Marina (2012 film)

Ambikapathy (Pakoda Pandian) is an orphan runaway who escapes from his cruel uncle to Chennai and eventually ends up at Marina Beach. He earns his livelihood by selling drinking water packets and later poached chickpeas to people visiting the beach. His calm and mature manners win him the admiration and later the friendship of other boys employed at the beach. Ambikapathy dreams of being educated, so he works in the day to save money for schooling whilst trying to study at night on his own. His desire to be enrolled in a proper school slowly begins to rub off on the other children on the beach. An old man (Sundararajan) and postman (Jithan Mohan) are the guardian of sorts for these street-children. The beach also attracts many lovebirds; one such couple is Senthilnathan (Sivakarthikeyan) and Swapnasundari (Oviya).

• Sivakarthikeyan as Senthilnathan (Senthil) debut film
• Oviya as Swapnasundari (Swapna)
• Pakoda Pandian as Ambikapathy
• Gautham Purushoth as Kailasam
• Jithan Mohan as Postman
• Sundararajan as Old Man
• Sathish
• Senthi Kumari as Swapnasundari's mother
• Sathish as Makudu, Senthil's friend
• Ramesh Thilak as Courier Boy
• Jayaprakash in a guest appearance as school owner

Special appearances in Promotional song by :

• Vikram
• Prakash Raj
• Sasikumar
• Ameer
• Sneha
• Vimal

Like Pandiraj's debut film Pasanga, Marina too revolves around children, focusing on street-children at Chennai's the Marina beach, who peddle snacks and knick-knacks to survive. The film is said to be inspired from Mira Nair's critically acclaimed Hindi film Salaam Bombay! (1988).[7]

The satellite rights of the film were secured by STAR Vijay. The film was given a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.

Marina opened at No.1 accounting for 51% of the takings in Chennai box office[8] and 39% in its second weekend.[9]

Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com rated Marina 3/5 stating that it is "worth a watch."[10] Rohit Ramachandran of Nowrunning.com rated it 2/5 calling it a "failed attempt at making a companion piece to Pasanga."[4] Sify's Moviebuzz dismissed the film as "boring."[11] Behindwoods Review Board rated it 2.5/5 calling Marina a "pleasant beach"[12]

The soundtrack of Marina, composed by the debut music director London based musician Girishh G, was released on 9 January 2012 at the Marina Beach.[13] The song "Vanakkam Vaazhavaikkum Chennai", penned by Na. Muthukumar, which talks about life in Chennai, would feature several noted film personalities.[14] The songs received positive reviews.

• Marina at IMDb