Maanja Velu is a 2010 Tamil language

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 action film directed by A. Venkatesh

A. Venkatesh (director)

A. Venkatesh is a Tamil film director born in Tuticorin, Tamilnadu. He often directs films in short spans of times.-Filmography:-As actor:* Suriyan * Angaadi Theru - Karungali* Sattapadi Kutram -References:...

. It stars Arun Vijay

Arun Vijay

Arun Vijayakumar is a Tamil film actor. He is the only son of veteran film actor Vijayakumar and has been active in the Tamil film industry since 1995. He is also a stunt coordinator in most of his films.- Early life and family :...

, Karthik Muthuraman

Karthik Muthuraman

Murali Karthikeyan Muthuraman , better known by his screen name Karthik , is a Tamil film actor and politician. He is the son of veteran actor R. Muthuraman. He was first introduced by Bharathiraja in the film Alaigal Oivathillai...

 and Dhansika in the lead, with Prabhu Ganesan

Prabhu Ganesan

Prabhu Ganesan is a Tamil film actor and producer. He is the son of veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan.-Personal life:A native of Tamil Nadu, Prabhu was born to Sivaji and Kamala Ganesan. He has an elder brother Ramkumar Ganesan who is a film producer, and two sisters, Shanthi and Thenmozhi. He did his...

, Vijayakumar

Vijayakumar

Vijayakumar is a Tamil actor and politician. Along with predominant work in Tamil cinema since 1973, he has acted in a few Hindi and Telugu movies. As of 2009, he is acting in the television serial, Thangam, aired on Sun TV.-Early life:...

 and Riyaz Khan

Riyaz Khan

Riyaz Khan is a Malayalam actor who has acted in several Malayalam and Telugu films. He debuted in the Malayalam film Sugham Sughakaram directed by Balachandra Menon. Later he went on to act in Tamil and Telugu films. After many years, he came back to the Malayalam film industry acting in Balettan...

 playing supporting roles and Santhanam and Ganja Karuppu

Ganja Karuppu

Ganja Karuppu, born Karuppu Raja, is an Indian film actor who plays comedy roles in Tamil cinema. He has appeared in many well-known Tamil films like Raam , Paruthiveeran , Subramaniyapuram , and Naadodigal...

 providing comical relief. Most of the team from the successful venture, Malai Malai

Malai Malai

Malai Malai is a 2009 Tamil language film, starring Arun Vijay and Vedhika in the lead roles. Prabhu and Prakash Raj also have significant roles in the film...

re-united for this film, which is a remake of the 2007 Telugu film Lakshyam

Lakshyam

Lakshyam is a 2007 Telugu film which stars Gopichand, Anushka, and Jagapati Babu. This film marked the debut of Srivas as director. It was produced by Nallamalupu Srinivas under Lakshmi Narasimha Productions banner...

.

Plot

The film starts with a flashback. ACP Bose (Karthik) is a sincere police officer happily married (Anu Hassan) and living with his parents and younger brother Velu (Arun Vijay). Velu is a college student and he falls in love with his classmate Anjali (Dhansika). Umapathi (Chandrasekar) enters, who is notorious for settlements and land deals. He kills anyone who comes in his way and does not leave any evidence or witness behind. He takes a loan of 100 crores from a private bank with the help of a cunning DGP and a politician. He kills the bank’s chairman in order to avoid repayment and puts the blame on Bose. Bose tries to stop Umapathi. Velu also gets into disputes with Umapathi. What happens next forms the crux of the story.

Cast

• Arun Vijay
  Arun Vijay
  Arun Vijayakumar is a Tamil film actor. He is the only son of veteran film actor Vijayakumar and has been active in the Tamil film industry since 1995. He is also a stunt coordinator in most of his films.- Early life and family :...
  
   as Velu
• Karthik Muthuraman
  Karthik Muthuraman
  Murali Karthikeyan Muthuraman , better known by his screen name Karthik , is a Tamil film actor and politician. He is the son of veteran actor R. Muthuraman. He was first introduced by Bharathiraja in the film Alaigal Oivathillai...
  
   as Subash Chandra Bose
• Dhansika as Anjali
• Prabhu Ganesan
  Prabhu Ganesan
  Prabhu Ganesan is a Tamil film actor and producer. He is the son of veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan.-Personal life:A native of Tamil Nadu, Prabhu was born to Sivaji and Kamala Ganesan. He has an elder brother Ramkumar Ganesan who is a film producer, and two sisters, Shanthi and Thenmozhi. He did his...
  
   as Gautham Ganesh
• Santhanam as Manickam
• Chandrasekar as Umapathi
• Hemanth as Dinesh
• Riyaz Khan
  Riyaz Khan
  Riyaz Khan is a Malayalam actor who has acted in several Malayalam and Telugu films. He debuted in the Malayalam film Sugham Sughakaram directed by Balachandra Menon. Later he went on to act in Tamil and Telugu films. After many years, he came back to the Malayalam film industry acting in Balettan...
  
   as Easwara Pandian
• Ilavarasu
  Ilavarasu
  Ilavarasu is an Indian cinematographer-turned-actor, who works in the Tamil film industry. He started his career as a cinematographer and worked for 13 films, winning a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for one of them. He, however, became better known as an actor, after he debuted and appeared in...
  
   as Sivagnanam
• Ganja Karuppu
  Ganja Karuppu
  Ganja Karuppu, born Karuppu Raja, is an Indian film actor who plays comedy roles in Tamil cinema. He has appeared in many well-known Tamil films like Raam , Paruthiveeran , Subramaniyapuram , and Naadodigal...
  
   as Bhooshan
• Vijayakumar
  Vijayakumar
  Vijayakumar is a Tamil actor and politician. Along with predominant work in Tamil cinema since 1973, he has acted in a few Hindi and Telugu movies. As of 2009, he is acting in the television serial, Thangam, aired on Sun TV.-Early life:...
  
   as Velu's father
• Anu Haasan
  Anu Haasan
  Anu Hasan is a Tamil actress and TV anchor. She made her film debut in the critically acclaimed film Indira and has since appeared in a few Tamil films, playing supporting roles. She currently hosts the celebrity talk show Koffee with Anu on the Tamil channel Vijay...
  
   as Subash Chandra Bose's Wife
• Nizhalgal Ravi
  Nizhalgal Ravi
  Nizhalgal Ravi is an Indian actor who has performed in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. He started his career in 1980 with the film Nizhalgal.-Career:...
  
   as Anjali's father
• Meera Krishnan as Velu's mother
• Thyagu
• Shakeela
  Shakeela
  Shakeela , , , is a film actress from India who has appeared in Indian softcore pornographic movies. She mostly acted in film industries of Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, and Kannada languages. She started out as an actor in B-grade movies in the early 1990s.Later she moved to Chennai seeking...
  
  

Development

After the success of his film Malai Malai

Malai Malai

Malai Malai is a 2009 Tamil language film, starring Arun Vijay and Vedhika in the lead roles. Prabhu and Prakash Raj also have significant roles in the film...

, Arun Vijay

Arun Vijay

Arun Vijayakumar is a Tamil film actor. He is the only son of veteran film actor Vijayakumar and has been active in the Tamil film industry since 1995. He is also a stunt coordinator in most of his films.- Early life and family :...

 teams with Malai Malai team (consists of A Venkatesh, Mani Sharma, Santhanam and producer Mohan) for second time, Venkatesh decided to remake the telugu film Lakshyam

Lakshyam

Lakshyam is a 2007 Telugu film which stars Gopichand, Anushka, and Jagapati Babu. This film marked the debut of Srivas as director. It was produced by Nallamalupu Srinivas under Lakshmi Narasimha Productions banner...

. The film was said to be titled as Maanja Madhan which proved untrue and it is changed as Maanja Velu.

Casting

Suresh Gopi

Suresh Gopi

Suresh Gopinathan Nair , often credited as Suresh Gopi , is an Indian film actor who works mainly in Malayalam cinema; he is famous for his roles in police dramas. He is noted for his leading roles as much as his character roles...

 was initially selected to be playing the role of Arun's elder brother but he was replaced by another senior actor Karthik

Karthik Muthuraman

Murali Karthikeyan Muthuraman , better known by his screen name Karthik , is a Tamil film actor and politician. He is the son of veteran actor R. Muthuraman. He was first introduced by Bharathiraja in the film Alaigal Oivathillai...

 who makes his comeback through this film. Dhansika, who was one of the five girls in Peraanmai has been selected to play the pair opposite hero making her first project as a solo heroine.

Filming

First schedule of the film was started with song Morachu Pesi at Bangkok. Arunvijay had learnt sky diving for this film. The climax fight scenes of the film was canned in Ekkattuthangal Burma Colony Muneeswarar Temple, Chennai for last 5 days and it was shot using two outdoor units and four cameras, the set was built like that of a ruined temple with a 50 ft tall 'Aiyanaar' statue was erected at a whoping 65 lakhs. A scene featuring 400 junior artists and 25 stunt artists was canned in a festival set that was erected around the temple. A scene in which Arun Vijay kicking two fighters by jumping from a platform was being shot, for which both the fighters were tied on with a transparent nylon rope, to avoid accidents. Unexpectedly one of the nylon ropes got tangled with Arun Vijay's right arm while he was performing the action. Arun Vijay's elbow was badly injured due to the accident and the whole arm swell at once. Immediately the actor was offered first aid by the stunt master Kanal Kannan and was rushed to the hospital where he was offered emergency treatment. The title song of the film was shot in Pondicherry schedule with 80 junior artists. Few stunts were shot at Trichy and Stunt master Kanal Kannan has given 45 days of his schedule. Arun tonsured his head to give a new look, The scene where Arun is hanged upside down was shot for 7 days.Songs were shot at Pazhani, Dindigul and Chennai.

Controversy

Before the release, Dr. Kalidoss has stated that he had been in the film industry for the past 15 years and that he completed a film titled ‘Thunichal’ with Arun Vijay in the lead in the year 2008. He also stated that though the Censor Board had cleared the film, Arun Vijay had ‘purposely’ delayed the release of the film by not completing his portion of the ‘dubbing’ work. As he had spent Rs.2 crores till date, the producer told Vijay that he couldn’t continue to shoot the film. Meanwhile, he was asked by the actor to release Thunichal after his ‘Malai Malai’ released. Due to his non-cooperation, instead of releasing ‘Thunichal’ in 160 theatres, I could release the film only in 16 theatres on 1st January this year, said Kalidoss. Due to this, I incurred a loss of Rs.1.5 crores, he added. “Due to the mental harassment I had to endure because of Arun Vijay, I couldn’t continue my profession as a doctor for the past 4 years. Vijay has to pay me Rs.1.5 crores and till he does so, the release of his ‘Maanja Velu’ should be stayed till the 19th of this month,” he had stated in the petition Dr. Mohan, producer of ‘Maanja Velu’ and father-in-law of Arun Vijay, had filed a counter petition with the Court praying for vacation of the stay on the grounds that he, as a producer, had nothing to do with Dr. Kalidoss’ case and requested that as such, his film should be allowed to release on the stipulated date. Advocate G. Murugesh Kumar, who appeared on behalf of Dr. Mohan in the court of Mr. Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, managed to putforth his point of view strongly before the Judge and said that Dr. Kalidoss had ‘wrongly informed’ the Court in the matter. As soon as the Judge announced that he’d be giving the verdict based on the ‘actual nature’ of the case, Dr. Kalidoss is said to have ‘withdrawn’ his petition from the Court. Following this, the Judge dismissed the petition and said that the film could release on May 21 as per its original schedule.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is composed by Mani Sharma

Mani Sharma

Mani Sharma Yanamandra is a music director known for his works in Tollywood. He has composed music for over 140 films. He is popularly known as "Swara Brahma" for his contributions to music in Tollywood. Mani Sharma started his career as a music director in 1998. Before that Sharma used to work...

. Audio function was attended by Producers Council chief Rama Narayanan, secretary Sivasakthi pandian, director Shakthi Chidambaram, actors Karthik

Karthik

Karthik is a male given name that is most common name in the southern part of India. The name stands for the Hindu god "Muruga," son of Lord Shiva.The name may refer to:-Actors:...

, Shaam

Shaam

Shamshuddin Ibrahim, known professionally as Shaam , is a Tamil film actor and model. Starting his career as a professional model, he soon made his acting debut in the film Khushi , appearing in a cameo role. He further appeared in lead roles in critically and commercially successful films such as...

, Jai, Sibiraj

Sibiraj

Sibiraj is an actor and the son of famous Tamil film actor Sathyaraj . He did his schooling in Don Bosco, Egmore and went to Loyola College, Chennai.- Film career :...

, Sundar C...

Critical response

The soundtrack was released to generally positive reviews. Behindwoods said, "there is nothing in the album that will make it stand up for itself". Milliblog said, "getting 3 decent tracks in a masala potboiler soundtrack is a huge win indeed". Indiaglitz said, "Over all, the music of Maanja Velu will definitely be chart busters and the music will have a wide reach. Mani Sharma, has used the tunes of his hit songs in Telugu in this album, which would surely appeal even to the Tamil audience".