, and RJ Vigneshkanth play supportive and pivotal roles in the film. Harris Jayaraj has been roped into score music for the film while cinematography is handled by R. Velraj and editing is done by Anthony L. Ruben. The film marks the first collaboration between Karthi and music director Harris Jayaraj. The film was earlier scheduled to have its theatrical release on 21 December 2018 on the eve of Christmas, and later scheduled to 10 January 2019 post Thai Pongal but was postponed to have its theatrical release on 14 February 2019 on the eve of Valentine's Day to tight race at the box office.

Plot
The first half of the movie is shown via narration by Dev's (Karthi) friend Vicky (RJ Vigneshkanth), who is a stand-up comedian. Dev is an adventure-loving young man who is always in pursuit of new adventures. However, Vicky feels that Dev does not have an aim in his life. Dev always take his friends with his adventures. Vicky wants to have a different life than Dev's. He wants a normal office job than following his passion. Vicky wants Dev to be distracted so that Dev will not go for any more adventures and drag Vicky with him. Dev is encouraged to love a girl. Dev stopped Vicky from attending a interview for an office job. Dev made Vicky realize his talent in stand-up comedy and pursue it. Dev sees Meghna (Rakul Preet Singh), a CEO from a startup in San Francisco on Facebook and sends her a request. He gets disappointed when she does not respond. Later, he understands that she is a big businesswoman who made it big on her own. Dev is reluctant to stalk a girl in this day and age. His clueless friends encourage him to stalk her anyways as it is a manly thing to do. As fate has it, he eventually sees her in India and throws away his ethics to try and win her heart. Meghna finds it difficult to trust men due to her childhood trauma she experienced when her father left her and her mother. Meghna lives in the USA. Dev's family and his family's business is in India. Will Dev win Meghna over? Will the relationship sustain?

Cast

 * Karthi as Dev Ramalingam, an adventure-loving young man
 * Rakul Preet Singh as Meghna Padmavati, an Indian entrepreneur based abroad in USA
 * Prakash Raj as Ramalingam, Dev's father
 * Ramya Krishnan as Padmavati, Meghana's mother
 * RJ Vigneshkanth as Vicky "Samosa", the narrator and Dev's friend who is a stand-up comedian
 * Santhosh Prathap as Harish
 * Renuka as Dev's aunt
 * Amrutha Srinivasan as Nisha
 * Baby Dhaksha H. Arun as Meenakshi, a little girl seen with a Dora doll at the hospital
 * Karthik as Ashok (cameo appearance)
 * Nikki Galrani as a media reporter (cameo appearance)

Production
The film titled Dev was announced by debutant Rajath Ravishankar who previously served as the assistant of Anurag Kashyap, as his maiden directorial project in March 2018 and it was revealed that Karthi and Rakul Preet Singh would play the main lead roles in the film for the second time in a film after Theeran Adhigaram Ondru. The film went on floors from 8 March 2018 with the shooting being commenced at Chennai. The first look poster of the film was unveiled by Karthi's brother Suriya on 25 October 2018. It was evident that Karthi playing the titular role with the lead actor returning to act in a road film after 9 years since Paiyaa in 2010 essaying a prominent role and lead actress Rakul Preet Singh as Meghna, an Indian woman entrepreneur.

The film director revealed that the film's plot is inspired from the life of former Indian cricket captain and star all-rounder Kapil Dev. Most of the portions of the film include bike stunt sequences with lead actor Karthi playing the role of a bike lover/enthusiast and they were shot in the roads across India and Nepal especially at the Mount Everest. The scenes of the film were extensively shot in areas such as Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Kullu, Manali, Himalayas, Gulmarg, Ukraine and Carpathian Mountains. The shooting was wrapped in around early November 2018 in Ukraine. The climax portions of the film were revealed to have shot in a place called Sisu in the Himalayas mountain range.

Release
The movie had its theatrical release on 14 February 2019 and was panned by some critics with the film being rated as a tiresome love saga with a complete expensive misadventure. The movie was simultaneously dubbed in Telugu language.

The original version of the film had a run time of 159 minutes but later the film was trimmed by 15 minutes due to poor reviews.

Marketing
The official teaser of the film was released on 5 November 2018, post Diwali and received positive reviews from the audience. The official trailer for the film was unveiled by actor Suriya on 31 January 2019. The Tamil Nadu theatrical rights for the film were sold to Murali Cine Arts.

Soundtrack
The first single of the official soundtrack titled Anange was released on 14 December 2018 by the filmmakers and was confirmed by the music director Harris Jayaraj in his Twitter account, marking his first association with Karthi. The first single of the film received highly positive reviews from critics and was trending during its release. The reports revealed that six playback singers were roped into croon the song. The remaining songs of the album were launched on 12 January 2019.

Behindwoods rated the album three stars out of five.