''Arunachalam'' 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, nativ ...

-language

action drama In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

film directed by Sundar C. and written by

Crazy Mohan Mohan Rangachari (16 October 1952 – 10 June 2019) known professionally as Crazy Mohan, was an Indian actor, comedian, screenwriter and playwright. An engineer by profession, Mohan started writing plays and established his own drama troupe calle ...

. The film stars

Rajinikanth Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 160 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannad ...

Soundarya K. S. Sowmya (18 July 1972 – 17 April 2004), better known by her stage name Soundarya, was an Indian actress who worked predominantly in Telugu_cinema, Telugu films and has also worked in Kannada, Tamil language, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam f ...

and Rambha, with

Jaishankar Jaishankar (12 July 1938 – 3 June 2000) was an Indian actor known for his work in Tamil cinema. He was a very popular lead actor in the 1960s and 70s. He was credited onscreen with title of ''Makkal Kalaingnar'' (people's artiste) or '' ...

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, ...

and

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 ...

in supporting roles. The soundtrack and background score for the film was composed by

Deva Deva may refer to: Entertainment * ''Deva'' (1989 film), a 1989 Kannada film * ''Deva'' (1995 film), a 1995 Tamil film * ''Deva'' (2002 film), a 2002 Bengali film * Deva (2007 Telugu film) * ''Deva'' (2017 film), a 2017 Marathi film * Deva ...

, while U. K. Senthil Kumar handled the cinematography. The film is loosely based on the 1902 novel '' Brewster's Millions'' by

George Barr McCutcheon George Barr McCutcheon (July 26, 1866 – October 23, 1928) was an American popular novelist and playwright. His best known works include a series of novels set in Graustark, a fictional East European country, and the novel ''Brewster's Millio ...

. The film opened in April 1997 to highly positive reviews from film critics and went on to win three

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The aw ...

, including an award for

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

Plot

A village head Arunachalam (

) who has two brothers Saravanan (

Raja ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...

), Shakthi, (Shakthi Kumar) and a sister Arundhati (

Anju Aravind Anju Aravind is an Indian actress who has acted in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada films. In early 2000's she shifted her focus to Malayalam TV serials and shows. Personal life Anju Aravind is born to Aravindan and Kanchana on 23 July 1978. Sh ...

) and a happy family. Ammayappa (

) and K. R. Vatsala are his parents. Vedavalli (

) is the daughter of Aathikesavan (

) and (

Vennira Aadai Nirmala Vennira Aadai Nirmala (born as A. B. Shanthi in Kumbakonam) is an Indian actress who has appeared in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. She was a prominent lead actress from 1960s and 70s. She is credited as Ushakumari in Malayalam film indust ...

). Nirmala is Ammayappa's sister and they all come to Ammayappa's home for Arunachalam's sister's wedding. That gives the opportunity for Vedavalli and Arunachalam to fight first, then fall in love with each other. Arunachalam finds himself to be an orphan by interval. He goes out of the village. He goes to Madras where he meets Beeda Kathavarayan (

Janakaraj Janagaraj is an Indian actor who has appeared in over 200 films predominantly in Tamil cinema as a comedian or in supporting roles. He also starred in few Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films. Early life Janagaraj was born to Vadivelu and Muthul ...

), who gives him a job. By some magical situation Arunachalam discovers himself to be the son of India's richest (dead) billionaire Vedhachalam (

) through Rangachari (

). Rangachari is the guardian of Arunachalam's father's trust. If Arunachalam wants his inheritance, he has to follow certain rules. He can get an inheritance of 300 Crore Rupees if he can spend 30 crores in 30 days. The conditions are: no contributions to charities, not to own any assets at the end of 30 days and above all, no one else should know about this and receipts should be provide for all the expenses. If Arunachalam fails to spend the money according to the rules, all the money will go to his father's trust which is managed by Vishwanath (

Raghuvaran Raghuvaran Velayutham (11 December 1958 – 19 March 2008) was an Indian actor who predominantly acted in films made in South India. He has acted in more than 200 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. According to the ''Hindustan T ...

), Prathap (

Nizhalgal Ravi Ravichandran Samanna (born 16 April 1956), known professionally as Nizhalgal Ravi, is an Indian film, television and voice actor who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has performed in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films and television series. He st ...

), Kurian ( Kitty) and Kaliyaperumal ( V. K. Ramasamy). These four form a team of "villains". They want to spoil Arunachalam's efforts and get all the money for the trust and kill Rangachari. Nandhini ( Rambha) is Rangachari's daughter and she is appointed as the accountant for Arunachalam for 30 days. Arunachalam tries hard to spend his money and many times, the money comes back. He spends on Horse races, lottery tickets, makes a movie with Arivazhagan (

Senthil Senthil (born 23 March 1951) is an Indian comedy actor who works in Tamil cinema. He is famous for his comedian roles along with fellow actor Goundamani. The pair dominated the Tamil industry as comedians in the 1980s and 90s.Rajinikanth Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 160 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannad ...

as Arunachalam & Vedhachalam (dual role) *

as Vedhavalli Aathikesavan (Voice dubbed by

Savitha Reddy Savitha Reddy, also known as Savitha Engula Radhakrishnan in the Tamil films, is a dubbing artist in the southern India film industry. She has lent voice for heroines in the Tamil and Telugu industries. She is a recipient of Tamil Nadu State F ...

) * Rambha as Nandhini Rangachari *

as Aathikesavan *

as Ammayappa *

as Vishwanath *

as Rangachari * V. K. Ramasamy as Kaliyaperumal *

as Prathap * Kitty as Kurian *

Senthil Senthil (born 23 March 1951) is an Indian comedy actor who works in Tamil cinema. He is famous for his comedian roles along with fellow actor Goundamani. The pair dominated the Tamil industry as comedians in the 1980s and 90s.Janakaraj Janagaraj is an Indian actor who has appeared in over 200 films predominantly in Tamil cinema as a comedian or in supporting roles. He also starred in few Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films. Early life Janagaraj was born to Vadivelu and Muthul ...

as Beeda Kathavarayan *

as Saravanan *

as Arundhati * Shakthi Kumar as Shakthi * Manorama as Lakshmi * Ponnambalam as Ponnambalam *

Vadivukkarasi Vadivukkarasi is an Indian actress. She made her acting debut in the Tamil film ''Sigappu Rojakkal'' (1978) and has acted in more than 350 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam and 40 television serials in Tamil. Film director A. P. ...

as Senior Vedhavalli * K. R. Vatsala as Janaki *

as Umayal *

Vinu Chakravarthy Vinu Chakravarthy (15 December 1945 – 27 April 2017) was an Indian actor, screenwriter and director who is known for acting in more than 1000 movies in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Badaga and Malayalam mostly as a comedian, supporting actor or in ...

as Chokkalingam *

Vichu Vishwanath Vichu Vishwanath is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil language films and serials. He has worked in comedy and supporting roles, often associating with director Sundar C. Career Vichu Vishwanath was born in Coimbatore, India and atten ...

as Chandrasekhar *

Thalapathy Dinesh Thalapathy Dinesh (also spelled Thalapathi Dinesh) is an Indian action choreographer who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He started his career in the cinema as an extra fighter in '' Naan Sigappu Manithan'' and later he became as a stunt master and ...

as Rajendran *

as Ayyasaamy *

Ambika Ambika may refer to: Mythology * Ambika (goddess), an avatar of the Hindu goddesses Durga, Parvati, and Shakti * Ambika (Jainism), a Jain Yakshini goddess * Ambika (Mahabharata), the wife of Vichitravirya was also the mother of Dhritarashtra, ...

as Meenakshi * MRK * T. V. Varadarajan *

Halwa Vasu Vasu, popularly known as Halwa Vasu, (died 17 August 2017) was a comedian in the Tamil film industry in India. He worked in around 900 films. Career Vasu who hailed from Madurai district, came to Chennai to work in cinemas after his graduati ...

* Sundar C. in a cameo appearance as a reporter in the song "Singam Ondru" * Sridhar as Dancer

Production

Development

After the success of '' Muthu'' in 1995, Rajinikanth took a year out dabbling in politics and taking a sabbatical before announcing that his next film would be ''Arunachalam'' written by

. It was announced that the film would be produced to help eight of his struggling film industry colleagues and it was incorrectly earlier reported that the film would be produced under his newly floated Rajini Arts banner. It was indicated that some of the people who the film would go on to cause benefits for included Kalakendra Govindharajan who introduced Rajinikanth in his production ''

Apoorva Raagangal ''Apoorva Raagangal'' (; ) is a 1975 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by K. Balachander. It stars Kamal Haasan, Sundarrajan, Srividya and Jayasudha, while Nagesh and Rajinikanth, in his feature film debut, ...

'' (1975), Kalaignyanam who featured Rajinikanth in the lead role for the first time with his production ''

Bairavi ''Bairavi'' is a 1978 Indian Tamil-language film directed by M. Bhaskar, and produced by Kalaignanam, who also wrote the story and dialogues. It stars Rajinikanth, Sripriya and Geetha. Geetha was introduced in this film. Srikanth played th ...

'' (1978) and brothers Ramji and Babji who produced some of the actor's early hits, '' Kaali'' (1980) and '' Garjanai'' (1980). Furthermore, collections would also be shared between the family of Sathya Studio Padmanabhan, actress

Pandari Bai Pandari Bai (1930 – 29 January 2003) was an Indian actress who worked in South Indian cinema, mostly in Kannada cinema during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She is considered Kannada cinema's first successful heroine. She has acted as both heroi ...

, actor V. K. Ramasamy and producer Madurai Nagaraja. Initial reports had also titled the film as ''Kuberan'' and ''Meshtri'', but ''Arunachalam'' was eventually retained. The plot of the film was inspired by

's 1902 novel '' Brewster's Millions''. The Director Sundar C. has stated in an interview that he didn't like the story of Arunachalam and he did it because he didn't want to miss an opportunity to work with Rajinikanth. He also mentioned that

is the one who called and narrated him the story and asked him to direct. Sundar C. also said if he didn't like the story Rajinikanth would simply change the director. Sundar C heard from a producer who's close to Rajini, that "Once Rajini takes a decision he doesn't go back, and he'll only work with people who work according to that vision." So Sundar C. accepted the story even though he didn't like it as he didn't want to miss working with the legend, Rajinikanth. As he knew Rajini would not change the story for working with Sundar, but he would change the director.

Casting

Initially the lead heroine of the film was expected to be

Meena Meena () is a sub-group of Bhils. They speak Meena language. They started adopting the Brahmin worship system. Its name is also transliterated as ''Meenanda'' or ''Mina''. Historians claim that they belong to the Matsya tribe. They got the sta ...

, who had featured in Rajinikanth's previous film, '' Muthu'' before

and Rambha were signed on as heroines. The initial cast list released to the media also had

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965) known mononymously as Jayaram, is an Indian actor who predominantly appears in Malayalam,Tamil films, along with a few Telugu films. He is also a chenda percussionist, mimicry artist, and occasiona ...

in the cast of the film as well as Vignesh, who was later replaced by

. Manorama was also surprisingly added to the cast after causing controversy the previous year by lashing out at Rajinikanth's political motives.

Filming

Rajinikanth lost his sentimental Rudraksh bead during the shooting of the film and was shocked and upset to note that his Rudraksh was missing. He ordered a search at the shooting spot at midnight and with the help of the giant lights used for shooting, he later found the divine bead after a while.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

. The song "Nagumo" had two versions, Hariharan's version was included in soundtrack only, while another version with the vocals of Krishnaraj was included in the film only. Audio was released under the music label "Big B" of

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Shrivastav; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the most succe ...

. The tune of Alli Alli Anarkali was lifted from the songs "Ladki Ladki" from ''

Shreemaan Aashique ''Shreemaan Aashique'' is a 1993 Indian Bollywood film directed by Deepak Anand and produced by Shakeel Noorani. The film stars Rishi Kapoor, Urmila Matondkar in lead roles. Plot Dushyant Kumar Mehra promises his uncle Professor Vishwamitra ...

'' (1993), which was composed by

Nadeem–Shravan Nadeem–Shravan were an Indian music directors duo in the Bollywood film industry of India. They derives its name from their first names as, Nadeem Akhtar Saifi (born 6 August 1954) and Shravan Kumar Rathod (13 November 1954 – 22 April 2021) ...

and "Tutak Tutak Tutiyan" from ''

Ghar Ka Chiraag ''Ghar Ka Chiraag'' (transl. ''House Lamp'') is a 1989 Indian film in Hindi directed by Sikander Bharti. The film stars Rajesh Khanna, Chunky Pandey, Neelam in the lead roles. Actor Chunky Pandey himself distributed this film. Cast * Rajesh K ...

'' (1989), which was composed by

Bappi Lahiri Bappi Aparesh Lahiri (born Alokesh Aparesh Lahiri; 27 November 1952 – 15 February 2022), also known as Bappi Da was an Indian singer, composer and record producer. He popularised the use of synthesised disco music in Indian music industry and ...

Release

The film was released theatrically on 10 April 1997.

Reception

Critical response

Indolink.com said that "the saving grace of the film is Rajini himself. He has the exceptional ability to convincingly portray the same utopian role of anger and love, innocence and impetuousness...and whats more...he does it with remarkable freshness time and again". ''The Hindu'' wrote on 18 April 1997, "''Arunachalam'' contains all the elements that provide escapist entertainment ..humour, fairplay, love, feud occupy the frames". ''

New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as ''The Straits Times'' on 15 July 1845. It was relaunched as the ' ...

'' wrote, "Go with an open mind and you will enjoy this movie".

Box office

The film was declared a commercial success at the box office, although not as big as Rajinikanth's previous films ''

Baashha ''Baashha'' is a 1995 Indian Tamil-language gangster action film written and directed by Suresh Krissna. The film stars Rajinikanth, Nagma and Raghuvaran, with Janagaraj, Devan, Shashi Kumar, Vijayakumar, Anandaraj, Charan Raj, Kitty, Sath ...

'' and '' Muthu'' (both 1995).

Awards

''Arunachalam'' went on to win three

, including an award for

. Super Subbarayan and Gopi Kanth also respectively won awards for Best Stunt Coordinator and Best Art Director.

- ''Arunachalam'' * Best Stunt Coordinator- Super Subbarayan * Best Art Director- Gopi Kanth

References

External links

* {{TamilNaduStateFilmAwardBestFilm 1997 films Films scored by Deva (composer) 1990s Tamil-language films Films about inheritances Films directed by Sundar C. Films based on Brewster's Millions Films based on American novels Films shot in Karnataka Films with screenplays by Crazy Mohan