Autograph (2004 film)

Autograph
Poster
Directed by Cheran
Produced by Cheran
Written by Cheran
Starring Cheran
Gopika
Sneha
Mallika
Music by Original songs:
Bharathwaj
Background Score
Sabesh-Murali
Cinematography Ravi Varman
Vijay Milton
Dwarakanath
Shanky Mahendran
Edited by S. Sathesh
J. N. Harsha
Production
company
Dream Theatres
Release date
  • 20 February 2004 (2004-02-20)
Running time
 168 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil

Autograph is a 2004 Tamil film directed by Cheran. The film's soundtrack is composed by Bharathwaj. Cheran also plays the lead role in the film, and other cast members include Gopika, Sneha and Mallika.While Kanika made a Special appearance. The film was released in India in February 2004, and was screened at the Lyon Asian Film Festival in France and at the Montreal World Film Festival in Canada. Upon release, the film met with critical acclaim and commercial success. Although a sequel to the film titled Autograph 2 was announced, it never materialized.[1] While it is thought that the movie is based on the 1995 Hollywood movie Beyond the Clouds, the movie is more likely based on the 1993 Hindi movie Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda. The film was remade in Telugu as Naa Autograph , in Kannada as My Autograph and in Bengali as Amar Aponjon.

Plot

The romantic story begins with Senthil (Cheran) setting off on a journey, to invite his friends and family for his forthcoming wedding. Along the way, he encounters various individuals from his past, who bring back memories of three women that have influenced his love life.

The movie begins with Senthil, who runs an advertising agency, boarding a train to visit his native village to invite all his friends for his wedding. During the journey he reminisces his teenage days. The happenings in the school, his tussle with his friends and his first love with his classmate, Kamala (Mallika), are all pictured with fun and drama. Senthil reaches the village and invites all including Kamala, who promises to come to the wedding, with her husband and three children.

Then, he goes to Kerala where he had his college education. His major crush at that time was Lathika (Gopika), a Malayalee girl, with whom he falls in love but later the affair proves to be short-lived as her parents marry her off to her cousin, Madhavan. On reaching Kerala to invite her, Senthil is slightly disturbed to see his ex-lover as a widow. He attempts to re-kindle his love for her, but she corrects him.

On his journey he comes across his trusted friend Divya (Sneha), who instills confidence and elucidates him to the life lesson - that one has to go ahead in life without looking back. While she and Senthil travel on a bus, she reveals her tragic experience, that her mother is a paralytic patient and that she is the bread-winner of the family. As time passes by, she reveals that she was in love with someone and believed that he was the man of her life, but was let down. A poetic narration on the need for a good companion like Senthil who gives attention to her is stressed, even if it isn't possible at his stage.

In the end, Senthil gets married to a girl of his parents choice, Thenmozhi (Kanika), and all the three girls, who were a part in his life, and his school-college friends attend his wedding. Also this sets a very jovial ending to the story.

Cast

  • Cheran as Senthil Kumar
  • Sivaprakasam as Senthil Kumar, young age
  • Gopika as Lathika
  • Sneha as Divya
  • Mallika as Kamala
  • Kanika as Thenmozhi
  • Ilavarasu as Narayanan Teacher
  • Karuppiah Bharathi as Narayanan Teacher, old age
  • Krishna as Kamalakannan
  • Benjamin as Oolamookkan Subramani
  • Lingeswaran as Oolamookkan Subramani, young age
  • Rajesh as Senthil's father
  • Vijaya Singh as Senthil's mother

Reception

"It is quite natural for students to get autographs on the last day of their school and college life. But how many of them flip through the autograph book and rewind their memories in the later stages of their life. Autograph, a film, is one such attempt made by director Cheran to rewind the memories of his early childhood and youthful days with spotlight on his romantic escapades. Interestingly with no cinematic touches, Autograph is sure to delight one and all to recall their memories and enjoy the past". The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Jaya TV.

Production

In an interview in June 2001, Vikram revealed he had signed on to portray the lead role in the project; however, he later opted out as a result of scheduling problems.In 2018 during Vikatan's Press Meet in, Arvind Swami revealed that he was offered the main role but, he declined the role because he retired from cinema that time period. Aravind Swamy was happy that he did not accept the role because he was pleased that Cheran got the opportunity to become an actor and delivered a great performance. [2] Cheran said that the film was partly autobiographical.[3] Four different cinematographers worked on the film; Ravi Varman had shot the school episode in Senthil’s early life with a 35 mm lens, Vijay Milton shot the Kerala scenes, Dwaraknath shot the Chennai episode with a steady cam and Shanky Mahendran shot the "'live' part" of the film when the camera uses the point of view of Senthil's character.[3]

Awards

The film has won the following awards since its release:

52nd National Film Awards (India)

52nd Filmfare Awards South

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

Soundtrack

The soundtrack features 7 songs composed by Bharathwaj, with lyrics by Pa. Vijay, Snehan and Cheran himself.

Track list

  • Gnyabagam Varudae – Bharathwaj Lyrics Cheran
  • Kizhakke Paarthen – Yugendran, Foni
  • Maname Nalama – Bharathwaj
  • Manasukkulle Dhagam – Harish Ragavendra, Reshmi
  • Meesa Vecha Perandi – Kovai Kamala, Karthik
  • Ninaivugal Nenjinil – Unni Menon Lyrics Cheran
  • Ovvoru Pookalume – K. S. Chithra

The film's background was scored by the famous duo Sabesh-Murali.

Box office

Autograph was a sensation and emerged an underdog success story. From 67 prints at the time of release, the number went up to 90 after 25 days. The film theatrical rights were sold for ₹2.5 crore and yielded a distributor share of ₹10 crore in its lifetime.[4]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/39633.html
  2. ↑ "Arts & Culture". Tamilguardian.com. 20 June 2001. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  3. 1 2 http://www.sify.com/movies/malayalam/interview.php?id=13429274&cid=2408
  4. ↑ Autograph yields 10 crore share for distributors
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