Aadhavan (transl. Sun) is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by K. S. Ravikumar, from a story written by Ramesh Khanna, and produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin under Red Giant Movies. The film stars Suriya, alongside Nayantara, Vadivelu, Murali, B. Saroja Devi, Rahul Dev, Sayaji Shinde and Anand Babu. The music was composed by Harris Jayaraj, while cinematography and editing were handled by Ganesh Rajavelu and Don Max.
Aadhavan was released on 17 October 2009 and became a commercially successful at the box office. The core plot was loosely based on the 1990 Malayalam film His Highness Abdullah and it was remade in Bengali as Shikari.
Plot
In the US, an unknown client speaks to a mafia group to eradicate a fake godman. The mafia group arranges the hit through a Kolkata-based middleman as the fake godman will be arriving there. The middleman gives the contract to Ibrahim Rowther. The godman gets killed by Ibrahim's adopted son Aadhavan, a skilled mercenary. Aadhavan gets several contracts in various parts of the world as a result of eradicating the godman.
In Mumbai, Aadhavan meets Dr. Abdul Kulkarni, who hires him to kill Subramaniam, a prominent judge as he is handling the inquiry and verdict on Abdul's child kidnapping and organ trafficking cases in Kolkata. Aadhavan unsuccessfully attempts to snipe Subramaniam and Kulkarni insults him. A furious Aadhavan vows to kill Subramaniam within 10 days, where he threatens Subramaniam's servant Kuppan alias Bannerjee to help him get into the house as Murugan, Bannerjee's brother-in-law, by abducting the actual Murugan and have him held in his ship.
Aadhavan slowly begins to win over the members of Subramaniam's household – his mother, her granddaughter Thara, and his other relatives. Thara is attracted to Aadhavan's intelligence and simple-innocent nature. Meanwhile, Subramaniam and his family is on a trip to Darjeeling, and Thara asks Aadhavan to hide a guitar belonging to Ilaiyaman, her madcap musician cousin (whose name is a portmanteau of Ilaiyaraaja and A. R. Rahman). Aadhavan uses this opportunity, plants a mobile bomb in the guitar and places it in one of the cars, which explodes at the wrong time.
Meanwhile, a security officer, who is the chief of the security team protecting Subramaniam at Subramaniam's house, keeps informing Kulkarni of Aadhavan's entry and happenings. Thara is now suspicious about Aadhavan and after questioning him in secret, Aadhavan informs her that he is really Subramaniam's long-lost son Madhavan. Thara soon informs all the members of the household about Madhavan's return and they are overjoyed, with Thara and Aadhavan falling in love with each other. However, they hide it from Subramaniam and Ilaiyaman because of Subramaniam's hatred towards Madhavan. Aadhavan tells Bannerjee that he lied to Thara about being Madhavan to distract her suspicions. On Thara's birthday, a flashback reveals that Aadhavan is indeed Subramaniam's long-lost son Madhavan.
Past: A 10-year-old Madhavan unknowingly carries a gift with a hidden bomb for his cousin Thara's birthday. Madhavan's friend's mother plants a bomb in the doll as revenge against Subramaniam for her gangster husband's jail sentence. Though Thara survives, Thara's mother Anu opens the gift and Thara's mother Anu is killed along with Thara's father in the bomb explosion. Subramaniam blames Madhavan for Anu and her husband's death and for Madhavan's friendship with a gangster's son and Subramaniam thrashes Madhavan. Due to Madhavan's anger of his friend's mother and Madhavan's fear of going to a juvenile prison, Madhavan steals a gun from the cops, Madhavan accidentally shoots Subramaniam and Madhavan runs away from his home forever. Madhavan kills his friend's mother as she is responsible for Anu and her husband's death. Madhavan saves Ibrahim Rowther from gangsters trying to kill Ibrahim Rowther and Madhavan is re-christened as Aadhavan.
Present: Ibrahim's son Tharani tries to kill Subramaniam, but is stopped by Madhavan who reveals his true identity. Ibrahim challenges that he will kill Subramanian and Madhavan within two days. Kulkarni threatens Ibrahim and his gang to surrender to the police and makes a confession about Madhavan and his plans. When the ACP confronts Madhavan and is about to have him hauled off, Madhavan gets Subramaniam's laptop (containing the verdict and inquiry reports), takes him and Thara as hostages and drives away, after stealing the ACP's gun and using to injure him and the guards, when they intervene on him and killing the security chief. Meanwhile, the police commissioner arrives, arrests the ACP, as he is Kulkarni's man and makes a confession that the police actually had caught Madhavan after his very first attempt to kill Subramaniam. After being questioned by the commissioner, Madhavan said that he backed off and misfired on purpose at the last moment after he found that he was going to kill his own father. The police asked him to go back to the house to protect Subramaniam over a 24/7 hiatus time every day, for which Madhavan agreed.
The commissioner used Madhavan to nab individuals linked to various criminal and terrorist organizations. This information is relayed by the commissioner to a grateful Subramaniam who tearfully reunites with his long-lost son Madhavan. Meanwhile, Kulkarni attacks the vehicle in which the trio is travelling, and a fight ensues where Madhavan saves Subramaniam and Thara and Kulkarni gets killed. The minister and the middleman who were involved in the contract killings are arrested. Madhavan serves a short term in prison for his previous wrongdoings, but is subsequently released from the prison for his contribution to saving Subramaniam. Madhavan and Thara are now married and live in the household with the huge family. Once yet again, Bannerjee brings two assistants (his brothers-in-law) to help him and asks approval from Subramaniam, who then consulted in Madhavan, to check them out, with the whole family being suspicious of them being secretly hitmen. Upon inquiring on them, Madhavan approves of them with the whole family accepting them.
Cast
- Suriya as Madhavan Subramaniam/Aadhavan
- Nayantara as Thara, Madhavan's cousin and wife
- Vadivelu as Bannerjee
- Murali as Justice Subramaniam, Madhavan's father
- Saroja Devi as Rajalakshmi, Subramaniam's mother
- Rahul Dev as Dr. Abdul Kulkarni
- Sayaji Shinde as Ibrahim Rowther, Aadhavan's foster father (voice dubbed by Prithviraj)
- Anand Babu as Tharani, Aadhavan's foster brother
- Ramesh Khanna as Kuppusamy (Ilaiyamaan)
- FEFSI Vijayan as Police Commissioner Rathnavelu
- Sathyan as Murugan, Bannerjee's nephew
- Riyaz Khan as ACP Deva
- Manobala as Sundaramurthy, Subramaniam's younger brother
- Alex as Vasudevan, Subramaniam's younger brother
- Jaya Rekha as Rani, Subramaniam's younger sister-in-law
- Anu Hasan as Anu, Thara's mother and Madhavan's aunt
Production
The song "Eno Eno Panithuli" was shot at Iceland, making Aadhavan the first South Indian film to be shot there.3 Shooting also took place at the Chettinad Palace, Chennai.4
Soundtrack
The soundtrack features 6 tracks composed by Harris Jayaraj. The soundtrack was released on 19 August by S. Shankar. The album received positive reviews from critics, with praise being dedicated to the songs "Hasili Fisile" (set in Kharaharapriya ragam) and "Vaarayo Vaarayo". Pavithra Srinivasan from Rediff said "Harris Jeyaraj is one of those composers who is not capable of turning out bad stuff even on a bad day, this album stands out from a mile away."5 Due to the album's critical and commercial success, Harris Jayaraj received the Vijay Award for Best Music Director and was also nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
Track-List 6| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singers | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Hasili Fisiliye" | Pa. Vijay | Karthik, Harini, Dr. Burn, Maya | 5:21 |
| 2. | "Yeno Yeno Panithuli" | Thamarai | Shail Hada, Andrea Jeremiah, Sudha Ragunathan | 5:15 |
| 3. | "Dammaku Dammaku" | Na. Muthukumar | Benny Dayal | 4:56 |
| 4. | "Vaarayo Vaarayo" | Kabilan | P. Unnikrishnan, Chinmayi, Megha | 5:20 |
| 5. | "Dekho Dekho" | Vaali | SuVi, Sandhya, Sri Charan, Arjunan Manoharathanan | 5:26 |
| 6. | "Maasi Maasi" | Vaali | Mano, Franko, Megha | 5:32 |
| Total length: | 31:50 | |||
All tracks are written by Bhuvanachandra.
Telugu Track-List7| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Asale Pilla" | Karthik, Benny Dayal, Harini, Maya | 5:20 |
| 2. | "Edo Edo" | Shail Hada, Andrea Jeremiah, Sudha Ragunathan, Sri Charan | 5:13 |
| 3. | "Damaku Damaku" | Benny Dayal | 4:56 |
| 4. | "Mrogindi" | Rahul Nambiar, Chinmayi, Megha | 5:20 |
| 5. | "Dekho Dekho" | SuVi, Sandhya, Sri Charan | 5:25 |
| 6. | "Maasi Maasi" | Mano, Megha | 5:31 |
| Total length: | 31:45 | ||
Release
The film was released on 17 October 2009.8 It was dubbed into Telugu as Ghatikudu.9
Critical reception
Sify wrote "Ranging through a wide field of comedy laced with action, Aadhavan is good fun while it lasts. It's a roller-coaster ride of pure unadulterated masala".10 Rediff wrote "Aadhavan is uncomplicated, clean, fun, and doesn't expect you to take it seriously."11 Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote "Post-interval, you have to wait quite a while for some concrete action from Aadhavan, the Infallible!"12
Box office
The film reportedly grossed over ₹8 crore at the Tamil Nadu box office in its opening weekend.13 Overseas, the film grossed about $1,541,485, approximately.14 The film was number one at the Chennai box office in the week ending 27 October.15 It eventually completed a 200-day theatrical run.16
Awards and nominations
| Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 Vijay Awards17 | Best Entertainer | Suriya | Won |
| Best Male Playback | Karthik("Hasili Fisili") | Won | |
| Best Female Playback | Chinmayi("Vaarayo Vaarayo") | Won | |
| Best Music Director | Harris Jayaraj | Won | |
| Icon of the Year | Suriya | Won | |
| Best Actor | Suriya | Nominated | |
| Best Comedian | Vadivelu | Nominated | |
| Best Art Director | Rajeevan | Nominated | |
| Best Choreographer | Shobi("Damakku Damakku") | Nominated | |
| Favourite Film | Udhayanidhi Stalin | Nominated | |
| Favourite Director | K. S. Ravikumar | Nominated | |
| Favourite Hero | Suriya | Nominated | |
| Favourite Heroine | Nayantara | Nominated | |
| Favourite Song | Harris Jayaraj("Hasili Fisili") | Nominated |
Remake
The movie was remade in Bengali as Shikari starring Bangladeshi star Shakib Khan.18192021 Shikari is a 2016 Bangladesh India joint venture action thriller drama film directed by Joydeep Mukherjee and Zakir Hossain Simanto.22
External links
References
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