Aanai

Plot

Vijay is an ex-police officer who is persuaded by his former boss to be the bodyguard of a millionaire's 8-year-old daughter named Priya. However, Priya gets kidnapped by a militant called Ahmed Khan in London, where Vijay sets out on a rampage to exact vengeance and save Priya.

Cast

• Arjun as Vijay
• Namitha as Ramya
• Keerthi Chawla as Sandhya
• Sanghavi as Meena Jayaram
• Annapurnamma as Vijay's mother
• Vadivelu
• Manoj K. Jayan as Jayaram
• Baby Taj as Priya
• Ranganath
• Aryan
• Thalaivasal Vijay
• Delhi Ganesh
• Halwa Vasu
• Mahadevan as police inspector
• OAK Sundar as police officer
• Junior Silk
• Thambi Ramaiah as RTO officer
• Krishnamoorthy

Production

Selva, who had directed Arjun in Karnaa (1995) and the long delayed Manikanda (2006) was signed by Vasan Visual Ventures to work with him again. The actor signed on for a hiked price of , following the success of his previous film Giri. The unit had a 15-day shooting stint in Hyderabad in February 2005, with two of the lead actresses Namitha and Sanghavi involved in the shoot. The film featured a new editing technique tried by Satish and Harsha, while the team shot three songs with Arjun and Namitha in London, notably near the London Eye and Windsor Castle. Another song "Kada Seema Kada" was shot with Arjun and Namitha at Mohan Studio in Chennai, with the actor notably wearing four inch heels to make up for height difference with the actress. This is the Tamil debut of Keerthi Chawla. During the making of the film, allegations arose that Arjun had been sending lewd messages to Namitha, which led to a brief furore on sets.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was composed by D. Imman. The audio launch was held in August 2005.

Critical reception

S. R. Ashok Kumar of The Hindu wrote, "Director Selva has wrapped it all up quite well but it is in the second half that he loses his way letting some unwanted songs and fights hamper the flow", criticised Chawla's performance but praised K. S. Shiva's cinematography, Gopinath's dialogues, and Selva's screenplay and direction. Sify wrote, "what could have been an edge-of-the-seat thriller ends up as a badly made mass-masala movie", concluding that the film is "disappointing". Malini Mannath Chennai Online wrote "It's a typical Arjun flick with guns blazing and the 'Action King' all set out to destroy his new set of enemies single-handedly. But this time the foes are not from across the border — probably there has been a surfeit of it — so the patriotism factor, so much a part of his films, is missing here. And for Arjun, it's just yet another role to re-establish his credentials as the 'Action King', for, how much variations can he bring into a role he'd done innumerable times earlier!".

References

References

1. C R, Balajee. (31 January 2016). "Let's take a look at Kollywood's several attempts in remaking foreign films".
2. "ஆணை / Aanai (2005)".
3. (12 February 2005). "Arjun acts pricey!".
4. (11 March 2005). "Aanai from Arjun".
5. Kumar, S. R. Ashok. (18 November 2006). "Romance on the ECR".
6. (17 November 2005). "Long and short of it!".
7. (20 September 2011). "Keerthi in research mode".
8. (3 April 2005). "The gentleman turns lecher!".
9. (25 December 2005). "Aanai".
10. (31 August 205). "Producer shed tears at 'Aanai' function / with pics".
11. Kumar, S. R. Ashok. (16 December 2005). "Action aplenty". [[The Hindu]].
12. "Aanai".
13. Mannath, Malini. (12 December 2005). "Aanai".