Ayynoorum Ayynthum

Plot

The story is about the bizarre journey of a 500-Rupee note through 5 different characters – Sudalai(A Goon's stooge, superstitious Sudalai wants to become a Don. Will he realize his dream or will his misplaced sense of self get in the way of it?), Adi(Successful film-director Adi, who's separated from his wife thanks to his philandering ways, is desperate to redeem himself and get her back. Will he be able to?), Sundari(Spunky Sundari is in love and works at a phone recharge shop. All she wants is to safeguard the souvenir her boyfriend gives her. Will she hold on to it?), Jenny(Volatile, troubled Jenny lives in a world where she walks a fine line between psychedelic reality and nightmarish fantasy. Will she rise above it or get sucked into a self-destructive vortex of darkness?) and the Nameless revolutionary(The Nameless, avant-garde revolutionary who lives without money ignites an unprecedented rebellion with which he threatens to raze down the hyper-capitalistic juggernaut) - and how they perceive it in their own ways.

Though the film follows the 500-Rupee note, it actually focuses on the 5 key characters whose lives are entirely and contrastingly different from each other in the way they look at money.

Cast

Production

After struggling to find producers and financing in a conventional way, the Accessible Horizon Films team decided that they had to something radical. But still, money was a big hurdle to get their scripts produced. That's when during and after several discussions about "Money", the team decided to make their film about money (a 500 Rupee note) and perceptions about it. Once the core concept "the journey of a 500-Rupee note" was decided, Director Raghu wrote the screenplay in 15 days at a single stretch. Some of the characters of the film are loosely inspired from real life like the "Money-less revolutionary" character played by TM Karthik Srinivasan, was inspired from people like Mark Boyle, Heidemarie Schwermer, Daniel Suelo among others. The Casting of the film took 2 months with intense audition sessions held in Chennai except for one character "Jenny" which took almost 4 months because of the extreme nature of the character. Several of the key cast members hail from a theater background with performances in Tamil, English and Malayalam. The entire shooting schedule took about 21 days split over 3 to 4 schedules.

A one-minute trailer drew attention as soon as a promo was released on YouTube. A 5K marathon run was conducted to promote the concept of a world without money and around 150 people participated in that marathon.

Soundtrack

The songs have been written and composed by S. Ramanujam and S. Balaji.

All lyrics written by S.Balaji and S.Ramanujam.

Critical reception

The film was officially selected at the International Film Festival of Kerala, Trivandrum in 2012 and at the Filmburo Baden-Wurttemberg’s Stuttgart Indian Film Festival, Germany in 2013.

Release

The film was released unconventionally on the internet on the YouTube Channel of Accessible Horizon Films on 1 May 2016. Before the release, the makers had one special public screening at the Alliance Francaise, Madras on 29 April 2016. The producer stated that for three years, the Accessible Horizon Films team had been trying to release their film conventionally in theaters in Tamil Nadu, searching for distributors and trying to find people who might take their film and release it in theaters. The difficulty of releasing a film conventionally without financial backing or influence is just unimaginable especially when the film doesn’t conform to the norms or the ‘formula’. They initially thought of going conventionally only to reach a wide audience, because the film is about money, which everyone can relate to.