Anegan (; ) is a 2015 Indian Tamil language-language period romantic action thriller film co-written and directed by K. V. Anand and produced by Kalpathi S. Aghoram, S. Ganesh, and S. Suresh under the banner of AGS Entertainment. The film features an ensemble cast starring Dhanush and Amyra Dastur in dual role, while Karthik, Ashish Vidyarthi, Aishwarya Devan, Mukesh Tiwari and Jagan appear in supporting roles. The plot of this story is inspired by the 1963 film Nenjam Marapathillai. The film's title is based on Thiruvasagam, which was written by poet Manikkavacakar. Set in four different time periods, the film is based on the theme of reincarnation, which revolves around Ashwin (Dhanush) and Madhu (Amyra Dastur) who were lovers in their past lives, have been brought together in the present.
Principal photography started on 2 September 2013 at Puducherry. Filming continued in Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Burma, and some parts of India. and was completed on 15 September 2014. The film features music composed by Harris Jayaraj, with cinematography handled by Om Prakash and editing done by Anthony. The visual effects were handled by V. Srinivas Mohan.
After multiple postponements, Anegan was released on 13 February 2015 to positive reviews from critics who praised its visual style, music, narration, plot, and cast performances (especially Dhanush, Karthik and Amyra). The film was commercially successful at the box office.
Plot
In 1960s, Murugappa alias Munaruna is a Tamil worker in Burma. Munaruna's friend Saamuda falls in love with Mallika, but Mallika loves Munaruna. Munaruna saves Samudra, the daughter of a Burmese
army general, from a Ferris wheel accident and they fall in love. After learning about this, Mallika is devastated and marries Saamuda. The Burmese general disapproves of the union between Munaruna and Samudra, and revokes the privileges that the Tamil immigrants had until then. Violence breaks out and the Tamil nationals flee Burma. Munaruna and Samudra join the refugees on a ship with Saamuda and Mallika. Samudra's father arrives looking for her, where Mallika spitefully reveals about their hideout. As Samudra and Munaruna try to escape by diving into the ocean, Munaruna is shot and killed. Samudra handcuffs herself to Munaruna and drowns with him after promising to be together forever.
In present-day India, Samudra, who is now known as Madhu, tells her psychiatrist Dr. Radhika that she has already met Saamuda and Mallika as Jagan and Meera, who are fellow programmers in the game development company where she works. Radhika dismisses this as work stress and gives medicines to Madhu. Madhu meets Ashwin, a new employee in her company, and seeing his resemblance to Munaruna, flirts with him. Their boss Kiran knows to extract work from employees with ease. Meera hallucinates about ghosts trying to assault her, where she jumps from the office window and dies. Madhu is disturbed and attends her with Radhika when she remembers her first birth where she was a princess named Shenbagavalli and was in love with a king named Ilamaran, who also resembles Ashwin. The two are killed by a traitorous officer in Ilamaran's army.
Madhu and Ashwin meet with a car accident, where Madhu is admitted to a hospital. Madhu dreams about overhearing Inspector Gopinath's conversation about a couple named Kaali and Kalyani, when she intervenes and says that she knows their whereabouts. Once awake, Madhu recites the dream to the policemen in the hospital and they are confused. Gopinath, who is the present police commissioner, visits her and Madhu realizes that he looks like the same police officer from her dream in the hospital. Gopinath tells that the Kaali-Kalyani story was a missing person case that happened 25 years ago. Madhu claims that Kaali and Kalyani were killed and buried and takes Gopinath and Ashwin to a place where they dig up and find skeletons identified as remains of Kaali and Kalyani. Gopinath finds a ring engraved with the letter R on one of the skeletons. Ashwin is confused as to what R may mean.
Kiran hears about her hallucinations and rushes to the clinic. Madhu hallucinates about her third birth, where she is Kalyani, a brahmin girl who falls in love with a goon called Kaali. Kalyani tells Kaali to confess his crimes and serve out his time in prison in return for her hand in marriage. Kalyani's father Murthy is displeased and forcefully arranges her marriage with Ravi while Kaali is in prison. Kaali escapes from prison and meets Kalyani and they plan to elope, but Ravi finds out and offers to help them. However, Ravi takes them to a secluded spot, where he murders the couple out of jealousy and buries them. The finger with the ring belongs to Ravi and it was amputated by Kaali during the fight. Ravi unknowingly buries it along with Kaali's and Kalyani's corpses.
Back to the present, Madhu learns the truth of Kaali and Kalyani's death from Murthy. Suddenly, a twist occurs where it shows that Ravi is Kiran. Kiran kidnaps Madhu and kills Murthy. Ashwin finds video games with plots resembling the stories of Madhu's previous births and Meera's hallucination before her death. Ashwin saves Radhika from Kiran's goons who tried to kill her. Radhika reveals that Kiran has been giving illegal drugs to his employees to boost their creativity to profit with intense and uniquely themed games. As a side effect of the drug, the employees hallucinate, leading to Madhu's memories of her "past lives" and the recalling of the story of Kalyani as her own. Along with Radhika, Ashwin goes to Gopinath's office to reveal about Kiran's illegal activities. But on the way Kiran's men attacks them again and it results in Radhika's death.
Ashwin reaches Kiran's lair to save Madhu. A fight ensues, where Ashwin manages to confront and defeat Kiran and his men. Kiran is killed when a knife Ashwin threw into a tree falls onto his chest. Gopinath covers up the death as a suicide with Ashwin's help, stating that Kiran killed himself for fear of dealing with the repercussions of his illegal activities. Ashwin and Madhu marry and honeymoon in Burma. As they playfully argue over whether Madhu's dreams had all been hallucinations or partly true, Ashwin and Madhu pass by a log with a heart and the names of Munaruna and Samudra carved into it.
Cast
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Dhanush in dual role as:
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Ashwin, a young man who works at Kiran's company in the system admin department and falls in love with Madhu
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Kaaliswaran (Kaali), A painter in Madras 1987 who falls in love with Kalyani
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Murugappa (Munaruna), A construction worker in Burma in 1962 and Samudra's lover
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Ilamaran, King Ilamaran in ancient Tamil Nadu (portrait in 'Roja Kadale' song only)
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Karthik as Ravikiran (Kiran), MD of a Gaming Company, the main antagonist
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Amyra Dastur (all roles dubbed by Raveena Ravi) in four roles as:
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Madhumitha, a game designer at Kiran's company who falls in love with Ashwin
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Kalyani, a social activist in Madras 1987 who falls in love with Kaali
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Samudra, a school student in Burma in 1962 who falls in love with Munaruna
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Shenbagavalli, Princess in ancient Tamil Nadu (portrait in 'Roja Kadale' song only)
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Aishwarya Devan in a dual role as:
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Meera, a co-worker with Ashwin and Madhu
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Mallika, Munaruna's one-side lover, and Saamuda's wife
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Ashish Vidyarthi in a dual role as:
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Gopinath, Inspector of Police in Madras 1987 and later promoted as Commissioner in Chennai city
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Rana, head soldier of King Ilamaran in ancient Tamil Nadu (portrait in 'Roja Kadale' song only)
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Jagan in dual roles as:
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Jagan, co-worker with Ashwin and Madhu
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Saamuda, Munaruna's friend in Burma in 1962
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Mukesh Tiwari in a dual role as:
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Radhakrishnan, Madhu's uncle in present
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Burma Police Officer in 1962 and Samudra's father
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Thalaivasal Vijay as Moorthy, Kalyani's father
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Vinaya Prasad as Madhumitha's mother
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Lena as Dr. Radhika and a woman in Burma who was fighting with an officer
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Shankar Krishnamurthy as Ashwin's father
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D. R. K. Kiran as Ranjith, Kiran's goon
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Revathi Sankar as Ravikiran's mother
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Veera Santhanam as Guruji
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K.R.G Sharad as Genie
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Bhawana Aneja as Samudra's mother (of Tamil descent) in Burma 1962
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Baby Vedhika
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Rajesh Milton
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Pankaj Rajan
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Baba Bhaskar (special appearance in the song "Danga Maari Oodhari")
Production
Development
Initially, K. V. Anand, narrated the story to Vijay first, but he could not commit the project, due to date issues, and suggested Dhanush's name.
In May 2013, K. V. Anand stated that he would collaborate with
Dhanush for his next film, which Dhanush confirmed on his social network page. Anand joined hands with AGS Entertainment for the second time after
Maattraan (2012), and it was confirmed that the production company would also distribute the film worldwide.
[Ramchander (23 May 2013). ] Though it was rumoured to be titled as
Thaara Thappatta Ready, it was later dismissed by the director.
Dhanush was said to appear in four different looks in the film,
and that he would not be playing the "moody-sombre" type-role he played in his previous films like
Mayakkam Enna (2011).
The film, a romantic entertainer laced with action was titled
Anegan, meaning "the man with many shadows", according to Tamil poet
Manikkavacakar, from his volume,
Tiruvacakam.
It was revealed that the story comprises multiple period set-ups, and in one of the segments, Dhanush goes back to his previous birth.
The technical crew consisted of cinematography by Om Prakash, editing by Anthony, action by
Kanal Kannan and the dialogues were written by Subha. As with most K. V. Anand films,
Harris Jayaraj was once again signed to compose the musical score.
Casting
Alia Bhatt was rumoured to be playing the lead,
[ 25 May 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.] before
Amyra Dastur, a model who made her film debut in
Issaq (2013) was later cast opposite Dhanush.
In preparation for her role, she was asked to see Tamil films
and also took Tamil lessons from Dhanush to get her dialogues right.
Amyra was further reported to be performing stunts for the film.
In an interview to
IANS, Amyra said that she would portray three different roles in the film.
Karthik was signed to play the role of a love guru to Dhanush, for a part, similar to the role portrayed by Santhanam in
Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013),
and also sport a look similar to that of Ajith's look in
Mankatha (2011).
Baby Vedhika of
Nirnayam (2013) fame is also playing a role.
Actress
Aishwarya Devan was selected to play the second heroine in the film.
Actors Atul Kulkarni and
Ashish Vidyarthi were selected to play supporting roles.
Malayalam actress Lena was also selected to play a supporting role in the film.
Characters
Dhanush was said to appear in four different looks in the film since the film is set across different time periods.
Furthermore, K. V. Anand had stated that Dhanush will be sporting a hairdo, for the character King Ilamaran, similar to
Kamal Haasan's look in the film,
Tik Tik Tik (1981).
Filming
Principal photography began on 2 September 2013 at Puducherry.
It was reported that the film would be shot across locations such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Burma among many other countries. In Malaysia, a football game scene was shot in the oldest English school in South East Asia, Penang Free School.
The second schedule took place in
Hyderabad.
where a song sequence was choreographed by Baba Baskar.
[ According to unit members, Amyra stunned the unit with her perfect lip sync for Tamil dialogues and that she overshadowed the hero in some places as well.][ "On the sets of Dhanush starrer 'Anegan'". Deccan Chronicle. 15 August 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2014.] By 29 May 2014, 90% of the movie was shot, including 3 song sequences. Another song sequence and part of the climax were shot on a farmland, spread over 100 acres, near Puducherry.[ "Dhanush's biggest is almost done". Behindwoods. 6 May 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.][Seshagiri, Sangeetha (27 August 2014). ] On 15 September 2014, Anand confirmed that the shooting of the film was completed.
Themes and influences
M. Suganth of The Times of India in his review stated that the film "had traces of Magadheera, Enakkul Oruvan, Cloud Atlas and The Fountain" but attributed the comparison "mainly due to the reincarnation theme."
Music
The film's soundtrack is scored by K. V. Anand's regular collaborator Harris Jayaraj,
Marketing
The first look poster was released on 1 September 2013.
Release
Theatrical
Anegan was touted to be one of the biggest film release for Dhanush. Initially, the film was rumoured to be released on 22 October 2014, coinciding with Diwali. However, the makers announced that, the film will not be released on Diwali, clashing with Vijay-starrer Kaththi and Vishal-starrer Poojai, which was scheduled to release on the same date.
Before its release being delayed to 2015, the film was listed by Behindwoods in its "Top 10 most Anticipated films of 2014".
Distribution
The film's Tamil Nadu distribution rights, were bought by Dhanush's home banner, Wunderbar Films. The Kerala distribution rights were bought by E4 Entertainment.
Home media
The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.
Television broadcast
The film's television premiere took place on 14 April 2015, coinciding with Tamil New Year festival.
Reception
Box office
The film collected in second day, in third day and in first weekend. The film collected in Tamil Nadu, in Andhra Pradesh, in Kerala and in Karnataka. The film grossed in the second weekend.
Critical response
M. Suganth of The Times of India rated the film 4 stars out of 5 and stated, " Anegan is pure camp but also a hugely entertaining one".
Indiaglitz rated the film 3 out of 5 and wrote "Although not a masala perse, Anegan savours all tastes. There is action, a little bit of revenge, lighthearted comedy, smothering love, all served with a twist from the usual."
Accolades
External links
