Citizen (film)

For the 1982 film of the same name, see Citizen: I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away.

Citizen
Official DVD Cover
Directed by	Sharavanan Subbaiya
Produced by	S. S. Chakravarthy
Written by	Sharavanan Subbaiya Balakumaran
Starring	Ajith Kumar Meena Vasundhara Das Nagma
Music by	Deva
Cinematography	Ravi K. Chandran
Editing by	Sreekar Prasad
Distributed by	Nic Arts
Release date(s)	June 8, 2001 (2001-06-08)
Running time	172 mins
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Citizen (Tamil: சிட்டிசன்) is a 2001 Tamil action film directed by Sharavanan Subbaiya and produced by S. S. Chakravarthy. The film features Ajith Kumar in the lead role as a social activist with Vasundhara Das, Meena and Nagma playing supporting roles. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Deva, whilst cinematography was handled by Ravi K. Chandran. The film opened to positive reviews in June 2001.^[1][2]

Plot

A district collector, a judge, and a police official are all kidnapped in broad daylight. The kidnapper cocking-a-snook at the establishment, calling himself 'Citizen' and appearing in different disguises to get at his targets. C.B.I. officer Sarojini (Nagma) finally traces the common factor among the kidnapped trio to Athippatti, a small hamlet consisting of fishermen. But to her surprise both the village and its 690 odd inhabitants seemed to have been wiped away from the face of the earth. The diggings tell a story of a mass massacre that must have taken place about a couple of decades back. 'Citizen' is finally apprehended. He comes out with his story of the gory happenings at Athippatti and how he, as a little boy, had been the sole survivor of the nightmare that gripped the village that day from the map of India, twenty years back. The entire village was wiped off including women and children by the three kidnapped officials because of their greed for power and money. Ajith wants the citizenship of the three government officials revoked including their families as a punishment for their atrocities to the inhabitants of Athippatti

Cast

• Ajith Kumar as Arivanandam (Citizen/Abdullah/Anthony) and Subramani
• Vasundhara Das as Indhu
• Meena as Sevali
• Nagma as Sarojini Harichandran
• Pandiyan
• Nizhalgal Ravi as Santhanam
• Cochin Hanifa
• Devan as Devasakayam
• Ajay Rathnam as Krishnamoorthy

Production

Early indications suggested that the film directed by Saravana Subbaiyah was a remake of the 1973 English film The Day of the Jackal, but it proved to be untrue.^[3] Ajith Kumar put on weight for the film, which would feature him in nine roles and claimed that he was inspired by Kamal Haasan's award-winning performances in such roles while taking up the film.^[4] Sameera Reddy was originally a part of the cast but opted out as she could not offer bulk dates for the film.^[5] Subsequently singer Vasundhara Das, who had earlier appeared in Hey Ram was roped in to play the leading lady, while Nagma was also selected to essay the role of an officer.^[6] A special feature into the making of the project was broadcast by Sun TV in May 2001.^[7] The make-up man, Anil Premgikar, was referred to the team by Kamal Haasan when Ajith went to give his wedding invitation to Kamal Haasan during the shoot of Hey Ram.^[8]

After months of pre-production, the shoot of the film began on December 28, 2000 with Ajith and Vasundhara Das, with Ravi K. Chandran as cinematographer who had replaced P. C. Sriram in the project.^[9][10] It took six hours daily for Ajith to don the make-up for the role, so found himself waking up at early hours to get ready for the shot. The location for the Athipatty scenes was an island situated on the outskirts of Chennai and it took three hours for the team to travel from the city and then by boat to get there.^[11][12] A scene in the film featured five thousand of Ajith's fans as extras and the shot was canned at Rajaji Hall.^[13] A song in the film was shot in Australia in mid 2002, delaying the proposed release date of May 1.^[14]

Release

The review from The Hindu labelled it as "a slow starter, but it picks up momentum after the first half and peaks to a climax, with a difference", adding that it is a " definite milestone in Ajit's acting career". Furthermore the sync between the dubbing artiste, Anuradha and Nagma was criticised.^[15]

The film was later dubbed and released as Citizen in Telugu, winning positive reviews.^[16] His performance saw him win the Cinema Express Award for Best Actor – Tamil, picking up his second award after previous success in the category in 1999.

References

1. ^ http://www.hindu.com/2001/06/15/stories/09150222.htm
2. ^ http://archives.chennaionline.com/moviereviews/tammov125.asp
3. ^ http://ajithkumar.free.fr/derniere08.htm
4. ^ http://downloads.movies.indiatimes.com/site/dec2000/ivw8.html
5. ^ The Hindu: Cinema Plus / Columns: Grill mill - Sameera Reddy
6. ^ http://ajithkumar.free.fr/derniere07.htm
7. ^ http://hinduonnet.com/2001/05/10/stories/09100462.htm
8. ^ http://ajithkumar.free.fr/filmographie/inter2.htm
9. ^ http://cinematoday2.itgo.com/Citizen.htm
10. ^ http://www.hindu.com/2000/12/29/stories/0429401w.htm
11. ^ http://www.indianexpress.com/Storyold/168736/
12. ^ http://hindu.com/2001/03/09/stories/0909022j.htm
13. ^ http://ajithkumar.free.fr/derniere07.htm
14. ^ http://ajithkumar.free.fr/filmographie/inter21.htm
15. ^ http://cinematoday2.itgo.com/HOTNEWS-%2011072001.htm
16. ^ http://www.idlebrain.com/movie/archive/mrg-citizen.html

External links

• Citizen at Jointscene