Anjaan (2014 film)
Anjaan is a 2014 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by N. Lingusamy and produced under his banner Thirupathi Brothers. The film stars Suriya and Vidyut Jammwal in the lead roles, while Samantha, Manoj Bajpaee and Dalip Tahil appear in supporting characters. The project was materialized in October 2013, with the principal photography took place on 20 November 2013, in Mumbai and Goa, and was completed in June 2014.
The film's cinematography and editing were handled by Santosh Sivan and Anthony, respectively, while Yuvan Shankar Raja composed the soundtrack album and background score. The film was distributed by UTV Motion Pictures. Anjaan was released on 15 August 2014 to mixed reviews from critics and did an average performance at the box office. It was unofficially remade in Bangladesh as Captain Khan in 2018.
Plot
A handicapped man Krishna arrives at Mumbai from Kanyakumari at a railway station after boarding a train from there. He, along with a taxi driver Raja, travel around Mumbai to look for his elder brother, Raju. Raja tries to get to know about Krishna but is unable to get any detail from him. He gets Raja to take him to a club, where Krishna then tries to meet an old associate of Raju named Amar, who is a very powerful gangster through his henchmen, but fails. He then meets a close friend of Raju named Rajiv, who overheard his conversation with Amar's henchmen. Rajiv tells Krishna that Raju is Raju Bhai, a powerful and feared gangster. He then tells things to Krishna about Raju, until he passes out from being drunk.Krishna leaves and sees Raja attempting to leave him, having overheard the fact that Krishna is Raju's younger brother. Raja revealed a personal damage to his taxi that Raju is solely responsible of. Despite not wanting to have Krishna as his customer, he still takes him to where he wants to go. A boy living in the streets steals Krishna's laptop and Raja tells Krishna he can't get it back, only for some people to bring in the boy and give Krishna back his laptop, having seen Raju's photo on the desktop of Krishna's laptop and becoming fearful of him. Krishna then later meets JK, an old enemy of Raju who tells his experience with Raju. He tells him that Raju could have killed him, but spared his own life. He tells Krishna to another close friend of Raju named Karim Bhai. Krishna meets Karim, who tells him that Chandru, another powerful gangster, is an inseparable friend and partner in crime of Raju, while as they are emerging in the underworld, their own enemies grow too.
Their main henchmen are Johnny, Rajiv, Jackie, Manoj, and Amar. Karim is their personal and close friend. A new police commissioner plans to clean the city and kills a few henchmen of Raju and Chandru's gang. Raju then retaliates this by kidnapping the commissioner's daughter Jeeva on her wedding and keeps her as a hostage or a guest for a day. The police wanted to strike back at Raju and Chandru but was against doing that now until later as his family relatives have came. When Raju goes to leave her back at the marriage hall, she tells him that she actually does not want to go or marry because she didn't love anyone. She attempted to watch a movie in a theater with Raju, which is arranged by Rajiv, but in the end Raju took her back to the marriage hall because the movie she was watching was Chennai Express, having seen it about 5 times. She falls in love with Raju, who rejects it at first but later reciprocated it.
Unfortunately, the commissioner strikes back later at Raju and Chandru's gang forcing Raju to reject Jeeva just to keep his friendship with Chandra, as Chandru became suspicious of Raju, thinking he might have told Jeeva some details about their gang. Things go very well until Raju and Chandru invoke the wrath of Imran Bhai, a bigger and more powerful don than them and whom they both personally met at a gathering party. Imran praises Raju and Chandru for their work but also warns that if they get in his way or position, he will kill them. The next day, Raju captures Imran. Chandru becomes thrilled and gives Raju a surprise by getting him a new car. Raju then sees Jeeva inside. Chandru tells him he had given Raju a surprise and tells him to stay away for a week with Jeeva as a vacation.
The commissioner calls Raju about Jeeva, only for Raju to confess his love for Jeeva to him, leaving the commissioner to not say anything. Raju and Jeeva have a blast. However, they were attacked by henchmen and were forced to come back. Raju attempted to call Chandru, in which Amar answered it, until the line ended up being cut. When Raju comes back, he sees Chandru murdered. A frustrated and angered Raju goes in search of the killers but is shot and killed by Amar in a bridge, where his body fell into the water. Amar later calls Imran, telling him he has killed Raju. Krishna then becomes worried. At the same time, Amar comes to Karim's taxi service headquarters and starts beating one of the taxi drivers for not giving him nor his henchmen money. Karim protests and Amar leaves, before giving a warning, while Krishna hid away from them. But suddenly, the henchmen Krishna met at the bar in the club saw him and told Amar about him. Amar had already came to know that Krishna was looking for him.
He took his laptop and taunts him, while also revealing he killed Raju and showed the gun he used to killed him with. Amar then attempted to kill Krishna using his henchman, while trying to get Karim helpless to save him, only for Krishna to beat and kill up the henchman Amar set up to kill him as well as two other henchmen. It is then ultimately revealed that 'Krishna' is none other than Raju Bhai, who is alive and well in a very different and clean look than his old rugged look by having a toothpick out of his mouth, something that Raju Bhai does often. Raju then kills Amar and decides to keep pretending he is Krishna to catch Chandru's murderer. Karim promises to help by keeping his secret and giving him shelter in his own house. Karim revealed to Raju that on the day Chandru died, there was a planned meeting between him and JK. He also reveals the one person, who is not with the gang for the meeting with JK is Jackie.
He then goes to find Jackie in a stadium for a horse race. Jackie ran away from Raju, upon noticing him following him and disguised as "Krishna". But, he eventually to come know his identity, when Raju pull out his chain necklace having been covered underneath in his shirt. Jackie tearfully pleads he is innocent and reveals that Johnny told him not to go with them on the day of the meeting without explaining why. Jackie tried to call Raju, Raju was unable to answer it. So he called Chandru, but Johnny answered it. Scared and knowing something is not right, Jackie ran away from his home. Raju then finds Johnny in a parking lot of a shopping mall using his prostitute girlfriend Sindhu and taking of his henchmen in a very short work in the parking lot. Johnny initially didn't recognize Raju, until Raju unfold his shirt's collar. Johnny attempts to pin and frame everything on Jackie, only to be confronted by him as well.
Johnny was forced to revealed what happened on the day of the meeting, which took place in a hotel. Chandru, Amar, Johnny, and Manoj waited for JK, until Chandru had a state change of mind about the meeting having earlier wanted to do it with Raju and decided to do it another day with him being here. The doorbell ranged and Chandru thought it was JK, only to be revealed that it was actually Imran and his henchmen. They hold Chandru, Amar, Johnny, and Manoj as hostages, wanted Chandru to call Raju, and get him to come here. Chandru had given them one chance to kill him, but not to kill Amar, Johnny, and Manoj. This resulted in a quick and short between Chandru and Imran's henchmen, in which Chandru won. Chandru was about to kill Imran, only to be grabbed by Amar, Johnny, and Manoj.
They, along with Imran, had plotted to betray and kill Chandru and Raju, with Imran promising them they can become very powerful dons like and alongside him in ruling the streets and the whole city of Mumbai. When Raju attempted to call Chandru, Amar answered in his place, making him unaware of what is happening to Chandru. Chandru, being taunted by Imran over Amar's replies towards Raju in the cellphone conversation, ended up breaking his cellphone, cutting and cancelling Raju's call. Imran killed Chandru by slashing him multiple times with a knife. Before Chandru dies, he warns Imran, Amar, Johnny, and Manoj that Raju will come back and kill them all. Raju kills Johnny and launches an attack on Manoj, who is now a powerful gangster and businessman running a successful gold company in Mumbai on his own company and his henchmen while he is away from India.
When he came back having heard of the attack and the deaths of Amar and Johnny, he orders his henchmen to kill whoever is responsible for this. He then founded out that Raju had earlier attempted to visit him in his office of his company's building disguised as Krishna in the last previous week. He sees through the footage of his security camera, that Raju has arrived again to his company building and Manoj ordered his assistant to bring him to his office. Manoj, thinking that Raju is 'Krishna' and telling him some noted details about Raju such as having a toothpick in his mouth, an unfolded collar on his shirt, and a scar on his right eyebrow, while telling his arrival to Mumbai is a waste of time and that Raju is 'dead', unaware that he is still alive and is standing before him disguised as 'Krishna'. Imran called him on his cellphone and Manoj had a conversation with him talking about his birthday party being held at a grand hotel, which Raju overheard and took note of it, all the while for Manoj to explain to Imran about 'Krishna'.
'Krishna' then tells Manoj that Raju is alive and is in his building, causing Manoj to send his henchmen to search his company building around for Raju, while he holds 'Krishna' at gunpoint. Raju then reveals his identity by revealing all noted details that Manoj pointed about him earlier and beats up Manoj and his henchmen. Raju kills all the henchmen and was about to kill Manoj, but Manoj tries to get Raju to spare his life by offering a deal to be successful in life. Raju seems to accept, but he punches Manoj in the face and refuses his deal, all the while, killing him by shooting in the head with his own gun. Raju, having killed all the betrayers of his former gang heads back to Karim's place by Raja, who he still thinks he is 'Krishna'.
After taking a bath, Raju is handed a towel by Karim's daughter, who reminded of Jeeva. He then remembered at one time, that Raju, Chandru, and Jeeva went to a musical concert, which is finished, but using their influence and having been friends with the theatre manager of the concert, they get the concert back on running. At first, Guru Shastri, the head of the musical troupe performing the concert, refuses to play for them, given the fact that Raju and Chandru are gangsters, but accepts, when Chandru pointed out Raju and Jeeva are lovers and Jeeva wanted to see his concert. Unfortunately, Shastri's music turned out to be awful, making Raju, Chandru, and Jeeva leave the theater.
Then, a parade with some very good music came by and they all danced. It was there that Jeeva understands the friendship between Raju and Chandru. Raju then attempted to kill Imran in his birthday party, only to fail, when it is revealed Imran is not in India, but is in Dubai doing a live telecast call in the hotel of his birthday party. He also reveals he knows Raju is still alive and threatens to kill him. Imran's henchmen searched everywhere for Raju, including checking into the hotel where he rented a room. Then Imran's henchmen came at Karim's house and searched everywhere for Raju, but he is not there. So they kidnap Karim's daughter to hold her as a hostage in order to make Raju come to them.
When Raju and Karim came there, Karim was told his daughter is kidnapped. When Raju prepares to go rescue Karim's daughter, Karim reveals it was not his daughter who has been kidnapped, but it was none other than Jeeva. Jeeva, knowing Raju is alive given that his 'body' is never found and knowing that he will come back to Mumbai, decides to wait for him, until he finishes his quest for revenge against Imran for Chandru's death, understanding how much Chandru meant to him. Raju went to the location, beats up the henchmen, and gets Jeeva, who had her left hand injured by the leader of the henchmen using his smoking cigarette to safety by having be taken away by Karim, while killing all of them including the leader, who, before dying, found out Jeeva was Raju's lover because her left hand had a tattoo of Raju's name on it, which she got during the time she and Raju had a blast.
Unfortunately, he gets captured by Imran's top 4 henchmen and was taken to get killed by Imran face to face. Imran was about to kill Raju with the very same knife he had used to kill Chandru, only to be held at gunpoint by his main henchmen, which are now of them. Raju reveals just like how Imran got Amar, Johnny, and Manoj to betray him and Chandru, he used Imran's own remaining henchmen to betray him by making a similar deal to them, that Imran made to Amar, Johnny, and Manoj. When one of them remains faithful to Imran, while the other three decided to betray him, one of the three, mainly the leader of the group killed the faithful one. Raju killed Imran the exact way the latter killed Chandru, while Imran realizes his fate is sealed before he died.
Fulfilling his revenge over Chandru's death, the henchmen decide to clear up Imran's murder and ask Raju to leave, only for Raju to double-cross and kill them, saying even enemies must not have traitors. Raju reunites with Jeeva and they both were leaving Mumbai, until they bump into Raja, who has noticed that 'Krishna' has never found Raju, but instead found a beautiful girl in Jeeva. When Raja saw that 'Krishna' is walking without his crutch, he ask him about him, only for 'Krishna' to reveal his true identity as Raju Bhai, by having a toothpick in his mouth, leaving Raja shocked. Raju and Jeeva leave Mumbai happily.
Cast
- Suriya as Raju Bhai and Krishna, the protagonist.
- Vidyut Jammwal as Chandru Bhai, Raju's best friend and partner who later gets killed by his own sidekicks.
- Samantha as Jeeva, Raju's girlfriend and Commissioner's Daughter.
- Manoj Bajpayee as Imran Bhai, the main antagonist who kills Chandru.
- Dalip Tahil as JK, Raju's enemy.
- Joe Malloori as Karim Bhai, Raju's close friend and a Taxi Driver.
- Murali Sharma as Johnny, henchman.
- Asif Basra as Rajiv, henchman.
- Chetan Hansraj as Manoj, henchman.
- Bikramjeet Kanwarpal as Police Commissioner, Jeeva's father.
- Soori as Raja, a taxi driver
- Brahmanandam as Guru Shastri, the head of the musical troupe.
- Sanjana Singh as Sindhu
- Manobala as Director
- Chitrangada Singh as item number in song Sirippu En
- Maryam Zakaria as item number in song Bang Bang Bang
- Rajeevan in a special appearance
Production
Development
In July 2012, it was reported first that Suriya had signed on Lingusamy's film to be produced under the director's banner and that he would work on it after Maattrraan and Hari's Singam 2. After the completion of both movies, the actor was reported to work simultaneously with Lingusamy and director Gautham Menon for a film titled Dhruva Natchathiram. Suriya waited for six months after Singam 2, but failed to receive a complete script from Gautham Menon and no progress took place in this period of time. Owing to this reason, he opted out of Gautham's film in October 2013 and announced that he would soon start work on Lingusamy's film. The director confirmed the news and also stated the film would officially start filming from mid-November 2013. It was said that the script had been modified a few times. The film was started without a title. In January 2014, the title was officially announced to be Anjaan. Vijay Milton was initially signed by Lingusamy as the cinematographer for the film, but in October 2013 he was replaced with Santosh Sivan, collaborating with Lingusamy for the first time. The film's editing was reported to be handled by Anthony while Rajeevan was recruited as the art director. Brinda Sarathy was confirmed to be the dialogue writer for the film.Casting
In early November 2013, Manoj Bajpai was reported to be playing the film's antagonist while Vidyut Jamwal would also appear in a prominent role. Dalip Tahil was signed on for the role of a small, but powerful don in the film. In January 2014, actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu was added to the cast. Comedian Vivek was approached to play a role in the film, but could not take up the offer as a result of date clashes with Vai Raja Vai. Instead in March 2014, another comedian Soori was signed. Sana Khan was approached to do a special number in the film but she declined the offer as she wanted to promote her Bollywood film Jai Ho. Actress Maryam Zakaria was chosen to do an item number in the film. Chitrangada Singh was chosen for another item number after discussions to have Sonakshi Sinha and later, Kareena Kapoor, in the song were unsuccessful.Filming
In mid-October 2013, a test shoot occurred with Suriya and Malavika Rampradeep, a Bharatanatyam dancer, with the Red Dragon 6K Digital camera along with a high zoom lens. It was reported that it was the first film in the world to be shot with the camera. The technology had not even been used in Hollywood films, according to the makers. Suriya was said to possess two different appearances for filming, starting with a raw and jagged look, whereas, his other look was not yet revealed and that it was kept as a surprise for his fans in the movie. Filming started on 20 November 2013 in Mumbai. A few days before it began, Suriya completed a photo-shoot of the film which was done by still photographer Venkatram. The lead actors were shooting in Mumbai, but came back to Chennai before the one-month schedule. In December 2013 the intro song was filmed with Suriya, Vidyut Jamwal and Maryam Zakaria. The song was shot in a set, worth, that had been erected in Borivali in Mumbai. The first schedule was wrapped in early January 2014. In early February 2014, the crew was shooting for a song sequence in Panchgani. The third schedule started on 5 March 2014 in Mumbai. An item number featuring Manoj Bajpai and Chitrangada Singh was shot in March 2014. The song written by Na. Muthukumar was shot in June 2014 at the Morjim and Miramar beaches of Goa during the final schedule of 10 days.While shooting for the film in Goa, Suriya injured his knee during a stunt sequence. Lingusamy stated that the actor suffered a minor ligament tear when a fighter who weighed about 120 kg fell from a height on his leg. The entire unit panicked when the incident happened but the actor wasn't fluttered. The director clarified that Suriya would be fit and fine soon and that he took a short break from shooting.
Music
The soundtrack and the score for the film were composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, making Anjaan the fourth collaboration between the composer and director Lingusamy. The soundtrack album, features features five tracks, written by Viveka, Na. Muthukumar, Kabilan and Madhan Karky. The album released on 23 July 2014 to positive reviews. The male portion of one of the songs, "Ek Do Theen", was sung by Suriya and became his first attempt at playback singing.Release
Anjaan reportedly set a record for pre-release business of Tamil films as it made around from its distribution, satellite and music rights. To counter unauthorized copying, the owners decided that the film would release only through digital screens and no physical print was allowed for screening it anywhere. Since the film was shot with 6K resolution physical prints offered no additional quality anyway. The makers wanted only digital projection of Anjaan enabling its makers to easily find the sources of leaks through identifying codes. As a result of this initiative, Anjaan became the first Indian film which had a 100% digital release. The film's premiere was held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 14 August 2014, a day before the actual release.Marketing
The first look posters of the film were released on 1 May 2014. The teaser of the film was launched along with the teaser of Kamal Hassan's Uttama Villain during the 8th Vijay Awards held on 6 July 2014 and was simultaneously uploaded to YouTube. The teaser received positive response and crossed 3 million views. Indiaglitz in its review of the teaser said, "One could see the monotony which features in all the gangster flicks, but that has been easily shadowed by the power packed cast and crew". The official trailer of the film was released on 8 August 2014 and aired on Sun Music. The trailer too received positive response and also crossed 1 million views. Behindwoods wrote in its trailer review, "Lingusamy is eyeing another blockbuster here." Indiaglitz in its review, summarised, "Overall, the trailer lives up to the expectation and it is up to the movie now." The video clip of the track "Ek Do Theen", featuring Suriya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu was released on YouTube on 11 August 2014.The official game titled Anjaan Race Wars was developed by Vroovy, a joint venture between Hungama Digital Media Entertainment and Gameshastra, who had previously developed and released the official movie games of Kochadaiiyaan. It released on 28 July 2014. The game play revolved around Suriya chasing the goons in a car. The features of the game included two types of AI – One of them shooting and the other ones try to run away, 5 different cars, including Hummer, featured in the game. Power ups included Nitro, Fuel, Ammo, Instant repair and Shield, while the weapons included Pistol and Shotgun. The game is available on Android and iOS operating systems.
Lingusamy and Suriya went to promote the film in Kochi. Two days before the film's release, Samantha and Lingusamy promoted the film at The Forum Vijaya Mall in Chennai. The entire crew of the film including Suriya, Vidyut Jamwal, Lingusamy, Brinda Sarathy and Yuvan Shankar Raja attended the premiere of the film at Kuala Lumpur.