Arrambam

About the film

Arrambam (transl. Beginning) is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Vishnuvardhan. Produced by A. Raghuram and co-written by Subha, the film stars Ajith Kumar, Arya, Nayanthara, Taapsee and Rana Daggubati (in a cameo), with Mahesh Manjrekar, Aadukalam Naren, Kishore, Atul Kulkarni, Akshara Gowda and Murali Sharma in supporting roles. While the score and soundtrack of the film were composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, the cinematography was handled by Om Prakash and editing by A. Sreekar Prasad.

Following a six-month long pre-production and the official announcement of the project in May 2012, filming commenced in June 2012 and continued for the next 15 months. Majority of the filming happened in Mumbai. Other locations included Chennai, Bangalore, Dubai, Hyderabad, Mahabaleshwar, Jaisalmer, Leh and Ladakh. The film was not titled until it entered post-production and was mostly referred to as Thala 53 or Valai, a supposed working title. The film was released on 31 October 2013.

Plot

Ashok Kumar "A.K" fixes bombs in three places and informs the cops about them. Before the cops arrive, he sets off the bombs. Ashok and his girlfriend Maya, threaten her old college mate hacker, Arjun, forcing him to hack each system simultaneously. Ashok threatens Sriram Raghavan by trying to kill his child so that he can extract the truth about black money, where he murders Sriram. Arjun gets irritated by the things happening around him and complains about Ashok's misdeeds to Inspector Prakash. When Ashok gets closer to achieving his goals, Arjun gives him away to the cops, and both are arrested. Upon discovering his true identity, the police release Arjun. Later, Maya, who had escaped from the scene, tracks Arjun and his girlfriend Anitha and tells them about Ashok's original motive.

Past: A few months ago, Ashok was a former member of the Anti-Terrorist Squad who was on a mission to expose a scam regarding faulty bulletproof jackets given to the security forces, which resulted in many deaths, including his best friend and colleague ACP Sanjay. It turned out that Home Minister Mahadev Rane and his associates JCP Milind Virekar and Ramya Radhakrishnan were the people involved in the scam. Ramya's goons killed Sanjay's pregnant wife and her parents by poisoning, while Maya, whom they also poisoned, and Mango, whom the goons placed on a railway track, survived the attack. Ashok also gets shot and is pushed from a cliff but survives.

Present: After learning about this, Arjun feels guilty and decides to help them. Ashok, Maya and Arjun arrive in Dubai to meet Mahadev's daughter, Deeksha, where Arjun enters a bank in the guise of a service engineer and opens an account so that Ashok can transfer all of Mahadev's money into his account. Maya kills Ramya by pushing her off a building. Deeksha later finds out about their plan but is later threatened at gunpoint by Ashok. Ashok, Arjun, and Maya later arrive in Mumbai but come to know that Mahadev has kidnapped Anitha. Ashok tactfully kidnaps Deeksha and Durrani in Kashmir. Mahadev arrives in Kashmir with Anitha. Here, Durrani and Deeksha get killed while Arjun saves Anitha.

Production

In September 2011, producer A. M. Rathnam stated that he would produce Ajith Kumar's next film after Billa II, which was touted to begin by December 2011. Vishnuvardhan, whom Ajith had worked with in Billa, was the front-runner to direct the film, although certain media sections also suggested that Rathnam may recruit director Shankar to make a sequel to his 1996 vigilante film Indian. The claims were refuted by a source close to Ajith. In January 2012, Rathnam informed that he had signed Ajith and director Vishnuvardhan for his next film, while the director himself confirmed later that he was "undoubtedly directing Ajith’s next flick". A press release published by A. M. Rathnam in May 2012 officially announced the project and listed the cast and crew members. According to the press release, the film would be produced by A. Raghuram on behalf of Sri Satya Sai Movies, while Rathnam would supervise it.

Subsequently, speculation arose that Vishnuvardhan may remake his own 2011 Telugu action thriller Panjaa, or the Bollywood action flick Race, but the director clarified that he would not remake either film. Writer-duo Subha joined the team and worked on the script and dialogues. According to a "close source from the production house", a remake of Race was planned initially, as there was not much time to write a fresh script, but after Subha's entry into the team, the idea was scrapped and work on an original script began, with the writers telling that they took "nearly three months to come out with the sketch". In an early interview during the scripting phase, Vishnuvardhan opened up about the film that he was planning to work "on a drama, more on family action drama". Upon completion of the film, he made clear that the film was not a gangster film, and labelled it as an "action drama", further adding that it was a "fictional story based on a real incident". Vishnuvardhan also said that work on the story began only after he was signed on to direct a film with Ajith. Ajith continued the "salt and pepper look" from Mankatha, as he would play a "mature guy", and underwent supervised weight-training, working out at the gym for six hours a day. The actor later disclosed that he played a "mean guy ... a politically incorrect character" while adding that the film would have a "strong …

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