Manikanda is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Selva. Arjun plays a dual role, that of father and son. The film, which began production in 2002, went through more production, and was finally released in 2007, was promoted as Jyothika's "last release". It is a remake of the 2000 Telugu movie Jayam Manadera. Manikanda was opened to negative reviews. Plot Raja lives in Mumbai with his father. Mahalakshmi goes to Bombay to get the blessings of a godwoman but since she is unable to meet Mataji immediately, she is forced to stay in Mumbai for ten days and rents a guestroom among the many run by Raja. Love blossoms between Raja and Maha and when she returns to her village Maniyoor, he follows a few days later on her invitation. After he lands there, he discovers his own link to the village. Cast Arjun as Manikandan/Raja (dual role) Jyothika as Mahalakshmi (Maha) Uma as Lakshmi Manikandan Vadivelu as Madhayaanai Ashish Vidyarthi as Balasingam Chandrasekhar as Veerasamy Nalini as Mahalakshmi's mother P. Vasu as Mahalakshmi's grandfather Pasupathy Malavika Poovilangu Mohan Periya Karuppu Thevar Madhan Bob Aryan Singamuthu Thennavan Bonda Mani Halwa Vasu Priyanka as Maha's friend Jeeva O. A. K. Sundar Satya Prakash Vijay Ganesh Chelladurai Nellai Siva Kovai Senthil Production Selva who earlier directed Karnaa (1995) with Arjun announced the project in mid-2003. Jyothika was selected to play the lead role uniting with Arjun for second time after Rhythm (2000). P. Vasu, Pasupathi, Ashish Vidyarthi were selected to play villains. There were rumours that film's title would be changed as Nanba but later proved untrue. The film's story happens in a village called Keeripatti where elections were never held for so many years. M.G.R's hit song "Mama Mama" has been remixed in this film. Due to financial crisis the film was shelved for sometime and Selva and Arjun went on to do Aanai (2005). During the time, Selva shelved other projects like Mamu (with Sathyaraj and Sibiraj) and Thotta (2008) (with Jeevan and Priyamani which he later continued) and finished Nenjil (2006) with Navdeep. Project was restarted in 2006 with a change of storyline and it was finally completed. Release The satellite rights of the film were sold to Raj TV. Critical reception The Hindu wrote: "looks outdated". Cinefundas wrote:"The scenes are disjointed, have many loose ends, and lack uniformity and a smooth flow. It's only towards the