Aaru (film)

Aarumugam (Suriya) is a thug and dealmaker with a band of boys handpicked from the slums of Chennai. Aaru was just a child when his parents died on different occasions. Being an orphan, he was brought up by Vishwanathan's (Ashish Vidyarthi) little sister. Aaru is very devoted to Vishwanathan, whom he respects as his brother, and is ready to go miles for keeping him the most powerful person in Chennai. Vishwanathan protects Aaru because the latter gives him the violent undercover that he needs. When Vishwanathan declares war on his bitter rival Reddy (Jaya Prakash Reddy), Aaru assists him. In the process, he is attacked by Reddy's goons, but he overpowers this attempt. Things were going on smoothly when Aaru has to help Vishwanathan on an errand in protecting a girl from being dragged into a hit-and-run case. This is where he meets Mahalakshmi (Trisha). Later on, Mahalakshmi puts forward her proposal, which Aaru declines, and slaps her. Aaru understands his mistake and goes out to invite her to his life. Meanwhile, Vishwanathan plots to kill Aaru's friends during a protest which was organised by him. Aaru smells something fishy about this event and is misguided by Vishwanathan that Reddy is behind the mishap. Aaru sets out to kill Reddy and finds out that he was betrayed by Vishwanathan. Aaru realizes Vishwanathan's true, evil nature and vows to destroy his power. Aaru carefully takes out Vishwanathan's two brothers. In the climax, Aaru is seen traveling out of Chennai with Mahalakshmi without anyone knowing his location.

After directing Ayya, director Hari announced his next project Aaru with Suriya. The film was launched and shooting was started in July 2005.[3][4][5] Director Saran made his debut as a producer in this film by floating a production house "Gemini Productions", named after the 2002 film Gemini.[6]

The soundtrack was composed by Devi Sri Prasad and released by Star Music in India and Ayngaran in other international territories. The album was made up of 6 tracks. The audio was launched in a soft manner.[7] The soundtrack was rerecorded for the Telugu release but retained most of the original singers.

The satellite rights of the film were secured by Sun TV. The film was given an "A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.The film was released on 9 December 2005 alongside Vetrivel Sakthivel, Sandakozhi. The film was given an "A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board due to excessive violence.[9] After the success of Ghajini, Surya has an opening similar to as Aaru releases with approximately 171 prints in Tamil Nadu, the opening weekend tickets for Surya's Aaru have been sold out in Chennai city theatres.[10]The film was also dubbed and released in Telugu under the same name,[11] in Hindi as The Return of Ghajini (2010), [12] and in Bhojpuri as Dharam Ke Awatar.

Sify wrote:"Aaru offers neither insight nor content-just unmitigated violence".[13]IndiaGlitz rated 3 out of 5 stars stating "Devi Sri Prasad's suits the mood and metaphors of the movie. Hari has a way with mass entertainers. We saw that in films like Samy and Tamizh. Now he has had another go at it".[14]

• Aaru on IMDb