Final Cut of Director

The opening scene shows director Rana shooting a scene in his upcoming film with his film's heroine. As he is unhappy with the way the heroine behaves, he decides to find another heroine. He finally finds Trishna suited as his heroine but never discloses her identity to the media, and the film's wallpapers also do not show the hero or the heroine. Finally, the film gets completed, and Rana needs to attend a press meet regarding his film's release, but he does not go the press meet and is shown to have had an illegal relationship with Trishna. At this instant, the film producer calls him, and the media discovers where he is and with whom. The media people gather at the hotel where Rana stays, and he manages to escape from them and get into a car. They start chasing him, and Rana kills Trishna by creating an accident-like situation.

In this situation, SP Vivek Varma, a CBI officer, takes charge for this murder case along with two previous murder cases which were also suspected to be done by Rana. As a suspicion, Rana is arrested and taken into CBI custody. There, Vivek starts his interrogation. In between this, a poet named Anitha, who is also a crazy fan of Rana, is shown as Vivek's lover, and she was also an assistant to Rana during his film shooting. Finally during interrogation, Rana reveals of how he found Trishna and their relationship.

Trishna was a dancer who used to dance in temples and small-time shows across Andhra Pradesh. Rana hires her as his new muse, and they are shown to share a very intimate relationship. When a hairdresser is left without a place to sleep, Rana offers her a place in his room, and another unit member informs Rana's wife. The next morning, as Rana is once again shown to share a very close rapport with Trishna, his wife arrives, beats up the hairdresser, and accuses Rana of being a womanizer. Rana still continues shooting, appearing to be unperturbed by the incident but cries lightly while instructing his actors. He and his assistant are also shown to share a special and close relationship, as she comforts him later on. However, at the same village in which they are shooting, they face troubles in the form of the village chief, who is notorious and constantly lusts over Trishna. Rana states at one point that he would kill the chief should he cause more inconvenience. The next day, the chief is murdered. Vivek recalls this and states that Rana committed this murder, but Rana neither agrees or denies this statement.

Rana is later admitted to the hospital as he faints shortly after the interrogation, but Vivek pursues him there and recollects the incident of the second murder. After finishing their schedule at the village, the unit heads to Malaysia to continue the film shooting. There, Rana has to meet another nuisance in terms of the financier's son, who is also the film's second hero. He flirts around with Trishna and constantly tries to approach her, which she is uncomfortable with. Shortly afterwards, he is found murdered as well. Once again, Rana neither agrees or denies doing this murder. Anitha, upon witnessing what Vivek is doing, confronts him and accuses him of trying to pin down Rana. She offers her body in exchange of Rana being left alone, but Vivek reveals to her the complications that exist in the investigation. The badly burnt body in the car which fell from the cliff belongs to a man and not a woman, and all the evidence that exists at the crime scene are all fake, which are used for cinema.

With the mystery lingering, Rana is released due to the absence of strong evidence to convict him. He goes off to live in a secluded bungalow with his assistant. Vivek too arrives there and finally uncovers the mystery. Trishna is revealed to be a boy and not a girl. Babu, being his real name, comes from a very poor background, and his mother raised him as a woman since childhood; thus, his demeanor has become womanly since small. Rana sees an opportunity to take up a unique challenge by introducing him as a heroine and at the same time provide financial aid to his struggling family. Babu had killed the village chief after the latter discovered Babu's gender identity and demanded that Babu sleep with him in return of the truth not being revealed. When the financier's son tells him that he has taken his picture while he is bathing (which he did not), Babu killed him too. Rana asks Vivek to give the boy the least available sentence, but Vivek decides to let the boy go. Rana thanks Vivek, but Vivek says that Rana is a greater human being than he is a director.

• Nana Patekar as Rana
• Arjun Sarja as Vivek Varma IPS, SP in CBI
• Rukmini Vijayakumar as Trishna / Babu
• Kajal Aggarwal as Anitha
• Niyamat Khan as a shooting assistant
• Vatsal Sheth as Nitish Kumar
• Ranjitha as Rana's wife
• Mushtaq Khan as the village chief
• Baby Ankitha as Rana's daughter
• B. Kannan as the doctor and himself

Tamil version

• Vivek as Madurai
• Manivannan as the village chief
• Chitra Lakshmanan as the makeup man

The film was launched in Malaysia in 2006 with the title Cinema for the Hindi version and Bommalattam for the Tamil version.[26][27][28][29][30] Bharathiraja decided to make the film in Hindi after Nana Patekar to play the role of a director.[31][32] Vikram was initially considered to play Arjun's role.[33] Arjun Sarja was cast in the film as a CBI officer although he was not fluent in Hindi.[34][35] The film was to be shot in Hindi and dubbed into Tamil.[36] Cinema was based on a true incident that took place in Hampi.[31] The film was mostly shot in Mumbai and in Goa.[36][34] Scenes involving Nana Patekar and Arjun were shot in Chennai.[36] Nana and Bharathiraja fought in shooting; replying to this matter Bharathiraja said: "We fought with each other a couple of times. However the fights helped us to sharpen our thoughts and to shape the movie in a nice way".[37][31] Nagravi of Insight Media bought the film's rights.[38] Bharathiraja and cinematographer Kannan went on to say that it is one of the best films they had made.[39][40]

This was originally the lead debut film for Kajal Aggarwal (who has acted in a Hindi film Kyun! Ho Gaya Na...),[41][42] but since this film was delayed, Lakshmi Kalyanam became her first release.[43]

The Tamil version, Bommalattam, was promoted by the makers as a straight film even though it was dubbed from Hindi.[44][45][5][46] The Tamil version was also falsely labeled as Nana Patekar's and Himesh Reshammiya's Tamil debut.[47] The voice of Nana Patekar has been dubbed by actor Nizhalgal Ravi for the Tamil version.[48] The Telugu dub was titled Kalidas before it was renamed Rana.[21][7]

The soundtrack was composed by Himesh Reshammiya.[49]

Hindi version[50]

Lyrics by Sameer.

• "Zindagi" – Sunidhi Chauhan
• "Dhola Dholiya" – Afsar, Sneha Panth
• "Chakle Chakle" – Akriti Kakkar
• "Aaha Aaha" – Himesh Reshammiya, Manjeera Ganguly
• "Leja Leja" – Gayatri Iyer Ganjawala

Tamil version[51][52]

Lyrics by Snehan, Thenmozhi Das and Viveka.[51]

• "Aaha Aaha" – Karthik, Pop Shalini
• "Check Check" – Suchithra
• "Nenjil Dola" – Anuradha Sriram
• "Va Va Thalaiva" – Gayathri
• "Koyambedu" – Mathangi

The Hindi and Tamil versions were scheduled to release in 2008, but the Hindi version was put hold.[39] The Tamil version was scheduled to release in June of 2008 but released in December.[39][2][53] The Tamil version was a box office success.[54] Even though originally filmed in Hindi, the Hindi version was released in October 2016 and went unnoticed due to lack of promotions.[55][56]

Critical reception (Tamil version)

Nowrunning wrote:"Like aged and mellowed spirits, director Bharati Raja has matured and levitated towards one of his first loves — a whodunit".[57] Behindwoods wrote: "Bommalattam is a perfectly crafted and executed investigative thriller. The surprise factor being Bharathiraja’s tautly woven screenplay – it negates the chance of tedium, even for a fraction of a second". The critic added that "Irregular lip-sync of actors also reveal that the movie is in fact dubbed into Tamil after having been shot in Hindi directly".[44] Sify wrote: "hats off to Bharathiraja for creating a taut thriller which is a masterpiece of moods, anxieties and dread. Quite simply, unmissable".[58] Rediff wrote: "Bharathiraja's screenplay lacks punch. He seems to have been confused about whether to give importance to the characters themselves, or the thriller portion."[59] The Hindu wrote: "The pluses of ‘Bommalattam’ place Bharatiraaja on a pedestal. The minuses play spoilsport". The critic opined that "It’s obvious that many of the scenes have been filmed in Hindi alone — flawed lip sync makes a mockery of some of the serious scenes".[45]

• 2008
  • Vijay Award for Best Make Up Artistes – Vanitha Krishnamoorthy, Harinath – Nominated
  • Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards – Best Debut Actress – Rukmini Vijayakumar – Won

An American remake was planned with Samuel L. Jackson in Nana Patekar's role and Bharathiraja's friend's son in Arjun's role, but the film never entered production.[60][7]