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Vaaranam Aayiram
Soundtrack by Harris Jayaraj
Released	24 September 2008
Recorded	Chennai
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Sony BMG
Producer	Harris Jayaraj
Harris Jayaraj chronology

Vaaranam Aayiram
Directed by	Gautham Menon
Produced by	Venu Ravichandran
Written by	Gautham Menon
Starring	Surya Sivakumar; Simran Bagga; Divya Spandana; Sameera Reddy
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Cinematography	R. Rathnavelu
Editing by	Anthony Gonsalvez
Distributed by	Aascar Films (India); Cloud Nine Pictures (Worldwide); Bharat Creations (U.S.)
Release date(s)	14 November 2008
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	$3 million
Gross revenue	$16 million

Vaaranam Aayiram (English: Strength of Thousand Elephants) is a blockbuster Tamil movie directed by Gautham Menon. Surya Sivakumar acts in dual lead roles, whilst Sameera Reddy, Divya Spandana and Simran Bagga also play roles in the film. The film had been under production since late 2006. The film released on 14 November 2008 across the globe.

Vaaranam Aayiram illustrates the theme of how a father often came across his son's life as a hero and inspiration, whose death was deeply mourned in the end. As a tribute to the father of the director, the film opened in several countries with critical acclaim and mixed reviews. The film was produced by Venu Ravichandran and also has musical score by Harris Jayaraj, making Vaaranam Aayiram his final project with Gautham Menon before their formally announced partnership break up.

[edit] Plot

The film begins with an elderly person named Krishnan (Surya Sivakumar) returning home after a haircut. Once he reaches home he vomits profuse amounts of blood and is kept to bed rest. After the doctor checks him, he is reported dead after a few moments of grief with his wife Malini (Simran Bagga), daughter Shreya, and daughter-in-law Priya (Divya Spandana). This news is informed to his son Surya (Surya Sivakumar) who is on a military mission traveling in a helicopter. He begins to shed tears to himself and starts thinking about his memorable moments with his father and the story of how his parents loved each other during their college days.

Krishnan is a student in the same college where Malini studies. They fall in love with each other and get married. They soon have a son, Surya. He grows up more as a friend to his father. When Surya grows up, he joins an engineering college near Tiruchi and parts from his family. There he takes part in various cultural activities and develops his guitar skills. When he is on a train back home after completion of college, he meets Meghna (Sameera Reddy). He soon proposes to her which she rejects saying that they had only known each other for a very short period and its not possible to fall in love without taking time to understand him. Surya then tells her that wherever she goes, he will meet her.

Surya is disturbed constantly by Meghna's thoughts and consequently ends up going to her house. There she tells him that she is going to University of California, Berkeley in another week to pursue higher education. During that period Krishnan, Surya's father, gets his first mild heart attack and is admitted to the hospital. Then on, an inspired Surya obtains various projects and finally builds a house for his parents.

After that, he goes to the United States, with the acceptance of his father, and meets Meghna. After some days Meghna proposes to him and they stay happily for a few days. Then she goes to Oklahoma City for a project. Surya decides to join her later travelling by the Greyhound bus. When he reaches there, he witnesses the Oklahoma City bombing and realises that Meghna is amongst those injured. She dies on her way to the hospital. A disheartened Surya then decides to come back to India. He meets a person by name Shankar Menon at the airport who tries to console him with his words and offers him words of encouragament.

He returns to India once again and starts hanging out with his friends in order to get over his emotional loss. He meets Priya (Divya Spandana), his sister's friend. However the thoughts of losing Meghna still haunt him and he resorts to taking drugs. Surya's parents try to get him to break the habit by locking him up in his room and removing him from all external contact. Once they detect his withdrawal symptoms, they ask him to take a long break in order to rejuvenate himself. Subsequently, he takes a leisure trip to Kashmir. There he learns that Aditya, the son of Shankar Menon, the person who inspired him in the airport was kidnapped. He soon goes and visits them at Delhi. Upon seeing the lethargic attitude of the police, he takes matters into his own hands and goes in search of the kidnappers. After days of roaming streets and gathering information, he finally locates the kidnapper (Prithviraj) and the place where Aditya is kept. He battles the kidnappers single-handedly, overpowers them and rescues Aditya from the kidnappers.

Back home, Surya starts to go out with his sister and Priya. One day Priya proposes to him but he doesn't respond. Surya decides that the only way to forget the pain in his body is to prepare his body for bigger things. He goes on a strict work out training and subsequently joins the army. After 6 years, Priya comes to the Indian Military Academy where he is posted to meet him and proposes again; this time he accepts and they marry and have a son. Suddenly Krishnan is diagnosed of throat cancer and is operated. After some days Surya is called upon to go on a mission to rescue a journalist which brings the scene back to present day. After completing the military mission with the help of a masked man (Gautham Menon) who tells them where the culprits were, Surya returns back home to see his dead father. Surya, his sister Shriya, Malini and Priya let go his father's ashes in the sea and Malini relates her husbands life to Surya by uttering a verse from a Hindu prayer. The film ends on a happy note as the four walk away smiling.

[edit] Cast

Surya Sivakumar as Krishnan and Surya Krishnan. Surya plays both the father and son, the two lead characters of the film. Surya was once a soft adolescent who with his father's courage became a more enduring individual. His father Krishnan acts as Surya's largest inspiration of his life and always supported his son even through horrid times.

Divya Spandana as Priya. Priya is the best friend of Surya's sister, who later tells him that she was in love with him since her teenage. Surya who only expected her friendship, later fell in love and eventually marries her as well.

Simran Bagga as Malini Krishnan. Simran dons the role of the loving mother of Surya and wife of Krishnan. She was loved by Krishnan during their college days and since had been in love with each other, as told by her in the film.

Sameera Reddy as Meghna. Meghna is the girl who Surya first meets in a train and falls in love at sight. After Surya claimed that he would follow her wherever she goes, Meghna tells Surya that she would be leaving to the United States for university. With the acceptance of his father, Surya flies to the US and finds Meghna and eventually she falls in love, too. Meghna unfortunately gets killed in the Oklahoma City bombing.

[edit] Production

[edit] Development

Following Kaaka Kaaka in 2003, both the director Gautham Menon and Surya Sivakumar expressed their desire to come together for a film in the future. In early 2005, the pair came together for a film tentatively titled Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam which featured Asin Thottumkal in the lead role and Daniel Balaji in a supporting role. However, after a photo shoot, the film was delayed and then subsequently called off due to Gautham's personal problems.^[2] Nevertheless, in 2006, producer Oscar Ravichandran signed up the pair for a new film, which they confirmed was not going to be a sequel of their previous venture, and was going to be a romantic thriller. Initially titles such as Naan Thaan^[3] and Udal Porul Aavi^[4] were considered to be the title for the project but however, Gautham announced the title was decided as Vaaranam Aayiram, with the literal meaning of "the strength of a thousand elephants".^[5]

Prior to the start of shooting, various technical crew members were signed up and the shoot commenced without a leading lady on 24 November 2006 at a nightclub in Chennai. In 2007, it was announced that a 10 day shoot in Afghanistan would be followed by abroad shooting in Malaysia, Russia and the United States of America. However, the film only completed a shoot at University of California, Berkeley in San Francisco, USA and shooting was not held in Afghanistan, due to fears of safety.^[6]

In November 2007, Gautham Menon decided to send the reels of the film back to Chennai from San Francisco. Two of the production managers were assigned the task of bringing the reels to the producer's office, however they stayed in Singapore for a couple of days before returning to Chennai. Following their arrival in Chennai, it was understood the reels went missing in the hotel they stayed in at Singapore, but the search by the police in the hotel proved unsuccessful. The whole crew of Vaaranam Aayiram was in a fix as the reels consisted of various fight scenes, songs as well as other scenes worth $500,000. However, soon after, the reels were with the Singapore airport authorities and the team recovered their loss.^[7] The film finished its shoot in August 2008.^[8]

The film was believed to be based on the Dutch film by Mike van Diem, Character, however others have claimed that it is a remake of the 1993 Hollywood movie, Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks. However Gautham has stated the film will draw inspirations from Forrest Gump but will be fixed to suit the Indian audience.^[9] Furthermore Gautham stated that Surya Sivakumar will be seen playing the dual roles of a 21 year old and his father and also that the film will be society themed. The film which was previously set to release in 2007, has been delayed for a 14 November 2008 release.^[10] The audio of Vaaranam Aayiram was released on 24 September 2008.

[edit] Casting

After the cancellation of Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam, originally starring Surya Sivakumar, Asin Thottumkal and Daniel Balaji, Gautham Menon, keeping the male leads the same, wanted to opt for a new heroine to begin Vaaranam Aayiram. Initially, Deepika Padukone was signed up and set to make her debut in Tamil films, however she backed out due to the inactiveness of the film and signed the Bollywood film, Om Shanti Om instead.^[11] Soon after another confirmed heroine, Andrea Jeremiah was dropped from the film for unknown reasons.^[12] Asin expressed her desire to be a part of the project, however the male lead, Surya, refuted her offer citing that she had walked out of his previous film, Sillunu Oru Kadhal and refused to act opposite her.^[13]

The producers then announced the film with Divya Spandana, who was making her comeback to Tamil films and Genelia D'Souza in the lead roles.^[14] Soon after the start of the shoot, Genelia decided to walk out of the film, after Gautham refused to pay the hefty salary that she was demanding and was receiving in Telugu films allowing Sameera Reddy to act in her first Tamil film. Simran Bagga signed and completed her shoots swiftly after she was selected to portray the mother of Surya,^[10]^[15] after Tabu had rejected the role.^[16]

[edit] Soundtrack

The film has seven songs composed by Harris Jayaraj. The songs from the albums were released to four leading FM stations in Chennai, with one song per station, in attempt to popularize it five days before the official launch. The move by Sony BMG was the first of its kind in Indian cinema. All the songs become super hits. According to Gatuham Menon, this album was one of the best in Tamil Cinema.^[17]

Song title	Singers	Length _(m:ss)	Description
Adiye Kolluthe	Benny Dayal, Krish and Shruti Haasan	5:17	Filmed at the University of California and various locations across the state with Surya and Sameera, when Meghna falls in love with Surya.
Nenjukkul Peidhidum	Hariharan, Devan and Prasanna	6:11	Filmed in various locations on Surya and Sameera after Surya tells Meghna about his love.
Yethi Yethi Yeththi	Benny Dayal, Naresh Iyer and Solar Sai	4:55	Filmed in various locations across South India with Surya and background dancers when Surya was in his college days.
Mundhinam Parthene	Naresh Iyer and Prashanthini	5:43	Filmed with Surya and Simran when Krishnan loved Malini during their college days.
Oh Shanthi Shanthi	Clinton and S. P. B. Charan	3:05	A background song.
Anjala	Karthik and Prasanna	5:20	A gaana/dappan koothu folk type song with Surya when Surya goes hysterical from the thoughts of Meghna.
Anal Mele Panithuli	Sudha Raghunathan	5:22	Filmed on Suriya and Divya when Surya finally falls in love with Priya.