Maanja Velu

The film starts with a flashback. ACP Bose (Karthik) is a sincere police officer happily married. He lives with his parents and younger brother Velu (Arun Vijay). Velu is a college student, and he falls in love with his classmate Anjali (Dhansika). Enters Umapathi (Chandrasekar), the villain who is notorious for settlements and land deals. Anjali comes across Bose when she is on a field trip from her college with her friends. She gets friendly with his daughter Pinky, who tells her that she would get her introduced to her uncle Velu, and they would make a good pair. It turns out that Velu studies in Anjali's college and soon after, they come to know each other and get close.

Bose investigate the case of Umapathi, whom no one has been able to touch. He is even involved with a land deal involving crores of money which is completely illegal and others including the DIG is involved. When the chairman of the bank who has lent money for the deal demands the money back as the deal has not worked, Umapathi eliminates him. The people who are customers of the bank take to the streets and try to damage the bank. Bose arrives there, arrests the manager, and takes him away. Somehow, Umapathi comes to know where the manager has been taken. He arrives there with his men and the DIG and nearly kills Bose. Umapathi asks his men to dump the body. On the way, Velu gets involved and ultimately rescues Bose from a burning bus, and Bose dies in Velu's arms. The entire media and the people think Bose has swindled off all the money as they have been made to believe that by the DIG.

Velu decides to take revenge on the people who killed his brother. Firstly he kills Dinesh (Hemanth), his friend and Umapathi's henchman. Then he kills the DIG (he had been taken to jail and he had escaped). Umapathi also kidnaps Velu's entire family. Velu goes to an old temple where he kills Umapathi. He spills the beans that Bose is dead, and he rescues his family under the supervision of the new DIG Gautham Ganesh (Prabhu), who supports him wholeheartedly.

After the success of his film Malai Malai, Arun Vijay teams with Malai Malai team (consists of A Venkatesh, Mani Sharma, Santhanam and producer Mohan) for second time, Venkatesh decided to remake the Telugu film Lakshyam.[1] The film was said to be titled as Maanja Madhan[2] which proved untrue and it is changed as Maanja Velu.[3][4][5]

Suresh Gopi was initially selected to play the role of Arun's elder brother[6] but he was replaced by another senior actor Karthik who made his comeback through this film.[7][8][9] Dhansika, who was one of the five girls in Peraanmai has been selected to play the pair opposite hero making her first project as a solo heroine.[10][11]

First schedule of the film was started with song at Bangkok.[12][13] The climax fight scenes of the film was canned in Ekkattuthangal Burma Colony Muneeswarar Temple, Chennai for last 5 days and it was shot using two outdoor units and four cameras, the set was built like that of a ruined temple with a 50 ft tall 'Aiyanaar' statue was erected at a whoping 65 lakhs.[14] A scene featuring 400 junior artists and 25 stunt artists was canned in a festival set that was erected around the temple. A scene in which Arun Vijay kicking two fighters by jumping from a platform was being shot, for which both the fighters were tied on with a transparent nylon rope, to avoid accidents. Unexpectedly one of the nylon ropes got tangled with Arun Vijay's right arm while he was performing the action. Arun Vijay's elbow was badly injured due to the accident and the whole arm swell at once. Immediately the actor was offered first aid by the stunt master Kanal Kannan and was rushed to the hospital where he was offered emergency treatment, for this scene Arun tonsured his head to give a new look and also hanged upside down which was shot for 7 days.[15][16][17] Songs were shot at Pazhani, Dindigul and Chennai.[18] The title song of the film was shot in Pondicherry schedule with 80 junior artists. Few stunts were shot at Trichy and Stunt master Kanal Kannan has given 45 days of his schedule.[15]

Before the release, Dr. Kalidoss has stated that he had been in the film industry for the past 15 years and that he completed a film titled ‘Thunichal’ with Arun Vijay in the lead in the year 2008. He also stated that though the Censor Board had cleared the film, Arun Vijay had ‘purposely’ delayed the release of the film by not completing his portion of the ‘dubbing’ work. As he had spent Rs.2 crores till date, the producer told Vijay that he couldn't continue to shoot the film. Meanwhile, he was asked by the actor to release Thunichal after his ‘Malai Malai’ released. Due to his non-cooperation, instead of releasing ‘Thunichal’ in 160 theatres, I could release the film only in 16 theatres on 1 January this year, said Kalidoss. Due to this, I incurred a loss of Rs.1.5 crores, he added. "Due to the mental harassment I had to endure because of Arun Vijay, I couldn’t continue my profession as a doctor for the past 4 years. Vijay has to pay me Rs.1.5 crores and till he does so, the release of his ‘Maanja Velu’ should be stayed till the 19th of this month," he had stated in the petition[19] Dr. Mohan, producer of ‘Maanja Velu’ and father-in-law of Arun Vijay, had filed a counter petition with the Court praying for vacation of the stay on the grounds that he, as a producer, had nothing to do with Dr. Kalidoss’ case and requested that as such, his film should be allowed to release on the stipulated date. Advocate G. Murugesh Kumar, who appeared on behalf of Dr. Mohan in the court of Mr. Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, managed to putforth his point of view strongly before the Judge and said that Dr. Kalidoss had ‘wrongly informed’ the Court in the matter. As soon as the Judge announced that he'd be giving the verdict based on the ‘actual nature’ of the case, Dr. Kalidoss is said to have ‘withdrawn’ his petition from the Court. Following this, the Judge dismissed the petition and said that the film could release on 21 May as per its original schedule.[20]

The soundtrack is composed by Mani Sharma and he reused the tunes from the original film Lakshyam. Audio function was attended by Producers Council chief Rama Narayanan, secretary Sivasakthi pandian, director Shakthi Chidambaram, actors Karthik, Shaam, Jai, Sibiraj, Sundar C..[21]

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Kalaignar. The film was given an "A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board and released on 21 May 2010 alongside Magane En Marumagane, Kanagavel Kaaka, Kutti Pisasu, Kola Kolaya Mundhirika and Kutrapirivu.[25]

• Maanja Velu at IMDb