1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Production
     Development    Casting  

4. Soundtrack

5. Release
     Reception  

6. References

7. External links

Aegan ({{lang-ta|ஏகன்}}) is a 2008 Tamil action comedy film directed and co-written by Raju Sundaram and produced by Ayngaran International it is based on the 2004 Indian film, Main Hoon Na. It stars Ajith Kumar and Nayanthara in the lead roles, with Suman, Jayaram, Navdeep and Piaa Bajpai in supporting roles.

The film revolves around a daredevil cop who, on behalf of his ailing father and the ambition of a lieutenant general, returns to college in Ooty. Whilst protecting the general's daughter, he attempts to reconcile with his stepbrother from his father's marriage. Furthermore, he has to ward off the international criminal John Chinnappa, who is trying to kill the general, an ex-aide of his who has turned police approver. How the cop manages to solve all three problems forms the crux of the story.

The film opened to Indian audiences on 25 October 2008, coinciding with the Diwali season. The film, upon release received mixed reviews at the South Indian box office.

The film was later dubbed into Hindi as Jaanbaaz Commando in 2012.

Plot

John is a scientist who had created tablets by operating on human guinea pigs. His ploys have always been controversial but inconclusive due to lack of witnesses. However, an ex-gang member General Ram Prasad (Devan) became a police approver and is on the verge of revealing John's ploys to the police. However, he is on the run to avoid charges. The case falls to Commissioner Karthikeyan (Nassar), Shiva's father, who assigns his son to go and help solve the mission.

Karthik tells Shiva to attend college in Tamil Nadu – St. John's College, Ooty – to protect Ram's daughter Pooja (Piaa Bajpai) from meeting with her father. Shiva pleads that he has never undertaken this type of a mission before and does not know much about the current generation. Ram points out that by a strange coincidence, Pooja attends school in the same town where Ram is hiding. Shiva can protect Pooja and look for Ram at the same time. Shiva goes undercover as a student returning to college after many years away taking care of the family business. He is much older than the other students, who at first make fun of him because of his lack of new-generation styles. He also has to deal with the many goofy teachers as well the idiotic forgetful principal of the college, Albert (Jayaram).

Shiva finds Narain, who is later revealed to be his brother. Pooja is Narain's best friend, and he is secretly jealous that other girls can get his attention, but she cannot. Shiva saves Pooja from John's men, who kidnap her, while Narain and others think it is a prank. He later becomes a sensation among the students and teachers. He befriends Narain and Pooja and falls in love with the chemistry teacher Mallika (Nayanthara), after being attracted by her beauty and in a bid to convince other students that he is one of them. During his regular jogging sessions, Shiva spots Ram and chases him until he escapes with the help of a helmet-clad bike rider, who is later revealed to be Narain. Pooja comes to know that Narain has been helping her father and feels cheated by him.

Narain tries to apologize to Pooja many times, but she refuses to talk to him. Irked by this, Narain drinks and explains his actions when John's men come again to kidnap Pooja. They beat up Narain, but Shiva comes to their rescue. Narain and Pooja patch up after the fight sequences. Shiva takes Narain to his home, where he learns that Narain is his brother and meets his mother (Suhasini). The flashback sequences describe Shiva's childhood (he is an orphan) and explain why his mother and father live separately.

The next day when Pooja introduces Ram to Shiva, Shiva arrests him, much to Pooja and Narain's disappointment. Then, everyone in the college, including Mallika, learns that Shiva is a policeman. Shiva then drives Ram straight to John's hiding place, avoiding the traps that he had set. A fight ensues between Shiva and John's men in which John is finally killed.

In the final scenes, Mallika is shown with Shiva's parents and brother, while Shiva has gone to Afghanistan as part of another mission.

Cast

• Ajith Kumar as Shiva CB-CID officer

Nayanthara as Mallika

• Nassar as Karthikeyan
• Jayaram as Albert Aadiyapatham
• Suman as John Chinnappa
• Navdeep as Narain
• Piaa Bajpai as Pooja
• Devan as Ram Prasad
• Suhasini as Shiva's mother
• Cochin Hanifa as Hanifa
• Livingston as Kamalakannan
• Sathyan as Mani
• Sriman as John's bodyguard

Production

Development

In September 2007, early indications suggested that Ayngaran International were set to make a film starring Ajith Kumar directed by Venkat Prabhu,^[2] however the chance went to first-time director Raju Sundaram, in a project titled Akbar.^[3] Despite denying the title, Ajith confirmed the project and stating that he had put on weight and grew a beard for his participation in the project. Following the success of Billa, "Thala" Ajith Kumar waited till the birth of his first child, in January 2008, before commencing his shoot for the film.

The 40-member unit consisting of "Thala" Ajith, director Raju Sundaram, cinematographer Arjun Jena, action choreographer Stun Siva and a few stunt men from Chennai flew to Hong Kong on 14 January 2008 and began their first schedule for a 10-day stint.^[4]

The portions in Hong Kong were shot showing "Thala" Ajith's introduction stunt scene set against the skyscrapers, Hong Kong airport, and the sea with the help of Chinese action choreographers. The crew shot schedules in Theni and Ooty and other locations in South India during the filming. The film finished its talkie portion in early September 2008, and the songs were canned in India as well as parts of Switzerland.^[5][6][7] The film, initially described as a "musical action comedy,". The film previously referred to as Akbar, Ramakrishnan and Anthony Gonsalves^[7] was christened as Aegan, a name of Lord Shiva.

Casting

Following the announcement of the project, tentatively titled as Akbar, Shriya Saran was rumoured to be the heroine, following her successful role in The Boss. However, due to differences, Saran was ousted from the project due to her limited callsheets, as she had to fly to and from America where she was then shooting for her Hollywood film, The Other End of the Line. However other indications claimed that Saran was ousted from the project due to her involvement in Indiralohathil Na Azhagappan, in which she appeared in an item number, which Ajith Kumar was unhappy with due to previous feuds with the lead, Vadivelu of that film.^[8] Reports indicated that Parvati Melton had replaced Saran but later denied it signalling that she was not approached.^[3]

Nassar and Suhasini were selected to play the roles of the parents of Ajith,^[18] whilst Raju Sundaram's younger Brother, Prabhu Deva was given a chance to make a cameo appearance in the film as a dancer but politely refused.^[19] Supporting actors Livingston, Sathyan and Sriman also play roles in Aegan, as does model Piaa Bajpai, who appears as the ladylove to Navdeep.^[20][21] Sivakarthikeyan and Arunraja Kamaraj shot for the film for one day as comedians portraying spies, but following changes to the script, their roles were removed.^[22] Yuvan Shankar Raja was signed on as the music composer whilst Arjun Jena was the cinematographer for the project^[18] and Milan, who did the art direction for Billa, renews his association with Ajith in the film.^[23]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Aegan was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja as was the film score. It was noticeably, the third time Yuvan Shankar was scoring music for an Ajith Kumar film, after Dheena (2001) and Billa (2007), the songs of which had been very popular and went on to become chartbusters.^[24]

The soundtrack released on 9 October 2008^[25] at a private ceremony at the HelloFM Studios by composer Yuvan Shankar Raja as the lead cast and the director were away shooting the video for the song in Switzerland.^[26] The album features 6 tracks overall, including one of the songs ("Hey Salaa") repeated at the end.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Kalaignar. The film was give a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board. The film was later dubbed in Telugu as Mallika I Love You.^[27]

Reception

Similarly Rediff.com labelled the film as "watchable in parts", giving it negative feedback in comparison with Main Hoon Na.^[29] It like Sify, claims that "Aegan loses its spontaneity and meanders between humour and seriousness" in the second half. The reviewer praises Ajith claiming he looks as though he "really did enjoy himself on screen, after a really long time". The reviewer adds that "Nayantara's outfits get smaller and smaller, while the actress herself has nothing more to do than dance in transparent saris and high-heels.^[29] Sometimes she looks amused, at others, irritated and bored", comparing her unchallenging roles to previous roles in Sathyam and Kuselan. It criticizes Piaa Bajpai claiming she "hams it to glory", and "makes you want to watch Amrita Rao's naivety in the original", however, it praises Navdeep citing he is "far more natural, but you pity the fact that his role is so small". Rediff also criticized Suman and Sriman labelling their portrayals as "pathetic". In reference to minor characters, Cochin Hanifa is praised while Suhasini Mani Ratnam's role is said to be "terribly dealt with, robbing her part of any sympathy".^[29]

References

External links

• {{IMDb title|id=1311638|title=Aegan}}

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