Amaran (2024 film)

Amaran (transl. The Immortal) is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language biographical action war film written and directed by Rajkumar Periasamy and produced by Raaj Kamal Films International, together with Sony Pictures Films India. The film stars Sivakarthikeyan as Major Mukund Varadarajan and Sai Pallavi as Mukund's wife Indhu Rebecca Varghese. It is an adaptation of the book India's Most Fearless: True Stories of Modern Military Heroes by Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh, which consists of a chapter on Mukund. The film follows Indhu, who is on her way to receive the Ashoka Chakra award on behalf of her late husband Mukund, remembering his life and career.

The film was officially announced in January 2022 under the tentative title Sivakarthikeyan 21, as it was Sivakarthikeyan's 21st film as a lead actor. The official title was announced in February 2024. Principal photography commenced in May 2023 with the first schedule at Jammu and Kashmir, which continued for 75 days over the next three months. The subsequent portions of the movie were shot in Chennai and Pondicherry, and the shooting was wrapped after a year in May 2024. The music for the film was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, cinematography was handled by CH Sai and editing was done by R. Kalaivanan.

The film was released in theatres worldwide on 31 October 2024 coinciding with Diwali. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised cast performances, direction, screenplay, and music and set several box office records, emerging as the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2024, seventh highest-grossing Indian film of 2024, eight highest-grossing Tamil film of all time and the fourth highest-grossing film in Tamil Nadu. Amaran achieved the highest online tickets ever sold Tamil film in the year 2024.

Plot

Indhu Rebecca Varghese, the widow of Major Mukund Varadarajan, travels by plane to New Delhi to receive the Ashoka Chakra award on behalf of her husband. During the journey, she reminisces about her life with Mukund, and Mukund's military career.

A young Mukund is deeply influenced by the Indian Armed Forces. During his college years in Chennai, he meets Indhu, and their connection grows gradually. They eventually love each other despite Indhu's initial reservations about Mukund's aspiration to become a soldier, and the religious differences between their families. After finishing college, Mukund enlists in the Indian Army, and is trained at the Officers Training Academy in Chennai. He is commissioned as a lieutenant in the Rajput Regiment. Despite their geographical separation and Indhu's family's reluctance to marry her off to a soldier, they eventually get married. Soon after, they get pregnant and have a daughter.

The narrative shifts to Mukund's posting as a major to the Rashtriya Rifles in Jammu and Kashmir, where the Indian army is engaged against insurgency. Mukund fights his emotions and the desire to return to his wife and young daughter. He establishes a bond with the locals, tries to bridge the divide between the military and the civilians, and gains access to information on militants from the social circles. Mukund's convoy is attacked by militants led by Altaf Baba. While several Indian army men are hurt in the attack, Mukund kills Baba with the help of his army colleague Sepoy Vikram Singh. With his command and bravery, he earns a respect among his fellow soldiers, and his commanding officer Colonel Amit Singh Dabas.

The second part of the story revolves around a counter militancy operation at Qazipathri village in Shopian district. Mukund leads a team of soldiers, who are tasked with neutralizing a group of armed terrorists hiding in a safe house, amongst civilians. Mukund commands his men to ensure the safety of civilians. With the approaching darkness, Mukund paired with Vikram, enter the safe house, and engage in gun fire with the militants. All the three militants are killed in the operation, in which Mukund sustains bullet injuries. Despite attempts to transport him to a medical center, he succumbs to his injuries. His death leaves the regiment and his commanding officer devastated, while they salute him.

The film ends with Mukund's distraught family performing his last rites, and Indhu later receiving the Ashoka Chakra award from the Indian president. Fighting her tears, she finds strength in knowing Mukund lived and died as a true soldier. Actual footage from the life of Mukund and his family is shown during the credits.

Cast

Production

Development

After the release of Rangoon in 2017, Rajkumar Periyasamy began working on a new project, which was set to be his second directorial. It was set to be produced by Kamal Haasan, in his second collaboration with the director after the latter previously worked on a reality show hosted by Haasan. Vakil Khan suggested Rajkumar to make a biographical film about Major Mukund Varadarajan, based on the book India's Most Fearless by Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh, which included a chapter about Mukund. Khan said that he would secure the filming rights of the book from Sony Pictures, which later gave the rights and funded the venture. Haasan agreed to Rajkumar's request and agreed to jointly fund the film with Sony Pictures.

Previously, Sivakarthikeyan had collaborated with Rajkumar before they both entered in the film industry, where they had worked for private Tamil television channels on several projects and shows. In January 2022, during the finale of Bigg Boss: season 5, Haasan announced the project without revealing any information on the story line. On 15 January, the actor's production company, Raaj Kamal Films International, along with Sony Pictures, made a public announcement on making of the film, tentatively titled #Sivakarthikeyan21 (actor's 21st film) and Production #51 (51st production for Raaj Kamal Films). The film's official title Amaran was revealed on 16 February 2024, on the eve of Sivakarthikeyan's birthday after Rajkumar gained permission from the makers of the 1992 film of the same name.

Pre-production

In an interview with Ananda Vikatan, Rajkumar stated that he visited Mukund's family to gather information about the latter's life earlier that helped him write the screenplay for the film. A muhurat puja was held on 5 May 2023 at the headquarters of Raaj Kamal Films in Chennai with the film's cast and crew along with Mukund's family. However, the participation of Mukund's family was not made public so as to not reveal the film being a biopic about Mukund. G. V. Prakash Kumar was chosen to score the background music for the film, in his first collaboration with Periyasamy. Production designer Rajeevan, cinematographer CH Sai, editor R. Kalaivanan, stunt choreographers Anbariv, dance choreographer Sherif, costume designers Amritha Ram, Sameera Saneesh and V. Sai joined the film as a part of the technical crew.

Casting

Initially, Rajkumar and Haasan scouted for a debutant to portray the role of Mukund. Based on the suggestion of Mahendran, co-head of Raaj Kamal Films, Sivakarthikeyan was roped to portray the role in the film. Sivakarthikeyan underwent a training regimen for almost a year during the pre-production process for the role. He also covered his head with a beanie in public, so as to not reveal his hairstyle until the film's first look poster was released. Rajkumar stated that the actor also went through a workshop at Mumbai to change his body-language from a soft-spoken to an army officer. Sai Pallavi was paired opposite Sivakarthikeyan, in her first pairing with the actor. She played the role of Mukund's wife Indhu, and received a remuneration of ₹30 million (US$350,000). Bollywood actor Bhuvan Arora was revealed to portray the role of sepoy Vikram Singh, in his debut Tamil film. He stated that he dedicated the role to his father, who served in the army. Later, Rahul Bose, Ajaey Naga Raaman, Mir Salman, and Gaurav Venkatesh were also confirmed to be part of the cast.

Filming and post-production

Principal photography began with the first schedule on 5 May 2023 at Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir. The filming was halted for security reason during the 2023 G20 New Delhi summit, before resuming by 22 May. Sivakarthikeyan returned to Chennai in late May after finishing the first part of the schedule. After a short break, filming resumed on 7 June, before being paused briefly from 15 July. The filming of the first schedule concluded on 27 August, and had lasted for 75 working days. The second schedule began on 21 October at a film city in Chennai, for filming a song sequence featuring Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi. On 9 November, the film shooting moved to Puducherry. Sivakarthikeyan sported a clean-shaven look in mid-December, for filming Mukund's younger portions. In an interview with Ananda Vikatan in February 2024, Rajkumar stated that only minor portions of film were yet to be completed. The unit started the final schedule on 26 April 2024, and shot the climax scenes involving Sivakarthikeyan and Bhuvan. The filming was wrapped by 25 May 2024. The visual effects for the film were handled by Unifi Media.