18 Vayasu

Plot

Karthik develops a mental disorder after seeing his father commit suicide. He displays animalistic behaviour whenever he is anxious. As he grows up, he meets Gayathri, an orphan. Gayathri is constantly harassed by her caretaker, whereas, Karthik is ill-treated by his mother. This is due to her life with her paramour, which affects him a lot. One day, Karthik kills his mother. Gayathri is shocked and decides to end the relationship with Karthik, who runs away, fearing the law. Whether Karthik succeeds in winning back Gayathri's love is what the rest of the film is about.

Cast

• Johnny as Karthik
• Gayathrie as Gayathri
• Rohini as Dr. Suchithra
• Sathyendra as Jocky
• Yuvarani as Karthik's Mother
• Mohammed Fazil as Karthik's friend
• J. Senthil Kumar as Police officer
• Sevazhai as Police officer
• Dr. Suri as Karthik's mother's paramour
• Krishna Davinci as Dr. Suchitra's husband
• Gnanavel as Gayathri's caretaker

Production

The film was shot in Chennai, Madurai, Theni and Tiruchengode. It became the film debut of Gayathrie after her first completed project Yen Ippadi Mayakkinai failed to release.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Sri Lankan musicians Charles Bosco and Dinesh Kanagaratnam, in their debut at composing for an Indian Tamil film. Karthik of Milliblog wrote, "Dinesh and Charles Bosco’s music starts off fairly well, but goes terribly haywire and leaves the soundtrack in lurch".

Release

18 Vayasu was initially scheduled to release on 28 July 2012, but ultimately released almost a month later, on 24 August.

Critical reception

Vivek Ramz of In.com wrote, "Even though Director Paneer Selvam has a new premise, he lets it go loose with lot of loopholes in the script. He has tried to make the offbeat theme into a mainstream one and failed miserably in doing the same." K.R. Manigandan of The Hindu wrote that Johnny was unconvicing because his character was not well etched, but praised Gayathrie's performance and the cinematography, concluding, "18 Vayasu is a film that could have been a lot better, had the script been taut". Malini Mannath from The New Indian Express wrote, "18 Vayasu does make the effort. But it falls short of Renigunta, which had a far more coherent screenplay and a more gripping narrative". The Times of India wrote, "A tighter editing could have made 18 Vayasu, more thrilling to watch. Panneerselvam also could have etched out the supporting cast better".

References

References

1. Lakshmi. (22 November 2011). "Panneerselvam's 18 Vayasu full of animal instinct!". [[The Times of India]].
2. S, Venkadesan. (27 September 2012). "Gayathri is going great guns in Kollywood".
3. "18 VAYASU – Charles Bosco Tamil Audio Cd". Audio CDs World.
4. (14 December 2011). "18 Vayasu – EP". [[Apple Music]].
5. (18 August 2010). "Sri Lankan music directors to debut in Kollywood".
6. Karthik. (28 November 2011). "18 Vayasu (Music review), Tamil – Dinesh & Charles Bosco".
7. (20 July 2012). "18 Vayasu to release on July 28". [[India Today]].
8. (24 August 2012). "Friday Fury — August 24". [[Sify]].
9. Ramz, Vivek. (26 August 2012). "Give 18 Vayasu a miss".
10. Manigandan, K. R.. (25 August 2012). "18 Vayasu – Missing the mark". [[The Hindu]].
11. Mannath, Malini. (27 August 2012). "'18 Vayasu' (Tamil)".
12. "18 Vayasu Movie Review {3/5}: Critic Review of 18 Vayasu by Times of India".