Thoranai

Thoranai (transl. Posture) or Pistha (transl. Person with attitude) is a 2009 Indian masala film directed by Sabha Ayyappan and produced by Vikram Krishna under the banner G K Film Corporation. It stars Vishal and Shriya Saran in the lead roles, while Prakash Raj, Kishore and Santhanam appear in other pivotal roles. The film was simultaneously shot in Tamil and Telugu languages with different supporting cast in the Telugu version. Thoranai and Pistha were released on 29 May 2009.^[1]

Thoranai
Theatrical release poster of Tamil version
Directed by	Sabha Ayyappan
Written by	Sabha Ayyappan
Produced by	Vikram Krishna
Starring	Vishal Shriya Saran Prakash Raj
Cinematography	Priyan
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan
Music by	Mani Sharma
Production company	G K Film Corporation
Release date	29 May 2009 (2009-05-29)
Running time	148 minutes
Country	India
Languages	Tamil Telugu

Plot

Murugan is a native of Madurai who arrives at Chennai to find his long-lost brother Ganesan, who had run away from home about two decades ago. Murugan gets stuck in a rivalry between gangsters Guru and Tamizharasu, where he learns that Guru is actually Ganesan. Murugan decides to protect Guru/Ganesan from Tamizharasu and a cat-and-mouse game ensues. Guru/Ganesan finally decide to reform himself where he reunites with Murugan and his mother, while Tamizharasu is killed in a police encounter.

Cast

Actor (Tamil)	Actor (Telugu)	Role (Tamil)	Role (Telugu)
Vishal		C. Murugan (CM)	C. Muralikrishna "Krishna" (CM)
Shriya Saran		Indu
Prakash Raj		Tamizharasan	Suryaprakash
Santhanam	Ali	Vellaichamy	Chittibabu
Kishore		Ganesan (Guru)	Rambabu (Guru)
Sriman		Ganesan	Rambabu
Aarthi		Indu's friend
Geetha		Murugan's mother	Muralikrishna's mother
Sayaji Shinde		Minister Sivanaandi
M. S. Bhaskar	Tanikella Bharani	Tamizharasan's assistant	Suryaprakash's assistant
Paravai Muniyamma	Telangana Shakuntala	Pachamma Patti
Livingston	Surya	Murugan's father	Krishna's father
Pandiarajan	Krishna Bhagavaan	Walter Vetrivel	Walter Rangaraju
Lal		Chennai Police Commissioner	Vizag Police Commissioner
Suruli Manohar	Srinivasa Reddy	Constable
Mayilsamy	M. S. Narayana	Watchman
T. P. Gajendran	Kondavalasa	Apartment Secretary
Suman Shetty		Murugan's friend	Krishna's friend
Nellai Siva		Resident
Shanmugarajan		Corrupt inspector
Muthukaalai	Kallu Chidambaram	Bike customer
Besant Ravi		Guru's henchman
Sampath Ram		Guru's henchman
Aryan		Tamizharasan/Suryaprakash's henchman
Periya Karuppu Thevar	Rallapalli	Panchayat Man
Swaminathan		Cashier
Senthi Kumari		Indu's friend
Manobala	Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam	Birth and Death administration officer
Boys Rajan		Police officer
Dhadi Balaji	Chitram Seenu	Bystander who pretends to be blind
Kullamani		Cyclist who laughs at Indu
Karate Raja		Rowdy
Kadhal Saravanan		Waiter
Scissor Manohar	Duvvasi Mohan	Man who asks for lift
Raviraj
Unknown	Annapoornamma	Krishna's grandmother
Unknown	Gautam Raju	Traffic police officer
Meenakshi		Item number in "Vedi Vedi" and "Pidi Pidi"

Production

The film was initially to be produced by Singanamala Ramesh with Reema Sen as another heroine but, later got shelved and Shriya was confirmed as the single pair for Vishal.^[2]

Music

Tamil version^[3]

Song	Singers	Length	Lyrics
"Vedi Vedi Saravedi"	Naveen, Ranjith	4:26	Viveka
"Vaa Chellam"	Udit Narayan	5:07	Pa. Vijay
"Pattucha"	Vijay Yesudas, Janani Madhan	3:58	Kabilan
"Peliccan Paravaigal"	Ranjith, Rita, Rahul, Jai	4:07	Vaali
"Manjasela Mandakini"	Tippu, Saindhavi	4:20	Pa. Vijay
"Vaa Chellam" (Version 2)	Ranjith	5:07

Telugu version^[4]

• "Pidi Pidi" - Ranjith, Naveen
• "Naa Maharani" - Udit Narayan
• "Pattuko Pattuko" - Narayanan, Janani Madhan
• "Oka Pelican" - Rahul, Suchithra
• "Naa Maharani" - Ranjith
• "Mandakini" - Tippu, Saindhavi

Critical reception

Sify wrote "Arbitrarily packing in elements of every genre without actually bothering to stop and see if the mix does work, Thoranai is like an overcooked stew."^[5] Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff wrote "Thoranai's only merit is that it's marginally better than Sathyam.^[6] The Times of India gave 2/5 stars and wrote "It is a formidable star cast that you see in Thoranai. However, what is missing is a convincing story".^[7] Reviewing the Telugu version, BVS Prakash of The Times of India gave 1.5/5 stars and wrote "Inspite of a dud like Salute, Tamil star Vishal hasn't realised the significance of a solid plot even for a star-centric film."^[8]