A Thousand Elephants (2008)
"Vaaranam Aayiram" (original title)

A father-son relationship through growing up, romance, tragedy, and adventure.

Director:

Gautham Menon

Writers:

Meghana Karthik (subtitles), Gautham Menon

Stars:

Suriya, Simran, Divya Spandana

6 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Suriya	...	Krishnan / Suriya
Simran	...	Malini Krishnan
Divya Spandana	...	Priya (as Ramya)
Sameera Reddy	...	Meghana
Prithviraj	...	Asad
Deepa Narendran	...	Shriya
Karthik	...	Suriya's friend
Shanker Koladi	...	Shankar Menon
Ganesh	...	Librarian
Satish	...	Suriya's friend
Veera	...	Suriya's friend
Gautham Menon	...	Commando Informer (as Gautham Vasudev Menon)
Paul Basile	...	Punk Mugger
Brian Jennings	...	Visa Officer
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rajeev	...	Sameera's Dad

Storyline

Surya (Surya Sivakumar) is away at war as his father, Krisnan (also Surya) dies of lung cancer. As Surya sits on a plane in combat gear heading into battle, he reminisces about his father's influence in his life. The film opens with the father Krishnan's romance with Malini (Simram), which in turn is contrasted with the son's aggressive courting of an engineering student Meghana (Sameera Reddy) from a train ride in Tamil Nadu to her graduate studies in Berkeley. The romance is swiftly followed by an extended period of professional and personal uncertainty, in which the son turns back to father figures to help him get back on his feet and seek out his true calling. Well made, though overlong film, reportedly autobiographical about the director's own relationship with his father.

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Plot Keywords:

father son relationship | loss of father | father and son played by same actor | love | dual role | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

India

Language:

Tamil

Release Date:

14 November 2008 (India)

Also Known As:

A Thousand Elephants

Box Office

Budget:

INR 140,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Aascar Film P., Photon Factory

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The opening and end credits of the movie is in English only, very rare for a Tamil language film. Most Tamil films have Tamil and English opening, end credits.

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Connections

Referenced in Aadhavan (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Oh Shanthi Shanthi"
Written by: Thamarai
Produced by: Harris Jayaraj
Performed by: Clinton Cerejo and S.P.B. Charan

User Reviews

Above Average

Gautham Vasudev Menon is back with a film straight from the heart. The director, who believes in meaningful cinema, is trying to push the cinematic envelope with Vaaranam Aayiram.

The film is clearly meant for niche audiences, and not for mass viewing. It is a tribute to the director's dad, who passed away last year. The treatment and narration are purely autobiographical with most of it taken from real life incidents laced with cinematic liberties.

In a nutshell, the film is personal and deals with the deep bonding between a loving and devoted father and his son who is trying to discover himself. Menon's life story may be woefully long and meandering with a great first half, but post Interval, it lags. Still it works and grabs us where it matters and leaves a lump in your throat.

The film demands great patience to sit through and is an overdose of emotions. If the film holds on, it is because of its music and superb performance of Surya. On the whole, the film is optimistic, fresh and emotionally honest. But how mature are our audiences, is the million dollar question?