One of the few or rare movies which everything came together in a perfect blend. The movie appeared out of nowhere , came without fanfare, went with classic all time hit in which many will remember this best as a swashbuckling exotic cinema ride. The movie cleverly exploits the tale of Robin Hood and packages it in a form viewable by Indian audiences.
In an industry of that time, which is very difficult even to enter, it took Shankar just one movie to rise to the top. Introduced in producer K. T. Kunjumon's ''Gentleman'' as director in 1993, Shankar has so far directed just 6 movies in Tamil and one in Hindi. Yet, he is the most successful director in Kollywood today! In fact he is one of the best Directors.
When Shankar approached K. T. Kunjumon for a chance to direct a movie, the burly producer immediately gave his approval, as he was in the habit of introducing new directors to the industry at that time. Utilizing the opportunity and determined to create a smash hit, Shankar began working hard on the script of ''Gentleman''. He worked on the minute details of his first movie and employed the genius of the emerging A. R. Rahman (who had just made three movies until then) and cinematographer Jeeva. Arjun featured in the lead role. ''Gentleman'' turned out to be a mega hit at the box office.
A number of things in this movie is out of the norm at the time. First the cinematography is very good for the time almost on par with any of Maniratnam's cameramen. The script is cleverly inspired by Robin Hood classic tale and is marvelously modified for a south Indian story. The plot has an amazing smooth flow and of course the performances were the best of all cast in the movie. The lead actors were low profile like Arjun who is known to just come and go in normal commercial roles in the past prior to this movie has simply brought out their full acting capabilities and the introduction of Madhoo Bala , a new face in 1993 who earlier appeared in the Maniratnam movie Roja. Shankar proved that it is possoble to make a box office topper without a super star cast
With fantastic songs, thrilling action sequences and a daring script, ''Gentleman'' became a trendsetter for the movies of the 90's.
