''Aanai'' ( Order) is a 2005 Indian

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 ...

-language

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...

action 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 and co-written by

Selva Selva may refer to: People *Selva (surname) *Selva (name) *Selva (actor), Indian actor *Selva (director), Indian director Places *Selva (comarca), a coastal comarca (county) in Catalonia, Spain *Selva, Mallorca (pop. 3,055), a municipality on Mal ...

. The film stars Arjun,

Namitha Namitha Vankawala (born 10 May 1981) is a state executive member of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu. She started her career initially as an actress and model who predominantly works in Tamil and Telugu cinema along with a few films ...

and

Keerthi Chawla Keerthi Chawla is an Indian actress, who was worked in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the popula ...

, while

Vadivelu Kumaravadivel Natarajan (born 12 September 1960) known professionally as Vadivelu, is an Indian actor, comedian and occasional playback singer, having acted mainly in Tamil cinema. He has at least 290 credits to his name. He was a recipient of ...

Sanghavi Sanghavi (born Kavya Ramesh) is an Indian actress and a model known for her work predominantly in Tamil and Telugu films. She was one of the leading actresses in South Indian cinema from 1993 to 2004. In a career spanning 15 years, she has ...

and

Manoj K. Jayan Manoj Kadampoothramadam Jayan, also known as Manoj K. Jayan is an Indian actor who acts in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films in addition to a few Tamil cinema, Tamil films. Manoj has won three Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actor for h ...

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''. The film was released on 2 December 2005.

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 London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where Vijay sets out on a rampage to exact vengeance and save Priya.

Cast

Production

, who had directed Arjun in ''

Karnaa ''Karnaa'' is a 1995 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by Selva. The film stars Arjun in a dual role, alongside Ranjitha and Vineetha. It was released on 14 April 1995, and became a box office success. Plot Vijay is a care ...

'' (1995) and the long delayed ''

Manikanda ''Manikanda'' is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Selva. Arjun plays a dual role, that of father and son. The film, which began production in 2002, went through more production, was finally released in 2007, and was promote ...

'' (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

and

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

, notably near the

London Eye The London Eye, originally the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and the most popular paid Tourist attractions in the ...

and

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

. 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

. 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 ''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 ...

'' 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 Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology (ICT) company providing telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation integration services, and ...

'' 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

External links

* * {{Selva (director) 2000s Indian films 2000s Tamil-language films 2000s vigilante films 2005 action films 2005 films British Indian films Fiction about Indian diaspora Films about bodyguards Films about child abduction Films about families Films about kidnapping in the United Kingdom Films about murderers Films about terrorism in Europe Films based on adaptations Films based on British novels Films based on crime novels Films directed by Selva (director) Films scored by D. Imman Films set in London Films set in the United Kingdom Films shot in Chennai Films shot in London Films shot in the United Kingdom Indian action films Indian films about revenge Indian remakes of American films Indian vigilante films Muhammad Iqbal Tamil-language Indian films