Aalavandhan

Synopsis

Aalavandhan also known in Hindi as Abhay  is a 2001 Indian psychological thriller film directed by Suresh Krissna, and produced by S.Thanu. The film stars Kamal Haasan in dual role, with Raveena Tandon, Manisha Koirala, Sarath Babu, Gollapudi Maruti Rao and Milind Gunaji in supporting roles. The film has elements of magic realism.

The film was released as a bilingual film, along with Tamil it was simultaneously filmed in Hindi with the title Abhay with three different actors. It was also dubbed in Telugu under that same title. The film is an adaptation of the novel Dhayam that was written by Kamal Haasan in 1984. Although a commercial failure during its release, Aalavandhan and Abhay won the National Film Award for Best Special Effects for its creative execution of live and animated special effects which enhance the dramatic impact of the film. The film later attained cult status and its animated action sequence went on to inspire American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino to create an anime sequence in his 2003 martial arts film Kill Bill: Volume 1.

• Kamal Haasan as Nandha Kumar (Nandhu), Vijay Kumar (Vijay)
• Raveena Tandon as Tejaswini ‘Teju’, News reporter for Star News channel
• Manisha Koirala as Sharmilee
• Gollapudi Maruti Rao as the Psychiatrist doctor
• Milind Gunaji as Colonel Santhosh Kumar, Nandhu and Vijay’s father (voice dubbed by Nassar)
• Sarath Babu as Tejaswini’s father
• Fathima Babu as Tejaswini’s mother
• Anu Haasan as Priya, Nandhu and Vijay’s mother (cameo)
• Kitu Gidwani as Jayanthi, Nandhu and Vijay’s stepmother
• Riyaz Khan as Sulthan
• Vikram Gokhale as Nandhu and Vijay’s maternal uncle Ranganath
• Poovilangu Mohan as Nandhu and Vijay’s headmaster
• Yashpal Sharma as the Kashmir militant
• Major Ravi as Menon, Vijay’s commando buddy
• Nissar Khan as Sonu
• Raji Iyer as Malathi, Teju’s coworker in Star News channel
• Krishna Bhatt as Tenoosh Kooth, a mentally unstable tribesman)
• Shiva in “Siri Siri” song (uncredited role)

The soundtrack was composed by music trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy making their debut in Tamil, and the film score is composed by Mahesh Mahadevan. The film features six tracks in both Tamil, Hindi and Telugu versions with lyrics written by Vairamuthu, Javed Akhtar and Vennelakanti respectively.

The album of the film’s Tamil version was released on 24 September 2001, and it created a record by selling over 2,00,000 copies in less than eight hours of its release. However, according to Rediff, it “did not live up to expectations.”

All tracks are written by Vairamuthu.