PAIYYA
Cast Karthi, Thamana Bhatia, Milind Soman, Sonia Deepti
Director N. Lingusamy
Rating TBA

There are times when four movies are released at the same time, resulting in some top Bollywood or Hollywood films losing out on screening spots in theatres.

For instance, renowned director Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and John Lee Hancock's The Blind Side (nominated for a Best Picture Oscar) among others have not yet opened in Chennai, though they have been playing in other parts of India.

This issue of plenty movies in Tamil cinema creates its own problems. Each director has to think of different ways of promoting his movie and attracting the crowds.

So, it comes as no surprise that Tamil director N Lingusamy has been propping up his new work, Paiyya (Boy) by calling it a road movie. Its protagonists, played by Karthi and Thamana, meet on their journey from Bangalore to Mumbai, and boy falls in love with girl. Then a roller coaster ride follows.

Lingusamy, whose movies include Anandham (Bliss), Run and Sandakozhi (Fighter cock), says Paiyya will be a blend of romance, action, ice and fire.

Produced by his younger brother, N Subash Chandra Bose under Thirrupathi Brothers' banner and distributed by Cloud Nine Movies, Paiyya's music score has been producedby Yuvan Shankar Raja. Mathi is the cinematographer.

Interestingly, the road movie has had to travel on a really bumpy highway. To begin with, the cast and crew had to be changed completely during pre-production. Initially, Nayanthara was chosen to play the female lead, but she reportedly quit when her salary was reduced because of the economic downturn. However, things got better when Karthi and Thamana came on board. Shooting started in December 2008 and was mostly shot in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Lingusamy also took his camera to the lush countryside in south India.

Lingusamy has in his brief career produced an interesting cocktail of movies. His maiden venture, Anandham was a family drama, while his second, Run (with Madhavan and Meera Jasmine) was a love story. In Sandakozhi he used the rural ambience to plot the movie's narrative. With Paiyya, Lingusamy returns to ‘romance on the run'.