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Veera (வீரா) (1994 film)

Veera (வீரா) is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama directed by Suresh Krissna, starring Rajinikanth as Muthuveerappan, with Meena as Devayanai and Roja Selvamani as Roopa¹. It is a remake of the 1992 Telugu film Allari Mogudu, directed by Raghavendra Rao². The film was released in Tamil Nadu on 14 April 1994, coinciding with Tamil New Year³^•⁴, and became one of the highest-grossing Tamil films of 1994⁵.

Key fact	Detail
Original title	வீரா (Veera)⁶
Release	14 April 1994 (Tamil Nadu)³
Director / producer	Suresh Krissna; Meena Panchu Arunachalam, P. A. Art Productions⁷
Music	Ilaiyaraaja⁷
Source	Remake of Allari Mogudu (Telugu, 1992)²
IMDb rating	6.6/10 from 798 votes⁸
Certification	U (India)⁹

Spoilers

Plot

Muthu (Rajinikanth), a young man from a village, falls for Devi (Meena), a singer's daughter, and pretends to learn music from her father to impress her. When Devi discovers the pretense, Muthu applies himself to music in earnest and wins her over; the two marry secretly¹⁰.

A rich landlord's son attacks Devi, Muthu saves her, and the angry landlord then threatens to evict Muthu's mother over an old debt. Muthu goes to Madras to earn money and enters a music competition, where the tabla player Ravikanth (Senthil) gives him the stage name Veera. He saves Roopa (Roja), the competition organizer's daughter, from a gangster, performs with her help, and wins the prize money, which he uses to pay off the debt and save his mother's house¹⁰.

A flood then destroys Devi's house, and Devi and her father go missing. Believing Devi dead, Muthu's mother tells him to start a new life in Madras, where he marries Roopa. When Devi turns out to be alive and comes searching for him, he lives a double life as Muthu with one wife and Veera with the other, deceiving both women into believing they are two different people¹^•¹⁰. The film ends with both wives discovering the truth, quarreling over their respective claims, and finally welcoming Muthu home together¹.

Production and reception

Collaboration with Suresh Krissna. Veera was the second film Rajinikanth made with director Suresh Krissna, after Annamalai (1992). In his book My Days with Baasha, Krissna wrote that Veera was very different from Annamalai in content and treatment, yet turned out to be another money-spinner; the feel-good film, with its comedy and romance, was received by filmgoers with the same enthusiasm as the action-packed Annamalai. He recorded the general verdict that although Veera was enjoyable, its protagonist was not as heroic as in Annamalai¹¹.

Box office and controversy. The film was controversial for its climax, in which the hero keeps two wives, but went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of 1994⁵.

Music. Ilaiyaraaja composed the score, with lyrics by Ilaiyaraaja, Panchu Arunachalam, and Vaali, and playback singing by K. S. Chithra, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Mano, Swarnalatha, and Arun Mozhi⁷. Panchu Arunachalam wrote the screenplay and dialogue⁷.

Cast

Rajinikanth plays Muthuveerappan, who takes the stage name Veera. Meena plays Devayanai (Devi), Roja Selvamani plays Roopa, and the supporting cast includes Janagaraj as Viswanathan, Senthil as Ravikanth, Vadivukkarasi as Lakshmi, Livingston as Chandran, Mahesh Anand as Harichandran, Vinu Chakravarthy as Rajamanikkam, Ajay Rathnam as Rathnavelu, Vivek as Chinnamani, Y. G. Mahendran as Kesavan, Charan Raj as Inspector Sathyamurthy, Charu Haasan as Krishnamurthy Shastri, and Charle⁶.

Release and availability

The film opened in Tamil Nadu on 14 April 1994³. A Hindi-dubbed version was released under the title Shankar Dada³. The film was redubbed and released on DVD in 2007, owing to Rajinikanth's popularity after his comeback film Chandramukhi⁷.

Streaming availability varies by region. In India, Veera streams on Aha¹⁰ and on Airtel Xstream Play through Raj Digital TV¹². JustWatch reports the title as unavailable in the United States but available in the United Kingdom and Guernsey on the Eros Now Amazon Channel⁶.

Runtime discrepancies

Listings disagree on the film's length: JustWatch and Plex give 2 hours 20 minutes⁶^•¹³, Google Play lists 164 minutes¹⁴, and Rotten Tomatoes lists 2 hours 44 minutes¹⁵. No single figure is confirmed across sources.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026