Citizen (film)

Citizen is a 2001 Tamil film directed by Saravana Subbiah and produced by S. S. Chakravarthy. The film features Ajith Kumar in dual lead role as a father and son with Meena, Vasundhara Das and Nagma playing supporting roles. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by Deva, whilst cinematography was handled by Ravi K. Chandran. The film opened to positive reviews in June 2001 and was a commercial success at the box office.

A district collector, a judge, and a police official are all kidnapped in broad daylight. The kidnapper cocking-a-snook at the establishment, calling himself 'Citizen' and appearing in different disguises to get at his targets. C.B.I. officer Sarojini (Nagma) finally traces the common factor among the kidnapped trio to the fictional hamlet of Athippatti, consisting of fishermen. But to her surprise both the village and its 690 odd inhabitants seemed to have been wiped away from the face of the official gazette maps. The diggings tell a story of a mass massacre that must have taken place about a couple of decades back. 'Citizen' is finally apprehended. He comes out with his story of the gory happenings at Athippatti and how he, as a little boy, had been the sole survivor of the nightmare that gripped the village that day from the map of India, twenty years back. The entire village was wiped off including women and children by the three kidnapped officials because of their greed for power and money. Ajith wants the citizenship of the three government officials revoked including their families as a punishment for their atrocities to the inhabitants of Athippatti.

Early indications suggested that the film directed by Saravana Subbiah was a remake of the 1973 English film The Day of the Jackal, but it proved to be untrue.Ajith Kumar put on weight for the film, which would feature him in nine roles and claimed that he was inspired by Kamal Haasan's award-winning performances in such roles while taking up the film.Sameera Reddy was originally a part of the cast but opted out as she could not offer bulk dates for the film. Subsequently singer Vasundhara Das, who had earlier appeared in Hey Ram was roped in to play the leading lady, while Nagma was also selected to essay the role of an officer. A special feature into the making of the project was broadcast by Sun TV in May 2001. The make-up man, Anil Premgikar, was referred to the team by Kamal Haasan when Ajith went to give his wedding invitation to Kamal Haasan during the shoot of Hey Ram.Gemini Ganesan was also initially meant to play a role in the film, but his character was later altered in the script and replaced by Pandiyan.