Attahasam

The movie begins with Jeeva, a driving instructor, leading a happy life with his mother. He also falls in love with Swapna after several mishaps. Jeeva's mother hides the truth from her son that his father was murdered by a rowdy named Manthiram. The mother, much against Jeeva's wish, packs off his twin brother Guru with a family who offers to adopt him, who had been witness to the murderer from a close quarter, to a distant town. Guru escapes from the family, goes to Thoothukudi, and grows to become a gangster there. When Jeeva visits Thoothukudi, he comes across his brother Guru, also called Thala. Seizing the opportunity, Guru kidnaps Jeeva and decides to go to Chennai and pass himself off as Jeeva. Initially, he plans to take revenge on his mother for packing him off from their house at a very young age. He hurts her at every step and even plans to sell off all their property. On the other hand, Jeeva is mistaken as the gangster and is subject to attacks by the local gangsters of Thoothukudi. He escapes from them and returns to Chennai to save his mother. In the meantime, Guru learns of his father's death and that Manthiram was the cause for the same. He avenges his father's death and leaves Jeeva to live happily with his mother and then goes off to jail to keep his mother in belief that he is somewhere in the world living happily.

Saran and Ajith Kumar collaborated for the third time after the successes of Kaadhal Mannan (1998) and Amarkalam (1999). Between then and 2004, the pair began shooting for another project for Poornachandra Rao titled Erumugam also starring Richa Pallod, before Ajith Kumar pulled out and the pair subsequently fell out.[2] However Ajith Kumar's wife played a role in reconciling the pair and Saran worked on a fresh script for the actor. Kiran was initially roped in to play a second leading female role after her other film opposite Ajith Kumar, Mahaa, was shelved but Saran later deleted her character from the project. According to Saran in an interview, the story of the film was narrated to Vijay before Ajith.[3][4] The filming was kept on hold for few months as Saran got an opportunity to direct Vasool Raja MBBS.[5]

The shooting progressed in October 2004 around Tuticorin and a scene created a ruckus among the public as they mistook the action to be real, as the region had seen similar daylight murders and fights among local mafia in the past.[6] Songs from the film were shot in Romania and Pollachi.[7] The film released on Diwali 2004.[8][9]

The music was composed by Bharadwaj and Released on Classic Audio.[10]

Despite a last minute financial crunch, Attahasam was released on 300 screens worldwide as Ajith agreed to pay a hefty amount to the producer for settling his liability to the financier. Oscar Ravichandran gave a significant amount to clear the producer’s debt in lieu of the satellite rights of the film, which in turn were sold to Jaya TV.[11][12]

Visual Dasan of Kalki called Attahasam a dramatic breakthrough for Ajith.[13] Malini Mannath wrote for Chennai Online, "‘Attagasam’ is a fun film, unpretentious and light-hearted, an enjoyable time-pass film."[14]

• Attahasam at IMDb