Azhagiya Tamil Magan

Plot

Gurumoorthy (Vijay) is an MBA student and is an athlete. He participates in a state level running competition where he meets Sriman who also participates in the competition. Guru understands that Sriman needs to win the competition which will help him secure a job through sports quota as he is the only bread winner for his family. Abinaya (Shreya) is the daughter of a rich businessman Anand Chelliah (Ashish Vidyarthi) and is a friend of Sriman’s sister. Abinaya challenges Guru that Sriman will be the winner of the competition. Guru decides to run slowly so that Sriman can become the winner. Later Abi understands that Guru has purposefully run slow behind Sriman and starts liking his character. They become good friends and slowly love blossoms between the two.

Suddenly, Guru visualizes a few bizarre incidents which also occur sometime later. Guru consults a psychiatrist and he says that Guru suffers from a syndrome called extra sensory perception (ESP) whereby he can get to know about certain future incidents. Guru worries that such thoughts disturb him mentally and he cannot live a peaceful life.

Guru and Abi’s parents get to know about their love and they plan to get the couple married. One day, Guru dreams of stabbing Abi and gets frightened that Abi will be killed by himself someday. So he decides to stay away from Abi for a few days and leaves to Mumbai without informing anyone. During the train journey, he sees Prasad (also Vijay), a fradulent bank employee from Mumbai, getting down in a station. Now Guru believes that it would be Prasad, a look alike of Guru, who will stab Abi and follows Prasad. But while crossing a road, Guru meets with an accident and gets hospitalized by the local people.

Meanwhile Abi starts looking for Guru as he has not contacted her for a few days. Now, Abi meets Prasad in a shopping mall and mistakes him as Guru. Abi talks to Prasad and takes him to her home. Prasad is money minded and a womanizer. Prasad understands that he has a look alike and Abi has mistaken him as her lover. Prasad decides to utilise the opportunity and plan to get married to Abi, so that he can lead a lavish lifestyle.

Guru gets discharged from hospital and tries to contact Abi. He also comes to Chennai to meet Abi at her house. Now everyone is shocked seeing Guru and Prasad as they both look exactly similar and Abi is confused unable to find who is Guru. Prasad pretends as Guru and makes everyone believe. They conduct a running race to find the real Guru (as Guru is an athlete). But as Guru is not well, Prasad wins the race which makes Abi believe Prasad as Guru. The next day, while Abi talks to Prasad, she finds that he misinterprets an event occurred before which makes her realize that it is Prasad who is with her and not Guru. She tries running away from Prasad while Prasad chases her. Guru also comes to rescue and tries to kill Prasad. When Guru is about to stab Prasad, he moves and Abi gets stabbed by Guru.

Guru is shocked and Prasad hits Guru and takes Abi with him. Prasad admits Abi in a hospital and again pretends as Guru. Abi believes that Prasad is Guru. Abi tells that how come someone try taking away a girl who is in love with someone else and she says that Prasad must not have born to legitimate parents. Prasad realizes his cheap behaviour hearing this and confesses that it is Prasad and not Guru. Meanwhile Guru also rushes to hospital. Prasad apologizes to Guru and Abi and leaves the place. On the way, he meets Dhanalakshmi (Namitha) whom he met during the train journey and unites with her.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman. "Ponmagal Vandaal" is a remix of the song of the same name from Sorgam (1970).

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.

Critical reception

Sify stated "The highlight here is that there are two vijay's- a good guy and the bad guy. Director Barathan has tried out a new format, where both the hero and the villain entertain the audiences with howlarious moments, that brings the house down. Vijay makes it work and believable as he melds effortlessly from casual sang froid to utter seriousness. His terrific comic timing, his ability to mock and lampoon makes his performance absolutely knockout. In the negative character Prasad’s role, he is the veritable scene stealer. He has dubbed impressively modulating his voice for both the characters, and the way he dances in the introductory title song is amazing. No two ways about it, Vijay is the heart and soul of ATM and rated 4/5. Behindwoods.com says "Vijay with a towering performance, never seen before and rated 2.5/5." IndiaGlitz stated Azhagiya Tamil Magan banks heavily on Vijay's charm and performance, Vijay has lived up to the challenge created by the huge success of Pokkiri. He looks stylish and handsome with his dual role. He lights up the screen by his dynamic performance. Director Bharathan has exploited Vijay's strengths in dual role as well. He has provided a perfect family entertainer and rated 3/5 as well.

Despite the lukewarm reception of the film and its average box office, Vijay and director Bharathan reunited nearly 10 years later with the film Bairavaa, which was got mixed critical response from both audience and critics but had a decent box office overall. Thus becoming a commercial success.

Awards and honours