''Arasangam'' ( en,

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

) is a 2008 Indian

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of P ...

crime thriller Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

film directed by R. Madhesh. The film stars

Vijayakanth Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami (born 25 August 1952), better known by his stage name Vijayakanth, is an Indian politician and former actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil cinema. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Leg ...

in the lead role, making this his 150th film, along with

Navaneet Kaur Navneet Kaur Rana (also known as Navneet Ravi Rana) is a former Indian actress who mainly acted in Telugu cinema. She is an elected Member of Parliament (MP) from Amravati (Lok Sabha constituency), Amravati in 2019 Lok Sabha elections as an I ...

, Sheryl Pinto, Rahul Dev, Biju Menon,

Sriman Sriman () is an epithet of the Hindu deity Vishnu. It refers to the deity being the possessor of Sri, both referring to his consort Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, as well as the material and non material aspects of fortune. Literature Sri ...

, and

Riyaz Khan Riyaz Khan is an Indian actor and bodybuilder. He predominantly works in Malayalam and Tamil films and television series, besides acting in a few Telugu and Kannada films, as well as two Hindi films. Riyaz debuted in Malayalam through the 199 ...

. Produced by L. K. Sudhish the film had soundtrack was composed by Srikanth Deva and distributed by

Pyramid Saimira Pyramid Saimira, an Indian multinational entertainment company, operating in 6 countries was one of the World's fastest growing entertainment group. Its diversified businesses included Exhibition (Theatre), Film and Television Content Producti ...

. Shot in India and Canada, the film released on 9 April 2008 with positive reviews from critics and become a Super Hit.

Plot

Economically and strategically important CEOs, Scientists, etc. are assassinated all over India. Since many of such murders take place in Chennai, the Home Minister of Tamil Nadu pressurizes the DGP to speed up the investigation. ATS Officer Manoj is invited to Chennai from Mumbai to help the Tamil Nadu Police Department. He mysteriously disappears during the flight. The Police Department concludes there is a link between the assassinations and the disappearance of Manoj and hands over both the cases to criminologist and IPS Trainer Arivarasu IPS, who is also a close friend and brother-in-law of Manoj. Arivarasu's investigation takes him to Toronto, Ontario, Canada where he meets Manoj's lookalike Martin Jayapal, who has hatched a plot to destabilize India. How Arivarasu thwarts his intentions forms the rest of the story.

Cast

as Arivarasu IPS (PTC Police Training College) * Navneet Kaur as Aarthi * Sheryl Pinto as Lara * Biju Menon as Manoj Police Officer and Martin Jayapal *

Ravichandran Ravichandran is an Indian name. Notable people with the name include: * Ravichandran (Tamil actor) (1942–2011) * Ravichandran (Tamil film director) (born 1971) * N. Ravichandran (professor) (1955), professor at IIM Ahmedabad * N. Ravichandran, ...

as Home Minister of Tamil Nadu (guest appearance) * Rahul Dev as Chandru *

as Jaffar *

as Terrorist *

Deepan Chakravarthy Dheepan Chakkravarthy is an Indian playback singer. He is the son of the first playback singer in the Tamil film industry, "Isai Thendral" Thiruchi Loganathan and grandson of actress C. T. Rajakantham. He is the younger brother of playback singe ...

as DGP D. Dhanasekaran *Darini * Akila as Manisha, Manoj's sister *Sathya *Anjali Devi as Valliammal *Rajendranath as Police inspector *Rail Ravi as Doctor *Pattinapakkam Jayaram as Cable TV operator *

Suzane George Suzane George is a Tamil actress, acting both in movies and TV serials. She is also known as "Mynaa Suzane.” Career Television Her first break in television was with Jaya TV as a VJ: she hosted the show ''Thagaval Dot Com'' in Kalai Mala ...

as Insurance sales agent *

Ramana Madhesh Ramana Madhesh (born 23 December 1971) is an Indian film director, producer and writer in Tamil cinema. He is mainly known for his debut ''Madhurey'' (2004) and Vijayakanth's 150th film '' Arasangam'' (2008). Career Madhesh is film director and ...

in a cameo appearance *Leena Sidhu in a special appearance

Soundtrack

Lyrics were written by

Pa. Vijay Pa. Vijay is an Indian actor, poet, writer, director, producer and film lyricist for Tamil cinema. He won the National Film Award for Best Lyrics in India for his song '' Ovvoru Pookalume'' in Cheran's ''Autograph'' (2004). Career Vijay is a na ...

and Kabilan.

Critical reception

''Rediff'' wrote "Arasangam (Government) directed by Madhesh and starring 'Captain' Vijayakanth certainly didn't inspire wild hopes of an excellent movie. But fate has a way of throwing you off. This movie is one such pleasant surprise" and also noted "In the end though, its Madhesh's screenplay that wins, showing some signs of intelligence and hard work." ''Behindwoods'' wrote "With a script that provides enough fodder for a typical Vijayakanth movie, Director Madhesh has done his best to present it with credibility. His attempts succeed in the first half and lose steam in the latter."

References

2008 films Films shot in Toronto Royal Canadian Mounted Police in fiction 2000s Tamil-language films Films set in Toronto Films scored by Srikanth Deva Fictional portrayals of the Tamil Nadu Police Central Bureau of Investigation in fiction 2008 crime thriller films {{2000s-Tamil-film-stub