Aayudham

<p>Siva is admitted to a medical college in . His police constable father, gets a transfer to Chennai, as well, so that he can keep an eye on his son. Siva soon develops a liking towards Mahalakshmi, his collegemate. However, Naga, Maha’s servant-maid’s son and the dreaded don of Chennai city, is obsessed with making Maha his own. It is now up to Siva to rescue Maha and her family from Naga’s clutches. The film was directed by M. A. Murugesh, who had previously directed the film, (2003). was selected to play the lead female role and began work on the film in May 2004. The first schedule of the film commenced in Chennai, where a dance number was shot at a lavish set costing (equivalent to 1.4 crore or US$170,000 in 2023) at AVM Studios, where Prashanth and fifty dancers took part. The second schedule of forty days was held at locations in Madurai, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Nagercoil. Dance choreographer Dinesh choreographed two dance numbers – one in which Prashanth and Mumbai’s Minal took part, the other where he danced with Rasna, a Mumbai model. The third schedule was filmed in London, including a song sequence shot near the . Fifty girls from the musical, , were selected to feature in Sungadi during a song shoot at . The soundtrack was composed by . It was released in early October 2004. was released on 14 January 2005, during , and performed average at the Tamil Nadu box office. The film’s release was hampered by the which hit Chennai the month before. Malathi Rangarajan of noted that “it’s all very fine if you are not looking for anything innovative in the entertainment offered”, adding that “Prashanth is too experienced an actor to goof up the role. He plays Siva with ease. And as always he is more at home in action” and that “Sneha makes proper use of the couple of scenes that offer her a little scope to perform.” noted that film was “below average” and added “The film looks like a poor man’s and the story is as old as the hills with no semblance of either style or substance.” Visual Dasan of wrote that had taken the single line plot from third rated masala films like and . He said exaggerations are key in such stories, but in , the director was very careful to portray every scene in an interesting way and succeeded in it. wrote “Though the concept of the film is as old as it can be, that is, love- struggle- and triumph in love-, but, it is like serving old feast on a new flashy and flower designed plate”. Malini Mannath of wrote, “It’s familiar territory for the audience, with predictable situations, stereotyped characters and an already-seen-ambience. It is an amalgam of various films like ‘Run’, ‘Gilli’, ‘Arul’ etc. It does not quite keep up to the promise of the opening scenes”.</p>