Mouna Guru

Mouna Guru
Movie Poster
Directed by	Santha Kumar
Produced by	M. K. Thamizharasu
Written by	Santha Kumar
Starring	Arulnithi Iniya John Vijay Uma Riyaz Khan Attakathi Dinesh
Music by	Thaman
Cinematography	Mahesh Muthuswami
Edited by	Raja Muhammed
Production company	Mohana Movies
Release dates	December 16, 2011 (2011-12-16)
Running time	2 hours 29 mins
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	4 crore (US$630,000)

Mouna Guru (Tamil: மௌன குரு; English: The Silent Teacher) is a 2011 Tamil thriller film directed by Santha Kumar and produced by M. K. Thamizharasu. The film featured Arulnithi and Iniya in the lead roles, with John Vijay and Uma Riyaz Khan in supporting roles. Mouna guru illustrates a misunderstood college youth becomes unwittingly involved in a crime plot that spirals his life out of order. The film, which has music composed by S. Thaman, released on December 16, 2011 to highly positive reviews,^[1] subsequently becoming a sleeper hit.^[2] The film was remade in Kannada as Guru (2012) and in Telugu as Sankara (2015).

Plot

College goer Karunakaran (Arulnithi) always finds it difficult to adjust with the society that he lives. As a result he is unable to control his anger and often ends up with some trouble. His unpredictable behaviour become a constant worry for his mother and brother. A series of incidents forces him to leave his home town Madurai and as usual ends up in Chennai. Despite scoring high marks in school, he joins a local arts college in the city and stays in hostel from where the trouble begins. Now there is another story which goes parallel. While traveling from Bangalore to Chennai Assistant Commissioner Marimuthu (John Vijay), Inspector Rajendran (Madhu), Sub-Inspector Selvam (Balakrishnan) and Sgt/Head Constable Perumalsamy (Krishnamurthy) witnesses a car accident. When they are about to take the victim (son of Bangalore based business tycoon) to a nearby hospital, they comes across a huge stash of cash. The policemen kills the (half dead) victim and flees to Chennai with the money. Then the sincere police officer Palaniammal (Uma Riyaz Khan) takes up this case. A cluster of lies, ego clash at the hostel and family's ignorance brings innocent Karunakaran into this crime plot. The rest is a racy roller-coaster ride that forms the climax.

Cast

• Arulnithi as Karunakaran
• Iniya as Aarthi
• John Vijay as Marimuthu
• Uma Riyaz Khan as Palaniammal
• Krishnamurthy as Perumalsamy
• Balakrishnan as Selvam
• Madhu as Rajendran
• Aadukalam Murugadoss as Babu
• "Paruthiveeran" Sujatha as Rajendran & Karunakaran's Mother
• Kaajal Pasupathi
• Attakathi Dinesh

Production

Santhakumar revealed that it took five days just to shoot the scene that comes before the intermission although it appears for just 10 minutes in the film. Similarly the climax sequences were shot over a period of 15 days. Music composer Thaman claimed he only accepted to be a part of the film as he felt the story had enough scope for re-recording work.^[3]

Soundtrack

Film score and the soundtrack are composed by Thaman and the album was released on November 15, 2011 across Tamil Nadu.^[4]

Release

The film turned out to be a sleeper hit. Its shows were gradually increased and accounted for 54% of the takings in Chennai box office on its fourth weekend.^[5]

Reception

The film opened on December 16, 2011 across Tamil Nadu, alongside the Prashanth-starrer Mambattiyan, to positive reviews from critics. The Hindu gave the film a positive review citing that "Mouna Guru is one of the small gems of Tamil cinema this year" and that "it marks a promising debut for Shantakumar and advances Arulnidhi's career".^[6] Rohit Ramachandran from Nowrunning.com rated the movie 3/5 and wrote that "Mouna guru is a well-intentioned thriller that keeps you glued to your seat, which is more than I can say for most Tamil movies." ^[7] 'Entertainment portal Sify.com described the film as "very good", claiming it "works as an intelligent, taut thriller that sustains dramatic tension throughout". The critic also went on to claim that Arulnithi "drives the film with the intensity in his eyes, body language and an underplayed performance", while describing John Vijay's performance as "riveting".^[8] Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com gave the film three and a half stars and described the film as a "must-watch", while mentioning that Uma Riyaz Khan "walks away with the honours".^[9] Behindwoods.com gave the film three stars out of five praising the director Shantakumar's execution, while also singling out John Vijay's act as "the performance of his career".^[10]

Trivia

• Palaniammal character portrayed by Uma Riaz Khan, a sincere police officer who is pregnant in her third trimester was a character closely resembling Marge Gunderson from Fargo portrayed by Frances McDormand.

References

External links

• Mouna Guru at the Internet Movie Database