Dynamic Director N. Lingusamy

Born  on 14 November in Thirucherai village, Kumbakonam Taluk, Thanjavur district.

N. Linguswamy is a Tamil film director, screenwriter and film producer, working primarily in Tamil cinema based in Chennai. He made his directorial debut with the family-drama Aanandham in 2001 and followed it up with the highly successful action films Run (2002), Sandakozhi (2005), Bheema (2008) and Paiyaa (2010). He and his brother Subash Chandrabose have also produced films through his production company, Thirupathi Brothers

Director Linguswamy is one of the prominent directors of Kollywood film Industry. He hails from a village(THIRUCHERAI) near Kumbakonam. Entering the tinsel world was not easy for this energetic talented man. Being born and brought up in a village atmosphere, he grew watching movies which was their ultimate entertainer. In his young age he used to watch all the movies of Director Bhagyaraj and was a great fan of his method of film making and screen play. After much struggle he joined as an assistant director to director A. Venkatesan for his Tamil film Mahaprabhu and followed in his next film Selva. He met so many obstacles to make his debut film. He made his debut Tamil film Anandam. A complete family entertainer with mega star Mammootty, he tasted huge success. 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". The film was successful and received positive reviews.

His second film was Run with Madhavan who played action-hero for first time in this film. About the project, his words were "Something like this happened in my life too, when I can to Chennai to try my luck in films. I got into a bus and saw a girl sitting on the last seat. I kept looking at her but she did not notice me. My bus stop came and I got down feeling very disappointed. Just as I was about to step off the bus, she looked up and made eye contact. I felt very happy. I jumped back into the running bus. She must have been very surprised to see me back. When she got down, I followed her. After some time she turned back and asked me why I was following her and I said because she looked at me. I asked her some question about herself and she some about me. Later when I got to know her better, I found out that she had given me wrong information about herself. Her reason, Why should I tell you everything in our first meeting?' This inspired me when I was doing the railway station scene. For the hero Madhavan fit the role perfectly with his chocolate boy looks. I have used Madhavan differently in this movie. He has a more action-oriented role here. The heroine Meera Jasmine has given a very good performance. Initially I had picked out another name for the movie. But the producer A.M. Rathnam suggested that I call it Run. He felt that the name was more suitable as it was a movie for young people". Run too was a superhit and also received good reviews.

After the success of Run, N. Linguswamy announced his plans of re-collaborating with Madhavan in Sathyam, a film about student politics to be produced by A. M. Rathnam, but Madhavan opted out due to his work in Mani Ratnam's Aayutha Ezhuthu.[8] Linguswamy then approached Ajith Kumar in September 2003 to star in the film and the actor accepted with S. S. Chakravarthy taking over as producer for the film newly re-titled Ji. Initial reports suggested that either Kutty Radhika or Nisha Kothari would be signed on as heroine, though the role was later given to Trisha Krishnan.

In January 2004, Linguswamy and Ajith clashed over the script of the film during the shoot in Kumbakonam, giving first indications of the instability of the unit. Linguswamy revealed that half way through the production of Ji, he had a bad gut feeling about it and was quick to move on to the production of his next venture, Sandakozhi.Ajith Kumar suddenly moved on to work in A. R. Murugadoss's Mirattal in March 2004, leaving Ji temporarily shelved. He returned in July 2004 and was injured during the shoot of the film. Shooting was again cancelled by the producer in August 2005 as he ran into financial troubles with the cancellation causing Trisha and Ajith Kumar to give priority to other films.

The first release date set for the film had been August 2004 although this was passed due to the delays of Ajith's other films a the time - Attagasam and Jana. Subsequently several release dates were mentioned across late 2004 and then a promotional spree began signalling that the film would be released on January 14, 2005. Trisha's other commitments had left three songs unshot and the film was postponed from that date to February 4. It later released on February 14, 2005.

Upon release, film received negative reviews especially, A critic form Indiaglitz.com praised 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", with a claim that Ajith "often looking either subdued or confused, and goes through the motions with very little involvement". 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 collections began to slide after three days. Two days after the release director Lingusamy edited 1350 feet (17 Minutes) of the film in the second half as people complained about the length of the film. Ji later turned out to be a box office disaster and sustained a considerable loss for the producer. In the second week the competition from Vijay's Sukran also affected Ji and from a 100 percent opening the film has fallen to 30 percent collections in its second week in all stations.

His next project was Sandakozhi with Vishal in his second film. The film was successful and ran for 210 days The film was a commercial success grossing $3.5 million at the box office.

In 2005, Vikram signed his next project Bheemaa. the film facing severe delays and only releasing in January 2008. Vikram revealed that he approached the film like an actor even though the film's script was written "for a star".Upon release, the film gained mixed reviews though reviewers praised Vikram's performance with a critic claiming that "Vikram breathes life into the film", "he looks sensational with his toned body, killer looks unarguably delivers yet another outstanding performance of his career" and 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".

In September 2007, while working on Bheema, a film starring Vikram, Linguswamy announced that Karthi would star in his next venture to be launched in January 2008. He said that he had written a story "suitable for Karthi", further adding that it would be "an action oriented film". The following month, sources suggested that he was planning a bilingual project, filming simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu with Karthi and Ram Charan Teja, respectively. However in early November, reports claimed that Vishal would portray the protagonist after Linguswamy had considered Jayam Ravi for the lead character. The reports proved to be false and Karthi was confirmed as the lead actor of the film.

The film failed to begin production in January 2008, with sources reporting in March that Linguswamy was still working on the script. The film was yet to be titled. It was to feature the main crew members of Bheema, including music director Harris Jayaraj, cinematographer R. D. Rajasekhar and editor Anthony. Linguswamy later announced the film with an entirely new crew; Yuvan Shankar Raja replaced Jayaraj as the film's music composer, and Madhi was selected as the cinematographer, after Rajasekhar had opted out of the project as he was busy working on Jaggubhai. Linguswamy chose Priya Manikandan, wife of cinematographer Manikandan, as the chief costume designer, for whom Paiyaa would be her first film project. Linguswamy further revealed that the film would be produced by his home production studio Thirupathi Brothers and denied that it was a remake of a Telugu film. Lingusamy disclosed later that he had written two scripts, out of which Karthi eventually chose Paiyaa, because he wanted to do an "urban love story" after two successive roles as a ruffian. Initially titled as Kuthirai, it was later renamed as Paiyaa, which was considered a tentative, working title only.

The filming was supposed to begin in August 2009. However, due to the slow progress of Karthi's ongoing project, Aayirathil Oruvan, Paiyaa was postponed several times, since Karthi needed to maintain the continuity of his looks for his role in Aayirathil Oruvan. Its producer Ravindran complained at the Tamil Film Producers Council that Karthi was trying to change his look and move on to Paiyaa before finishing his commitments, which forced Linguswamy to readjust the schedules. The shooting finally began in December 2008. Upon release the film and soundtrack was successful and received mixed 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". The reviewer praised the "loveable lead pair" for their "credible performance, which makes up for the plot holes". He said that technically the film was Linguswamy's his best, with Mathi's "eye-catching camera work", Antony's "crisp editing", Rajeevan's "exotic set designs", and praised composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, whose "foot-tapping" songs "scorch just like the desert sun" and were all "rocking", while his background score was a "perfect co-ordination with the narration".

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". She praised the lead pair's performance, particularly Karthi, who "comes up with an enjoyable performance", as well as the film's technical values, describing the camera work as "mind-blowing", Brinda Sarathy's dialogues as "thoroughly enjoyable" and Yuvan Shankar Raja's songs as "a real treat". Indiaglitz described the film as a "racy action adventure" and "undeniably an entertainer this summer", writing that Linguswamy has brought out "a classy entertainer" and Karthi and Tamannaah's performances are "absolutely great". Regarding the technical crew, the reviewer cited that the camera work was "immaculate", while editor Anthony and stunt coordinator Kanal Kannan had done "an incredible and marvellous job". The music, in particular, was described as "the greatest strength of the movie" and his background score as "excellent".

An entertainment portal, Behind woods gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, describing the film as "a stylish, light hearten family entertainer for the summer" and a "Pacy road show with a few humps on a straight run".