Aanai ( Order) is a 2005 Indian Tamil language-language Vigilante film action film directed and co-written by Selva. The film stars Arjun Sarja, Namitha and Keerthi Chawla, while Vadivelu, Sanghavi and Manoj K. Jayan play pivotal roles. D. Imman composed the soundtrack, while Shiva was the cinematographer for the venture which released in December 2005. It is a remake of the 2004 American film Man on Fire.
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
Production
Selva, who had directed
Arjun Sarja 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 one crore rupees, 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 was shot with Arjun and Namitha at the 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.
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.
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!".
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