Wikipedia

Arunachalam (film)

Arunachalam is a 1997 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by Sundar C and written by Crazy Mohan. The film stars Rajinikanth as the title character as well as in a dual role, alongside Soundarya and Rambha, with Jaishankar, Ravichandran and Visu in supporting roles. It revolves around a village simpleton, who later discovers he is the heir of a deceased billionaire, but must face extreme challenges to claim his father's inheritance.

Arunachalam
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySundar C
Written byCrazy Mohan (dialogues)
Screenplay bySundar C
Based onBrewster's Millions
by George Barr McCutcheon
Produced by
  • K. S. Nagarajan Raja
  • K. Muraliprasad Rao
Starring
CinematographyU. K. Senthil Kumar
Edited byP. Sai Suresh
Music byDeva
Production
company
Annamalai Cine Combines
Release date
  • 10 April 1997 (1997-04-10)
Running time
165 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

The film is loosely based on the 1902 George Barr McCutcheon novel Brewster's Millions. The soundtrack and background score were composed by Deva, while U. K. Senthil Kumar handled the cinematography and P. Sai Suresh did so for editing.

Arunachalam was released on 10 April 1997 and became a box office success. It won three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, including Best Film.

Plot

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Village headman Arunachalam has two brothers Saravanan, Shakthi, and a sister Arundhati and a happy family. Ammayappan and Janaki are his parents. Vedavalli is the daughter of Aathikesavan and Umayal. Umayal is Ammayappan's sister and they all come to Ammayappan's home for Arunachalam's sister's wedding. That gives the opportunity for Vedavalli and Arunachalam to fight first, then fall in love with each other.

Arunachalam finds himself to be an orphan by interval. He goes out of the village. He goes to Madras where he meets Beeda Kathavarayan, who gives him a job. By some magical situation Arunachalam discovers himself to be the son of India's richest (dead) billionaire Vedhachalam through Rangachari. Rangachari is the guardian of Arunachalam's father's trust. If Arunachalam wants his inheritance, he has to follow certain rules. He can get an inheritance of 3000 Crore Rupees if he can spend 30 crores in 30 days. The conditions are: no contributions to charities, not to own any assets at the end of 30 days and above all, no one else should know about this and receipts should be provide for all the expenses. If Arunachalam fails to spend the money according to the rules, all the money will go to his father's trust which is managed by Vishwanath, Prathap, Kurian and Kaliyaperumal. These four want to spoil Arunachalam's efforts and get all the money for the trust and kill Rangachari. Nandhini is Rangachari's daughter and she is appointed as the accountant for Arunachalam for 30 days.

Arunachalam tries hard to spend his money and many times, the money comes back. He spends on Horse races, lottery tickets, makes a movie with Arivazhagan as the hero and he even starts his own political party with Kathavarayan as the MP candidate. Does Arunachalam win this competition, does he get all the 3000 Crore rupees for himself and live happily ever after forms the rest of the story.

Cast

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Production

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Development

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After the success of Muthu in 1995, Rajinikanth took a year out dabbling in politics and taking a sabbatical before announcing that his next film would be Arunachalam written by Crazy Mohan. It was announced that the film would be produced to help eight of his struggling film industry colleagues and it was incorrectly earlier reported that the film would be produced under his newly floated Rajini Arts banner. It was indicated that some of the people who the film would go on to cause benefits for included Kalakendra Govindharajan who introduced Rajinikanth in his production Apoorva Raagangal (1975), Kalaignyanam who featured Rajinikanth in the lead role for the first time with his production Bairavi (1978) and brothers Ramji and Babji who produced some of the actor's early hits, Kaali (1980) and Garjanai (1980). Furthermore, collections would also be shared between the family of Sathya Studio Padmanabhan, actress Pandari Bai, actor V. K. Ramasamy and producer Madurai Nagaraja.[1][2] Initial reports had also titled the film as Kuberan and Meshtri, but Arunachalam was eventually retained.[3] The plot of the film was inspired by George Barr McCutcheon's 1902 novel Brewster's Millions.[4] The director Sundar C has stated that he did not like the story of Arunachalam but he did it because he did not want to miss an opportunity to work with Rajinikanth. He also mentioned that Rajinikanth is the one who called and narrated him the story and asked him to direct.[5]

Casting and filming

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Initially the lead heroine of the film was expected to be Meena, who had featured in Rajinikanth's Muthu before Soundarya and Rambha were signed on as heroines.[1] The initial cast list released to the media also had Jayaram in the cast of the film as well as Vignesh, who was later replaced by Raja.[3] Manorama was also added to the cast, surprising some media as she had caused controversy the previous year by lashing out at Rajinikanth's political motives.[6] Rajinikanth lost his sentimental Rudraksh bead during the shooting of the film and was shocked and upset to note that his Rudraksh was missing. He ordered a search at the shooting spot at midnight and with the help of the giant lights used for shooting, he later found the divine bead after a while.[7] The filming was held in a star hotel at Hyderabad for 20 days.[8]

Soundtrack

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The music was composed by Deva.[9] The song "Nagumo" had two versions, Hariharan's version was included in soundtrack only, while another version with the vocals of Krishnaraj (who originally rendered the track version of the song) was featured in the film only after Rajinikanth was impressed with his rendering.[10] The audio was released under the music label "Big B" of Amitabh Bachchan now the audio rights are currently acquired by Think Music.[11][9] The tune of Alli Alli Anarkali was lifted from the songs "Ladki Ladki" from Shreemaan Aashique (1993), which was composed by Nadeem–Shravan and "Tutak Tutak Tutiyan" from Ghar Ka Chiraag (1989), which was composed by Bappi Lahiri.

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Athanda Ethanda"VairamuthuS. P. Balasubrahmanyam5:37
2."Alli Alli Anarkili"Palani BharathiMano, Swarnalatha5:03
3."Mathadu Mathadu"Palani BharathiS. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Sujatha Mohan, Meera, Manorama5:57
4."Nagumo"VairamuthuHariharan, K. S. Chithra4:32
5."Nagumo" (film version)VairamuthuKrishnaraj, K. S. Chithra4.32
6."Singam Ondru"VairamuthuMalaysia Vasudevan4:45
7."Thalai Maganae"KalidasanS. P. Balasubramanyam2:18
8."Theme Music" (Instrumental)--1:23
Total length:29:35

Release and reception

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Arunachalam was released theatrically on 10 April 1997.[12] The Hindu wrote on 18 April, "Arunachalam contains all the elements that provide escapist entertainment [...] humour, fairplay, love, feud occupy the frames".[13] K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times wrote, "Go with an open mind and you will enjoy this movie".[14] R. P. R. of Kalki gave a negative review, panning the weak screenplay, many of the montage shots after interval in bits and pieces, Crazy Mohan's dialogues lacking humour, Deva's music though he praised Rajinikanth's acting for rescuing the film but the technicians seems to have let him down and concluded Arunachalam did not do it despite the Lord saying that he should give great happiness to the fans in this Tamil New Year.[15] The film was declared a box office success, although not as big as Rajinikanth's previous films Baashha and Muthu (both 1995).[16][17] It had a theatrical run of over 175 days and collected around ₹32 crore (equivalent to ₹163 crore or US$20 million in 2023) worldwide.[18]

Awards

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Arunachalam won three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, including Best Film. Super Subbarayan and Gopi Kanth won for Best Stunt Coordinator and Best Art Director respectively.[19]

References

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  1. ^ a b Sitaraman, Sandya (22 October 1996). "Tamil Movie News-Pudhu Edition 2". Google Groups. Archived from the original on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  2. ^ Reddy, Amar (15 September 2013). "The Journey of living legend Rajinikanth Part 6". Cinemalead.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  3. ^ a b Sitaraman, Sandya (17 January 1997). "Tamil Movie News--Pudhu Edition 2". Google Groups. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  4. ^ Ramachandran, Naman (2014) [2012]. Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography. New Delhi: Penguin Books. pp. 170–171. ISBN 978-0-14-342111-5.
  5. ^ Ninaithale Inikkum | (25 January 2015) | Sundar.C Interview | [Epi-12] (in Tamil). Vendhar TV. 26 January 2015. Archived from the original on 27 June 2023. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  6. ^ Subramanian, Anupama (25 June 2011). "Rajinikanth is Kaliyug Vaali". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 26 June 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  7. ^ "Rajini and the Rudraksh". IndiaGlitz. 28 January 2008. Archived from the original on 18 May 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  8. ^ "ரஜினியின் அருணாச்சலம் - ஓர் எக்ஸ்பிரஸ் ட்ரெய்லர்!" (PDF). Kalki (in Tamil). 6 April 1997. pp. 8–10. Retrieved 27 June 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ^ a b "Arunachalam". JioSaavn. Archived from the original on 27 February 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  10. ^ நெல்லைபாரதி (26 October 2015). "ரஜினிகாந்த் விரும்பிய ட்ராக் பாடகர்". Kungumam (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 24 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  11. ^ "Arunachalam". AV Digital. Archived from the original on 24 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2024.
  12. ^ "26 years of 'Arunachalam': Khushbu Sundar writes a heartfelt note". The Times of India. 10 April 2023. Archived from the original on 17 April 2023. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  13. ^ Ramachandran, Naman, ed. (2012). Rajinikanth 12.12.12: A Birthday Special. Kasturi & Sons Ltd. p. 75.
  14. ^ Vijiyan, K. (21 April 1997). "Another reason to love Rajni". New Straits Times. pp. Arts 4. Archived from the original on 10 June 2024. Retrieved 29 January 2021 – via Google News Archive.
  15. ^ ஆர். பி. ஆர் (20 April 1997). "ஆண்டவன் சொல்லியும் அருணாச்சலம் செய்யவில்லை" (PDF). Kalki (in Tamil). pp. 1–2. Retrieved 27 June 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  16. ^ Vijiyan, K. (2 January 1998). "Dispute affects production". New Straits Times. pp. Arts 3. Archived from the original on 10 June 2024. Retrieved 29 January 2021 – via Google News Archive.
  17. ^ "Trouble brewing". Rediff.com. 30 June 1997. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  18. ^ "ரசிகர்கள் மனதில் நிற்கும் 'அருணாச்சலம்' சுந்தர் சி-க்கு ரஜினி கொடுத்த டுவிஸ்ட்!". Hindustan Times (in Tamil). 10 April 2023. Archived from the original on 3 July 2023. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  19. ^ "Awards Tamilnadu Government Cinema Awards For 1997 Announced: Best Film Award For "Arunachalam", "Surya Vamsam"". Dinakaran. 27 November 1998. Archived from the original on 1 January 2008. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
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