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Anniyan (Tamil: அந்நியன்; English: Stranger) is a 2005 Tamil psychological thriller film directed by S. Shankar. The film stars Vikram, Sadha, Prakash Raj, and Vivek, while featuring background score and soundtrack composed by Harris Jayaraj. The film was released worldwide on 10 June 2005.
The film took over two years to complete and was the most expensive South Indian feature film during the time of release.[3] The film was dubbed into Hindi as Aparichit: The Stranger, in Telugu as Aparichithudu, and was also the first Indian film to be dubbed into French.[4] It was produced and distributed in India by Venu Ravichandran.


Plot

Anniyan is the story of "Rules" Ramanujam Iyengar alias "Ambi" (Vikram), a lawyer who suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder. Ambi is an innocent and honest lawyer. If he comes across anyone not obeying the law, he files cases against them but all his efforts go in vain.
His constant habit to be perfect in rules and honesty leads him to develop a Multiple Personality Disorder in which a new personality in him grows as Anniyan, a grim reaper-themed killer, and starts a website called www.anniyan.com to hear people's complaints. The character of Anniyan is violent and deranged, and Ambi has no clue that such a monster exists within him. When Ambi comes across a violation of the law, he makes complaints in his website. When he is Anniyan, he goes and kills the lawbreaker(s) by methods used for torturing people in hell. He apparently takes the definition of these methods from the Garuda Puranam.
Anniyan targets and kills three people during his first few forays, for various antisocial acts:
A man (Cochin Haneefa) who did not stop to save a person in critical condition. Anniyan forces a herd of buffaloes to stampede him to death. He calls this murder "Anthakoopam", a Sanskrit word and one of the punishments in the Garuda Puranam.
A chef (Shanmugarajan) who fails to provide decent food for railway passengers. Anniyan tosses him into a pot of oil and fries him to death. This punishment is called "Kumbhipakam". The chef was the older brother of DCP Prabhakar (Prakash Raj) and the murder causes Prabhakar to rise with anger, promising to kill his brother's murderer when he is found.
A factory owner (Saurabh Shukla) who makes faulty motor parts. He sends a group of thugs to kill Ambi, but this triggers Anniyan, who knocks out all the men. Later, Anniyan ties the owner to a tree and dumps leeches onto his body. This punishment is called "Kirumibhojanam"
Meanwhile, DCP Prabhakar and Chary (Vivek), a friend of Ambi, are after this mystery murderer.
Ambi is in love with his neighbour Nandhini (Sadha), a music teacher. After she rejects him for his plain and dull attitude, he attempts suicide, but is saved when a third personality comes to life within him. This persona, a suave fashion model named "Remo" woos Nandhini as a totally different person. Nandhini instantly falls for Remo and his extravagant ways.
Later, Nandhini acquires land, but tries to cheat the government out of taxes. Ambi chooses not to help her, but when Nandhini tells Remo, Anniyan takes over and goes after her. Just as Anniyan is about to toss her into a pit of fire, Anniyan reverts back to Ambi. He is admitted to a hospital where he is diagnosed with a multiple personality disorder. It is at this hospital that Ambi reveals a dark secret from his past when he is hypnotized. When he was a young boy, there was a lot of corruption and incompetence in the police force and elsewhere. There was a loose electric wire which fell into a rather deep puddle. Ambi's sister Vidya slipped out of a rick shaw and fell into that puddle with the unattended wire, in which she was electrocuted, and died. After listening to this story, the doctor (Nassar) concludes that the death of Ambi's sister resulted in the development of the psychological disorder. According to the doctor, Remo will cease to exist only if Nandhini accepts Ambi's love. However, Anniyan will cease to exist only when the country is reformed. Nandhini eventually accepts Ambi's love and Remo disappears.
As for Anniyan, the police investigate the murders, and evidence points to Ambi, who is arrested. During an interrogation, DCP Prabhakar engages in a fight with Ambi, who constantly changes personalities between Ambi and Anniyan to the DCP's confusion. The fight is captured on the security camera and is used as evidence for Ambi's sentence. He is sentenced to two years of psychological treatment after which, if he is cured, he will be released. When he is released, he relapses when travelling in a train, after a man refuses to stop drinking in the presence of women. Apparently, the man is the same person who indirectly, became a cause for Ambi's sister's death due to his negligence of duty and was also drinking in the train in front of the women. But Ambi does not respond to this situation and takes it casually and says that he will switch to some other seat. Nandhini sees this and she is convinced that Ambi has changed entirely, and there will be no more reoccurrences of Anniyan anymore. So she calls up the Doctor and informs this happy news secretly. When she returns to the seat, she sees ambi missing. Panicked, she searches for him, and finds him near the compartment door, looking outside casually. But he kills the man, by throwing him out of the train, and hiding the crime from Nandhini as the credits start rolling, proving that instead of eradicating Anniyan from his brain, he has been able to successfully blend the personalities of Ambi, Remo and Anniyan into one.
[edit]Cast

Vikram as Ramanujam "Ambi" Iyengar (Remo/Anniyan)
Sadha as Nandhini Krishna
Vivek as Chari
Prakash Raj as DCP Prabhakar
Nassar as the psychiatrist
Nedumudi Venu as Parthasarathy
Cochin Haneefa
Shanmugha Rajan
Saurabh Shukla
Mohan Vaidya
Kalabhavan Mani
Charle
Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan in a special appearance
Yana Gupta in a special appearance
[edit]Production

The launch of the film was held at AVM Studios in Vadapalani, Chennai on March 4, 2004 with the attendance of the cast and crew. At the event, Shankar revealed that the film would take six months to make and suggested that the film would be released during the Diwali season of 2004, which ultimately was missed by close to nine months.[5][6] The first schedule took place in Amsterdam, Netherland with the filming of a song - "Kumaari" - in the backdrop of a large flower garden in Vijfhuizen. The team initially hope to film two songs in Netherlands, but were denied by authorities to shoot at a song at Keukenhof after a previous film crew had damaged the habitat.[7] Shankar did not want Vikram to reveal his look for the film to the public and despite Vikram's success at the National Film Awards, he was prohibited from meeting the media.[8] In October 2004, cinematographer Manikandan left the project citing date problems and was thus replaced by Ravi Varman.[9] A ten day shoot was held in Mumbai for a song featuring Hindi actress Yana Gupta, with producers initially hiding her identity to create suspense.[10][11]
[edit]Release

Produced on a budget of Rs 26.38 crores,[12] the film was declared a commercial success, grossing Rs. 65 crores from both Tamil and dubbed Telugu version and becoming the year's highest grossing Tamil film.[13] It was funded by IDBI to the tune of Rs 8.5 crores and insured for Rs 29 crores to mitigate risk of failure. The producer was the sole distributor of the film. He recovered Rs 13 crores in advance from exhibitors as Minimum Guarantee before the completion of the project. By cutting off the middlemen thus, the profitability of the project was secured.
The film released with 110 prints in Andhra Pradesh[14] and in 35 cinema halls across Kerala.[15] The film was simultaneously released in Tamil and dubbed into Telugu (as Aparachithudu). It was later dubbed into Hindi as Aparachit - The Stranger which made $500,000.[16] The film collected Rs 30 crores in Tamil Nadu, Rs 15 crores in Andhra Pradesh and Rs 5.5 crores in Kerala and the rest from other parts of India and overseas.
[edit]Soundtrack

Anniyan

Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Released 2005
Genre Feature film soundtrack
Label Hit Musics
Harris Jayaraj chronology
Ullam Ketkumae
(2005) Anniyan
(2005) Ghajini
(2005)
Tamil
(Lyrics: Vairamuthu, Na. Muthukumar & Kapilan) Telugu
(Lyrics: Chandrabose & Bhuvanachandra) Hindi
(Lyrics: Mehboob)
Kumari
(Shankar Mahadevan & Harini) Kumari
(Shankar Mahadevan & Harini) Kumari
(Unnikrishnan & Harini)
Kadhal Yanai
(Nakul, Nelwyn & G. V. Prakash Kumar) Love Elephantla
(Nakul, G. V. Prakash Kumar & Tippu) Remo
(Nakul & G. V. Prakash Kumar)
Kannum Kannum Nokia
(Leslie Lewis, Andrea Jeremiah & Vasundhara Das) Naaku Neeku Nokia
(Kunal Ganjawala & Vasundhara Das) Gora Gora
(Leslie Lewis & Vasundhara Das)
Iyengaaru Veetu
(Hariharan & Harini) Jiyangaari Inti
(K. J. Yesudas & Harini) Iyengar Ghar ki
(Hariharan & Harini)
Andang Kaka
(K.K, Jassie Gift, Shreya Ghoshal, Saindhavi) Kandakaki
(Jassie Gift, K.K, Sujatha Mohan) Chori hai
(K.K, Shreya Ghoshal)
Stranger in Black
(Sunitha Sarathy & Chennai Chorale) Stranger in Black
(Sunitha Sarathy & Chennai Chorale) Stranger in Black
(Sunitha Sarathy & Chennai Chorale)
The song 'Kannum Kannum Nokiya' was shot in Kuala Lumpur Airport (KLIA) and Petronas Twin Towers.
The film has a sequence featuring the Thiruvaiyaar music festival. Well known exponents like Kunnakudi R Vaidhyanathan, Sudha Raghunathan and Unnikrishnan appear in the scene, which is a recreation of the real festival.
[edit]Awards

Anniyan received 8 out of 15 awards at the 2006 Filmfare Awards South, the most ever by any Tamil film.[17]
2006 Filmfare Awards South
Won - Best Film - Anniyan
Won - Best Director - S. Shankar
Won - Best Actor - Vikram
Won - Best Art Director - Sabu Cyril
Won - Best Music Director - Harris Jeyaraj
Won - Best Action Director - Peter Hein
Won - Best Lyricist - Vairamuthu
Won - Best Cinematographer - V. Manikandan and Ravi Varman
2006 National Film Award
Won - Silver Lotus Award for Best Special Effects - Tata Elxsi
[edit]Themes

The film features comedy portions by Vivek regarding the anagrams of the Sanskrit words that denote the punishments. Even the titles shown in the beginning of the film slide with quicker animation of their anagrams. Another example is, during the intermission of the film, the word "TENSIONRISM" morphs into the word "INTERMISSION".
This film can be closely related to one of Shankar's previous features, Indian. Both movies have similar names in pronunciation, and both movies involve the main character rooting out the corrupt elements of India, due to corruption causing the death of the main character's close family member. The main character also gains popularity amongst the public, and shows one of his murders on live TV.
Another noticeable Shankar feature in both films is the portrayal of some elements from ancient Hinduism. In Indian, the ancient Varmam art was explored, while in this film, the texts from Garuda Puranam are emphasized for the punishments.
[edit]Influences

Influences from S. Shankar's other popular films like Gentleman and Kadhalan have been noted. The plot also borrows elements from Sidney Sheldon's Tell Me Your Dreams. The use of the time-slice method in the film, as with The Matrix films and earlier used by Shankar in his film Mudhalvan/Nayak shot by cinematographer V.Manikandan proved popular with the audience. Shankar used 17 cameras for a special action sequence and imported fighters as well as martial artists from all over the state were used in the multi-opponent fight scene. The Special Effects were provided by Big Freeze, a department based in London. Art Direction for the film was provided by Sabu Cyril


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