Hari (director)

Background

Hari was born in Katchana village kalikumara puram in the Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, India. His father, Gopal Nadar, is a vessels merchant. Later, his family moved to Chennai, where Hari was graduated with a degree in Commerce.

Career

Hari first joined as an assistant, gaining experience by working with various directors K. Natraj in Valli, Nassar in Avatharam and Alex Pandian. Later, he assisted K. Balachander in his film Kalki and worked as an associate director with Saran in the films Amarkalam , Parthen Rasithen and Alli Arjuna.

His first film, in 2002, was Thamizh with Prashanth and Simran. Film critic Balaji commented that it was "one of the few movies in recent times where a lot of importance seems to have been attached to the script. In spite of the flimsy story and routine screenplay where a youth grows to be a 'dada', the dialogs elevate the quality of the movie and make it very enjoyable". His second film Saamy under Kavithaalaya banner starred Vikram. It was named the year's biggest hit, grossing ₹ 160 million. Its success led to remakes in Telugu (Lakshmi Narasimha), Kannada (Ayya) and Hindi languages (Policegiri). His next two films Kovil with Silambarasan and Arul also starred Vikram. In 2005, he made Ayya starring Sarathkumar, which introduced Nayantara to Tamil cinema. His next film was Aaru with Suriya in 2005. In 2007, he directed two films, Thaamirabharani with Vishal Krishna and Vel with Suriya. In 2008, he directed Seval with Bharath. Ayyappa Prasad from Nowrunning.com stated that Hari "panders to the taste of his rural audience all the way, but the movie is bound to disappoint city-dwellers since neither the story nor its treatment appeal to anyone with an IQ quotient higher than the least educated village wastrel".

In 2010 Hari directed his tenth film, Singam with Suriya, marking their third collaboration. The film was one of the top box office films of the year, although reviewers identified it as a standard masala entertainer. Following its success, the film was remade in Hindi (as Singham), Kannada (as Kempe Gowda) and Bengali (Shotru). After directing Venghai, a film with Dhanush and Tamannaah Bhatia in the lead, he made a sequel to Singam, with Suriya reprising his role as Duraisingam. It was named one of the biggest box office hits of 2013, with Sify stating that it was "the biggest theatrical earner" of the year. He worked for the second time with Vishal, in a film titled Poojai, which had Shruti Haasan as the female lead. Hari joined with Suriya for the fifth time for (Singam 3). He is now shooting Saamy 2, the sequel of Saamy starring Vikram (actor) in the lead roles.

Personal life

Hari is married to former actress Preetha Vijayakumar, the daughter of Vijayakumar, and has three sons. During the shooting for Seval, Preetha gave birth to their third son.

Style

Hari's films are primarily in the action and masala genres. Due to his penchant for such films, he has been nicknamed "the aruva director", the aruva (sickle) being present in most of his films. Recurring elements in his films include "ferocious" heroes, comic subplots and item numbers. The heroes in his films are usually close to either their father or mother, and are surmounted by a large family. Hari's films are also known for being "racy", and for the amount of blood and gore depicted onscreen.

Lyricist