Aadhaar, the upcoming Tamil film led by Karunas, revolves around the notion of identity in the lives of people from lower sections of society, the film’s director Ramnath Palanikumar says to Silverscreen India.
Speaking about the film, Ramnath who has previously helmed Ambasamudram Ambani (2010) and Thirunaal (2016), says, “It follows the lives of simple people, who come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and face several obstacles to establish themselves.”
The film was recently censored with a U/A certificate. It is produced by P Sasee Kumar under the Vennila Creations banner.
Ramnath notes, “There will be multiple characters in the film, with equal importance given to each of them. While Karunaas and Riythvika play a couple, Ineya essays the role of a woman residing in a slum neighbourhood.” Aside from them, Arun Pandian, Uma Riyaz Khan, and Dileepan, among others will also be seen in the film.
Aadhaar marks Ramnath’s second collaboration as a director, with Karunas, after Ambasamudram Ambani, where the actor plays the lead. It is also to be noted that Ramnath had previously penned the screenplay and dialogues for Karunas-starrer Dindigul Sarathy (2008), and the actor has also appeared as a supporting character in Thirunaal. Speaking about collaborating with the actor again, “I wanted the character to be played by someone, who not only fits the appearance of the male character I had in mind, and can subsequently do justice to the role. Karunas seemed like a perfect choice for it.”
The filmmaker has also written the film’s script. “Although, I have directed two films earlier, the mood of cinema and the outlooks of audiences have changed. Only when one starts working on presenting unique content, one can satisfy the audience. I began to write the script back in 2016 and kept the title as Aadhaar as this story has a strong connection to the notion of identity. This will be clearer and easier to comprehend, once audiences watch the film. However, it does not carry any political connotations,” he adds.
On working on the script for nearly six years, Ramnath says, “Sometimes, a story might take a couple of years to complete, or it can we written sooner than that. It is the nature of the script, and we cannot determine how long it might take for a script to be concretely structured. This story demanded time and effort and hence, I took a longer duration to complete it.”
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Aadhaar was shot in Chennai by cinematographer Mahesh Muthuswami, and was wrapped up towards the end of 2021. Talking about shooting the film, the cinematographer tells us, “We wanted to incorporate an organic and fluid rhythm through course of the film. Using an instrument called gimbal, we were able to find that sweet spot between the handheld camera technique and the track/trolley movement of the camera. Although there is a lot of darkness and dim lighting in the film, it is very alive and kicking. As there are construction sites, and a crumbling police station, we used a dust-settled tone to add to the film’s visual language. We have used more muted and rust-toned colours, to add to the visual setting and heighten the mood of the film.”
While the film has been edited by R Ramar, Srikanth Deva has composed the music for the film, and it features one song.
Ramnath concludes that the date and mode of release for Aadhaar have not been announced, as yet.