Thiruthani (film)

Thiruthani: Action Avathaaram is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language vigilante action film written and directed by Perarasu, who has also composed the soundtrack and background score. The film stars Bharath and Sunaina in the lead roles, while Rajkiran, Pandiarajan and Ashish Vidyarthi play other pivotal roles. The cinematography was handled by K. Bala while V. Jaishankar handles the editing.

Thiruthani: Action Avathaaram was released on 19 October 2012, where it received highly negative reviews from critics and became a box-office bomb.

Plot
Velu is a gym instructor who beats up men who cause trouble to his sister for celebrating Diwali. Duraipandi is an ex-military officer, who proudly watches the fight along with many others, but becomes furious when Velu refuses to save an athlete from having his leg broken, despite his pleas for help. It is here that Velu justifies his actions, saying that everyone stood watching as his unconscious mother was left locked up in a burning building for fear that they would be killed by the local goons. Later, Velu gets involved in an accident causing severe damages to his skull, where the doctor privately tells him that he would only live for another 6 months. Unable to bear the thought of his family being depressed upon his death, Velu becomes harsh with them, believing that this would make them hate him.

Seeing this, Duraipandi advises Velu to kill the local goons so that everyone can live peacefully and that he will not face prison term as he is about to die. Under the name of Thiruthani, Velu starts to kill the goons and soon becomes one of the most wanted criminals. Andiyappan is a corrupt minister who orders the police to kill Thiruthani in a police encounter. Shocked at this news, the doctor informs Thiruthani that he lied about his condition only because of Duraipandi's request. Enraged, Thiruthani advances on Duraipandi only to find out that the latter has lost one leg in the army. Thiruthani decides to surrender to the police, but is attacked by Andiyappan and his henchmen. A fight ensues where Thiruthani kills them and Duraipandi takes the blame for the murders where he gets shot by the police. In the aftermath, Velu continues his vigilantism against the goons under the pseudonym of Swami Malai.

Production
Immediately after the release of Pazhani in January 2008, Perarasu announced that he would make another action film starring Bharath titled Thiruthani. However the actor's commitment to Durai's Nepali and Venkatesh's Killadi meant that he was unable to start the project at the time and Perarasu moved on to make Thiruvannamalai with Arjun. Bharath is playing a gym-trainer in this film.

The film re-emerged in January 2009 as the team geared up for a first schedule with reports emerging that Sai Kumar had replaced Prakash Raj in a pivotal role. Other sources added that musician Srikanth Deva was added to the cast, while actress Sunaina, who had featured in the successful films Kadhalil Vizhunthen and Maasilamani was added to the cast in August 2009. Perarasu subsequently announced that he would also produce the film as well as compose the film's music and recorded a song with T. Rajendar.

Filming was held across locations including Pazhani and Madurai in October 2009, while songs were canned in New Zealand that year. However the progress of the film became hampered and 2010 passed without much publicity, with Bharath spending time completing his other projects. In April 2011, it was revealed that two songs in the film were only left to be shot and team departed in May to film the songs in France.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack is composed by Perarasu in his musical debut and also wrote the lyrics for all songs. The audio was released on 20 August at Kamala Theatres. The function saw the presence of several celebrities from the industry, including S. J. Suryah, AR Murugadoss, K. Bhagyaraj, Pandiarajan, S. A. Chandrasekhar, Jeyam Raja, Srikanth Deva, P. L. Thenappan and G. Dhananjayan amongst others and was released in their presence.

Thiruthani received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Behindwoods wrote "Perarasu’s attempts at turning a music director have met with forgettable results. Except one passable melody song, the rest are just not up to scratch. But these songs might make the rounds in village 'thiruvizhas' thanks to the bevy of 'kuthu' numbers". Musicperk wrote "This one is an overall disappointing show by Perarasu although he shines in parts, [sic] the album fails to gel with today’s times. It does not provide anything refreshingly different and innovatively new for the GEN-Y of today. The tunes all seem like you have heard them somewhere before.

The soundtrack contains six songs.

Release
The film had been in the making for three months and had been struck due to call sheet problems and lack of distributors, but was eventually released on 19 October 2012.

Critical response
Indiaglitz wrote "If the movie managed to reflect realism a little, it would have been an easy battle for Perarasu. Happily, the content goes right and so is the execution". The Times of India gave 2 out of 5 stars and wrote "Perarasu manages to give us quite a powerful film, by making sparks fly out of electrical machinery whenever and wherever possible. In these power-strapped times, this is indeed a more fanciful sight than the foreign locations we get to see in the listless songs". Behindwoods.com rated 1 out 5 stars and wrote "Even for people who just want some kind of a usual Perarsu entertainer at the end of a hard day’s work, but There is nothing much to discuss about technical aspects in Thiruthani. It is appalling to note a few action sequences lifted straight from a few popular Tamil movies. Some shots are too pixilated. Thiruthani does not do justice".