After inspector Dev stirs the reign of Veeraiya, a tribal outlaw, the latter responds by kidnapping his wife, Ragini. While she tries to escape from him, Dev fights many resistances to find her.
Cinematography
Santosh Sivan makes the jungle a living, breathing antagonist.
Acting
Vikram's feral physicality — he actually fell off a cliff shooting.
Direction
Ratnam's Rashomon structure lets no one be innocent.
Director
Mani Ratnam
Vikram
Veeraiya
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Ragini Subramaniam
Prithviraj Sukumaran
Dev Prakash
Karthik Muthuraman
Gnanaprakasam
Prabhu
Singarasan
Munna Simon
Sakkarai
Ranjitha
Annam
Vaiyapuri
Raasathi
Priyamani
Vennila
John Vijay
Hemanth Shankar
Java Sundaresan
Wedding Photographer
Lakshmi Ramakrishnan
Velan's Mother
Saravana Subbiah
Ranjith
N. Azhagamperumal
Photographer
Rohini
Ragini Subramaniam (voice)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Vikram insisted on doing his own stunts, including a 30-foot fall that shattered his leg. Production shut down for months; he returned on crutches to finish dubbing. Method madness.
Ratnam shot simultaneous Tamil and Hindi versions with different lead actors — Vikram plays Ravana in Tamil, Abhishek Bachchan in Hindi. Same director, two entirely different energies of masculine destruction.
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