''Aalavandhan'' () is a 2001 Indian
action thriller film
The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...
directed by
Suresh Krissna
Suresh Krissna (born 25 June 1959) is an Indian film director who has directed Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi Language films. His first independent film as a director was '' Sathya'' (1988), with Kamal Haasan. He is well known for h ...
and produced by
Kalaipuli S. Thanu. The film features
Kamal Haasan
Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...
in dual roles, alongside
Raveena Tandon
Raveena Tandon (born 26 October 1972) is an Indian actress primarily known for her work in Hindi films. Considered as one of the leading actresses of the 1990s and early 2000s, Tandon is a recipient of several awards, including a National Film ...
,
Manisha Koirala
Manisha Koirala (; born 16 August 1970) is a Nepali people, Nepalese actress who works in Cinema of India, Indian films, predominantly in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil. Born to the politically prominent Koirala family, she is the daughter of ...
,
Sarath Babu
Sathyam Babu Dixithulu (31 July 1951 – 22 May 2023), known by his stage name Sarath Babu, was an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Tamil and Telugu cinema. He appeared in more than 300 films, including in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and ...
,
Gollapudi Maruti Rao, Madurai G.S. Mani and
Milind Gunaji. It is an adaptation of the 1984 novel ''Dhayam'', written by Haasan, and incorporates elements of
magical realism
Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical rea ...
. The film was simultaneously shot in
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
People, culture and language
* Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka
** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
and
Hindi
Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
, with the latter version titled ''Abhay'' (), with three different actors in supporting roles.
The Tamil version was dubbed into
Telugu and released under the title ''Abhay''.
While ''Aalavandhan'' underperformed commercially upon its release, it was positively received in subsequent years and achieved
cult status, with some critics praising it as being ahead of its time. The film won the
National Film Award for Best Special Effects and was retrospectively screened at the 2016
Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse.
Lisa Dreyer ...
, where it received a standing ovation.
In 2013, it was included in
''Rediff'''s list of "The 10 Best Films of Kamal Haasan." A digitally remastered version, heavily trimmed by 50-55 minutes, was released on 8 December 2023.
Plot
Major
Major most commonly refers to:
* Major (rank), a military rank
* Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits
* People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames
* Major and minor in musi ...
Vijay Kumar, a
Black Cat
A black cat is a Cat, domestic cat with black fur. They may be a specific Purebred, breed, or a common domestic cat of no particular or mixed breed. Most black cats have golden iris (anatomy), irises due to their high melanin pigment content. Bl ...
commando, leads a team to rescue tourists held hostage by terrorists in
Kashmir
Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
. After the mission, Vijay meets his girlfriend, Tejaswini "Teju," a
news presenter
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
, and they plan to marry. Teju reveals she is pregnant, sharing her
HCG report with Vijay. Meanwhile, Vijay decides to visit his twin brother Nanda Kumar, also known as Nandu, who has been confined to a
mental asylum for murdering their stepmother, Jayanthi.
Nandu, a
schizophrenic
Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...
with
paranoid delusions, has spent most of his life in the asylum. Despite Vijay's care for his brother, the doctor warns that Nandu poses a danger to society. Vijay and Teju visit Nandu to inform him of their wedding, but Nandu begins to perceive Teju as Jayanthi. Believing he must save Vijay, Nandu escapes the asylum after killing two inmates, Sulthan and Paasha, leaving no evidence of his whereabouts. Nandu later confronts his maternal uncle, who had a role in his incarceration, causing the man to choke and die from the shock.
Vijay and Teju marry but soon learn of Nandu's escape. Nandu's doctor initially denies the possibility but is convinced when postmortem evidence on Sulthan reveals
circumcision
Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. T ...
, a trait shared by Nandu. Nandu begins his quest to kill Teju, leaving a threatening message at Vijay's home. He hallucinates his deceased mother and spirals further into violence. Nandu becomes infatuated with Sharmilee, a socialite, after seeing her posters. They meet by chance, and Sharmilee, charmed by Nandu's antics, becomes close to him. However, a drug-induced playfulness triggers Nandu's memories of Jayanthi's abuse, leading him to brutally murder Sharmilee. Regretful, Nandu burns her body but leaves evidence that helps Vijay identify him as the culprit.
Vijay and Teju retreat to his ancestral home in
Ooty
Ooty (; officially Udagamandalam (), Anglicisation, anglicized: Ootacamund , abbreviated as Udagai, ) is a town and municipality in the Nilgiris district of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north ...
to escape Nandu, who secretly follows them. There, they discover Nandu's diary, revealing their troubled past. Their mother, Priya, died by suicide after learning about their father Santhosh's affair with Jayanthi, who became their stepmother. Vijay and Nandu despised Jayanthi, leading to conflicts at home. When a teacher complained about Nandu’s behavior, he blamed the toxic home environment, angering Santhosh, who punished them. Later, Vijay found out about Jayanthi's affair with another man, and Nandu’s attempt to inform their father was dismissed, resulting in a beating. The twins begged their uncle to take them away, but his illness left him unable to help. Their father decided one son must stay and, after a coin toss, Vijay went to
boarding school
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
with their uncle, while Nandu stayed behind.
The situation gets worse at home with Nandu and Jayanthi turning violent. Santhosh has another heart attack. Nandu overhears a conversation between Jayanthi and a lawyer and realises that she is only after his father's wealth. Seeing them break into a fight, Santhosh dies due to his heart attack. Nandu starts to see his deceased parents in his hallucinations, as a result of the trauma from Jayanthi's cruel antics. Nandu's mother gives him a mission of killing Jayanthi, granting him a
military knife. Nandu stabs Jayanthi with the knife, but before dying, she vows to return. Nandu stays with Jayanthi's corpse in the house for days before being incarcerated at the asylum.
In the present, Nandu tracks Vijay and Teju to Ooty. Vijay learns of Nandu’s presence and manages to save Teju during an encounter. Nandu chases them, causing chaos, but Vijay pushes his car into an abyss, assuming him dead. However, Nandu survives and continues his pursuit. Vijay, with his commandos, attempts to apprehend Nandu, but he evades capture, killing several in the process.
A final confrontation ensues between the brothers. Nandu overpowers Vijay and corners Teju, who defends herself with a belt, triggering his traumatic memories of Jayanthi's punishments. Nandu visualises his mother asking him to join her as Jayanthi is torturing her
up there, leading him to apologise to Vijay and Teju for his actions. To end his torment and "kill" Jayanthi, Nandu ignites gas cylinders, causing a massive explosion that kills him.
Months later, Teju is revealed to be carrying twins. She expresses concern about their children's future, fearing a traumatic childhood similar to Vijay and Nandu's. Vijay reassures her that their children will have a loving and supportive upbringing.
Cast
Production
In the early 1980s, Kamal Haasan wrote a story titled ''Dhayam'' that was serialised in the magazine journal, ''Idhayam Pesugiradhu''.
He had discussed making the story into a film with
K. Balachander during the period, but felt that the story was ahead of its time. In 2000, he picked up the story again and agreed to make the film with director
Suresh Krissna
Suresh Krissna (born 25 June 1959) is an Indian film director who has directed Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi Language films. His first independent film as a director was '' Sathya'' (1988), with Kamal Haasan. He is well known for h ...
, a former assistant of Balachander, and producer
S. Thanu. When Thanu had agreed to produce a film for Haasan, he had initially rejected the storylines of ''
Pammal K. Sambandam'' and ''
Nala Damayanthi''. This prompted the pair to begin work on ''Dhayam'' instead, and the film was revealed to be called ''Aalavandhan'' in Tamil and ''Abhay'' in Hindi. ''Abhay'' was distributed by reputed Shringar Films.
Mahesh Mahadevan was signed on to compose the background music,
Tirru was selected to be the cinematographer and Sameer Chanda was picked to be the art director. Actor
Jayam Ravi
Ravi Mohan (born 10 September 1980), better known by his former stage name Jayam Ravi, is an Indian actor who works in Tamil cinema. The son of veteran film editor A. Mohan, Ravi made his lead acting debut in ''Jayam (2003 film), Jayam'' (2003) ...
also worked on the film as an assistant director.
The film was first announced with Haasan and
Simran and Bollywood actress
Rani Mukerji in a special appearance. Both actresses left the project for its delay in start, being replaced by
Raveena Tandon
Raveena Tandon (born 26 October 1972) is an Indian actress primarily known for her work in Hindi films. Considered as one of the leading actresses of the 1990s and early 2000s, Tandon is a recipient of several awards, including a National Film ...
and
Manisha Koirala
Manisha Koirala (; born 16 August 1970) is a Nepali people, Nepalese actress who works in Cinema of India, Indian films, predominantly in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil. Born to the politically prominent Koirala family, she is the daughter of ...
. Producer Dhanu had initially tried to cast
Aishwarya Rai
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (; Rai; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress who is primarily known for her work in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil films. Rai won the Miss World 1994 pageant and later established herself as one of the most-popu ...
in the film, but the actress did not sign the project.
Composer
Harris Jayaraj
J. Harris Jayaraj (born 8 January 1975) is an Indian composer from Tamil Nadu. He composes soundtracks predominantly for Tamil cinema, Tamil films, while also having composed for a few films in Cinema of Andhra Pradesh, Telugu and two films i ...
was first approached by the producer to do music for the film, and he assured to introduce him as a music composer before ''
Minnale''. But Harris refused as he owed to do his first movie with
Gautham Vasudev Menon
Gautham Vasudev Menon (born 25 February 1973) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, film producer and actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry. He has also directed Telugu cinema, Telugu, Hindi cinema, Hindi and Ma ...
. Later, music trio
Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy was signed as music composers.
The film featured Haasan in two distinct roles, for one of which he had his head shaved bald and gained ten kilograms. To play the other in the film, he went to the
National Defence Academy for a crash course and also consulted his co-actor
Major Ravi, who was a former officer in the
Indian Army
The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...
.
Stunt choreographer Grant Page, who had worked in the American film ''
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'', was assigned to compose stunt sequences in Kashmir. Another fight sequence was shot in Delhi for 15 days using 39 cars with 3 cameras with a machine called Airramp brought from abroad for jumping scenes.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the movie was composed by the music trio
Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy making their debut in Tamil, and the film score is composed by
Mahesh Mahadevan. The film features six tracks in both Tamil and Hindi versions with lyrics written by
Vairamuthu and
Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar (born 1945) is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist and poet. Known for his work in Hindi cinema, he has won five National Film Awards, and received the Padma Shri in 1999 and the Padma Bhushan in 2007, two of India's highest civili ...
respectively.
The album of the film was released on 24 September 2001, and it created a record by selling over 2,00,000 copies in less than eight hours of its release.
However, according to Rediff, it "did not live up to expectations."
Release
Started on a budget of 7 crore, the costs associated with ''Aalavandhan'' tripled by the time of release. The film was released on 16 November 2001, during
Diwali
Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual v ...
.
The Hindi version ''Abhay'' was bought over in Maharashtra by the reputed Shringar Films. The number of prints in Tamil Nadu had been increased by almost 5 times the average. Both ''Aalavandhan'' and ''Abhay'' got A (adults only) certificate from the
CBFC. Later, both were re-examined upon request to get a UA certificate.
The film was the top opener of the Diwali weekend at the box office but was not successful. According to
Bollywood Hungama
Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is an Indian entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000.
The website provides n ...
, ''Abhay'' collected 2.02 crore at the box office.
Reception
Initial reviews at the time of the film's release were mixed. Malathi Rangarajan of ''
The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...
'' said, "Too much publicity can sometimes affect a film adversely, because of the great expectations triggered. In the case of ''Aalavandhan'', the hype and hoopla built up for months seems justified — to a certain extent". Visual Dasan of ''Kalki'' praised the acting of Haasan, music, visual effects, flashback, cinematography and editing.
Reviewing the Hindi version ''Abhay'',
Taran Adarsh said, "On the whole, ''Abhay'' has nothing to offer to the masses or the classes. Poor".
Rediff
Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...
author R. Swaminathan said, "What happens when an exceptionally talented actor develops an inexplicable urge to delve into the dark side of the human psyche, and worse, decides to paint the town red about it? Well, for one, you get a film called ''Abhay''." Vijay Ramanan of ''Planet Bollywood'' rated the film 5.5 out of 10, saying, "The film falls flat on its face because of its failure in the two most important departments of filmmaking – scriptwriting, and direction
..It almost seems as if Kamal Haasan and Suresh Krishna were high on drugs while making this film." Smriti Kashyap of ''fullhyd.com'' said "The movie is a huge letdown. It lacks the pop, snap and crackle to fill you with enough guts to potter down to the theater and watch it. Catch it on the CD, it's easier on the brains."
Awards
National Film Awards
The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...
*
Best Special Effects – N. Madhusudhanan
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards
Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Governmen ...
*
Best Editor –
Kasi Viswanathan
Re-release
Following the film's positive response at the 2016 Fantastic Fest, a digitally restored version was announced. On 25 January 2023, it was announced that the film would release in over 1000 screens, although no release date was provided. In November 2023, Thanu announced that the film is released on December 8, 2023.
Alternate cut
In April 2021, Thanu announced that he would release a re-edited version of ''Aalavandhan''.
Legacy
The song "Kadavul Paathi Mirugam Paathi" inspired a 2015 film of
same name directed by Raaj Menon.
According to director
Anurag Kashyap
Anurag Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian filmmaker and actor known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to films, the Government of France made him a Knight of the Ordre ...
, the American filmmaker
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. Quentin Tarantino filmography, His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to ...
told him the animated sequence in ''Aalavandhan'' inspired a similar sequence of his film ''
Kill Bill: Volume 1'' (2003).
References
Bibliography
*
External links
*
''Abhay'' on rediff.com
{{Authority control
2000s Hindi-language films
2000s Indian films
2000s Tamil-language films
2001 action thriller films
2001 films
2001 multilingual films
2001 psychological thriller films
Films about child abuse
Films about twin brothers
Films based on Tamil novels
Films directed by Suresh Krissna
Films produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu
Films scored by Mahesh Mahadevan
Films scored by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy
Films that won the Best Special Effects National Film Award
Films with screenplays by Kamal Haasan
Hindi-language action thriller films
Indian action thriller films
Indian Army in films
Indian films with live action and animation
Indian multilingual films
Indian psychological thriller films
Indian serial killer films
Magic realism films
Tamil-language action thriller films
Tamil-language Indian films
Tamil-language psychological thriller films
Twins in Indian films