Aranmanai

Aranmanai is a 2014 Indian Tamil-language comedy horror film written and directed by Sundar C. The film stars Sundar alongside an ensemble cast including Hansika Motwani, Vinay Rai, Andrea Jeremiah, Raai Laxmi, Santhanam, Kovai Sarala, Manobala, Chitra Lakshmanan and Nithin Sathya. This film was the first installment in Aranmanai film series. In the film, a family returns to their hometown to sell their ancestral palace. However, their arrival is marked by supernatural events, and Ravi, a relative of the family, decides to uncover the truth.

The film began production by the end of September 2013. and released on 19 September 2014 to mostly positive reviews from critics and grossed ₹22 at the box office and becomes a commercial success and one of the highest grossing Tamil film of the year. Due to its success, an installment titled Aranmanai 2, with most of the cast from the first film, was released on 29 January 2016. The movie was loosely based on the 1978 movie Aayiram Jenmangal.

Plot
In a village, Ayyanar leads a group of people to clean a palace whose owners plan to sell it. At night, the cook is frightened by some supernatural being in the palace and disappears.

The next day, an estranged Eshwari returns to the village with her husband and son, Muliankannan, along with her older brother and his daughter, Maya. The pair, and their late elder brother's son Murali and his new wife Madhavi, have gathered to sell their palace off to Ayyanar. Meanwhile, Paalsamy sneaks into the palace disguised as a cook to find a photo that is the sole evidence that he is also an heir to the palace so Paalsamy can claim his share of the money. Strange events begin to happen during their stay at the palace. Madhavi sees a servant's daughter talking to a mysterious girl called Selvi, who no one else can see. The girl's mother explains that she is mentally impaired. Mishaps continue to happen, delaying the sale of the palace and the family extend their stay. Meanwhile, two other servants go missing. Ravi, Madhavi's elder brother, visits the palace to meet his sister. Later, Madhavi and Maya tell Ravi of the strange happenings, so Ravi sets up cameras around the palace with Maya's help.

While watching the camera feed, Ravi sees a worker backing away from something, but the camera's feed suddenly dies. At the same time, a fortune teller in front of the house runs away in terror after seeing something. On the next day, the police find the bodies of the missing servants in a local pond. Ravi is shocked and visits the fortune teller, who reveals he witnessed a woman possessed by a vengeful spirit kill a worker. The fortune teller gives him an egg and informs him that when the possessed person is near the egg, the egg will spin. To Ravi's horror, the egg reacts to Madhavi. Since the little girl always speaks of a woman named Selvi, Ravi sets out to investigate. Ayyanar becomes angry when mentioned about Selvi, who stole the temple's jewels and ran away from the village. However, Selvi's friend Ramya tells Ravi that Selvi is a good person, not a thief, and narrates her flashback.

Past: A few years back, before his marriage, Murali came to the village and fell in love with Selvi. Selvi also likes him, but she is a girl often possessed by the goddess and predicts the future. Wishing to maintain her holiness and wary of the difference in their statuses and lifestyles, she is reluctant to accept his confession. Murali planned to depart the village that morning and asked her to meet him at the palace if she wanted to join him. With Ramya's encouragement, Selvi leaves to confess her love to Murali but disappears before reaching him.

Present: As per Ravi's plan, Ramya comes to meet the possessed Madhavi. Selvi, recognising Ramya, tells her all that happened that day. It had been Ayyanar and his friends who had stolen and replaced the temple jewellery with fakes. When Selvi had touched one of the fakes, she received a premonition and confronted the culprits. When they attacked her, she fled to Murali but narrowly missed him. Ayyanar and his accomplices, the dead servants, killed and buried her inside the palace.

Selvi tells Ramya that she intends to live on with Murali in Madhavi's body. As that day is auspicious, if Murali and Madhavi get intimate, no one can ever drive her out of Madhavi's body. If they cannot consummate their relationship, she will kill Murali so that they will be together in death. After hearing the story, Ravi meets a priest who says there are only two ways to stop Selvi: use a powerful emotion to bring Madhavi to her senses or bring Murali to the river junction where a holy ritual will take place, generating a powerful energy that will lay Selvi to rest. The palace inhabitants disturb Selvi's attempts to become intimate with Murali. Meanwhile, Ravi attempts to find a way to bring Murali to the river junction without tipping off Selvi. Meanwhile, Selvi puts Murali into a trance so that she can track down and kill Ayyanar.

While she is gone, the priest and Ravi try to bring Murali out of his trance and take him to the river, but Selvi returns and attempts to stop them. The priest traps her in a fire circle, and Ravi flees with Murali. Selvi escapes and follows them, and Ravi's car overturns and falls into the river. Selvi tries to drown Murali, but Ravi tells Madhavi is pregnant and brings her to her senses briefly. At the same time, the priests complete the ritual at the river, and its power finally severs Selvi's possession. Madhavi returns to her senses. Selvi disappears, and Madhavi and Murali reunite. Ravi also unites with Maya in the end. And when they all pose for a photograph in front of the palace, a zoomed-in shot shows a ghostly figure moving near a palace window, implying that Selvi has returned to the palace.

Production
Hansika Motwani confirmed in September 2013 that she had signed the film. She also stated she played the main lead and that the story revolves around her character, which was later reported to be a lady with supernatural powers. Sundar C had initially agreed to cast Arya and Nayanthara in the sibling roles eventually played by himself and Andrea Jeremiah, but opted to make changes following the release of Raja Rani (2013), where the actors played husband and wife. Ragini Dwivedi stated that she signed up for the film, but she was later replaced by Raai Laxmi to portray another leading role. Vinay Rai was also signed on to play a leading role in the film. Nithin Sathya tweeted that he was a part of the film too.

Filming started on 28 September 2013 in Pollachi with Laxmi, Andrea, Kovai Sarala, Nithin Sathya and Manobala. Motwani joined the team on 6 October 2013 and told "it's a super challenging role for me that I haven't done till today". The film largely takes place in a palace, for which a set created by Mohan Babu in Hyderabad was used. ₹2 crore were spent for renovating the palace, in which 70 per cent of the film was shot. According to Sundar C, the film features over an hour of computer-generated imagery Filming was completed in mid-2014.

Music
The soundtrack was composed by Bharadwaj and Karthik Raja composed the background score.

Theatrical
The film censored with an U/A certificate by the censor board, due to some strong violence scenes. The Tamil Nadu distribution rights of the film were bought by Rama Narayanan's Sri Thenandal Films who would jointly release Aranmanai with Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies on 19 September 2014 across Tamil Nadu.

Critical response
Aranmanai received mostly positive reviews from critics. The Times of India wrote, "This is kitchen sink filmmaking but there is an assurance in how it is done. The film also feels somewhat overlong but the director manages to keep things moving that we just go with the flow. The visual effects are tacky and often excessive while the performances are functional...but then, the film doesn't take itself too seriously and so, we are able to overlook these niggles, and just about enjoy the ride". Deccan Chronicle gave 3 stars and called it "a film which entertains you with its Sundar's signature style of slapstick comedy combined with some scary moments". Bangalore Mirror wrote, "The horror scenes have been thoughtfully crafted and the principal cast punctuates the thrilling moments with great timing. Tactfully, he (Sundar) has had made a mirch masala from films like Chandramukhi, Arundhathi and Aayiram Jenmangal. Sify wrote, "The commercial elements comedy, horror and glamour has been mixed in the right proposition by the writer and director. What works is a riveting performance by Hansika, along with comedy track of Santhanam &Co and is packaged as a fun entertainer by Sundar C". Behindwoods.com wrote, "Sundar C is back with his typical commercial, fun filled entertainer that has all elements that will keep you engaged all the way, making you overlook those "not-too-glaring" flaws". Cinemalead.com rated 3/5 and wrote, "Aranmanai might not scare you much. Nor does it have something out of the box. But it successfully sets out doing what it intended to". Indiaglitz.com wrote, "The saying, "old wine in a new bottle", might fit Aranmanai with Sundar C's narration and screenplay helping the movie out of its predictable script".

The Hindu wrote, "What's truly scary about Aranmanai is how it brings nothing new to the horror genre...The film has a whole host of stereotypes associated with the horror genre in Tamil cinema...In many ways, Aranmanai is like a time machine. A few scenes into the film and you find yourself transported to the 80s". Rediff.com wrote, "Sundar C seems to have let his fans down with this cliché-ridden supernatural thriller. The narration moves at a slow pace and horror moments are practically non-existent. Even the "Aranmanai", around which the entire story revolves, is not impressive".

Box office
Aranmanai took an excellent opening with a first day gross of ₹2.60 crore in Tamil Nadu and went to collect gross over ₹7.55 crore in its opening weekend. In Chennai alone, it collected ₹89.48 lakh in the first weekend. After one week the film's collection was estimated at ₹11.5 crore according to Sreedhar Pillai. Sify wrote that the film had grossed around ₹18 crore in two weeks at the Tamil Nadu box-office. Hindustan Times estimated the film grossed ₹22 crore in total.

Plagiarism allegations
The producer of the 1978 Tamil film Aayiram Jenmangal, M. Muthuraman, approached City Civil court in Chennai claiming this film to be a remake of the 1978 film. The court appointed an Advocate Commissioner to verify the claims. Advocate Commissioner on viewing both the films had stated that the plot, theme, storyline and structure were similar in both films. She also held that the script of both films were the same and most scenes were copied and replayed from Aayiram Jenmangal. The report also stated that the viewer of the film Aranmanai would definitely get the impression that the film is the remake of Aayiram Jenmangal since they had considerable similarities.

Installments
The second installment titled Aranmanai 2, starring Sundar C, Hansika Motwani, Siddharth and Trisha Krishnan was released on 29 January 2016. The third installment titled Aranmanai 3, starring Sundar, Arya, Raashii Khanna and Andrea Jeremiah was released on 14 October 2021. The fourth installment titled Aranmanai 4, starring Sundar, Tamannaah Bhatia and Raashii Khanna was released on 3 May 2024.