Wikipedia

Aasai

For the Tamil-language film directed by M. Natesan, see Aasai (1956 film).

Aasai (pronunciationⓘ) (transl. Desire) is a 1995 Indian Tamil-language romantic thriller film, written and directed by Vasanth and produced by Mani Ratnam. The film stars Ajith Kumar, Suvaluxmi and Prakash Raj, with Rohini, Poornam Viswanathan, Nizhalgal Ravi, and Vadivelu in roles. It revolves around an army major lusting for his sister-in-law, and attempting to ruin her relationship with her lover.

Aasai
Theatrical release poster
Directed byVasanth
Written byVasanth
Produced byMani Ratnam
S. Sriram
StarringAjith Kumar
Suvaluxmi
Prakash Raj
CinematographyJeeva
Edited by
Music byDeva
Production
company
Release date
  • 9 September 1995 (1995-09-09)
Running time
145 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Jeeva was the cinematographer, while Deva composed the music. The film, released on 9 September 1995, received positive reviews and went on to become a huge commercial success, eventually becoming Ajith’s first major breakthrough in his career.[1] It was remade in Hindi as Pyaar Zindagi Hai (2001).

Plot

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Saraswathi "Yamuna", the younger daughter of an Orthodox father, comes to Madras for finishing her studies. Major Madhavan, the husband of Yamuna's elder sister Ganga, gets infatuated with Yamuna after seeing her photo in a letter sent by her. Meanwhile, Yamuna meets Jeevanantham "Jeeva" in a bus, who gives his ticket to her as she had not taken her own. Later one day, Jeeva decides to express his love to Yamuna by writing in a letter and giving it to her, but he witnesses a group beating a boy who did the same, so he disposes the letter. It is found by Yamuna, who realises his love.

One day when they are walking together, Jeeva tries to remove dirt from Yamuna's eyes, and he kisses her. Yamuna is angry with him. Jeeva senses it and gets wet in the rain and gets a cold. Hearing this, Yamuna meets him. Jeeva expresses that she is the only medicine to him, and he needs her. Yamuna promises she will marry him. On Yamuna's birthday, Jeeva jumps into her house and presents her a puppy. One day, fearing that Yamuna's father might not marry him to Yamuna, he decides to marry her in a register office, but Yamuna refuses and Jeeva leaves.

Meanwhile, Madhavan settles his father-in-law's debts and earns his trust. He also pays for connecting a landline to Yamuna's house and talks to her regularly, but Ganga is unaware of this. One day, Ganga finds it, and starts to realise his true identity. Madhavan then expresses his love affair on Yamuna to his wife. This makes her so upset that she attempts to go and live with her father and Yamuna. Madhavan imprisons her in home, and one day he tells her she can go to her father's house by flight, and tricks her by making her drink a glass of milk laced with sleeping pills, as a result of which she falls unconscious. Madhavan then murders Ganga by suffocating her to death with a polythene cover and tying it around her head by his shoelace, and lies to everyone that she died from heart attack. He then makes Yamuna and her father stay with him in Delhi to look after his baby, but he has other plans.

Jeeva comes to Delhi. One day he sees Yamuna, who ignores him. Later he sees her carrying the puppy and tells why she needs the puppy when she does not need him. Yamuna leaves the puppy in the middle of the road. Later that night, Yamuna comes to take the puppy in the rain. Jeeva sees this and realises she really loves him. Two months later, Yamuna's father decides to get her married to Jeeva; Madhavan decides to stop the marriage. Yamuna's family meets Jeeva in a restaurant. While Jeeva was talking to Madhavan, he takes advantage of a careless Sikh and dashes against him, causing Jeeva to lose his balance as well. In the melee, Madhavan steals Jeeva's purse. When Jeeva senses his purse missing, he confronts the Sikh and humiliates himself, exactly as Madhavan anticipated. Later, he suspects Madhavan and wants to frisk him. This angers Yamuna's father as he blindly believes Madhavan.

Madhavan later gives Jeeva's flight ticket and wants to send him to Madras, but Jeeva fools Madhavan by tearing the ticket and spending the day with Yamuna. Enraged, Madhavan drenches his baby in the rain and calls Yamuna to look for it. Later, Madhavan arranges for some men to pour liquor into Jeeva's mouth and lay him in the middle of the road. Madhavan makes Yamuna and her father believe Jeeva is a drunkard. The father boasts that he has the divine gift to discern good versus bad people upon sight; with that "gift", he declares Jeeva a bad person. Meanwhile, Jeeva complains to Lt. Col Hariharan, a friend of Madhavan, but he does not believe him. Later when celebrating Holi, Madhavan asks Jeeva the puppy. Jeeva gives it, but Madhavan kills the puppy and frames Jeeva. An argument ensues between them; Madhavan tries to kill Jeeva with a rod, but stops when Yamuna pleads with him.

Hariharan eventually realises the truth about Madhavan and tells him to stop. Instead, Madhavan kills Hariharan, staging it as a car accident. Madhavan plants narcotics in Jeeva's pillows and tips off the police, leading to Jeeva's arrest. While meeting Jeeva in prison, Madhavan boasts and lays the plot out to Jeeva; how he cruelly killed Ganga to get Yamuna. Yamuna overhears this and informs her father. Her father wails in agony for his murdered older daughter and his folly and poor judgement. They plan to escape, but Madhavan arrives, knocks out Yamuna's father, and holds Yamuna prisoner in his house. Jeeva escapes from prison and arrives there. A fight ensues between Madhavan and Jeeva in which Jeeva triumphs. Yamuna and Jeeva take the baby to the hospital as it fainted. Yamuna's father locks the doors, opens the gas cylinder, and lights a matchstick, causing an explosion that kills him and Madhavan. Jeeva is exonerated and unites with Yamuna and the baby.

Cast

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Production

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Development

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Vasanth wanted to make a "family thriller" with a powerful villain not usually seen in Tamil films; the story of Aasai evolved from this.[2] Poovellam Kettupaar, Deva and Kanne were the working titles during the film's production but Vasanth chose Aasai as the title because it was about both the protagonist and antagonist.[3][4] In creating the antagonist, Vasanth took inspiration from Rajinikanth's character from Avargal (1977) and Vijayan's character in Uthiripookkal (1979).[2]

Casting

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The lead role of Jeevanantham was initially offered by Vasanth to actor Sivakumar's son Saravanan (later known as Suriya), to make his debut but he declined, citing a lack of interest in an acting career.[3][5] Ajith Kumar was instead cast after Vasanth and co-producer S. Sriram saw him in a dhoti advertisement on Doordarshan.[3] Actor Suresh dubbed Ajith's voice.[6] For the antagonist Major Madhavan, Vasanth considered Manoj K. Jayan as one of the actors but he felt the role needed someone else, he chose Prakash Raj after he was recommended by his mentor K. Balachander.[2][3] Vasanth cast Suvaluxmi as Saraswathi / Yamuna after seeing her performance in the Bengali film Uttoran and he wanted "someone who had an innocent face and could make the audience believe the gullibility of the character". Vasanth based Yamuna's father (Poornam Viswanathan) on his own father who had a tendency to trust the wrong people.[3] Film News Anandan filmed scenes which did not make the final cut.[7]

Filming

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Vasanth chose the Delhi backdrop because Prakash Raj's character had to be "far away from the heroine's place" and the team shot in the early mornings during their Delhi schedule as the director was "obsessive about onlookers not being part of the frame".[3] The film's military parade scene was filmed at the Chennai branch of the Officers Training Academy after giving an assurance that the character of Madhavan had a "blemishless professional record".[3]

Soundtrack

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The music was composed by Deva.[8][9] He was chosen to compose the music because the director and the composer had earlier worked together on Doordarshan shows. To get the right music, Deva and Vasanth had pre-recording sessions to finalise the orchestration and sound of the songs. U. Srinivas played the mandolin portions in the song "Pulveli Pulveli".[3] The song "Meenamma" is based on "Mama" by the British band Genesis. "Thiloththama" is inspired by Israeli singer Ofra Haza's version of "Galbi".[10]

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Konja Naal Poru"VaaliHariharan5:10
2."Meenamma Athikalayilum"VaaliP. Unnikrishnan, Anuradha Sriram5:32
3."Shockkadikuthu Sona"VaaliSuresh Peters, G. V. Prakash Kumar5:42
4."Pulveli Pulveli"VairamuthuK. S. Chithra, P. Unnikrishnan6:26
5."Pulveli Pulveli" (male)VairamuthuP. Unnikrishnan6:36
6."Thiloththama"VairamuthuS. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Swarnalatha5:44
Total length:35:10

Release and reception

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Aasai was released on 9 September 1995.[11] Upon release, the film won positive reviews from critics.[12] Ananda Vikatan, in a review dated 1 October 1995, rated the film 41 out of 100.[13] R. P. R. of Kalki wrote without any Amman dance, mother, father sentiment, action, lengthy dialogue, here comes a film after a long time that that sticks in the mind forever; the plot had an opportunity to turn vulgar, but the cursed things were deftly avoided as the director is completely focused on the finesse of carving out the characters.[14] D. S. Ramanujam of The Hindu wrote, "The movie has the mould of a foreign film and the situations the director has webbed, prolong the suspense and tension in the right dosage to the end."[15] The film went on to win three awards at the Tamil Nadu State Awards securing honours for the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Director for Vasanth, the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Music Director for Deva and the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer for Hariharan.[16] The film was later remade in Hindi as Pyaar Zindagi Hai (2001).[17] The film ran for more than 210 days in theatres and emerged as a major breakthrough in Ajith's career.[18]

References

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  1. ^ Rajitha (4 April 1997). "The Star Next Door". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2011.
  2. ^ a b c "ஆசை | நிறைவேறியது எப்படி?" (PDF). Kalki (in Tamil). 1 October 1995. pp. 49–50. Retrieved 3 July 2024 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "#25YearsOfAasai: For Aasai, I wanted another Arvind Swami, and I found Ajith: Vasanth". The Times of India. 8 September 2020. Archived from the original on 8 September 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  4. ^ "பானுப்ரியாவின் 'கப்சிப்'!". Kalki (in Tamil). 23 October 1994. p. 6. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 11 February 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ Pillai, Sreedhar (24 July 2002). "A chip off the old block". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  6. ^ Suresh [@sureshactor] (22 March 2013). "Yes :)" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2018 – via Twitter.
  7. ^ Srinivas Chari, T.K. (16–30 June 2011). "The film photographer" (PDF). Madras Musings. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  8. ^ "Aasai (1995)". Music India Online. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  9. ^ "Aasai". AVDigital. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  10. ^ S, Karthik. "Deva [Tamil]". ItwoFS. Archived from the original on 30 January 2022. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
  11. ^ Dhananjayan 2011, p. 174.
  12. ^ "Realistic film-making". The Hindu. 1 December 2001. Archived from the original on 12 October 2021. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  13. ^ "ஆசை". Ananda Vikatan (in Tamil). 1 October 1995. Archived from the original on 23 February 2023. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  14. ^ ஆர். பி. ஆர். (1 October 1995). "ஆசை". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 1. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  15. ^ Ramanujam, D. S. (22 September 1995). "Aasai". The Hindu. p. 26. Archived from the original on 22 December 1996. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  16. ^ "TAMIL CINEMA. I997-- YEAR HIGHLIGHTS". Dinakaran. Archived from the original on 5 January 2009. Retrieved 11 August 2009.
  17. ^ "Aasai to Viswasam: Five box-office blockbusters box office hits of Thala Ajith". Times Now. 1 April 2021. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  18. ^ "'Thanks to my relationship, I've stopped trusting people'". Rediff.com. 6 July 1999. Archived from the original on 10 May 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2011.

Bibliography

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