N. Lingusamy
Nammalvar Lingusamy, (born 14 November 1965), is an Indian film director, screenwriter and film producer in Tamil cinema based in Chennai. Lingusamy made his directorial debut with the Mammootty starrer family-drama "Aanandham" in 2001 and followed by successful films as "Run" (2002), "Sandakozhi" (2005), "Paiyaa" (2010) and "Vettai" (2012). He and his brother N. Subash Chandrabose have also produced films through his production company, Thirupathi Brothers. Career. Lingusamy born on 14 November 1967 and hails from a village Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. He joined as an assistant director to director "A. Venkatesh" for his Tamil film "Mahaprabhu-123  and followed in his next film Selva". He had also assisted Vikraman in "Vaanathaippola", a family drama on brothers. He made his directorial debut with the Tamil family drama "Aanandham", starring Mammootty. About the film, Linguswamy said: "The film actually is based on real life. Born in a large family I was impressed with the incidents my mother narrated to me. They were deeply etched in my memory and I thought I would use them when I got a chance to direct a film. Thus when Mr. Chowdhry gave me an opportunity I narrated the stories and he found them  highly appealing". Linguswamy originally wanted to title the project, "Thirupathi Brothers", which he later went on to name his production house. "Aanandham" opened to positive reviews in May 2001, with a critic noting that "it is a promising work from the debutant director". The film won several awards including the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil, Cinema Express Award for Best Film – Tamil, and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, while, The Hindu listed the film amongst the best of 2001. His second film was "Run" with Madhavan. The film, too, was a commercially successful and also received good reviews . After the success of "Run", Linguswamy announced his plans of re-collaborating with Madhavan in "Sathyam", a film about student politics. Owing to Madhavan's unavailability, the role went to Ajith Kumar, with the film being newly re-titled "Ji". Upon release the film received positive reviews especially a critic from Indiaglitz praising the film citing that "Lingusamy should be appreciated for giving a movie with pulsating sequences. He has infused the script with all the right ingredients and keeps the tempo of the narration on an even keel." Critics from The Hindu claimed that the film "could have been  better". Similarly the film received a negative review from Rediff.com's critics citing that "Ji is for Ajith fans only!". The film took a large opening all over Tamil Nadu, but later turned out to be a box office failure and sustained a considerable loss for the producer. His next project was "Sandakozhi" with Vishal in his second film. The film was a commercial success grossing $3.5 million at the box office. A critic from Sify in his review wrote: "Lingusamy lives up to his reputation as a director who makes racy action packed family entertainers with his new  release Sandakozhi." In 2005, Vikram signed his next project "Bheemaa", which faced severe delays and only released in January 2008. Upon release, the film gained mixed reviews though reviewers praised Vikram's performance with a critic claiming to see the film "only for him". Similarly the review from "The Hindu" was critical of the excessive violence and mentioned that "as narration gives way after a point, Vikram can only appear helpless". Noted director Gautham Vasudev Menon criticized the film in a leading newspaper. In 2008, Lingusamy began filming his sixth project, "Paiyaa" featuring Karthi and Tamannaah in the lead roles . Upon release the film and its soundtrack by Yuvan Shankar Raja were successful and received generally positive reviews, with most critics calling the film "summer entertainer" and lauding its technical aspects. "Sify" described the film as a "road movie laced with mass elements and extraordinary songs", adding that it is a "jolly good ride" and naming it "technically [...] Linguswamy's his best". A reviewer from the "Times of India", Bhama Devi Ravi, gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing that "the story is not earth-shatteringly new, but what pulls you into the movie is the different spin  that Lingusamy gives to the familiar story". Lingusamy's next made the action masala film "Vettai" with Arya and Madhavan in lead roles. "Vettai" released on the Pongal weekend on 14 January 2012, and received overall mixed to positive reviews as well. Although Lingusamy has worked in Tamil only, his films have been dubbed or been remade in other languages too. Dubbed Telugu versions of "Run", "Sandakozhi" and "Paiyaa", titled "Run", "Pandem Kodi" and "Awara", respectively, were released in Andhra Pradesh and also became commercially successful. "Aanandham" was remade in 2005 as "Sankranti" by Muppalaneni Shiva in Telugu, while Jeeva  remade "Run" in Hindi under the "same title" in 2004. His "Paiyaa" was remade in Bengali in 2012 as "Jaaneman", while in 2013, a Telugu remake of his "Vettai" titled "Tadakha" was released. In 2014, "Anjaan" was released with cast of Suriya and Samantha. The film turned out to be a disaster.Critics lashed at the lack of content. Part of the reason for the film's box office result was due to the hype generated by the film crew pre release which it subsequently could not satisfy and also became the basis of memes generated on social media. The  film was also released in Telugu in the name of Sikandar for the Telugu fans of Suriya and Samantha.