Please correct the spelling of the title to "Aayirathil Oruvan". This movie takes a lot of facts from the tamil kingdom chola history , ponniyin selvan(well celebrated novel series by Kalki Krishnamoorty in 1920's) and mixes some amount of fiction coupled with a what if scenario of what would have transpired if the pandyas had tracked down the cholas(although there is a conjecture that it was found out, it remains to be verified if such an event did occur in the first place)
Much like how Hey Ram was underappreciated and misconstrued movie of 2010 due to sheer ignorance and immaturity of the local audience to receive the movie( of which I was a part of ),ignorance about the tamil and tamil kingdom history of international community coupled with limited budget, lmited marketing led to its limited recognition it enjoys till date (if it had an extravagant budget, the translation from script to the screen could have been seamless, immaculate and impeccable such is the depth of the script). The movie literally translates to one among the thousand, which metaphorically represents that the messenger to the chola kingdom is among the party of people being a part of the rescue operation of Mr. Chandramouli (Pratap Poten), an archaelogist who goes missing during the excavation of primitive chola kingdom ruins found in Vietnam. The rescue party organised by the then government consist of Muthu (Karthi) and his entourage of workers as a labourers, Lavanya Chandramouli (Andrea Jeremiah), an archaeologist herself, Anita Pandian (Reema Sen) and her team from army. The movie opens with a reminiscence of the defeat of cholas in 1279 AD(which according to actual records marked the year chola fled to other southeast asian countries upon defeat) in hands of pandyas at Tanjore and fled with the family deity statue of the Pandyas to seek refuge in Vietnam. Although, the superficial reason was a rescue mission, the main underlying reason for a part of the entourage is to retrieve the family deity statue from the remnants of cholas believed to be still surviving in the caves of Vietnam. The entourage travel by sea, force their way through seven hurdles (similar to the seven paths under the tanjore siva temple in tamilnadu, believed to have served as underground catacombs for escape of the civilians and if need be the whole kingdom in the event of war. It even believed that many people were lost or died of hunger) tribals only to be attacked by red indian cannibals, the protection force for the king. However, they fail in the event only to commit suicide or seppuku(similar to what a samurai does) as they had failed in their duty, a honourable way to die. They are further confronted by mysterious sea creatures and hoard of poisonous snakes which attack humans. Very few of the entourage succeed in surviving these hurdles to reach a desert like area which has a Nataraja statue(Lord shiva striking a Dance pose) ensconced in a stone hedge like arrangement. The entourage realize they can only cross the sands which are bobby trapped , when the Nataraja statue casts its shadow when the sun is at a specific angle. The entourage are forced to survive scorching heat and cross this penultimate hurdle in the events of which they are followed by a mysterious being. As they reach the ruins they celebrate their success, they are drugged under the magical influence of the mysterious being who inspects the trio for being the possibility of messenger. They are taken to the current place of residence of the remnants of the chola kingdom, unconscious, where it is discovered that they had lost their refinement associated with civilized human being and are in a state of being totally impoverished, lack of food and are forced live like early human beings. We are then introduced to the then King(Partheiban.K), who rukes with a iron hand to the extent of punishing people who had not followed his command. Anita Tricks the king into believing that she is the true messenger, despite the apprehensions of the mysterious being revealed to advisor or Rajaguru of chola dynasty and is revealed to have sorcery abilities much more than Anita. The king then conducts a colloseum to recruit the most deserving person among the entourage, in which karthi emerges victorious concurrently finds the missing archaeologist who is now out of his mind. The advisor realizes that Muthu might be the messenger that the painting talk about. The events unfold as portrayed by the cave paintings which depicts the fall and resurgence of the chola kingdom. Upon realizing their betrayal, the followers contemplate suicide or sepukku, the king initially , only to be stopped by other. They are forced on to the war against the pandyas to defend their territory(much like the warfare techniques used back in days). Although they hold a temporary advantage intially (according the early warfare single retreat is considered as a defeat, the opposition retreats initially). The opposition consisting of army men use treachery and modern weaponry to easily over power the remnants. They stoop so low so as to rape and ill-treat the wives and women of the remnants whilst them being chained( this is a part of modern Indian History where it is believed to have been inspired from and ties into the issue of ill treatment of women and men belonging LTTE during the early days of protest in demand of a separate county for srilankan tamils). Lavanya saves the King and others chained. The King Haucinates to the arrival of ships and chants the name of almighty "Thennarkuriya Sivane Potri(Hail lord Siva), along with the followers die drowning in the sea. The next heir to the throne is saved in knick of time by Muthu, who used sorcery gained from the then advisor to survive, bid for the time for his return to Tanjore and claim the rightful throne.
For the international community and the locals I would advise you to please read and research about tamil history from lot fo source along with youtube explanation videos which help us in untying the metaphorical knots associated with the movie for us understand the message the director is willing to convey through this part real, part fictional master piece.
