Aaranya Kaandam

Aaranya Kaandam
Theatrical poster
Directed byThiagarajan Kumararaja
Written byThiagarajan Kumararaja
Produced byS. P. B. Charan
StarringJackie Shroff
Ravi Krishna
Sampath Raj
Yasmin Ponnappa
Guru Somasundaram
CinematographyP. S. Vinod
Edited byPraveen K. L.
N. B. Srikanth
Music byYuvan Shankar Raja
Production
company
Capital Film Works
Distributed byX
Release dates
  • 30 October 2010 (2010-10-30) (SAIFF)
  • 10 June 2011 (2011-06-10) (India)
Running time
116 minutes(censored)
126 minutes (uncut) [1]
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil
Budget₹ 5.25 crore[2]
Box office₹ 7 crore

Aaranya Kaandam (transl. Jungle Chapter; English title: Anima and Persona) is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language gangster film written and directed by Thiagarajan Kumararaja in his directorial debut. It is supposedly the first neo-noir film in Tamil cinema.[3][4] The plot takes place in a day in the lives of the six protagonists, played by Jackie Shroff,[5] Ravi Krishna, Sampath Raj and debutants Yasmin Ponnappa, Guru Somasundaram and Master Vasanth. Produced by S. P. B. Charan's Capital Film Works, the musical score of the film was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography by P. S. Vinod and editing handled by the duo Praveen K. L.-N. B. Srikanth.

The film was launched on 18 December 2008, with its principal photography being completed by late 2009, which was followed by a lengthy post-production phase. It ran into difficulties as the regional censor board in Chennai raised objection against the film, giving it an adult rating besides demanding 52 cuts.[3] After screening and becoming approved by the Tribunal in Delhi, the film was released worldwide on 10 June 2011,[6] where it received critical acclaim from critics, but underperformed at box-office. Despite its failure, it gained recognition over the years, and is now regarded as a cult film in Tamil and Indian cinema.

Aaranya Kaandam had its world premiere on 30 October 2010 at the South Asian International Film Festival,[7] where it won the Grand Jury Award for Best Film.[8][9] Subsequently, the film was honoured with two National Film Awards for Best Editing and Best First Film of a Director category respectively.

  1. ^ Dhananjayan 2014, p. 518.
  2. ^ Krishnamurthy, Akhila (9 July 2011). "The new darlings of Kollywood". Tehelka. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference thehindu2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Aaranya Kaandam". Sify. Archived from the original on 25 July 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  5. ^ "Shroff turns South". The Hindu. 5 December 2008. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved 18 May 2008.
  6. ^ "Friday Fiesta 100611". IndiaGlitz. 27 December 2011. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  7. ^ "SAIFF 2010". Saiff.org. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  8. ^ "Aranya Kandam's big win at New York". Sify. 3 November 2010. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  9. ^ "Aaranya Kaandam wins best movie award". The Times of India. 4 November 2010. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 30 June 2013.