''Thoranai'' () or ''Pistha'' () is a 2009 Indian

action drama film 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 ...

written and directed by Sabha Ayyappan, who previously worked as an associate director for ''

Malaikottai ''Malaikottai'' () is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Boopathy Pandian. The film stars Vishal and Priyamani, while Devaraj, Ajay, Ashish Vidyarthi, and Urvashi play supporting roles. The music was composed by ...

'', and produced by

Vikram Krishna Vikram Krishna Reddy, credited in films as Ajay, is an Indian film producer and former actor in Tamil cinema Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Ta ...

under the banner G K Film Corporation. The film stars Vishal and

Shriya Saran Shriya Saran Bhatnagar (; born 11 September 1982) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi-language films. Although Saran aspired to become a well-known dancer, she became an actress with her film debut in 2001 ...

and

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 ...

, Kishore, and

Santhanam Santhanam or Santanam ( te, సంతానం) is an Indian name that may refer to: People * K. Santhanam (1895–1980), Indian politician * Madabusi Santanam Raghunathan (born 1941), Indian mathematician * Maharajapuram Santhanam (1928–1992) ...

in another pivotal roles. Shot simultaneously in

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 ...

and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

languages with

Ali ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...

replacing Santhanam as Vishal's friend as well as a different supporting cast. Both Tamil and Telugu opened to mixed reviews. It was remade in Bhojpuri with

Khesari Lal Yadav Shatrughan Kumar Yadav (born 15 March 1986), known professionally as Khesari Lal Yadav, is an Indian actor, singer, dancer and model associated with Bhojpuri cinema. Also known by the Initialism KLY, Khesari has appeared in more than 70 film ...

as "Shola aur Shabnam".

Synopsis

Guru (Ganesan / Rambabu) and Tamizharasu / Suryaprakash are dreaded gangsters in Chennai/Vizag. They are against pitted each other and fight to establish their supremacy in city. They indulge in gang war painting Chennai / Vizag red. Enters Murugan / Murali Krishna. A native of Madurai / Ramachandrapuram, he comes to

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Vizag , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museum, ...

with a mission. He leaves his village promising his mother that he would return only with his brother, who had run away from the house about two decades ago. Murugan / Murali Krishna gets the help of his friend Vellaichamy / Chittibabu. He comes across the gangsters and a sequence of events results in him incurring both their wrath. In a bloody duel with Guru, he learns that he is his brother, whom he has been searching for long. Now he is entrusted with the task of protecting him from Tamizharasu / Suryaprakash. How he accomplishes his task forms the crux.

Cast

Telugu version * Annapoornamma as Krishna's grandmother *

Gautam Raju Gautam Raju is an Indian actor from Andhra Pradesh predominantly acted in Telugu films. He acted in more than 200 films. He got two Nandi Awards as a Best Male Comedian. He also received Rajababu award. Early and personal life Gautam Raju was ...

as Traffic police *

Duvvasi Mohan Duvvasi Mohan is an Indian actor who is know for acting in comic roles, primarily in Telugu films.. He is from Jagityal. He entered Tollywood as a producer and financier, but later turned to acting with comedy roles in over 350 films. Partial f ...

Production

Casting

Trisha Trisha is a unisex given name, usually derived from the female Latin given name Patricia. Notable people and characters with the name include: People *Trisha (actress), Indian film actress Trisha Krishnan (born 1983) * Trisha Baptie (born 1973 ...

was cast as the lead actress, but opted out of the film and was subsequently replaced with

Shriya Shriya is a feminine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Shriya Pilgaonkar * Shriya Saran, Indian actress and model * Shriya Sharma, Indian film actress and model * Shriya Shah-Klorfine * Shriya Kishore * Shriya Jha Shriya ...

Reema Sen Reema Sen (born 29 October 1981) is an Indian actress and model who primarily appeared in Bengali theatre films, Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi films. Early life and education Sen was born in Kolkata on 29 October 1981. She completed high school fro ...

was cast to play the role of a second actresses and

Neetu Chandra Nitu Chandra is an Indian actress, film producer and theatre artist. She is also a classical dancer and a sportsperson, involved in the promotion of basketball in the country through her close association with the NBA and Taekwondo, being a fou ...

was considered to play the third heroine. Reema Sen and Neetu Chandra were not part of the final cast.

Music

;Tamil version ;Telugu version *"Pidi Pidi" - Ranjith, Naveen *"Naa Maharani" - Udit Narayan *"Pattuko Pattuko" - Narayanan, Janani *"Oka Pelican" - Rahul, Suchithra *"Naa Maharani" - Ranjith *"Mandakini" - Tippu, Saindhavi

Reception

Critical response

;Tamil version Behindwoods wrote:"Thoranai does entertain, but a tighter script and better execution could have yielded far better results". Sify wrote:"The problems with Thoranai are sundry. First and foremost, it's got a dead script. Nothing, simply nothing happens in the first half of the film". Rediff wrote:"Thoranai's only merit is that it's marginally better than '' Sathyam''. The ''Times of India'' gave the film two stars and wrote that "It is a formidable star cast that you see in "Thoranai". However, what is missing is a convincing story". ;Telugu version The ''Times of India'' gave the film one and a half stars out of five stating that "Inspite of a dud like ''

Salute A salute is usually a formal hand gesture or other action used to display respect in military situations. Salutes are primarily associated with the military and law enforcement, but many civilian organizations, such as Girl Guides, Boy Sco ...

'', Tamil star Vishal hasn't realised the significance of a solid plot even for a star-centric film."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thoranai 2009 films 2000s Tamil-language films 2000s masala films Indian action films Films scored by Mani Sharma Indian multilingual films 2009 action films 2008 multilingual films 2009 directorial debut films