''Arasatchi'' () is a 2004

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pud ...

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

directed by N. Maharajan which starred Arjun and

Lara Dutta Lara Dutta (born 16 April 1978) is an Indian actress, entrepreneur and the winner of the Miss Universe 2000 pageant. She was previously crowned as Miss Intercontinental 1997. In her career, she has primarily worked in Hindi films. She is the ...

, alongside an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast t ...

. This is the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

debut of Dutta. The film's music was composed by

Harris Jayaraj Harris Jayaraj (born 8 January 1975) is an Indian composer from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He composes soundtracks predominantly for Tamil films, while also having composed for a few films in Telugu and two films in Hindi. He has been honoured with ...

. The film was released on 17 September 2004 to mixed reviews.

Plot

Brammanadham (

Anandaraj Anandaraj (born May 15, 1959) is an Indian actor. He has acted in villain roles in several Tamil films and has appeared in over a two hundred films in different languages including Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. Career Anandaraj was bo ...

), a lawyer who argues for rapists and murderers, is killed by a cricket ball hit by Siddharth ( Arjun). Siddharth is a GM of a five-star hotel owned by

S. Ve. Shekher Sattanathapuram Venkataraman Shekher (born 26 December 1950) is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, politician and a playwright of Tamil-language plays. In 2006, he was elected as an MLA for the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIA ...

. Shekher's daughter is Lara (

), who is introduced with a song. She comes from abroad to join her father's hotel, but only as a trainee under the macho Siddharth. Within no time, Lara is in love with Siddharth. It is now time for duets. Lara's friend Prakash (

Karan Karan may refer to: People * Karan (given name), an Indian given name * Karan (caste), an Indian caste * Karan Kayastha, a community of Kayastha in Bihar, India * Karan (surname) Places * Karan, Iran (disambiguation), a name for variou ...

) is a campaigner of public cause. His efforts lead to a brothel raid and a minister getting arrested. The minister's goons bump off Prakash, and Siddharth is an eyewitness. Siddharth refuses to testify, and Lara walks out on him. Janakiraman (

Charan Raj Charan Raj is an Indian actor, director, film producer, and writer who works in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia and Hindi movies. Career Charan Raj is a versatile actor who is popular for his villainy and character roles in South Indi ...

) pleads for the killer and lets him off. Siddharth bumps off Janakiraman. Major Vishwanath ( Nassar), a military officer, is a witness to the murder. He even postpones his heart operation until the killer is nabbed. Siddharth now tells his story of why he is on a hunt of the lawyers who plead for the bad guys. Vishwanath gives up his mission. Next, Karunakaran ( Devan) takes a brief for a rapist, and he too is killed. Next is the turn of advocate Ashok Mehta (

Raghuvaran Raghuvaran Velayutham (11 December 1958 – 19 March 2008) was an Indian actor who predominantly acted in films made in South India. He has acted in more than 200 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. According to the ''Hindustan ...

), who comes from Delhi. The surprise element is that Ashok is Siddharth's brother-in-law; Ashok's wife is Siddharth's long-lost sister. Now, the brother-sister sentiment comes into play. Finally, the story ends with Ashok being shot dead by Siddharth in the court premises. The police opens fire, and bystanders form a human wall and get shot at. Siddharth tells the TV crew about how his mission has spread to the masses.

Cast

* Arjun as Siddharth *

as Lara * Vivek as Hotel Assistant Manager *

as Lara's father *

as Prakash * Vindhya as Menaka, Prakash's wife * Nassar as Major Vishwanath *

as Ashok Mehta (Siddharth's brother-in-law) *

as Advocate Brammanadham *

as Advocate Janakiraman * P. Vasu as Saravanaperumal, Siddharth's father * Kavitha as Lakshmi, Siddharth's mother *

Abitha Abitha is an Indian film and television actress who appears in Tamil language films and teleserials. She appeared in notable productions including ''Sethu'' alongside Vikram. She is famous for her role as Archana in the teleserial '' Thirum ...

as Swetha, Siddharth's sister *

Manivannan S. Manivannan Rajagopal (31 July 1953 – 15 June 2013), better known by his mononym Manivannan, was an Indian film director, actor and activist who worked mainly in Tamil cinema and also worked in a few Telugu & Malayalam films. In a care ...

as Hotel Receptionist * Devan as Karunakaran * Rajan P. Dev as Contractor Muthupandi * Mansoor Ali Khan as Inspector India Ganesan *

Ajay Rathnam Ajay Rathnam is an Indian actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil films and serials. He is known for his supporting and negative roles and has acted in over 300 movies. Standing at 6 ft 4 in (193 cm), Rathnam is one of the tallest actors in ...

as Inspector Karthikeyan *

Vaiyapuri Vaiyapuri (born 23 October 1968 as Ramakrishnan) is an Indian actor who has worked in Tamil-language films. He rose to fame by appearing in supporting roles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, often portraying supporting comedic characters. His ...

as Soosai * M. N. Nambiar as Poojaari *

Ponnambalam Ponnambalam or Ponnampalam ( ta, பொன்னம்பலம்) is a Tamil male given name. Due to the Tamil tradition of using patronymic surnames it may also be a surname for males and females. Given name * Ponnambalam (actor) (born 1963), ...

as Muthupandi's henchman * Uma as Gayathri *

Delhi Ganesh Delhi Ganesh is an Indian actor who mostly acts in supporting roles in Tamil cinema and serials. He has acted in more than 400 films from 1976 to present. Before films, he was a member of the Delhi-based theatre troupe, ''Dakshina Bharata Nat ...

as Sivaraman *

Mahanadi Shankar Mahanadi Shankar is an Indian stage, film and television actor, who has appeared in Tamil language films and serials as supporting actor and negative roles. He has appeared in films including '' Mahanadi'' (1994), '' Baashha'' (1995), ''Ratchag ...

as Goon *

Bose Venkat Bose Venkat is an Indian actor, director and dubbing artist who appears in Tamil films and television serials. Personal life Venkat is married to actress Sonia in 2003. The couple have a son Tejaswin and a daughter Bavadarani Career Venkat c ...

Dhamu Dhamu is a retired Indian actor and comedian who mainly acts in Tamil films. He is known for his role as Otteri Nari in ''Ghilli'' (2004). He was a part of Gaana Galata Group, a popular touring and acting comedy troupe. Since then, he has appe ...

Riya Sen Riya Sen (born Riya Dev Varma; 24 January 1981) is an Indian actress and model. who predominantly appears in Hindi, Bengali, English, Telugu and Tamil films. Sen comes from a royal background; her father Bharat Dev Varma hails from the ro ...

as Bar Dancer in item song (Iruvadhu Vayasu) *

Perarasu Perarasu (born 8 January 1967) is an Indian film director who works primarily in Tamil film industry. As a director, he is best known for his commercial Tamil movies with actors Vijay and Bharath Srinivasan. He has also been credited as an ac ...

as reporter (uncredited)

Production

After the success of '' Vallarasu'' Maharajan was supposed to direct Vijaykanth in another project but later got dropped and Maharajan went on to remake Vallarasu in Hindi as '' Indian'' with

Sunny Deol Ajay Singh Deol (born 19 October 1956), better known by his stage name Sunny Deol, is an Indian actor, film director, producer, politician and current Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur (Lok Sabha constituency) of Punjab, India. As an actor, ...

. Meanwhile, Maharajan announced his next project ''Arasatchi'' with Arjun playing the lead role. Miss Universe 2000

made her acting debut in Tamil with this film. The film boasts of 14 villains played by

, Nassar, M. N. Nambiar,

, Mansoor Ali Khan, Devan, Rajan P. Dev, and

among others. Uma,

, Vindhya and P. Vasu play crucial roles in the film. The filming was held at Le Royal Meridian Hotel, Chennai, and the songs were picturised at locations in London, New Zealand and Canada. During the making of the film, music composer

fell out with the director. The movie was completed in 2003 but got delayed due to financial problems and finally released in 2004, in between production delays Maharajan finished ''

Anjaneya Hanuman (; sa, हनुमान, ), also called Anjaneya (), is a Hindu god and a divine ''vanara'' companion of the god Rama. Hanuman is one of the central characters of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. He is an ardent devotee of Rama and on ...

'' with Ajith.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were secured by

Raj TV Raj TV is a Tamil language Indian general entertainment channel based in Chennai, India, which was launched on 14 October 1994. Rajtv became as the second most popular channel in Tamil. It is available through digital and mobile entertainment ...

. The film was given an "A" certificate by the

Indian Censor Board The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provision ...

. Before release, poster featuring tagline "When Justice Fails" created controversy which caused a lawyer to file a case citing that the film would portray lawyers in bad light. After one week, case was finally won.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack and background score was composed by

References

{{reflist 2004 films Films set in India 2000s Tamil-language films Films shot in Chennai Films shot in New Zealand Films shot in London Films shot in Canada Films scored by Harris Jayaraj