| Aayutha Ezhuthu | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Mani Ratnam |
| Produced by | Mani Ratnam G. Srinivasan |
| Written by | Mani Ratnam Sujatha Rangarajan |
| Starring | Suriya Madhavan Siddharth Trisha Krishnan Meera Jasmine Esha Deol Bharathiraja |
| Music by | A. R. Rahman |
| Cinematography | Ravi K. Chandran |
| Editing by | A. Sreekar Prasad |
| Distributed by | Madras Talkies Ayngaran International |
| Release date(s) | 21 May 2004 |
| Running time | 155 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
| Box office | $2,000,000 |
Aayutha Ezhuthu (Tamil: ஆய்த எழுத்து) is a 2004 Tamil political film directed by Mani Ratnam. It stars Surya, Madhavan and Siddharth in the lead roles. The film's score and soundtrack is composed by Oscar winning Music Director A. R. Rahman. The title of the movie is the name of a Tamil letter, ஃ (three dots corresponding to the film's three different personalities from completely different strata of society). The film calls for the involvement of the youth in the nation's highest decision making processes. The movie was simultaneously made in Hindi as Yuva. The lead character played by Ajay Devgan (Hindi) and Suriya ( Tamil) is inspired from George Reddy a Gold Medallist and a revolutionary student leader of Osmania University in Hyderabad.
It was dubbed into Telugu also as Yuva. The structure of this movie was adapted from a Mexican Hyperlink cinema Amores Perros, but the whole surrounding plot is completely changed to a different setting; a la a Priyadarshan style of adaptation.
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The film begins with two hitmen travelling in a van on Napier Bridge in Chennai. Inbasekaran (Inba) (R. Madhavan) has an attitude of his own and complains often about his wife not letting him do what he wants to. The van driver Dilli (Sriman) keeps reminding Inba to concentrate on the job rather than whine. On the other hand, college student Michael Vasanth (Surya Sivakumar) is riding a bike with his girlfriend Geetha (Esha Deol) on the same bridge juncture, with him persuading her to move in with him so that they could "live together". He drops her off at her college and continues his journey. Meanwhile, on the same bridge, Arjun (Siddharth) is chasing Meera (Trisha Krishnan) and confesses that he is in love with her. Meera ridicules Arjun saying that both of them hardly know each other to be in love, but Arjun keeps chasing her by asking a lift from Michael who is passing by on his bike as Meera boards an auto. Michael drops Arjun after Meera alights from the auto a while later, and continues his journey. Meera finally gives in slightly and asks Arjun to say 'I Love You', loudly for everyone to hear. This prompts Arjun to climb on to the divider of the bridge and start shouting "I love you" to Meera. At the same time, Michael is shown taking a U-turn at the bridge and passing by the spot where Arjun is spilling his love for Meera. Inba and Dilli then overtake Michael in their van and as the van comes to Michael's side, Inba shouts a famous line, "Hello, brother" and releases three gunshots to Michael's body. The film ceases to show what happens to Michael but keeps its focus on Inba, who asks Dilli to stop the van after a distance. As Dilli brakes, Inba looks out onto the road and smiles, saying "bull's eye" to himself.
The film later runs into a flashback telling the story of Inba a few months back. Inba is a slum dweller married to Sashi (Meera Jasmine); the marriage is despised by her parents. They have an on-off relationship but as Inba gets released from jail at one time, he promises Sashi to do a "normal" job. However, Inba is unable to come to terms with the salary and workload in the job his father-in-law hooks him in at a press printing factory, and instead extorts money from the manager after threatening indirectly to burn the factory down. Inba is then approached by Guna, his elder brother who is a prime political henchman. Guna points that he is the one who bailed Inba and thus Inba must do a job for him, for which Sashi refuses to let Inba return to old ways. Guna taunts Inba for heeding to his wife's words, causing Inba to lose temper and hit Sashi. Inba goes ahead with the job of beating up some college students for trying to run in political election, and returns to patch up with Sashi. He promises Sashi to change and starts a gas business, but in between, beyond her knowledge, continues with his mob activities. Inba is introduced to a corrupt minister Selvanayagam (Bharathiraja), who is tying to get rid of a group of students who are running for election and threatening his position. Inba's assignments are mainly concentrated on beating and threatening the students, who are all led by Michael. They struggle to overcome the force of the students by their usual force, and all culminates to Inba being ordered by the minister to murder Michael, to which he heeds. Sashi meanwhile discovers a gun in the house, and finds out about Inba's activities, leading to a huge fracas between them. This is the point where Inba is constantly complaining about women and marriage to Dilli while on the task of killing Michael. As he shoots Michael, the film shifts focus to concentrate on Michael's story the past few months.
Michael is a respected college student and also a student leader, who is leading a group of students to run in the forthcoming state elections against the corrupt minister. His ideology is that students should involve themselves in politics so that the country would have a brighter future. Michael has a girlfriend, Geetha, a notorious neighbour who has been having an affair with Michael since their childhood. The film shows Michael's resilience as he responds every time the minister sends henchmen to mug the students. As his friend Trilok gets brutally beaten for nominating his elder sister to run in an election at a small village which is being exploited of its resources, Michael brings his entire student force to enter Guna's house and beat Guna and his assistants up (Inba is not there at the time). That is when Inba comes to meet Michael (the scene is not shown in Inba's chapter) and tries to talk Michael out of his political intentions. However, Michael refuses, prompting a fist fight between the two, which Michael wins and tells Inba that he has no intentions of giving up. After this point, Michael is on the way to the bridge dropping Geetha off her college, as they have a discussion about moving in together. After giving a lift to Arjun, Michael continues to ride on the bridge until he gets shot by Inba. His bike skids off violently at high speed, and hits a barrier in the bridge, which sends him flying over Arjun who is standing on the divider and falls into the river, as Arjun looks over in utter shock.
The film then shows a flashback of Arjun's past, where he is shown as a youthful flirting character whose primary aim in life is to get a visa and fly to United States and live his life there. While clubbing one day in Chennai, he meets Meera, who drops him her phone number but also tells him that she is getting engaged to a businessman at a small village. Arjun, attracted to her, calls her up the next day and asks her out for coffee, convincing her that he has no further intentions. During the conversation, Arjun delivers his usual charming lines, saying that he wants to find himself with a "white girl on one side, and a black girl on the other side". He even tells her that he has charmed 42 and a half women in his life, with the half being Meera herself. The attraction between them is mutual, and they start going out more frequently, including a couple's picnic at a beach which lasts till late night. As Arjun drops Meera back at her hostel, she kisses him on the cheek in a spur of the moment. The next day, a disturbed Meera says they shouldn't meet each other anymore as it would be inviting trouble as she is getting married. Arjun agrees to accompany her till her hostel, but later asks her to spend more time with him by staying on the bus they have boarded until it goes to its last stop and returns to stop at her hostel. They spend hours on the bus talking, before Meera finally gets down. Arjun starts chasing her, which leads to the scene on the bridge where he confesses his love for her. As Arjun begins yelling "I love you" to her, Michael is shot and springs into the river right in front of Arjun. A shocked Arjun recognizes Michael as the person who gave him a lift just a few minutes earlier and is convinced that he is still alive despite the gun shots. Arjun jumps into the river and saves Michael.
Arjun and Meera manage to take Michael to the hospital early enough to be save him, as the bullets missed his heart, and only hit his stomach, chest, and shoulder. Arjun refuses to get involved in the legal process of filing complaint on the incident fearing it would spell trouble for his US intentions, but Meera knows Michael is a student leader and insists they help in the process due to her immense respect for Michael. The next day, Arjun returns to the hospital and is flattered to see a big crowd of students thanking him for saving Michael's life. While talking to Michael, Arjun sees a familiar figure in the window- Inba. Arjun recognizes Inba as the person who shot Michael and gives Inba a chase in the hospital, but ends up getting terribly beaten up by Inba. As the job goes awfully wrong, Inba goes into hiding, prompting Sashi to nag Guna regarding the whereabouts of her husband. Meera finally leaves for her marriage, and Michael recovers. However, the other students are skeptical of running for the election fearing their own lives after what happened to Michael. This prompts Arjun to suddenly volunteer to run in the elections. He states that he does not intend to go to US and wants to run in the election with Michael. Inba, meanwhile, returns from hiding and is chastised for his mistake. He cries to Sashi in retribution and both of them decide to leave for a different village where they can start a new life. Inba meets Guna to return Guna his gun before leaving but realizes that Guna has targeted Inba and wants to kill Inba to cover up the crime for the minister. Inba reacts first hand and pulls the trigger, killing his brother. He returns to the minister, and holds up a gun at the minister as well. However, Inba asks the minister for position and power, to which the Minister agrees. Inba resumes his dirty work for the minister after that. Meera meanwhile returns to Chennai and arrives at Arjun's house, stating that his decision not to leave for US means she can't live happily with another person with his memory etched into her. An elated Arjun hugs her and gets her into his house while leaving for an election meeting. He however boards the wrong van, and Inba and his men kidnap him along with a few other students. The news reaches Michael who is enraged and asks the minister directly about his friends, to which the minister gives a diplomatic answer. Meanwhile, Dilli is increasingly guilt-stricken by the events and asks Inba to abandon everything before its too late and follow Sashi to the village. Inba refuses to listen to him and instead threatens to kill Dilli if he brings up the matter again. However, Dilli goes on to secretly release the students and let them run, which prompts Inba to kill Dilli in a rage. Inba starts chasing a wounded Arjun through the slums up into the streets. Arjun manages to grab the hand phone of one of the passers-by and calls Michael to inform his whereabouts. A violent fight ensues on the Naiper Bridge where Inba manages to grab Arjun. Arjun is on the receiving end until Michael arrives and beats up Inba. Michael tells him that Inba is not his enemy, but his dirty politics are. Michael's group wins the ensuing election.
Sashi, meanwhile, has boarded a train to her village without Inba, who is in jail. Inba is awaiting sentence (possibly death or life sentence) in jail while Sashi replies violently when she is asked about her husband by the ticket conductor, stating she doesn't know "which whore's house he is in". The film ends at the parliamentary seating showing Michael, Arjun and their friends entering to take their places in the speaking hall. The minister approaches Michael and sarcastically welcomes the students to the real world of politics, to which Michael responds by just smiling and negating the minister away from his path. The film ends as the camera zooms back to show Michael sitting among the politicians in the Legislative Assembly, as he provides a voice-over: "This is not the end, it is the beginning. The future belongs to the youth. We will change the fate of fate."
The film basically tackles the theme of politics in contemporary India, and encourages students to enter politics to change the political landscape. The three young men in this movie are also the three different kinds of urban youth mostly found in contemporary India. It also proves that mindless violence is of no avail, something that Indian youth are easily instigated by.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Surya | Michael Vasanth |
| Madhavan | Inbasekaran aka Inba |
| Siddarth | Arjun Balakrishnan |
| Esha Deol | Geetha |
| Meera Jasmine | Sashi |
| Trisha Krishnan | Meera |
| Bharathiraja | Minister Selvanayagam |
| Sriman | Dilli |
| Lalithkumar | The Character which Surya Inspire |
| Aaytha Ezhuthu | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by A. R. Rahman | ||||
| Released | 2004 (India) | |||
| Recorded | Panchathan Record Inn | |||
| Genre | World Music | |||
| Label | Sony BMG | |||
| Producer | A.R. Rahman | |||
| A. R. Rahman chronology | ||||
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The soundtrack features 6 songs composed and one additional song by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu. The rap and lyrics for the song Dol Dol were by Blaaze.
| Song | Artist(s)) | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| "Hey Goodbye Nanba" | Sunitha Sarathy, Shankar Mahadevan, Lucky Ali, Karthik | 04:57 |
| "Sandakkozhi" | Madhushree, A. R. Rahman | 04:53 |
| "Nenjam Ellam" | Adnan Sami, Sujatha Mohan | 05:21 |
| "Dol Dol" | Blaaze, featuring ethnic vocals by Shahin Badar | 03:55 |
| "Yaakai Thiri" | Sunitha Sarathy, A. R. Rahman, Pop Shalini | 04:39 |
| "Jana Gana Mana" | A. R. Rahman, Karthik | 04:55 |
| "Nee Mazhai" (Additional song as a background score) |
Sunitha Sarathy, Karthik | 01:10 |
The film did not do well at the box office, but was critically acclaimed. The Hindi version of this movie Yuva won several filmfare awards including "Critics Award Best Film".
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