Karthi gets ready for Marriage marriages are fixed on,...

Ace director Selvaraghavan and Karthi had a terrific understanding and bonding during the making of their fantasy adventure Aayirathil Oruvan.

Aayirathil Oruvan gave Selva a new reach as a director of fantasy thrillers, while Karthi became a mass hero. Since then they went their separate ways.

Now it may sound stranger than fiction, both their marriages are fixed on the same day- July 3, 2011.

While Selva gets married to Gitanjali in Chennai, the same day same ‘Muhurtam’ Karthi will marry Ranjani in Coimbatore!

And now both the director and the actor have started inviting their close friends for their marriage.

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Suriya and Selvaraghavan – Class and Mass

Suriya and Selvaraghavan will mean class and mass audience. Suriya will also command young female audiences along with married women and children. He is the actor who can reach out to all classes. That is what Selvaraghavan needs at this point of time.

More than anything, he needs to make a film. All his movies that are in the making are not like seeing the light of day. However, the director is still working to get his next film released or at least made. He is one of the best of contemporary directors who can become one of the best like Mani Ratnam and Balu Mahendra.

Now, if Suriya and Selvaraghavan go on to make a film together, the box office will sure catch fire with the speed of collections heating it up. Selvaraghavan has prepared a script, met Suriya, narrated the script and Suriya seemed to like it so much.

The only demand of Suriya is that he wanted the bound script. Besides that, he has gone gaga over the script and also told the story to KV Anand who also got very excited and assured Suriya that it would become a great hit which would also mean something to his career.

Suriya is now very excited about teaming up with Selvaraghavan and he is expected to join Selva’s camp soon. Read more...

Selvaraghavan Said ready to quit films, during the media meet

Making an open challenge, Selvaraghavan said on Monday that he would quit films if anyone could prove that his recent-release 'Aayirathil Oruvan'(Yuganiki Okkadu) was a copy of several Hollywood films.

Speaking to journalists in Chennai along with the cast and crew of the 'Pongal release', he said the film was a honest and sincere effort to take Tamil cinema to new heights.

"I don't need a Western movie to inspire me for the purpose. 'Aayirathil Oruvan'(Yuganiki Okkadu) was based on original idea and it was an outcome of three years of hardwork of our entire team," he said.

On comments that the story was difficult to be understood by the audience, the filmmaker said the audience should elevate themselves to the next level to understand the movie.

"When you are able to watch fantasy Hollywood films like 'Avatar' and 'Harry Potter' without any questions, why not 'Aayirathil Oruvan'(Yuganiki Okkadu)? he asked. Selva was accompanied by producer of the film Raveendran, lead actors Karthi, Reemma and Parthiban and music composer G V Prakash Kumar during the media meet. Read more...

‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ transports you in a new world

Film: “Aayirathil Oruvan”; Director: Selvaraghavan; Cast: Karthi, Parthiban, Reema Sen, Andrea, Azhagam Perumal, and Prathap Pothan; Music: G.V. Prakash Kumar; Rating:**1/2

Director Selvaraghavan’s long-awaited “Aayirathil Oruvan”, which has been touted as his dream project, is a brave attempt at seeking novelty in the world of Tamil cinema. Breaking away from the shackles of the stereotypes, the director transports us to a whole new world…and we are dumbstruck by the visuals, the packaging and his unique way of storytelling.

The jet-paced first half offers comedy, action, eye-catching songs, stunning visuals and grandeur. However, the film fails to impress as a whole, as it gets diluted in the second half due to the over-ambitious and illogical approach of the director.

In the movie, the government appoints a secret team led by archaeologist Anitha Pandian (Reema) and a military officer Ravi (Azhagamperumal) to track down the missing links after an archaeologist (Pratap Pothen) vanishes into thin air during his mission to discover the lost Chola civilization!

To reach the lost city, Lavanya, the missing archaeologist’s daughter is roped into the mission. A group of labourers led by Muthu (Karthi) helps the team carry their luggage and wade through the tough and inhospitable terrain and face hidden dangers and nature’s fury.

After a tedious expedition, they stumble on the lost Chola king (Parthiban) and his people and find hitherto unheard of and unexplained links between them and the world’s earliest cultures. What follows is a series of bizarre happenings that try to disentangle the whole mystery.

The fight sequence with the tribal folk and the arduous journey through thousands of snakes are some of the best scenes the film has to offer. The minus points are the length of the movie and the grave flaws in the screenplay.

Some questions are bound to come to mind - If the team suffers due to the mystique powers of the Chola dynasty, why couldn’t the kingdom save itself from extinction using the same powers?

The inexplicable ‘avatar’ of Reema as the heir of the Pandian dynasty leaves much to be desired. The three rulers in south India - the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas - are said to have led a civilized life unlike the way depicted by Selvarghavan, who shows them as cannibals. That is a bit too much to digest!

The fantasy element has been stretched too far…the director takes everything for granted in his pursuit to present a ’stunning’ film.

The cinematography by Ramji is brilliant and G.V. Prakash’s background score and music are good. “Un Mela Aasadhan” sung by Selva’s younger brother and actor Dhanush, Aishwarya Dhanush and Andrea is a rocker.

Reema brings an uninhibited tempo to her role and the director has extracted a fine performance from her. Andrea is likeable and seems to have enjoyed her role. Karthi is lovable and humorous. His MGR-like punch-lines get thunderous applause.

Selvaraghavan is trying to widen the frontiers of commercial cinema and he deserves to be applauded for this. But he has failed to keep up the viewers’ interest in the second half, which goes wayward.

“Aayirathil Oruvan” is undoubtedly a different attempt but the second half lets the film down.

Watch 2 Min Trailer

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