Aadhavan

For the Tamil writer, see Aadhavan Sundaram.

Aadhavan
Directed by	K. S. Ravikumar
Written by	Ramesh Khanna K. S. Ravikumar
Story by	Ramesh Khanna
Produced by	Udhayanidhi Stalin
Starring	Suriya Nayantara Vadivelu Murali B. Saroja Devi Rahul Dev Anand Babu
Cinematography	R. Ganesh
Edited by	Don Max
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Distributed by	Red Giant Movies Ayngaran International (UK) FiveStar (Malaysia)
Release date	October 17, 2009 (2009-10-17)
Running time	168 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹30 crore (US$3.5 million)
Box office	₹28 crore (US$3.3 million)

Aadhavan (Template:Lang-ta) is a 2009 Tamil action film directed by K. S. Ravikumar and written by Ramesh Khanna. The film features Surya Sivakumar in the title role along with Nayantara in lead roles and Murali, Vadivelu, Anand Babu, Ramesh Khanna, B. Saroja Devi, Rahul Dev, Sayaji Shinde in its supporting cast. The music is composed by Harris Jayaraj. The film, was released on 17 October 2009 during Diwali to mixed to positive reviews from critics and became successful at the box office. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Ghatikudu.

Cast

• Suriya as Madhavan (Aadhavan/Murugan)
• Nayantara as Tara
• Murali as Subramaniam
• Saroja Devi
• Rahul Dev as Abdul Kulkarni
• Sayaji Shinde as Ibrahim Rowther
• Vadivelu as Banerjee
• Riyaz Khan
• Manobala
• K. S. Ravikumar in a special appearance
• Udhayanidhi Stalin in a special appearance
• Vijayan as Police commissioner

Story

Aadhavan (Surya) is a professional killer/hit-man who works for Ibrahim Rowther (Sayaji Shinde) who is also his father along with Tharani (Anand Babu)- who is his brother. He is contracted by Abdul Kulkarny (Rahul Dev) to kill prominent Judge Subramaniam (Murali)(who is presently working on child kidnapping and murder cases in the eastern Indian belt for sale of their organs to foreign countries) -but fails to shoot him at the first attempt. He promises to get the judge, angry with himself for having missed such a thing and uses the Judge's innocent servant Bannerjee (Vadivelu) to get into the house as Murugan, Bannerjee's brother in law (He locks up Bannerjee's actual brother in law Murugan in a ship and threatens Bannerjee with his name all the time).

Slowly Murugan/Aadhavan- begins to win over the members of the Judge's household- the Judge's mother (B.Saroja Devi), his other relatives and finally his niece- Thara(Nayantara). He tries to assassinate the judge in the middle of the night and also by planting a bomb in the van by which the judge is travelling to Darjeeling- but both attempts fail. In Darjeeling, Aadhavan is handed over a guitar belonging to the madcap, wanna be musician, would be husband of Thara- Ilaiman (Ramesh Khanna) by Thara to hide away. He plants a mobile bomb in the guitar and places it in one of the cars which soon explodes.

Thara is now suspicious but Murugan informs her in secret that he is in fact the Judge's runaway son Madhavan who ran away from home when he was only ten years old. Thara soon informs all the members of the household except the Judge that Murugan is Madhavan- although in private Muruguan tells Bannerjee that he was only joking and that he is not Madhavan.

However on Thara's birthday- Aadhavan shows that he is indeed Madhavan- when in a flashback it is shown that- young Madhavan carried a gift for Thara where a bomb had been planted by Madhavan's friend's mother as an act of revenge (Madhavan's father had put her husband in jail). Though Thara survives, her mother (Anu Hassan) opens the box and is killed along with her husband in the bomb explosion. Madhavan runs away from home- after stealing a gun from the cops, accidentally shooting his father and killing his friend's mother who planted the bomb in the toy.

Meanwhile- Abdul Kulkarny is fed up with the attempts of Aadhavan and Ibrahim Rowther and decides to play his cards in another way. He persuades Ibrahim and his gang to surrender to the police and make a confession regarding Aadhavan. When Police ACP (Riaz Khan) confronts Aadhavan and is about to have him hauled off - Aadhavan takes the Judge hostage and also Thara (after asking Thara to bring the Laptop and the Memory stick where the entire information about the culprits involved in the child kidnappings and murder case is stored in). In the meanwhile the police commissioner arrives and makes the confession.

Aadhavan is actually indeed Madhavan- the Judge's runaway son. The police had caught him when he was making his escape after his attempt to kill the Judge had failed. It was then that he made his confession of being the Judge's son. The Police ask him to go back to the house to protect his father over a twenty four hour period everyday.

This information is relayed to the Judge who is tearfully grateful to his son.

Meanwhile- Abdul Kulkarny attacks the vehicle in which the Judge, his son and Thara are travelling and a fight ensues where the good guys win and Kulkarny is killed. And the movie ends with a recovered Madhavan and Banerjee tells that he bought assistants to maintain the house who are his brother-in-laws and everyone tells what the story starts again

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Kalaignar TV. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.

Reception

The film received positive to mixed reviews. Behindwoods gave a 2.5 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 2.5 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 2.5 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 ₹8.5 crore worldwide in its opening weekend. This movie also had a high collection in Malaysia as well as UK. Overseas, the film grossed about $1,541,485, approximately ₹7.5 crore. The film was declared a hit at box office.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features 6 tracks composed by Harris Jayaraj, Lrics are penned by Vaali, Pa. Vijay, Na. Muthukumar. harris becoming his third consecutive film with Surya. The soundtrack was released on 19 August by S. Shankar. The songs enjoyed popularity, especially "Hasile Fisile" and "Vaarayo Vaarayo".

Untitled

Track	Song	Singers	Length (min:sec)	Lyrics
1	"Hasili Fisili"	Karthik, Harini, Dr. Burn, Maya	05:25	Pa. Vijay
2	"Yeno Yeno Panithuli"	Shail Hada, Sudha Raghunathan, Andrea Jeremiah	05:15	Thamarai
3	"Dammaku Dammaku"	Benny Dayal	05:00	Na. Muthukumar
4	"Vaarayo Vaarayo"	Unnikrishnan, Chinmayi, Mega	05:24	Kabilan
5	"Dekho Dekho"	Suvi Suresh, Sandhya, Sri Charan	05:29	Vaalee
6	"Maasi Maasi"	Mano, Mega	05:34	Vaalee

Telugu Tracklist

All Lyrics are written by Bhuvana Chandra.

Track	Song	Singers	Length (min:sec)	Lyrics
1	"Asale Pilla "	Karthik, Harini, Dr. Burn, Maya	05:25	Bhuvana Chandra
2	"Edo Edo"	Shail Hada, Sudha Raghunathan, Andrea Jeremiah	05:15	Bhuvana Chandra
3	"Dammaku Dammaku"	Benny Dayal	05:00	Bhuvana Chandra
4	"Mrogindi"	Rahul Nambiar, Chinmayi, Mega	05:24	Bhuvana Chandra
5	"Dekho Dekho"	Suvi Suresh, Sandhya, Sri Charan	05:29	Bhuvana Chandra
6	"Maasi Maasi"	Mano, Mega	05:34	Bhuvana Chandra

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Malathy Sundaram from Behindwoods
Pavithra Srinivasan from Rediff

Critical response

The album received mixed 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! Conscious usage of various instruments adds its own appeal to any album. Which is what we see here." 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, but this is one of those albums you can smell mediocrity from a mile away. Looks like Harris Jeyaraj is caught in the recycling rut. Yes, there are brief flashes of inspiration, but they last only moments."

Awards and nominations

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
2009 Filmfare Awards South	Best Male Playback	Karthik (Hasili Fisili)	Won
	Best Female Playback	Chinmayi (Vaarayo Vaarayo)	Won
	Best Supporting Actor	Vadivelu	Nominated
	Best Female Playback	Harini (Hasili Fisili)	Nominated
	Best Music Director	Harris Jayaraj	Nominated
2009 Vijay Awards	Best Entertainer	Suriya	Won
	Best Male Playback	Karthik (Hasili Fisili)	Won
	Best Female Playback	Chinmayi (Vaarayo Vaarayo)	Won
	Best Music Director	Harris Jayaraj	Won
	Icon of the Year	Suriya	Won
	Best Actor	Surya Sivakumar	Nominated
	Best Comedian	Vadivelu	Nominated
	Best Art Director	Rajeevan	Nominated
	Best Choreographer	Shobi (Damakku Damakku)	Nominated
	Favourite Film	Udhayanidhi Stalin	Nominated
	Favourite Director	K. S. Ravikumar	Nominated
	Favourite Hero	Suriya	Nominated
	Favourite Heroine	Nayantara	Nominated
	Favourite Song	Harris Jayaraj (Hasili Fisili)	Nominated
Amrita Mathrubhumi Awards	Amrita Mathrubhumi Award for Best Actor in Tamil	Suriya	Won
	Amrita Mathrubhumi Award for Best direcor in Tamil	K. S. Ravikumar	Won
Meera Isaiaruvi Tamil Music Award	Best Performance in a Song	Suriya	Won