Aayutha Ezhuthu (transl.Weapon Letter [Fighting Words] ) is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language political action film directed by Mani Ratnam.

The film, which is loosely based on the life story of George Reddy, a scholar from Osmania University of Hyderabad, stars Suriya, R. Madhavan and Siddharth in the lead roles.

The score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, while Ravi K. Chandran and Sreekar Prasad handled the cinematography and editing of the film.

The film begins with Inba Sekar shooting Michael “Mike” Vasanth on his bike, resulting in him falling off the Napier Bridge into the water below which is witnessed by Arjun Balakrishnan.

However, they escape with the help of Dilli, who has a change of heart after realising that their profession was interfering with their personal lives, causing Sashi to leave Inba for her hometown.

The film began pre-production in April 2003 in a typical manner adapted by the director, Mani Ratnam, who keeps his projects under wraps until completion.

[4] The project was named Aayitha Ezhuthu after the last letter of the Tamil alphabet,[3] which is denoted by three dots in a triangle and the director revealed that the film was about three individuals.

[3] Suriya, who made his debut in the 1997 Mani Ratnam production Nerukku Ner, revealed that he agreed "blindly" to star in the film without even listening to the story or his character.

[12] Siddharth, who had previously apprenticed as an assistant director under Mani Ratnam in Kannathil Muthamittal before his making his acting debut in Shankar's Boys, was subsequently signed on for the film.

Prior to release, Siddharth felt he was cast as he "looked, talked and behaved like Arjun" and mentioned that the sync sound technique used worked in favour of him as he was an experienced theatre actor.

Leading Kannada actor Sudeep was also initially slated to form a part of the cast after meeting Mani Ratnam for the script discussion, but was ultimately discarded from the film.

[3] Initially Simran was signed on to play the roles of Geetanjali in both versions, but opted out after she began to have problems speaking Tamil as the sound for the film was recorded live.

[16] To prepare for her role, Deol worked on certain pronunciations of Iyer Tamil with Mani Ratnam's assistant Kannan mentoring her progress.

For the art direction in the film, Sabu Cyril studied each character in-depth, giving them a distinct colour, mood, and background to suit their temperament.

[25][26] Indiaglitz wrote "The movie is certainly worth watching, if not for other features, at least for veering off the contemporary theme, which has heroes and heroines romancing around trees, a couple of tear-jerking scenes and monotonous comedy sequences.

"[27] Sify wrote "Aayitha Ezhuthu is a bold and daring move by Mani Ratnam to change the staid style of our commercial cinema.

"[28] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu wrote "Every frame of Madras Talkies' "Aayudha Ezhuthu" bears the Mani Ratnam stamp and that's what matters.