Aadhavan

Aadhavan () is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film directed by K. S. Ravikumar and written by Ramesh Khanna. The film features Suriya and Nayantara, with Vadivelu, Bharath Murali, B. Saroja Devi, Rahul Dev, Sayaji Shinde, Anand Babu in supporting cast. The music was composed by Harris Jayaraj.
The film released on 17 October 2009 to mixed reviews but became a blockbuster at the box office. Also, It is one of the good action-commercial family entertainer. It was dubbed in Hindi as "Dildaar - The Arya" in 2011 and in Telugu as "Ghatikudu". The movie was loosely based on the 1990 Malayalam movie "His Highness Abdullah". The film was remade in Bengali as "Shikari".
Plot.
The film opens in United States where an unknown client is shown speaking to a mafia group to eradicate a fake godman. The mafia group arranges the hit through a middleman who is in Kolkata as the fake godman will be arriving there. Middlemen then gives the contract to Ibrahim Rowther (Sayaji Shinde). The fake godman is then killed by an unknown who reveals to be Aadhavan (Suriya). Aadhavan is a professional hitman working with his adoptive father Ibrahim Rowther and brother Tharani (Anand Babu). Aadhavan then gets several contracts in various parts of the world as a result of eradicating the fake godman. As a result, the trio gets richer. In Mumbai, Aadhavan meets Doctor Abdul Kulkarni (Rahul Dev) who hires to him kill a prominent Judge Subramaniam (Bharath Murali), since he is handling the inquiry and verdict on Abdul's child kidnapping, rape, murder, and organ trafficking cases in Kolkata. Aadhavan attempts to snipe Subramaniam but fails at the first attempt seemingly. After that Dr. Abdul Kulkarni insults him for his failure to kill the judge. Aadhavan then becomes furious and vows to kill Subramaniam within ten days. He threatens the Judge's servant Bannerjee (Vadivelu) to help him get into the house as Murugan, Bannerjee's brother in law, by abducting the actual Murugan (Sathyan) held in his ship.
Slowly Aadhavan begins to win over the members of Subramaniam's household - his mother (B. Saroja Devi), her beautiful granddaughter Thara (Nayantara) and his other relatives. Thara is attracted to Murugan's (Aadhavan) intelligence and simple-innocent nature. Aadhavan tries to assassinate the judge at home in the middle of the night and also plants a bomb in Subramaniam's van, but both attempts fail. Meanwhile, Subramaniam's entire family is on a trip to Darjeeling, and Thara asks Aadhavan to hide a guitar belonging to Ilaiyaman (Ramesh Khanna), her madcap musician cousin. Aadhavan uses this opportunity and plants a mobile bomb in the guitar and places it in one of the cars which explodes at the wrong time and he fails to kill Subramaniam yet again. Meanwhile, a security officer at Subramaniam's house keeps informing Abdul Kulkarni of Aadhavan's entry into the house and all his signs of progress and failed attempts.
Thara is now suspicious about Aadhavan but when she questions him in secret, he informs her that he is really Subramaniam's long lost runaway son Madhavan. Thara soon informs all the members of the household about Madhavan and they are overjoyed and Thara and Aadhavan fall in love. However, they hide it from Subramaniam and Ilaiyaman, because of his hatred towards Madhavan. Aadhavan, however, tells Bannerjee that he lied to Thara about Madhavan to distract her suspicion and that he really is not that runaway son at all. However, on Thara's birthday, a flashback reveals that Aadhavan is indeed the runaway Madhavan.
Years ago, a ten-year-old Madhavan unknowingly carries a gift with a hidden bomb for his cousin Thara's birthday. His friend's mother plants the bomb in the toy to avenge Subramaniam for her husband's jail sentence. Though Thara survives, her mother Anu (Anu Hassan), opens the box and is killed along with her husband in the explosion. Subramaniam blames Madhavan for his sister Anu's death and for his friendship with a gangster's son and thrashes him. In anger and fear of going to a juvenile prison, Madhavan steals a gun from the cops and accidentally shoots his father and runs away from home. He kills his friend's mother as she is responsible for his aunt's death. He saves a local goon Ibrahim Rowther (Sayaji Shinde) from death and is in turn adopted as his son and rechristened him as 'Aadhavan'.
Coming back to the present, Tharani tried to kill Subramanium, is stopped by Madhavan and reveals his true identity that He is the son of Subramanium and Ibrahim Rowther challenges within two days I will kill you and the judge. Abdul Kulkarni is fed up with the repeated failed attempts of Madhavan. So he makes another plan and threatens Ibrahim and his gang to surrender to the police and make a confession about Madhavan and his plans. When the Assistant Commissioner of police (Riyaz Khan), confronts Madhavan and is about to have him hauled off, Madhavan gets Subramaniam's laptop containing the verdict and inquiry reports, takes him and Thara as hostages and drives away. In the meanwhile, the police commissioner (FEFSI Vijayan) arrives and makes a confession that the police actually had caught him after his very first attempt to kill the Judge had failed. When questioned by the commissioner, Madhavan said that he backed off and misfired on purpose at the last moment, after he found that he was going to kill his own father. The Police then ask him to go back to the house to protect his father over a 24/7 every day for which he agrees. Commissioner uses Madhavan to nab individuals linked to various criminal & terrorist organizations. This information is relayed to the Judge by the commissioner who is tearfully grateful to his son. Meanwhile, Abdul Kulkarni attacks the vehicle in which the trio are travelling and a fight ensues where Madhavan saves his father and Thara, and Kulkarni is killed. Minister & the middleman in involved gets arrested. Madhavan serves a short term in prison for his previous wrongdoings but subsequently released from the prison for his contribution to save the judge.
As the credits roll, we see that Madhavan and Thara are now married and live in the household with the huge family, and yet again Bannerjee brings two assistants (K. S. Ravikumar and Udhayanidhi Stalin), to help him and asks approval from Madhavan and he gladly approves.
Cast.
The director (K. S. Ravikmar) and the producer (Udhayanidhi Stalin) make cameo appearances as servants at the end of the film.
Production.
The song "Eno Eno Panithuli" was shot at Iceland, making "Aadhavan" the first South Indian film to be shot there. Shooting also took place at the Chettinad Palace.
Soundtrack.
The soundtrack features 6 tracks composed by Harris Jayaraj. The soundtrack was released on 19 August by S. Shankar. The album received positive reviews from critics, with praise being dedicated to the songs "Hasili Fisile" and "Vaarayo Vaarayo". Malathy Sundaram from Behindwoods said "There is a lot of technical finesse to this album. What surprises us here is the banality of the lyrics! One would have expected better lyrics from all these songwriters! Harris Jayaraj has consciously used various instruments to add appeal to this album." Pavithra Srinivasan from Rediff said "Harris Jeyaraj is one of those composers who is not capable of turning out bad stuff even on a bad day, this album stands out from a mile away." Due to the album's critical and commercial success, Harris Jayaraj received the Vijay Award for Best Music Director and was also nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.
Release.
The satellite rights of the film were sold to Kalaignar.
Critical Reception.
Behindwoods gave a 2.85 out of 5 and gave a verdict "Carefree commercial – Conditions apply". Sify.com gave a positive review stating "Ranging through a wide field of comedy laced with action, Aadhavan is good fun while it lasts. It’s a roller-coaster ride of pure unadulterated masala".Rediff rated the movie with 2.85 out of 5 stars and ended the review with "Aadhavan is uncomplicated, clean, fun, and doesn't expect you to take it seriously." Nowrunning.com also rated it as 2.85 on 5 and Aravindan D I specially said "Aadhavan could have been good entertainment, but is marred by inconsistent script." while Indiaglitz gave the verdict "above average" and stated "Aadhavan is a movie that would bring joy to mass action lovers and front-benchers.". Malathi Rangarajan from The Hindu wrote "Post-interval, you have to wait quite a while for some concrete action from Aadhavan, the Infallible!"
Box office.
The movie collected 75 crore worldwide in its Lifetime Collection. This movie also had a high collection in Malaysia as well as UK. Overseas, the film grossed about $1,541,485, approximately.
The film was a hit at the box office. The film was dubbed into Telugu as "Ghatikudu". It is also dubbed into Hindi as "Dildaar-The Arya".
Remake.
The movie was remade in Bengali as "Shikari" starring Bangladeshi superstar Shakib Khan. "Shikari" is a 2016 Bangladesh-India joint venture action thriller drama film directed by Joydeep Mukherjee and Zakir Hossain Simanto.