Arima Nambi is a 2014 Indian Tamil action thriller film directed by Anand Shankar. Vikram
Prabhu and Priya Anand played the lead roles. Drummer Sivamani made his debut as a music
director in the film, which was shot by R. D. Rajasekhar while the editing was done by
Bhuvan Srinivasan. The shoot of Arima Nambi started on 3 June 2013 in Chennai. It released
on 4 July 2014 and received positive reviews and extraordinary collection at the box office.
Plot Arjun Krishna, a technician in a Chennai-based
BMW showroom, meets Anamika Raghunath, a college student, while out with his friends at Hard
Rock Cafe. They immediately fall in love with each other and go on a date the following
night. Following the date, Anamika invites Arjun to her apartment for a bottle of vodka.
Things go well until Anamika gets kidnapped by two men. Arjun, who was in the bathroom
when Anamika was kidnapped, immediately lodges a complaint at the Besant Nagar police station.
Sub-Inspector Arumugam, who is assigned the case, then goes to Anamika's apartment along
with Arjun, but the apartment is now cleaned up and there seems to be no sign that a kidnapping
has taken place, while the apartment's watchman insists that Anamika had not returned to her
apartment for three days. Also, the CCTV camera installed at the apartment does not show any
men arriving and taking away Anamika, prompting Arumugam to suspect that Arjun has lodged
a false complaint as he is drunk. However, when Arumugam calls up Anamika's father Raghunath
Kumar, the chairman of the TV news channel Channel 24, he merely replies that he doesn't
know anything about the kidnapping and that Anamika is holidaying in Goa, at which Arumugam
suspects something amiss, realising that Arjun had not lied after all. Arumugam and Arjun
rush to Raghunath's mansion, where they see him being threatened by the two men who had
kidnapped Anamika as well as the police inspector of Besant Nagar to give them a SD card which
has some critical information. Raghunath calls up his editor and asks him to give the SD
card to the three men, after which he is killed by them. Arjun and Arumugam pursue the three
men. While Arjun manages to kill the police inspector, the other two men escape, killing
Arumugam in the process. Arjun then goes to the Channel 24 office,
where he witnesses the two men coming out of the office with the SD card. He hides in
the SUV which they are travelling in, pursuing them till a brothel, where he finds Anamika
unconscious and gagged. He frees her, takes away the SD card and then escapes with her.
The two men then contact their boss, the Union Minister for Communications and Information
Technology and potential Prime Ministerial candidate Rishi Dev, who decides to rush to
Chennai within the next three hours. Having got the SD card as well as its password,
Arjun inserts the memory card into his mobile phone and sees that it has only one file in
it; a video. The video shows the murder of model-turned-actress Megha Sharma at the hands
of Rishi Dev two days ago and how he had fabricated the incident to make it look like the actress
died due to a gas leak at her mansion. Arjun and Anamika, horrified on seeing this and
also on the extent to which Rishi Dev's henchmen went to keep the video from being seen, decide
to expose Rishi Dev by uploading the video on YouTube. This backfires when Arjun's friend
Raj, brings Rishi Dev's henchmen to the hotel room where Arjun and Anamika are staying,
having been bribed by them to do so. They manage to subdue Raj as well as Rishi Dev's
henchmen and go on the run. Meanwhile, Rishi Dev arrives in Chennai, and
after finding out that Arjun and Anamika attempted to upload the video on YouTube, blocks Internet
access in Chennai. He also lodges a false complaint against them to the police commissioner,
claiming that they killed Raghunath to get his money and also to fuel Anamika's "drug-addiction".
This makes Arjun and Anamika fugitives, with every movement of them now being tracked by
the police. Anamika, in incognito, manages to contact every leading media house to assemble
at the Forum Vijaya Mall at 3 pm as there is going to be a "sensational event" there.
This move backfires completely on Arjun and Anamika, as Anamika accidentally breaks the
SD card, destroying the only piece of evidence which is against Rishi Dev. The police take
advantage of the media assembled at the mall and claim on live television that Arjun and
Anamika are murderers, announcing a 5 lakh reward for those who capture them.
Arjun then hatches another plan to expose Rishi Dev. He contacts Rishi Dev through the
police commissioner, asking him to meet him later that night at his private airfield alone.
At the airfield, he tries to force Rishi Dev to reveal the truth about Megha Sharma's death,
using his mobile phone to record the meeting. But before he can get out the truth, the police
arrive, following which Rishi Dev destroys the mobile phone and beats him up, all the
while revealing that he killed Megha Sharma, but he cannot do anything about it because
he is going to be arrested for the attempted murder of a Union Minister. Unfortunately
for Rishi Dev, Arjun had organized their entire meeting, as well as Rishi Dev's revelation,
using a button camera, with the video having been shared using 3G connectivity to Anamika,
who then ensured that the video was broadcast live by all leading TV news channels, thus
exposing Rishi Dev, who is soon arrested. A few weeks later, Arjun and Anamika, whose
names have now been cleared of all charges, go on another date at a beach resort. During
the date, Arjun proposes marriage to Anamika, to which she agrees.
Cast Vikram Prabhu as Arjun Krishna
Priya Anand as Anamika Raghunath J. D. Chakravarthy as Rishi Dev
Arjunan as Raj Yog Japee as the Police Commissioner
M. S. Baskar as S.I. Arumugam Lekha Washington as Megha Sharma
Release The film released on 4 July 2014 in 1200 screens.
It had its premiere for celebrities and the technical crew at Sathyam cinemas on 3 July
2014. Critical reception
The film released to mixed critical reception but mostly positive reviews from critics mainly
for Vikram Prabhu and Priya Anand performance in this film.
Baradwaj Rangan wrote, "Arima Nambi may not be great art, but at least for a while, it’s
a supremely well-engineered machine. Anand Shankar thumbs his nose at conventional wisdom.
His is a Hollywood sensibility, and his film needs it because it’s a conspiracy thriller
and the only way to make this kind of movie is to make it the Hollywood way". He went
on to call the first half "fantastic" while the second half was "less riveting". The Times
of India gave it 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "The film loses some of its verve in the second
half, which feels a little stretched and all over the place. And, yet, there is enough
cleverness in the writing and assuredness in the execution, especially for a debut film,
to make Arima Nambi stand apart from your usual action thrillers". S. Saraswathi, writing
for Rediff.com said, "A skilfully written plot, deft direction and excellent camera
work make director Anand Shankar's Arima Nambi a highly engaging, action-packed thriller",
and gave it 3 stars out of 5. Sify wrote, "Arima Nambi has very racy first
half but loses steam in the second half. In fact the first half an hour is taut and racy,
but wafer thin storyline, predictable scenes, songs and a long drawn out climax acts as
speed breakers", calling it "a decent attempt by a group of youngsters to make a fairly
decent thriller". Deccan Chronicle, giving the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, wrote, "Anand
Shankar has chosen one intelligent plot with Vikram Prabhu helming the affair, which is
gripping in parts". Bangalore Mirror called the film "a well-crafted, nail-biting thriller,
barring a few romantic scenes in the beginning". Silverscreen described the plot as "familiar",
but said the "difference lies in the packaging – stylish, riveting and clever". Indiaglitz
said the movie was "an action thriller that speeds up, hits the bumper and then shoots
off again". Oneindia.in gave it 2.5 stars and called it "A stylish thriller, which can
been watched once". Box office
The film opened to good response and extraordinary collection at the box office.The film collected
60 crore in domestic market and 11 crore in overseas.The film collected 71 crore worldwide
at the box office.The film declared Blockbuster at the box office
Domestic The film takes a good opening at the box office.The
film marks a biggest opening for both lead actor and actress in this film.The film opened
to 90% - 100% occupancy on first day.In its first day it grossed 8.88 crore at the box
office.On second day it showed improvement it grossed 9.75 crore at the box office.On
third day it got an overwhelming response all over world it collected 11.15 crore at
the box office.The film broke biggest opening weekend for vikram prabhu.The film grossed
29.78 crore in its first weekend.The film did a great business in first week it collected
46 crore at the box office.After the great first week it collection were declined due
to new releases.The film ended up collecting 60 crore in domestic box office.The film declared
blockbuster at the box office. Overseas
The film saw a good opening in overseas.The film's actual collection is not known.But
traders believe that the film ended up by collecting 11 crore at the overseas box office.The
film declared hit at the box office. References
External links Arima Nambi at the Internet Movie Database