A psychopath tries to protect his twin brother from a lady he visualizes as his evil stepmother, and eventually ends up fighting with him.
Aalavandhan (2001) Online
The story follows Abhay (Haasan) who has a disturbed childhood and severe mental trauma misunderstands her to be Sister in Law Tejasvini (Raveena Tandon) who is supposed to marry his Army Commando twin brother Major Vijay (Haasan). When Abhay meets Tejasvini, who visualizes her as her evil step mother who was the cause of the fall of his family and the death of both his parents and separation from his twin brother whom he loves dearly. He escapes the mental asylum to fulfill his duty towards his brother by getting rid of the woman. There are a lot of action packed encounters that Abhay has with his own brother, the estranged wife and many other characters including a very fun loving and popular singer - actress Sharmilee (Manisha Koirala) (cameo) who all willingly or unwillingly come in midst of the fight of a right man at the wrong place within wrong circumstances.
| Credited cast: | |||
 | Kamal Haasan | - | Nandhakumar / Major Vijayakumar |
 | Raveena Tandon | - | Tejaswini |
 | Manisha Koirala | - | Sharmilee |
 | Kitu Gidwani | - | Abhay-Vijay's stepmother |
 | Shri Vallabh Vyas | - | Dr. Srinivasa Rao |
 | Milind Gunaji | - | Lt. Col. Santosh Kumar |
 | Vikram Gokhale | - | Abhay-Vijay's uncle |
 | Naveen Nischol | - | Tejaswini's father |
 | Smita Jaykar | - | Tejaswini's mother |
| Rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
 | Anuradha Hasan | - | Nandhu / Vijay's Mother |
 | Riyaz Khan | - | Sultan |
 | Mayilsamy | - | Theatre Patron |
 | Major Ravi | - | Menon |
 | Sarika | - | Cameo |
 | Yashpal Sharma | - | Terrorist Gul |
This movie prevailed as an inspiration for the animated sequence involving fight scenes and violence in the Quentin Tarantino movie - Kill Bill.
The scenes where both Vijay and Nandhu characters appear were not done with the traditional matte or masking shots technique, which always involved static shots (where the camera would not move). 'Aalavandhan' took it one step further by not using any static shots for both characters to appear in, and instead went for a motion-control rig to mount the camera on and film these sequences with shifting camera angles. This expensive rig did not exist in India, so it had to be imported from Australia. Filming twice the same sequences with Vijay first and, weeks later, Nandhu next was thus made much easier from both a cinematographic and technical standpoint. This was the 1st time an Indian film used a motion-control rig.
Upon release in 2001, the film received a very polarizing response from critics and audiences everywhere, who found it difficult to connect with the complicated script and characters, and found the violence, sex and drugs featured to be very repugnant and extreme for mainstream audiences. The technicality, visual effects and Haasan's performance were very praised, however. Over the years, especially with the rise of social media during the late 2000s, the film gained a more positive reaction from the public, who praised the film for its filmmaking style and content. Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino's admission that he was inspired by this film to create the animated fight sequences for his "Kill Bill" films was what incited this reassessment.
15 years following its release, the film was screened at the 2016 Fantastic Fest in US, where it opened to unexpected critical acclaim by all the audiences, most of which were non-Indian Americans.
This film originally featured a nude scene by Kamal Haasan, but this was not permitted by the Indian censor board (CBFC). So, it was deleted from the final print.
Aishwarya Rai was the first choice for Raveena Tandon' s role.
In the film, Anu Haasan plays the mother of Kamal Haasan's characters Nandhu & Vijay. In real life, she is Kamal's niece.
According to director Suresh Krissna, filming of 'Aalavandhan' took more than twice as long than it should have for 2 reasons: The first being Kamal Haasan's two distinct looks (one for which he had to go bald and clean-shaven, besides gaining 10 kg of muscle), as well as the fact that it was simultaneously shot in Hindi as 'Abhay' with a slightly different supporting cast.
Because Kamal Haasan carried two very different looks, filming took twice as long to incorporate both characters in the same scene, which meant that most sets were either retained or recreated exactly as it was before. Vijay's portions were shot first, following which Nandhu's portions were filmed in the same locations with all the technical details noted and reused.
Abhay received the national award for best visual effects.
Tabu was signed for Manisha Koirala's role but opted out.
Kamal Hassan regrets doing this film.
Based on novel Dhayam written by Kamal Hassan in 1984.
Kamal Hassan had to look bulk for negative character of Nandu which was first time he had made a bulk physique in his entire career.
When the film was announced it had Simran and Rani Mukherjee (special appearance)in lead roles.
Quentin Tarantino said that the animated action scenes in the film inspired him to make Kill Bill 2003 in similar way.
It was a festive release during Diwali on 16th November 2001.
Original story written by Kamal Hassan was about twin brothers one being an animal another a trained animal which was the reason he went bald for negative character.
Only time Kamal Hassan was paired with Raveena Tandon.
Film had huge expectations but was a flop upon its release in 2001.In Later years it became a classical film which was much head of its time.
Kamal Hasssan first shot for Vijay's character and then Nandu.
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