''Aravindhan'' is a 1997 Indian
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
-language film written and directed by newcomer T. Nagarajan, starring
Sarath Kumar
Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu language, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film A ...
,
Parthiban
R. Parthiban (born 14 October 1958) is an Indian actor and filmmaker who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has directed 15 films, produced 13 films and acted in more than 70 films. He started his career as assistant director for K. Bhagyaraj in ...
,
Nagma
Nagma Arvind Morarji (born Nandita Arvind Morarji on 25 December 1974) is an Indian politician and former actress. She was a popular lead actress in the 1990s. She made her cinematic debut in the film '' Baaghi'' opposite Salman Khan in 1990. ...
,
Oorvasi,
Prakash Raj
Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam-language films, he is the recipient of several ...
and Visu in lead and pivotal roles. The film marks the debut of noted music composer
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja or Abdul Haliq (born 31 August 1979) is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer and singer-songwriter. He mainly scores music for Tamil films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use of Wes ...
, musician
Ilaiyaraaja
Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one of ...
's youngest son, and the debut of cinematographer
R. Rathnavelu
R. Rathnavelu is an Indian cinematographer who works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu films. His work in films such as '' Sethu'', ''Nandha'', ''Vaaranam Aayiram'', ''Enthiran'', '' 1: Nenokkadine'', ''Rangasthalam'' and ''Sye Raa Narasimha Re ...
. The film is based on the 1968
Kilvenmani massacre
The Kilvenmani massacre (or Keezhvenmani massacre) was an incident in Kizhavenmani village, Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu state in India on 25 December 1968 in which a group of around 44 people, the families of striking Dalit village labour ...
, in which 44 people were burnt alive.
Plot
Aravindhan is preparing to clear IPS to become a police officer. But after he sees Thamizhvannan, shown as a
Naxalite, shot dead by police, Aravindhan starts a fight against police and corrupt politicians.
Aravindhan gets supported by the people for his strict fight against corruption. Anu loves Aravindhan, but her father does not accept the relation. The police wants to put Aravindhan in jail for the politicians, so Aravindhan goes into hiding. On the way, he hides in Gayathri's home. The police tries to catch Aravindhan but at the same time, thinks Gayathri tried to give shelter to Aravindhan, so Gayathri's father dies. Now Aravindhan understands that he has to save Gayathri, so he takes her with him to a factory area to stay.
Aravindhan works in the factory and life goes along smooth for him as he marries Gayathri and has a child. Once in factory, the manager does not give fair price to the workers, which Aravindhan protests, so he beats the manager very poorly. The factory people now identifies Aravindhan's true identity as a Naxalite. The police comes in search of Aravindhan, who finally surrenders in court. In jail, Aravindhan writes lot of
anti-corruption
Anti-corruption (or anticorruption) comprises activities that oppose or inhibit corruption. Just as corruption takes many forms, anti-corruption efforts vary in scope and in strategy. A general distinction between preventive and reactive measu ...
articles. This gives Aravindhan wide public support to get elected as a minister. The corrupt politicians want to avoid this uprising and hire a gunman to shoot Aravindhan. During a stage speaking with many people around, the gunman shoots and kills Aravindhan, thus precluding him from becoming minister.
Cast
*
Sarath Kumar
Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu language, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film A ...
as Aravindhan
*
Parthiban
R. Parthiban (born 14 October 1958) is an Indian actor and filmmaker who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has directed 15 films, produced 13 films and acted in more than 70 films. He started his career as assistant director for K. Bhagyaraj in ...
as Thamizhvannan
*
Nagma
Nagma Arvind Morarji (born Nandita Arvind Morarji on 25 December 1974) is an Indian politician and former actress. She was a popular lead actress in the 1990s. She made her cinematic debut in the film '' Baaghi'' opposite Salman Khan in 1990. ...
as Anu
*
Oorvasi as Gayathri
*
Prakash Raj
Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam-language films, he is the recipient of several ...
as Rama Ganapathy
*
Visu
Meenakshisundaram Ramasamy Viswanathan (1 July 1945 – 22 March 2020), best known by his stage name Visu, was an Indian writer, director, stage, film and television actor and talk-show host. Visu initially worked as an assistant to director K ...
*
Anand Raj
Anandaraj (born May 15, 1959) is an Indian actor. He has acted in villain roles in several Tamil films and has appeared in over a two hundred films in different languages including Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi.
Career
Anandaraj was bor ...
as Ramanathan
*
Thilakan
Palappurathu Kesavan Surendranatha Thilakan (15 July 1935 – 24 September 2012) was an Indian film and stage actor who appeared in over 200 Malayalam films. Thilakan was known for his elaborate method acting, realistic and spontaneous appearan ...
as Gopalakrishnan Naidu
*
Thalaivasal Vijay
Thalaivasal Vijay is an Indian actor and dubbing artist. He was born on 4 August 1962 in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India. He has acted predominantly in numerous Tamil and Malayalam films.
Career
Vijay's debut film was '' Thalaivaasal'' (1992), ...
as Muthukrishnan
*
Ponnambalam
* Liaqath Ali Khan
*
Delhi Ganesh
Delhi Ganesh is an Indian actor who mostly acts in supporting roles in Tamil cinema and serials. He has acted in more than 400 films from 1976 to present. Before films, he was a member of the Delhi-based theatre troupe, ''Dakshina Bharata Natak ...
Soundtrack
The film score and the soundtrack were composed by
Ilaiyaraaja
Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one of ...
's youngest son,
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Yuvan Shankar Raja or Abdul Haliq (born 31 August 1979) is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer and singer-songwriter. He mainly scores music for Tamil films. Considered a versatile composer, he is particularly known for his use of Wes ...
, who made his debut in this film.
T. Siva
T. Siva is an Indian film producer and distributor in Chennai, India. He has produced 23 films including '' Saroja'' and ''Kanimozhi''. He owns the production company, Amma Creations. He is best known for ''Aravindhan'' (in which he introduced Yuv ...
, the producer of the film, after hearing some of Yuvan Shankar Raja's tunes, asked him to compose a
trailer music
Trailer music (a subset of production music) is the background music used for film previews, which is not always from the film's soundtrack. The purpose of this music is to complement, support and integrate the sales messaging of the mini-movie th ...
and after being impressed of it, gave Yuvan Shankar the assignment to compose the entire
film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...
including a soundtrack for that film. Yuvan Shankar Raja was 16 at the time of the release and one of the youngest composers ever in the industry.
Release and reception
The film released on 28 February 1997 and flopped miserably at the box-office.
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, id=1509733
1990s Tamil-language films
1997 directorial debut films
1997 films
Films about Naxalism
Films scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja
Indian films based on actual events