Asal (film)

Plot

Jeevanandham (Ajith Kumar) is an international negotiator and arms dealer based in Paris. He has three sons: Sam (Sampath Raj) and Vicky (Rajiv Krishna) from his first wife, and Shiva (Ajith kumar again) from his affair. Jeevanandham’s favorite is Shiva, who is gutsy and righteous, while the other two are immature and controlled by their uncle, the evil Kali Mamma (Pradeep Rawat), and will do any shady deals.

Sarah (Sameera Reddy) is a cultural attaché at the Indian Embassy in Paris who has a soft spot for Shiva. There is a French police officer, Daniel Dharmaraj (Suresh), who constantly hangs around with the family and is a partner in crime.

The bad sons want to deal in drugs and supply arms to terrorists; they work out a strategy to eliminate Shetty (Kelly Dorji), who controls the Mumbai underworld, but the old man and Shiva oppose it. After the old man's death, Vicky is kidnapped by Shetty and his gang, who brutally torture him.

To save Vicky, Shiva goes to Mumbai. His local contact there is Mirasi (Prabhu Ganesan), his father’s best friend. A local girl, Sulabha (Bhavana), falls for our hero, who daringly rescues Vicky with the joker Don Samosa (Yugi Sethu).

Both brothers double-cross Shiva, shoot him, and drown him in the sea. They torture Sarah and make her to sign as witness that Shiva dies naturally. As per Jeevanandam's will, the property rights belong to Shiva, hence Sam and Vicky attempted to kill Shiva. With the help of Mirasi, Sulabha, and Don Samosa, everyone moves to France to find the real enemies. Sarah, who is being given drugs to forget Shiva's death and is also tortured by Vicky every day to accept his love, is found by Shiva and confesses everything to him. Vicky walks in and brutally beats Sarah. Shiva shoots him and interrogates him to find out the reason behind why the two brothers shot him. After Vicky refuses to say, Shiva shoots him on the spot and saves Sarah. Sam finds out about Vicky's death and suspects Daniel, but is subdued by Kali Mamma. Shiva slowly uncovers what happened through forcing and threatening the allies of Sam and Kali Mamma. Eventually, a drunk Don Samosa accidentally spills Shiva being alive to Daniel, who kidnaps Mirasi, Sulabha, and Sarah and holds them captive in a storage facility. Shiva is forced to surrender Jeevanandham's will to Kali Mamma and Sam, but delivers an empty suitcase instead. An enraged Kali Mamma shoots Mirasi and Daniel and Sam throws Shiva out a glass window and ties him up. After Shiva tells Sam to give up his arrogance, Sam and Kali Mamma reveal why and how they killed Shiva's father, Jeevanandham.

Sam wanted to deal weapons to foreign terrorists and asked Jeevananandham to give money to aid them. After Jeevanandham tries reasoning to little avail, Kali Mamma walks in. After he refuses everyone's request to deal weapons and give his money, Kali Mamma electrocutes and Sam suffocates Jeevanandham, killing him in the process. They do the same with Shiva after explaining, electrocuting him multiple times, but eventually an enraged Shiva breaks the ropes he is tied to and engages in combat with Sam and Kali Mamma, electrocuting and killing both of them. Daniel, now a reformed, honest cop, brings Mirasi to Shiva, and tells him that he will take the blame for Sam and Kali Mamma's deaths by saying that he killed them in self-defense.

The film ends several months later with Shiva and Sulabha, now married, waving goodbye to Don Samosa, Sarah, and Mirasi, and leaving to India from Paris together.

Cast

Development

Following the success of Billa in December 2007, Ajith Kumar was signed on by his co-star Prabhu's Sivaji Productions for a project touted to be directed by K. S. Ravikumar. Three months later, the producers officially signed on Gautham Menon as the director; Sameera Reddy, the female lead for Menon's last film, was also finalised for the project. The film, which was due to start its first schedule during June 2008, had been built up as the final instalment in Gautham Menon's police trilogy, following his two earlier ventures, Kaaka Kaaka and Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, of which Ajith Kumar was originally meant to be a part. However, other indications suggested that the film was set to be the remake of the classic, Pudhiya Paravai starring Sivaji Ganesan, which Ganesan's son, Prabhu, denied. The film had been earlier titled by the media as Kanavugal Karpanaigal or Vaanam Kadandha Siragugal, but the team then finalised the title of Surangani, which was later abbreviated to Sura. However, the film's production failed to take off, with repeated dates being announced by the directors for the film's first schedule throughout 2009. Subsequently, Menon was removed from the project by the producers due to the film's inactivity, with directors Dharani, Vishnuvardhan and Saran leading the race to take over.

In January 2009, the film was reannounced by Prabhu and the story was subsequently changed with Saran being signed up as the film's director. Ajith Kumar also underwent an appearance change during the early months of 2009 to prepare for his role. The film was eventually launched on 8 April 2009 at Sivaji's family residence Annai Illam in Chennai. The film completed its production schedule by January 2010, and post-production and release works began soon after.

Casting

Following the announcement that Sivaji Productions, Ajith Kumar and Gautham Menon would come together, other technicians were added to the film. Menon's usual collaborator, Harris Jayaraj, was signed on as the music composer. However, after Menon's departure, Jayaraj also left the project due to his busy schedule with other films. After approaching Yuvan Shankar Raja for the job, Saran finally confirmed Bharathwaj as music director. Asal was Bharathwaj's fiftieth film as composer; he had previously teamed up with Saran and Ajith on Kadhal Mannan, Amarkalam and Attagasam. Ajith was under contract to be paid a remuneration of $1.25 million in cash plus a 30 per cent share of the profit from sales of rights of the film.

During the launch in April 2009, other film technicians were revealed. Y-Kinz, an international music group, were announced to be a part of the music album for the film headed with Bharathwaj. Ajith himself had recommended Prashanth D. Misale, an assistant to Nirav Shah, to make his debut as a cinematographer. Anthony was selected as editor; Prabakar was chosen to work as the art director and Vairamuthu as the chief lyricist. Vivek Karunakaran, a Chennai-based fashion designer, was selected to make his debut as the film's costume designer. Soon after the launch, co-producer Prabhu Ganesan cast himself to play an important role in the film. Gautham Menon's original choice, Sameera Reddy, was retained to star opposite Ajith Kumar in the film. Sameera appears alongside Ajith Kumar for the first time, despite previously being scheduled to appear opposite him in Citizen, which eventually went ahead without her. Mamta Mohandas was initially confirmed as the second heroine in Asal, but decided not to take the role. Sneha and Bhavana were also approached for the second heroine's role, however Sneha was unable to comply due to call sheet problems, so Bhavana was finalised. A plethora of antagonistic roles were handed out for the film, with the initial selection being Rajiv Krishna. Other cast members are Pradeep Rawat, Keli Dorji, Karen Miao Sapru, Adithya, Suresh, Sampath Raj, Surendra Pal and Yugi Sethu.

Filming

Principal photography of the film began in June 2009 at an undisclosed location in Malaysia. The first schedule was completed on 2 August 2009. After a hectic schedule from Malaysia, the shooting for the second schedule continued on 18 September 2009 at Paris and Lyon, France. 30% of the scenes, including fight sequences and two song sequences, were canned there, including a duet song of Ajith and Sameera as pictured against the moonlit Eiffel Tower in Paris. After a 45-day shoot, the team returned to Chennai on 23 October 2009. Additional shooting was held in Harrington Road on 2 November. Asal's team later shot some of the important shots in AVM Studios. The film's dubbing schedule took off on 19 November at Four Frames Preview Theatre Chennai with a simple pooja ceremony. Ajith, Saran, Arjun (Prabhu's son), Dushyanth (Ramkumar's son) and other members of the film were present there. On 24 November 2009, an important scene for the film was shot at Sivaji Ganesan's house in T. Nagar, Chennai. A song sequence featuring Ajith and Bhavana was shot at the AVM Studios on 25 November 2009. The shooting of the final song was held at Binny Mills (Tambaram). The cast and crew of Asal went to a Middle East country for the remaining song shoot. The Asal unit left Chennai on 26 December and returned after a week. Shooting was finished on 31 December 2009 at Dubai, where a song sequence was filmed at Zabeel Park.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were secured by Sun TV. The film was given a "U/A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.

Reception

Made on a high budget of ₹20 crore, Asal opened to mixed reviews.

Critics cited that the film is strictly for Ajith Kumar fans and that it couldn't live up to its expectations, whilst also criticising its Billa hangover. Sify cited that the film, which "should have been called Billa-2", "falls flat due to lack of proper story and narration", adding, that the film "belongs to Ajith" and "it is a good ride if you keep your expectation meter low". A reviewer from Behindwoods gave the film 2 out of 5, claiming that this film "will gain no great interest". He adds that "Asal is a complete Ajith centric entertainer with lots of style and sophistication", that "the script is weak and there are other flaws too" and that "Ajith satisfies his fans, but Saran disappoints a bit". Pavithra Srinivasan from Rediff gave the film 2 out of 5 as well, citing that the film is for "die-hard Ajith fans", who would have "plenty of reasons to rejoice", whilst the others should "leave their brains at home". The reviewer, like Sify, also adds that the film has a "Billa hangover".

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was released on 4 January 2010. The soundtrack has music by Bharathwaj & Y-Kinz with lyrics by Vairamuthu. The audio distribution rights were given to Ayngaran Music and An Ak Audio. Think Music, an association of Sathyam Cinemas and Hungama Technology. The audio was launched at Sivaji Ganesan's house in T Nagar, Chennai by Prabhu, one of the producers, and was received by Ajith.