The film starts in Burma where Murugappan (Dhanush) is a Tamil construction worker. Jagan is his close friend and has a crush on Mallika who has feelings for Muruga who avoids her. During an accident in the site Muruga saves a half Burmese and half Tamil girl called Samuthira (Amyra Dastur).Because of this, Samuthira has feelings for Muruga which he reciprocates. When Mallika comes to know about this she is devastated and marries Jagan. Samuthira's father, a respected general in the Burmese army, disapproves of the union and takes revenge on all Tamil people by taking away their work, home, money and status. Because of this, Muruga and Samuthira plan to flee Burma in a Tamil refuge ship with the help of Jagan and Mallika, but Mallika who wanted to take revenge on both of them reveals their hiding place to the army. On the verge of escaping from Samuthira's father, Muruga gets shot at his head as both of them dive into the ocean. Muruga instantly dies and Samuthira, promising to be with him, goes down the ocean with him and drowns. This is shown in flashback which Madhu (Amyra Dastur) shares with her psychiatrist in the present. The psychiatrist believes that the story was Madhu's imagination even though she claims that she has already met Jagan and Meera (Mallika) in her office where they all work as program heads in a video game developing company. Because of the psychiatrist's disbelief, she promises to take her medicine but still will be waiting for her sweetheart who she has not met still. After this, Ashwin (Dhanush) is shown as joining her company, breaking her car's side view mirror while parking his car.[clarification needed] When she sees Ashwin at the lift she teases and flirts with him, when suddenly the lifts crashes down and Ashwin saves Madhu. Kiran (Karthick) is shown as a fun-loving boss who vividly remembers Ashwin and inquires about him. Later, Kiran organises a party where Ashwin too falls in love with Madhu. Meera gets hallucinations of ghosts trying to rape her. In order to save herself, she jumps from the window and dies. Madhu gets more disturbed by this and attends many psychiatric classes that Ashwin also attends. She then remembers her second birth where she and Ashwin were a newly married royal couple on their honeymoon, and the soldier guarding them was a cheater and kills both of them. Then Ashwin and Madhu, due to Madhu's reckless driving, have an accident and Madhu is admitted in a hospital. There she hallucinates about a policeman named Gopinath who was talking loudly, saying why Kaali killed another police and fled to Mumbai with Kalyani to which Madhu intervened that saying that Kaali and Kalyani did not flee away and she knows where they are. She then wakes up to find there was never a Gopinath in this town. One day after Madhu and Ashwin finish their work they get a visit from a commissioner named Gopinath who is exactly the same person that Madhu was hallucinating about. She tells him Kali and Kalyani were killed and buried near a Banyan tree but as soon as they get there they fiind no Banyan tree. An elderly man tells them there was one but was uprooted by lightning the day veteran Tamil actor MGR died. They dig up near the remains of the banyan tree and they find the skeleton what is identified by forensic scientists as the skeleton of both Kali and Kalyani. Commissioner Gopinath opens a 25 year old closed case and finds a finger with a ring engraved R on it. He hides it from him until Ashwin finds out and calls his bluff about the ring. As soon as Madhu returns to her therapy with Dr Radhika, Kiran hears about Madhu talking about Kali and Kalyani and immediately rushed to the practice. He kidnaps her and Ashwin finds out that Kiran (Karthik) was the one who killed Kaali and Kalyani then Kiran kidnaps Madhu and Ashwin is caught by the guards of Kiran and they bring Ashwin to Kiran by the way it is shown that Ashwin was acting and there is the climax scene.Where the knife which was left by Ashwin will kill Kiran and at last they both Ashwin and Madhu gets married.[clarification needed]
Cast
Dhanush as Ashwin, Murugappa (Munaruna), Kaali, Illamaran (Cameo)
Amyra Dastur as Madhumitha, Samudhra and Kalyani, Shenbagavalli (Cameo)
In May 2013, K. V. Anand stated that he would collaborate with Dhanush for his next film, which Dhanush confirmed on his social network page. Anand joined hands with AGS Entertainment for the second time after Maattraan (2012), and it was confirmed that the production company would also distribute the film worldwide.[4] Though it was rumoured to be titled as Thaara Thappatta Ready, it was later dismissed by the director.[5] Dhanush was said to appear in four different looks in the film,[6] and that he would not be playing the "moody-sombre" type-role he played in his previous films like Mayakkam Enna (2011).[7] The film, a romantic entertainer laced with action was titled Anegan, meaning “the man with many shadows”, according to Tamil poet Manikkavacakar, from his volume, Tiruvacakam.[8][9] It was revealed that the story comprises multiple period set-ups, and in one of the segments, Dhanush goes back to his previous birth.[10] The technical crew consisted of cinematography by Om Prakash, editing by Anthony, action by Kanal Kannan and the dialogues were written by Subha. As with most K. V. Anand films, Harris Jayaraj was once again signed to compose the musical score.[11] K. V. Anand had stated that Dhanush will be sporting a hairdo similar to Kamal Haasan's look in the film, Tik Tik Tik (1981).[12]
Casting
Alia Bhatt was rumoured to be playing the lead,[13] before Amyra Dastur, a model who made her film debut in Issaq (2013) was later cast opposite Dhanush.[14] In preparation for her role, she was asked to see Tamil films[15] and also took Tamil lessons from Dhanush to get her dialogues right.[16] Amyra was further reported to be performing stunts for the film.[17] In an interview to IANS, Amyra said that she would portray three different roles in the film.[18]Karthik was signed to play the role of a love guru to Dhanush, for a part, similar to the role portrayed by Santhanam in Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013),[19] and also sport a look similar to that of Ajith's look in Mankatha (2011).[6] Baby Vedhika of Nirnayam fame is also playing a role.[20] Actress Aishwarya Devan was selected to play the second heroine in the film.[21] Actors Atul Kulkarni and Ashish Vidyarthi were selected to play supporting roles.[22] Malayalam actress Lena was also selected to play a supporting role in the film.[23]
Filming
Principal photography began on 2 September 2013 at Puducherry.[24] It was reported that the film would be shot across locations such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Bolivia among many other countries. In Malaysia, a football game scene was shot in the oldest English school in South East Asia, Penang Free School.[25] The second schedule took place in Hyderabad,[24][26] where an action sequence was shot for 20 days,[27] along with a song sequence choreographed by Baba Baskar.[24] According to unit members, Amyra stunned the unit with her perfect lip sync for Tamil dialogues and that she overshadowed the hero in some places as well.[28] By 29 May 2014, 90% of the movie was shot, including 3 song sequences. Another song sequence and part of the climax were shot on a farmland, spread over 100 acres, near Puducherry.[29][30] During the process of shooting the climax, which was reported to be a racy stunt sequence, Dhanush injured his leg severely, because of which shooting was halted for 3 weeks, after which Dhanush recovered and shooting proceeded as scheduled.[31] The team then went to Scotland to shoot for a song sequence.[32] In mid-August 2014, the filming was almost done with just a song left to be shot in Chennai on 1 September 2014.[33] On 15 September 2014, Anand confirmed that the shooting of the film was completed.[34]
On 26 August 2014, Dhanush stated that he had started dubbing for the film.[35][36][37]
In April 2014, Harris recorded a song called "Aathadi Aathadi" which was described[who?] to be a "charming folk melody". The song was sung by Bhavatharini and written by Vairamuthu.[40] In May 2014, Harris recorded an "energetic" track, also written by Vairamuthu and sung by Shankar Mahadevan, who collaborated with Harris after Ghajini (2005).[41][42] In late June 2014, Harris finished recording a "peppy number", written by director C. S. Amudhan.[43] During the recording of Amudhan's song, K. V. Anand said that the album was in its final stages of recording and that each song would be of a different dimension based on its situation in the film.[44] In August 2014, Harris informed via Twitter that almost all the songs were completed.[45]
Sony Music India purchased the audio rights of the soundtrack and the album was released on the 10th of November, 2014.[46]
The first look poster was released on 1 September 2013.[47] The title font was designed to resemble a gamepad.[48] Additional stills and posters were made available on 24 October 2013.[49] A one minute teaser was released on 21 October, coinciding with Diwali.[50] The official trailer was released on 7 January 2015 on YouTube by Sony Music India.[51] The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.[52] The film released on 13 February 2015, in nearly 1000 screens worldwide.[53]
The film was listed by Behindwoods in its "Top 10 most Anticipated films of 2014".[54]
Critical reception
M.Suganth of The Times of India in his review stated that the film had traces of Enakkul Oruvan (1984), The Fountain (2006), Magadheera (2009), Dangerous Ishq (2012), Cloud Atlas (2012) mainly due to theme of reincarnation.[55] and rated the film 4 stars out of 5 and stated, "Anegan is pure camp but also a hugely entertaining one".[55] Nicy V.P of The International Business Times rated it 3 stars out of 5 and wrote "Anegan is a brilliant attempt by KV Anand, he tried a new visual style to tell his story and to an extend he was successful too".[56] Udhav Naig of The Hindu wrote, "With most commercial films recycling the usual plot and its many tropes, full credit to K.V. Anand for striving to narrate a banal plot – full of déjà vu and clichés – in an enterprising manner."[57] Another reviewer Sudhir Srinivasan wrote "Anegan...is a complex story told simplistically. Had the complexity been retained, and had the masala spoon been of a lesser size, it would have made for a great film. For now though, it will have to satisfy itself with being a hit film."[58]Rediff.com stated, "The narrative technique and interesting screenplay keep things moving at a brisk pace. But on the downside, there are far too many songs and several unanswered questions".[59]Sify wrote, "Gorgeously shot, crisply edited, and handsomely mounted, KV Anand's Anegan is a fast paced rollicking adventure ride that is gripping till the very end".[60]
Indiaglitz rated the film 3 out of 5 and wrote "Although not a masala perse, Anegan savours all tastes. There is action, a little bit of revenge, lighthearted comedy, smothering love, all served with a twist from the usual."[61]Behindwoods.com rated it 2.75 out of 5 and stated "Though there are lots of questions which can be raised on the story and happenings, the overall screenplay and editing keeps you engaged by and large."[62] Gautaman Bhaskaran of The Hindustan Times rated it 2 stars out of 5 and stated "If Anegan is a mishmash of many films that one has seen over the years, the performances are passé. Yes, a new look Karthik may be a novelty, but Dhanush appears to be disinterested in changing his style or his roles."[63]
^"8. ANEGAN". Behindwoods. 7 August 2014. Archived from the original on 16 September 2014. Retrieved 14 August 2014. ((cite web)): Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
