It’s sepia-toned, Manju Warrier’s and Dhanush’s first poster together for the upcoming Vetrimaaran film, Asuran. In typical old style fashion, she is standing, one hand holding another in an '80s getup, wearing a simple cotton sari, while Dhanush sits next to her, one leg on top of the other, in veshti and suit. Both are smiling to the camera, and posing against the painting of a studio, as family photographs used to be taken once upon a time.
The poster, released on Saturday, also says that the shooting begins today. The film has been discussed much ever since it brought director Vetrimaaran and actor Dhanush together for the fourth time. Their last work together, Vada Chennai, about life and gang wars in north Chennai, was critically acclaimed. And then came the news of popular Malayalam actor Manju Warrier joining the sets, making her Tamil debut. Dhanush had tweeted four days ago, “#asuran - update .. the evergreen Manju Warrier will be playing the female lead. Excited to share screen space and learn from this amazing talent.”
And Manju had retweeted it with the message, “And that is going to be my first Tamil film! What more could one wish for! Thank you so much Dhanush and Vetrimaaran!!! I'm excited too!
#asuran.”
Vetrimaaran and Dhanush both enjoy a fan following in Kerala. While Dhanush’s releases are much hailed with flexes and banners on the first day, Vetrimaaran was greeted with a warm applause when he attended the International Film Festival of Kerala last month.
It would also be interesting to watch Manju Warrier make a leap to Tamil with this duo. Ever since her comeback in 2014 – after a 14 year break from acting – Manju has been continuously active, picking one movie after another, quite a few them seeing her opposite Mohanlal. Her comeback film How Old Are You in Malayalam was remade into Tamil as 36 Vayadhinile, with Jyothika playing her role.