Attahasam

Plot

The movie begins with Jeeva (Ajith Kumar), a driving instructor, leading a happy life with his mother (Sujatha). He also fell in love with Swapna (Pooja Umashankar) after several mishaps. Sujatha hides the Jeeva truth that his father (Nizhalgal Ravi), was murdered by a dada named Manthiram (Babu Antony). The mother, much against the boy’s wish, packs off Jeeva’s twin brother, Guru (also Ajith Kumar) with a family who offer to adopt him, who had been witness to the murderer from a close quarter, to a distant town. He escapes from the family and goes to Tuticorin and grows to become a gangster there.

When Jeeva visits Tuticorin, he comes across his elder brother, Guru a.k.a. Thala. Seizing the opportunity, the elder brother kidnaps the younger one and decides to go as the driving instructor to Chennai. Initially, he plans to take revenge on his mother for packing him off from their house at a very young age. He hurts her at every step and even plans to sell off all their property.

On the other hand, Jeeva is mistaken as the gangster and is subject to attacks by the local gangsters of Tuticorin. He escapes from them and returns to Chennai to save his mother. In the meantime, Guru comes to know about his father's death and Manthiram was the cause for the same. He avenges his father's death and leaves Jeeva with his mother to live happily and goes off to jail to keep his mother in belief that he is somewhere in the world living happily.

Cast

Production

Saran and Ajith collaborated for the third time after the successes of Kadhal Mannan (1998) and Amarkalam (1999). Between then and 2004, the pair began shooting for another project for Poornachandra Rao titled Erumugam also starring Richa Pallod, before Ajith pulled out and the pair subsequently fell out. However Ajith Kumar's wife played a role in reconciling the pair and Saran worked on a fresh script for the actor. Kiran was initially roped in to play a second leading female role after her other film opposite Ajith, Mahaa, was shelved but Saran later deleted her character from the project.

The shooting progressed in October 2004 around Tuticorin and a scene created a ruckus among the public as they mistook the action to be real, as the region had seen similar daylight murders and fights among local mafia in the past. Songs from the film were shot in Romania and Pollachi. The film released on Diwali 2004 to make most of the holiday season and became a Blockbuster Hit

Release

Despite last minute financial crunch, the action film was released on 300 screens worldwide as Ajith agreed to pay a hefty amount to the producer for settling his liability to the financier. Made on a high budget of ₹6 crore, Attagasam was a commercial success.

Oscar Ravichandran, gave a handsome amount to clear the producer’s debt in lieu of the satellite rights of the film which in turn were sold to Jaya TV.

The winter rains all over Tamil Nadu and particularly in Chennai and surrounding areas dampened the Deepavali mood at the box-office. Heavy showers on Friday pulled collections below 50%.