Anjathe

Anjathe
Directed by	Mysskin
Produced by	Hitesh Jhabak
Written by	Mysskin
Starring	Narain Prasanna Ajmal Ameer Vijayalakshmi
Music by	Sundar C Babu
Cinematography	Mahesh Muthuswami
Edited by	Sadagoppan Ramesh
Production company	Nemichand Jhabak Produtions
Release dates	14 February 2008 (2008-02-14)
Running time	190 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Anjathe (English: Do Not Fear) is a 2008 Tamil neo-noir action film written and directed by Mysskin; starring Narain ^[1] The film opened to rave reviews for its technical expertise, avant-garde filmmaking and for the performance of actor Narain.^[2] The composition of frames, selection of shots and its counter meaning in narration made Anjathe a perfect example of Tamil New Wave cinema.^[3] The film was remade in Kannada as Anjadiru.

Plot

Sathyavan (Narain) and Kirubakaran (Ajmal Ameer) are close friends living opposite each other in the police quarters neighborhood. Sathya is a rowdy, wasting his time drinking merrily and getting involved in fights. Though he and Kiruba pass college with a first-class degree, Sathya has no interest in joining the police force like his father (M. S. Bhaskar). Kiruba studies hard to become a Sub-Inspector (SI), challenging Sathya to do the same. Just a day before the exam, Sathya decides to take up the exam as well, much to his friend's surprise and with little head start, passes the physical, written and interview, with the help of malpractices and influence from his uncle and becomes an SI. However, Kiruba doesn't make it through despite being straightforward; this creates a rift between the two.

Kiruba's father lies to Sathya that he has gone to Mumbai, but Sathya finds him in the local bar, having become a drunkard.

Parallel is the story of Deena Dayalan (Prasanna) and Loganathan aka Logu (Pandiarajan), who extort money from businessmen through kidnappings. Before Sathya becomes a policeman, he beats up Daya for attempting to molest Kiruba's sister Udhra (Vijayalakshmi), though none including Kiruba knows of this.

Sathya gains fame by holding off knife-wielding men who come to kill an injured man at a hospital, though the man is killed later in the night. As a result, Sathya is drafted into a special task force (STF) to catch the gang members related to the crime. Daya and Logu carry out two kidnappings, raping the victims on both occasions, and release them for ransom money. Kiruba is beaten up by the police for a skirmish at the local bar; his father suffers a heart attack after getting his son back from the police station. At this point of time Kiruba is employed by Daya, mainly because the former is distraught and will fall easily to the lure of money and booze. In the third time however, the police are informed, but the kidnappers find out by chance and change the drop off point at the last moment. They give the police the slip, but narrowly avoid capture, with Kiruba providing shelter for them in his house. Kiruba joins along to get money for his father's angioplasty, though he doesn't realize until it's too late that he is doing illegal things and harming young children.

Meanwhile, Sathya identifies Daya from the characteristics, with a background check revealing that Daya was accused of raping his senior's wife in the army. Daya, Logu, and their accomplices are again almost caught when the police trace one of the accomplices' family. Daya kills his own man during this raid to avoid information being passed, and hatch a plan to escape to Bihar in a poultry van. Logu is killed by Daya, upon learning that the former had hatched a plan to kill him. However, to escape to the city outskirts to rendezvous with this van, they hijack the Inspector-General's (IG) car with his two daughters inside. Switching soon to a disguised-dog van to get past check-posts with the two girls, Daya, Kiruba and another accomplice arrive at a sugarcane field. Sathya recognizes Kiruba's voice from the ransom call he makes to the IG, and follows Udhra from the hospital, who has been instructed to bring a bag full of cash from their home (kept there by Daya), to the sugarcane field.

The plot to kidnap the IG's daughters is an elaborate ruse to divert the police force to the south of the city while they escape from the north. The special task force, who are in the south of the city, realize the plot and upon learning that Sathya is alone in the north of the city, head in that direction.

In the sugarcane fields, Kiruba shows compassion towards the two girls, treating them softly. Upon hearing some noise in the field, Daya splits the group, doing so to meet up directly with Udhra who has the money-bag. He tries to rape her, but Sathya intervenes and a fist fight ensures, but the special task force comes upon them, and kill Daya by setting it up as an encounter. The two girls split and escape from the third accomplice, only for one of them to be recaptured by him, but is let off being too tiring to carry. Kiruba and the third accomplice try to run away, with Udhra behind him. Just as he leaves her to escape, she reveals that she is in love with Sathya and uses the situation to handcuff herself to Kiruba to avoid him from escaping. In the end, Sathya shoots Kiruba in self-defense and to save one of the IG's daughters from being shot. When Kiruba lies on Sathya's lap shot, Kiruba finds a ring he once gifted to Sathya on his birthday which Kiruba believed thrown away by Sathya drunk while partying at the bar which in turn wets Kiruba's eye and dies. The ending scenes of the film show Sathya and Udhra getting married and having a son, whom they name Kiruba.

Cast

• Narain as Sathyavan a.k.a. Sathya
• Prasanna as Deena Dayalan
• Ajmal Ameer as Kirubakaran a.k.a. Kiruba
• Vijayalakshmi as Udhra, Kiruba's sister
• Livingston as Masilamani
• Pandiarajan as Loganathan a.k.a. Logu
• Snigdha Akolkar as the dancer in the workshop
• Ponvannan as the Assistant Commissioner Keerti Vaasan
• Bomb Ramesh as Kuruvi (Satya & Kiruba's friend)
• P.S. Sridhar as Deena Dayalan's right hand
• M. S. Bhaskar as Sathyavan's father
• Priyasri as Sathyavan's mother

Production

After Myshkin had completed and released his maiden venture Chithiram Pesuthadi in 2006, he wrote the script for Nandalala for eight months, which was supposed to be his next directorial.^[4] A. M. Ratnam was initially to produce the film, for which his son Ravi Krishna was to play the lead role.^[5] Despite completing a photo shoot with Ravi Krishna, the film was shelved, since Ratnam opted out, after he incurred heavy losses with his previous productions.^[4] Myshkin decided to postpone the project, since "nobody was interested",^[6] and instead wrote a new story and commenced a new project, Anjathe which itself was a result of Myshkin's anger.^[6][7] Nandhalala was initially Snigdha's debut Tamil film, for which Myshkin had signed her in 2006 already, but with the film getting postponed, she made her first appearance in Anjathe that Myshkin decided to direct instead.^[8][9]

Soundtrack

The music composed by Sundar C Babu^[10]

Box office

• The film was a commercial success grossing almost $2 million at the box office as per the charts published by behindwoods.com.^[11]
• Nemichand Jabak, the producer of the film, had spent nearly $1 million on Anjathey for its technical expertise.^[12]

Awards

References

External links