After the debacle of "Gajendra", Vijaykanth's Diwali release "Neranja Manasu" is an extremely important film for the ageing actor who is planning to plunge into active politics soon.

In "Neranja Manasu", Vijayakanth is once again playing a villager and the story never goes beyond the boundaries of the village.

One of his earlier films, "Chinna Gownder" - once again centred on a village - was responsible for catapulting Vijaykanth to superstardom. He has always been quite comfortable acting as a villager, and director Samudrakani has created situations to exploit his abilities to the hilt in this film.

In "Neranja Manasu", Vijayakanth plays Ayyanar, the head of a large family in a remote village in Madurai. The reputation of the village is that only thieves reside there.

At the time of his father's death, Ayyanar promises to him that he will reform the entire village and rid it of its tarnished image. The story of the film is how he reforms his village with the help of a woman played by Susan.

For a change, the actress is not imported from Mumbai but from nearby Hyderabad. Mahima is the other heroine.

The entire shooting of the film was done in a village near Udumalpet, where an Ayyanar temple was built exclusively for the film. The film is an out-and-out commercial film with sentiments, humour and twists in the tale.

The music of the film is by Ilayaraja's elder son Karthik Raja who has been overshadowed by his younger brother Yuvan Shankar Raja of late.