Aai (film)

Aai is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language action masala film written and directed by A. Venkatesh. The film stars Sarathkumar in the main lead role, with Namitha as his love interest. Vadivelu, Kalabhavan Mani, Ashish Vidyarthi, Kota Srinivasa Rao, and Vincent Asokan plays supporting roles. The film released on 17 December 2004 and became a hit.

Plot
Sakthivel alias Velu is a tubelight seller who is living happily with his sister Lakshmi and friend Pazhani in Palani. He stays away from all wanted troubles and arguments and is forced to resort to fighting to defend his sister from the local rowdy Raghavan.

A flashback follows, where it is revealed that Velu is a military officer and Lakshmi is actually the sister of his best friend, Police Officer Mani of Chennai, who wants her to become a collector. Velu and Mani both clean up the society by punishing corrupt police officers. One day, Mani notices a wine shop opposite to the school where his wife Kanmani teaches. Mani, Kanmani, Velu, and the schoolchildren destroy the wine shop by throwing and breaking bottles and Velu burning the shop.

The shop is owned by Naachiyar. Naachiyar threatens Velu that he will destroy the school, but Velu prevents him by pouring oil at him, saying that before he destroys the school, Velu will destroy him. The next day, two wine shop men hide a bomb inside the school, under Naachiyar's plan. After getting a call from Kanmani, Velu and Mani both save the school children and Kanmani altogether. Unfortunately, Mani gets stabbed by a wine shop man and was thrown off from the school building. Velu tries to save Mani, but he dies. Mani gave an important wish to Velu, saying that his desire is to make his sister a collector.

Later, Velu drags Naachiyar from the police department, shows Mani's ashes to him, and then shoots him twice. It is also revealed that Velu had gone into hiding and maintained a low profile to protect him and Lakshmi from Naachiyar. After shooting Naachiyar, the military court said that Velu is innocent, but had resigned from his military job to take care of Lakshmi and makes sure that she becomes a collector, as Mani wished.

Soundtrack
Soundtrack was composed by Srikanth Deva.

Release and reception
Due to the producer's financial crunch, Aai was released on 17 December 2004, after a four-month delay.

S. R. Ashok Kumar of The Hindu wrote, "The dialogue of Pattukkottai Prabhakar is powerful [...] A. Venkatesh who is also responsible for the story, screenplay and direction has made the film interesting with his gripping narration". Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote, "It's a rehash of so many earlier films [..] – that one loses count of the 'inspirations'! There's nothing fresh by way of script or narrative style here. As for Sharat, though he plays the angry man with a vengeance, it's what he's done in his earlier films". Visual Dasan of Kalki wrote 'when public does wrong the police retorts, who will retort if police does wrong', this one line plot is backed up by a screenplay with love, action and comedy which saves the film from faltering. At the same time the lengthy climax towards the end gives a headache. Cinesouth wrote "The director Venkatesh, thinking that he is taking the film in an fast paced manner had ended up in giving a confused treatment to the whole story. Had he tried to think calmly and clearly about each and every sequence, a different kind of movie would have emerged. But it seems he had given in to the suggestions of his assistants during 'drunken session called story discussion', results in a kind of movie that is tepid and not at all up to the mark".