Strangely enough, the common thread that connects most of these roles are some form of psychic disorder-Chiyan in Sethu suffers from amnesia and is in a catatonic state after a brutal attack, Chithan in Pithamagan is autistic, Ambi in Anniyan has multiple personality disorder and Krishna in Daiva Thirumagal is a man with developmental disability having the faculty of just a five-year old. To me, Sethu, Pithamagan, Anniyan, Daiva Thirumagal and Raavanan are five must-watch films from the Vikram filmography. However, he won it three years later with another Bala film, Pithamagan, the role of an autistic social outcast living in a graveyard which you cannot imagine another leading actor doing.ĭress Circle | 10 must watch, underrated Malayalam comedy movies of last decade His performance as Chiyan, which became his nickname in Tamil cinema later, missed the national award by one vote to Mohanlal’s Kunjukuttan of Vanaprastham. Sethu got him commercial success as well as critical acclaim-100 days of theatre run, state award and Filmfare award for his performance. Industry strikes, lack of distributor enthusiasm, a tragic climax and a new hero-all worked against the film. Director Bala and Vikram had to suffer for years to see the film released. He was on the verge of taking up a full-time job away from films due to his financial struggle because the film, on which he had pinned all his hopes, was being delayed indefinitely.
The film happened almost 7 years after his first lead role in cinematographer-director PC Sreeram’s Meera, which flopped. Other casts include Prakash Raj and Nedumudi Venu.Sethu itself was a long struggle that almost made Vikram quit films. One of the songs features Bollywood actress Yana Gupta.
On the technical front, Cinematography is by Manikandan, art direction is by Sabu Cyril, editing is by V.T.Vijayan and Peter Haynes choreographs action scenes. One of the songs has shot in Amsterdam during the Annual flower show.
Music is by Harris Jayaraj and lyrics by Vairamuthu. Sada plays Ambi's love interest in the movie.įor the first time Shankar has associated with a music director other than A.R Rahman. His cold-heartedness, angst and dare-devilry go beyond the realm of justification. Ambi, as he is affectionately called by his father Parthasarathy (Nedumudi Venu) kick-starts a process to change the attitude of people and awaken them from deep slumber. Ramanujam played by Vikram is a lawyer by profession. The movie is intent to motivate the youngsters to move forward like other nations. Shankar has taken the main issues within our society like neglect, poverty and laid back approach of our youngsters. "Anniyan" is about a person who tries to bring a change or the reforms within our society. According to director Shankar, "Anniyan" is a racy entertainer. "Anniyan" is the costliest film made in south India. Shankar is the only director among his contemporaries to have survived with the 'generation next' audience of today. His films are all commercial mass entertainers with a powerful story packaged with lot of gloss, glamour and fantasy. "Anniyan" is the seventh big budget movie directed by Shankar, which will be released in May.