Attahasam

Attahasam  is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Saran. The film stars Ajith Kumar in a dual role, alongside Pooja in lead roles while Sujatha, Nizhalgal Ravi, Babu Antony, Karunas, and Ramesh Khanna play supporting roles. The score and soundtrack were composed by Bharadwaj with cinematography by Venkatesh Anguraj and editing by Suresh Urs. The film was released on 12 November 2004.

Plot
Jeeva, a driving instructor, leads a happy life with his mother. He falls in love with Swapna after several mishaps. Jeeva's mother hides the truth from her son that his father was murdered by a rowdy named Manthiram. The mother, much against Jeeva's wish, packs off his twin brother Guru with a family who offers to adopt him, who had been witness to the murderer from a close quarter, to a distant town. Guru runs away from the family, goes to Thoothukudi, and grows up to become a gangster there. When Jeeva visits Thoothukudi, he comes across Guru, also called Thala. Seizing the opportunity, Guru kidnaps Jeeva and decides to go to Chennai and pass himself off as Jeeva. Initially, he plans to take revenge on his mother for giving him away at a very young age. He hurts her at every step and even plans to sell off all their property. On the other hand, Jeeva is mistaken as the gangster and is subject to attacks by the local gangsters of Thoothukudi. He escapes from them and returns to Chennai to save his mother. In the meantime, Guru learns of his father's death and that Manthiram was the cause for their fate. He avenges his father's death and leaves Jeeva to live happily with their mother and then goes to jail to keep his mother in belief that he is somewhere in the world living happily.

Production
Saran and Ajith Kumar collaborated for the third time after the successes of Kaadhal Mannan (1998) and Amarkalam (1999). Between then and 2004, the pair began shooting for another project for Poornachandra Rao titled Erumugam, before Ajith pulled out and the pair subsequently fell out. However Ajith's wife, former actress Shalini Ajith, played a role in reconciling the pair and they reunited for Attahasam. Kiran Rathod was initially chosen to play a second lead female role after her other film opposite Ajith, Mahaa, was shelved but Saran later deleted her character from the project. Filming was kept on hold for few months as Saran got an opportunity to direct Vasool Raja MBBS.

The shooting progressed in October 2004 around Tuticorin and a scene created a ruckus among the public as they mistook the action to be real, as the region had seen similar daylight murders and fights among local mafia in the past. Songs from the film were shot in Romania and Pollachi. The film released on Diwali 2004.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by Bharadwaj and released on Classic Audio.

Release and reception
Despite a last minute financial crunch, Attahasam was released on 300 screens worldwide as Ajith agreed to pay a hefty amount to the producer for settling his liability to the financier. Oscar Ravichandran gave a significant amount to clear the producer’s debt in lieu of the satellite rights of the film, which in turn were sold to Jaya TV.

Visual Dasan of Kalki called Attahasam a dramatic breakthrough for Ajith. Malini Mannath wrote for Chennai Online, "Attagasam is a fun film, unpretentious and light-hearted, an enjoyable time-pass film." Sify wrote, "The director and script-writer Saran has no original story to say and just lets his maddeningly zany characters indulge in buffoonery in the name of entertainment".