Citizen (film)

Citizen is an Indian 2001 Tamil Action Revenge Thriller film written and directed by Saravana Subbiah and produced by S. S. Chakravarthy. The film features Ajith Kumar in Dual Lead Roles as a Father and Son with Meena, Vasundhara Das and Nagma playing the supporting roles. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by Deva, and cinematography was handled by Ravi K. Chandran. The plot of the film revolves around Arivanandham alias Citizen, a Hindu adhering to Hinduism who disguises himself as a Christian named Anthony, and as a Muslim named Abdullah, in order to seek revenge from his village's destroyer and also to get justice for the Indian Law. The film was declared as a Super-Hit at the box office, with media also praising and appreciating Ajith's performance, and since this movie, Ajith has a pet nickname called "The Ultimate Star".

Plot

A district collector, judge, and police official are all kidnapped in broad daylight. The kidnapper calls himself 'Citizen' and appears in various disguises to get at his targets. C.B.I. officer Sarojini (Nagma) finally traces the common factor among the kidnapped trio to the fictional hamlet of Athippatti, inhabited by fishermen, but to her surprise, the village does not appear on the official gazette maps. Excavations reveal evidence of a massacre that must have taken place a couple of decades previously. 'Citizen' is finally apprehended. He explains that as a child he was the sole survivor of the massacre twenty years previously, and reveals that the three kidnapped officials perpetrated the massacre to gain power and money, and he wants the citizenship of the three government officials and their families to be revoked as a punishment for their atrocities.

Cast

Production

Early indications suggested that the film directed by Saravana Subbiah was a remake of the 1973 English film The Day of the Jackal, but it proved to be untrue.^[1] Ajith Kumar put on weight for the film, which would feature him in nine roles, and he claimed that he was inspired by Kamal Haasan's award-winning performances.^[2] Sameera Reddy was originally a part of the cast but canceled due to conflicting commitments.^[3][4] Subsequently, singer Vasundhara Das, who had earlier appeared in Hey Ram, was chosen to play the leading lady, while Nagma was selected to essay the role of a police officer.^[5] A special feature on the making of the film was broadcast by Sun TV in May 2001.^[6] Gemini Ganesan was also initially meant to play a role in the film, but his character was later altered in the script and replaced by Pandiyan.^[7]

After months of pre-production, shooting started on 28 December 2000 with Ajith and Vasundhara Das, with Ravi K. Chandran as cinematographer who had replaced P. C. Sriram in the project.^[8][9] 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.^[10][11] A scene filmed at Rajaji Hall featured five thousand of Ajith's fans as extras.^[5] A song in the film was shot in Australia in mid 2000, delaying the proposed release date of 1 May.^[12]

Release

Upon release Citizen received positive reviews from critics and was successful and completed 100-day run at the box office, justifying a relatively large budget of ₹5 crore. The review from The Hindu labelled it as a "definite milestone in Ajit's acting career", but criticised the synchronisation between the dubbing artiste, Anuradha, and Nagma.^[13]

The film was later dubbed and released as Criminal in Telugu, to mixed reviews.^[14] The actor and director began to work on another project titled Itihasam, written by Sujatha and focusing on caste issues, but the production was shelved.^[15]

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Deva.

References

External links

• Citizen on IMDb