Durai (film)

Durai is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by A. Venkatesh, from a story by Arjun, and produced by P. L. Thenappan. It stars Arjun, alongside Kirat Bhattal, Gajala, Suma Guha, Vivek and Vincent Asokan. The music was composed by D. Imman, while cinematography and editing were handled by V. Lekshmipathy and V. Krishnakumar

Durai
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	A. Venkatesh
Written by	G. K. Gopinath (dialogues)
Story by	Arjun
Produced by	P. L. Thenappan
Starring	Arjun Kirat Bhattal Gajala Suma Guha
Cinematography	V. Lekshmipathy
Edited by	V. Krishnakumar
Music by	D. Imman
Production company	Sri Rajlakshmi Film Pvt Ltd
Release date	1 October 2008 (2008-10-01)
Running time	151 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Plot

Raja, who does not remember his past and is haunted by vague memories, works with a cook for Arusuvai Ambi. A sequence of events leads Raja to recollect his real identity as Durai and sets out to avenge his family's death and find the truth behind the death of his mentor Deivanayakam, an honest politician.

Cast

• Arjun as Durai/Raja
• Kirat Bhattal as Anjali
• Gajala as Meena
• Suma Guha as Sandhya
• Vivek as 'Arusuvai' Ambi
• K. Viswanath as Deivanayagam
• Vincent Asokan as Dharma
• Amit Dhawan as Shanmugam
• O. A. K. Sundar as DC Eswara Pandian
• Vennira Aadai Moorthy
• S. N. Lakshmi
• Shanmugarajan
• Stunt Gopal

Production

The female lead role was initially offered to Padmapriya, who was later replaced with Kirat Bhattal.^[1]

Soundtrack

The music was composed by D. Imman. It includes a remix of the song "Raja Rajathi" from Agni Natchathiram (1988), composed by Ilaiyaraaja.^[2]

Song Title	Singers	Lyrics
Adi Aathi	Jassie Gift Timmy Ramya NSK	Thabu Shankar
Aayiram Aayiram	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Raja Rajathi	Karthik	Vaali
Unnai Maathiri	Udit Narayan Shreya Ghoshal	Thabu Shankar
Veddaikkum Sonthakkaran	Karthik Saloni

Critical reception

Chennai Online wrote "Durai is a movie for die-hard Arjun fans".^[3] The Hindu wrote, "The 'Action King' lives up to the sobriquet once again — stunts are a major draw of 'Durai'(U/A). It is his treatment of the story that is found wanting".^[4] Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com wrote, "If you're a keen Arjun fan, you'll get plenty of opportunities to whistle and cheer. If not, you can at least doze your way through".^[5]