18 Vayasu
18 Vayasu is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language romantic psychological thriller film written and directed by R. Panneerselvam and produced by S. S. Chakravarthy. The film stars Chakravarthy's son Johnny and Gayathrie in her debut. It revolves around a man who develops a mental disorder of being animalistic due to childhood trauma. The film was released on 24 August 2012.Plot
Karthik develops a mental disorder after seeing his father commit suicide. He displays animalistic behaviour whenever he is anxious. As he grows up, he meets Gayathri, an orphan. Gayathri is constantly harassed by her caretaker, whereas, Karthik is ill-treated by his mother. This is due to her life with her paramour, which affects him a lot. One day, Karthik kills his mother. Gayathri is shocked and decides to end the relationship with Karthik, who runs away, fearing the law. Whether Karthik succeeds in winning back Gayathri's love is what the rest of the film is about.Cast
Production
The film was shot in Chennai, Madurai, Theni and Tiruchengode. It became the film debut of Gayathrie after her first completed project Yen Ippadi Mayakkinai failed to release.Soundtrack
The music was composed by Sri Lankan musicians Charles Bosco and Dinesh Kanagaratnam, in their debut at composing for an Indian Tamil film. Karthik of Milliblog wrote, "Dinesh and Charles Bosco’s music starts off fairly well, but goes terribly haywire and leaves the soundtrack in lurch".Release
18 Vayasu was initially scheduled to release on 28 July 2012, but ultimately released almost a month later, on 24 August.Critical reception
Vivek Ramz of In.com wrote, "Even though Director Paneer Selvam has a new premise, he lets it go loose with lot of loopholes in the script. He has tried to make the offbeat theme into a mainstream one and failed miserably in doing the same." K.R. Manigandan of The Hindu wrote that Johnny was unconvicing because his character was not well etched, but praised Gayathrie's performance and the cinematography, concluding, "18 Vayasu is a film that could have been a lot better, had the script been taut". Malini Mannath from The New Indian Express wrote, "18 Vayasu does make the effort. But it falls short of Renigunta, which had a far more coherent screenplay and a more gripping narrative". The Times of India wrote, "A tighter editing could have made 18 Vayasu, more thrilling to watch. Panneerselvam also could have etched out the supporting cast better".