Maattrraan

<p>Ramachandran is an Indian who works for the . While on a vacation in India, he attempts to create a human with several talents through baby designing, which leads to the birth of his sons, Akhilan and Vimalan, who are from the chest area. As they both share a common heart, doctors recommend a sacrificial surgery to which their mother, Sudha objects. As the brothers grow older, they are poles apart in character; Vimalan being intellectual and good at studies while Akhilan is carefree and poor at studies. Following the , Ramachandran becomes unemployed and returns to India. For many months, Ramachandran attempts to secure funding for his projects but fails as neither the or are willing to help him. Ramachandran attempts suicide but is stopped by Sudha. With the savings earned by his family, Ramachandran begins work on his most ambitious project at a small scale. Many years later, Ramachandran becomes a successful geneticist, with the help of his family. His company, Locus Lacto Product, has made a large amount of profit through their product Energion, which is the best-selling children’s powdered milk energy drink in the market, making him a billionaire. Vimalan has grown up to be an honest man who has graduated from college with a degree in chemistry, while Akhilan enjoys life. They become smitten by Anjali, who has joined their company as a translator, along with her Russian friend, Volga, a journalist. Vimalan and Anjali fall in love, causing Akhilan to feel jealous, yet he is happy for them. It is revealed that Volga is a spy who has been tasked with stealing Energion’s secrets. After her cover is blown, she is kicked out of the office by Ramachandran. Volga takes the brothers to their cattle farm under the pretext of an interview, where she takes photos and collects a milk sample from the farm. When Vimalan confronts Volga, she reveals that Energion is an product that can lead to the deaths of thousands of children. Volga also reveals that an industrialist named Ajay Rathnam joined their company as a spy, and after being exposed was murdered by Ramachandran. She also accuses their father of killing their head, Raghu and setting the lab on fire to destroy evidence. Consequently, Volga is killed by Ramachandra’s henchman, Dinesh. However, she swallows a pen-drive containing evidence of foul play before dying. Anjali acquires it from the surgeon performing the autopsy and hands it to Vimalan. Following this, Vimalan and Akhilan are attacked by the goons who attempt to steal the pen-drive from him. Akhilan believes the attack was only meant for robbing them. In the midst of the fight, Vimalan is struck on the head by the gang leader, Prathap Bihari. Vimalan is declared , and his heart is transplanted to Akhilan. After the brothers are separated through a surgery, which results in Vimalan’s total death, Akhilan and Anjali become depressed. Sudha is warned that Energion is adulterated, and confronts Ramachandran, who asks the food safety department to inspect their company. To her surprise, Energion is declared safe and hygienic. Meanwhile, Akhilan captures Prathap, who is then killed by an oncoming train. Akhilan tracks down Dinesh, using Prathap’s phone. He finds the pen-drive that contains several documents declaring that the ingredients supplied at the cattle farm are unsafe to eat. It is also revealed that the scheme was planned in . Accompanied by Anjali, Akhilan sets out to solve the mystery. They seek the help of Anjali’s friend, Ashok, who works for the Indian Embassy in Ukraine. However, Ashok is killed by Dinesh, who tracked him down. They discover photos showing athletes competing under the USSR in the . The athletes in the photos were declared dead in a plane crash. They discover at an army research center that Ramachandran created Energion as a steroid to improve the performances of athletes at the Olympics. Despite the country performing well, the athletes became unwell from the ingredients of the steroid, leading to their deaths. The plane crash was fabricated to avoid national shame. They learn that the Energion could only be detected using an enhancer. Dinesh tracks them down and proceeds to attack them. Akhilan manages to kill his goons including Dinesh. Akhilan discovers that Ramachandran sent Dinesh to kill Vimalan and Volga. He takes the ingredients back to India and exposes Ramachandran. As Ramachandran is about to be arrested, Akhilan requests him to surrender and finds out that he and Vimalan are a result of his father’s failed experiment. He and Vimalan were made up of several talented people’s DNA. Ramachandran reveals that he used society to create Energion. Ramachandran attempts to kill Akhilan, but his leg is crushed by a falling rock. Mournfully, Akhilan leaves his father to die by letting rats chew his flesh. Antidotes are given to all the children who drank energion across the country and Akhilan is given national recognition for his work. Sometime later, Akhilan and Anjali get married and become parents to conjoined twins. During the post-production of , announced that he would direct again after the success of , further noting that it would be produced by and would begin once Suriya finished shooting for ‘s . In an interview, Anand said that, while on a flight from Spain to Chennai after finishing shooting a song sequence for ‘s (2007) he read an article about the Thailand-based Siamese twins , which inspired him to write a story about Siamese twins. He narrated the story to Suriya who showed interest, but stalled the project due to the underdeveloped technology, leading to the duo making instead. During the late production stage the title was slightly changed from to , the repetition of certain letters meant to reflect the film’s theme of conjoined twins. In May 2011 was announced as the lead actress. was dropped from the film and was replaced by . was officially launched on 22 July 2011 in . The first schedule was held near the Pakistan border. In November 2011, the crew filmed a song in . A major portion of the film was shot in the region in countries like , , , and especially a large chunk in . Another large portion was filmed in sets erected at in . In February 2012, the team left for the to do special facial scanning led by VFX Supervisor . thus became the first Indian film to use technology. performed an item number for a song titled ‘Theeyae Theeyae’ which was shot at AVM Studios. Furthermore, a duet song featuring and was shot at Wai, a village near Pune in Maharashtra. Moreover, many CG scenes were shot at studios. A song featuring over 500 junior artists and Suriya was shot in Jodhpur, touted to be the last phase of canning songs. Next, filming for an important talkie portion was held at in near the safe zone along the that lasted for five days. K V Anand and cinematographer subsequently were in , hunting for a forest location to shoot a song for the film. However, since Suriya could not afford filming there due to his other commitments, Anand decided to erect a similar set in India to create the same look as in Madagascar. The shooting which was to be held in the US, was cancelled in June 2012. The entire filming was wrapped up in by completing the ‘Naani Koni’ song in outdoor scenes shot at , , , and . composed the and for , in his third collaboration within K. V. Anand. It also marks his seventh collaboration with Suriya, after , , , , and . As per Anand’s idea, he and Jayaraj sailed on a ship in the where most of the songs were roughly composed. Harris roped in -based singer-songwriter , who appeared in the based , to provide vocals for the teaser theme. Mili, who had previously sung for jingles, rendered the lyrics used in the theme, and also included in the song “Rettai Kathirae”. The soundtrack features five tracks that belong to varied genres. The album had lyrics written by , , , , . The audio was mixed and mastered in the US. Harris Jayaraj, in May 2012, revealed that 85% of work in the film’s music was complete, and later stated that the audio would be released on 23 July 2012, coinciding with Suriya’s birthday. However, Anand confirmed that the album would release in August. In June 2012, acquired the audio rights. Later, Harris handed the master copy of the audio on 15 July 2012. The makers announced that the audio launch of the film will take place on on 9 August 2012, which also coincided with the . The track list was released on 31 July 2012. The audio was released at the in , in the presence of several noted personalities from the film industry, along with the technical crew and cast of the film. The event was witnessed around 10,000 fans. A live performance was given by Harris Jayaraj and singers , , , and , , and , and dance performance for the songs were done by , , , and Russian actress , who performed in the film, and was choreographed by . The first copy of the audio CD was released by , and and received it to the crew members. The event’s satellite rights were secured by for an undisclosed price, and was premiered on 2 September 2012 at 2:30 p.m. . Milliblog reviewed “Maatran scrapes through Harris’ time warp!” Music Aloud gave 6.5 out of 10 and stated “Pretty much like their previous outing together, Harris Jayaraj produces one exceptional song for K V Anand in Maattrraan and the rest is average.” The soundtrack album of the Telugu version titled was released through . Initially, the audio was planned to release on 22 September 2012. But the audio release event for the film was held on 29 September 2012, at in , with , , and , attending the event along with the cast and crew. The soundtrack album, unlike the Tamil version, has five tracks, reusing the same set of singers. and penned the song lyrics. acquired the film’s worldwide distribution rights in May 2012 and later announced that will release on 15 August 2012, coinciding with . Later, the film’s production company, AGS Entertainment confirmed that the film will be released on 12 October 2012. The film was dubbed in Telugu as , with Suriya’s providing voiceover for one of Suriya’s characters and Suriya voicing the other character. was touted to become Suriya’s biggest release to that point, which was released over 1,400 prints. The film opened in over 1,200 screens worldwide on the release date. In , the film was released by Aanaa Films in 14 different screens across the country. In the United States, ATMUS Entertainment distributed the film in 63 centers, making it the widest release of a Tamil film in the country. The film was cleared by the censor board on 3 October 2012. The film’s Telugu version was distributed by ‘s Multi-Dimensional Films for (US$2.0 million). The rights of and regions were acquired by Mandya Srikanth for (US$470,000) and (US$350,000) respectively. The movie’s overseas rights were sold for (US$1.4 million) to . The film’s first teaser was released on 11 July 2012. The second teaser of the film was released on 9 August 2012, during the film’s audio launch. The VFX making of the film was released on 18 September 2012. The third teaser of the film was premiered on Jaya TV on 3 October 2012, and was simultaneously uploaded on . gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, commenting that it had a “running time of close to three hours, and editor Anthony should have persevered with the director to reduce it as a lot of time is expended on scenes that could have been easily sacrificed to make it a much more compact package. Or maybe Anand also needed a (alternate) to step in when he lost his way”. ‘s critic commented: “If you are looking at a time pass entertainer, walk into K. V. Anand’s . It is a fun ride till interval and in the second half there is a neat message told with lot of cinematic liberties. Suriya holds the film together as the script tends to waver towards the climax”. Pavithra Srinivasan of gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, concluding that it had a “great premise, great characters and actors who could have pulled off a complicated story. Sadly, the movie never capitalises on its strengths”. S Viswanath from cited that “despite its interesting theme, the film is, however, done in by its rather long running time as also painfully sluggish first half seeking to establish the plot but brimming with comic capers”, summing up that it was “an ensemble entertainer but could have been much better”. Haricharan Pudipeddi of gave the film 2.5/5 stars, stating that it “only promises the potential of Suriya, but fails to arouse interest due to its stretched second half and lacklustre narration”. critic Malini Mannath claimed that the film “with its whimsical screenplay and lackadaisical narration, turns out to be a huge disappointment”, going on to add that it “smacks of overconfidence, and an utter disregard for the sense and sensibility of a viewer”. J Hurtado of said, ” is two decent films split down the middle with little connective tissue to bind them, not unlike its protagonists” and concluded, “See it at your own risk”. In response to most of the reviews which mainly criticised the film’s length, was edited down to a shorter runtime. Almost three minutes of the first half and over 20 minutes from the second half were trimmed from the film. had a good opening at the domestic box office, collecting (US$2.3 million) nett in , with (US$270,000) in alone in its opening weekend. The film also collected (US$340,000) in in the opening weekend. The film stayed in the first position for three consecutive weeks in Chennai but was later overtaken by horror film at the box office. The film was declared as an ‘Above average’ by . The film is reported to have completed a 50-day run in a few theatres across Tamil Nadu. had a good opening at the overseas box office, collecting (US$82,000) in the and (US$100,000) in the in the opening weekend. The film overall collected (US$130,000), and (US$120,000) in UK and the US, respectively. The film also collected US$1,124,812 from Malaysia box office. When was touted to be the first Indian film based on , it created a stir after two other films with the same concept – and , were launched later. It was reported to have shared the same storyline as , but Anand denied the reports and said, “After reading such reports, I watched the original version ( was based on 2007 Thai movie ). There isn’t any connection between the two movies, except for the fact that the protagonists are conjoined twins.” Later reports claimed that the film was inspired by another conjoined twins-themed American film , with the posters of both films also being described as similar to each other. Suriya denied this and said, “I have been seeing comments and links on social networking sites saying that is based on some world movie. Only after seeing those links, I came to know that such a film even exists!” The film was banned in the state of due to tension between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the . and pretend to be conjoined twins in (2015) inspired by Akhilan and Vimalan from the film. The song “Rettai Kathirae” is reused. An began trending on platforms in late May 2020, in which Suriya’s films were coincided with real life incidents, that happened around the world. Here, Russia’s ban in , was predicted in the film.</p>