Haridas

<p>Sivadas ( ) is the daring cop who gets ruthless against the local goon Aadhi ( ) and is just miles away from nabbing the crook. He has a driver named Kandasamy ( ). However, he is forced to leave the force for a while to take care of his autistic son, Haridas (Prithviraj Das) because of an unfortunate matter. With much difficulty, he enrolls Haridas in a normal school where Amudhavalli ( ) is a teacher specialized to deal with special children. Kishore dwells into the character of Sivadas, a sorry father for not sparing time to his family when it mattered most and tries to understand his son’s problem step by step. It was announced in 2012 that , the villain actor of and fame will play the male lead and would play the female lead. It was later speculated that Sneha might quit as she was about to get married on 11 May 2012 but, the shooting started from 10 March 2012 and Sneha was confirmed for the role. It is also reported that Sneha had quit for , on asking the same to the director, he said that Sneha was extremely excited upon hearing the script and accepted the role immediately. She had reportedly said that out of the 80 odd scripts she had heard, none had excited her more. The crucial role of the boy was given to ‘Prithviraj Das’. Director Kumaravelan about his film: “The movie is about an eight-year-old boy’s view on life and his father. For each and every child, his/her father is the first hero. This is the basic knot of the script. A different treatment has been given to the screenplay.” Filming started from 10 March 2012 in , and Kumaravelan revealed on 12 March 2012 that he is going to croon a song and the movie contains only three songs. The unit of Haridas had a narrow escape as their boat capsized in the high seas of , during a shoot on 27 June 2012. After shooting in the sea, one of the boats that they were traveling capsized due to the high tide around the area. Kumarvelan said, “I was filming a song sequence on the lead pair when there was a sudden rise in tide. A killer tide hit our boat and it capsized. We immediately sent safely to the shores in another lifeboat. My cameraman started swimming, but I don’t know how to swim. So, I was forced to hold on to the boat for a while till some local fishermen rescued us. It was a horrifying experience.”<br /> “Fortunately, the entire unit is safe and we are back in Chennai. We will resume shooting for the film tomorrow in Pondicherry”, he added. , meanwhile, is still shaken. “She took her time to get back to normal and now she’s doing fine. I also gave her the option of postponing the shoot for a while, but she insisted that we complete the schedule”, he added. The music was composed by in his third collaboration with Kumaravelan. The music was launched by director and received by actor on 26 November 2012. The film has three songs, apart from a theme song. Kumaravelan said, “There’s a song about cops in this film. Vijay Antony scored the music for the song in just two days. There is also an inspirational song sung by .” All lyrics are written by Annamalai, except where noted. The satellite rights of the film were sold to . The movie was released on 22 February 2013 along with to average collections and at number 5 in the Chennai box office. Over the coming weeks, the collection improved and it moved to number 4 at the box office. It completed 50 days run at limited centers in Chennai and at the end of the theatrical run, it did mediocre business. The movie opened to positive reviews. A critic from rated the movie as ” makes for absolutely compelling viewing. It tugs at your heartstrings, and urges you to introspect and makes you look at children with disability badly for it!”. A critic from rated the movie as “Emotionally uplifting film and it is an effort that is sure to attract lot of attention from the masses.” The Hindu rated the movie as “Story of action and emotions. Watch Haridas. He deserves to be supported.” A critic from rated the movie as “Honorable tribute to parental love and sacrifice.” 1. Second Best Film – 11th Chennai International Film Festival 2. Special Jury Award For Individual Excellence to Prithviraj Das – 11th Chennai International Film Festival</p>