''Lock Up'' is a 2020 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

written and directed by SG Charles in his directorial debut and produced by

Nithin Sathya Nithin Sathya (born 9 January 1980) is an Indian actor, film producer. He works primarily in Tamil cinema, Tamil Cinema. He made his film debut in ''Kalatpadai'', directed by J. Ramesh, in 2003. He acted with Kamal Haasan, Kamal Hassan in a sma ...

. The film stars

Vaibhav Vaibhav() is a male given name in the Sanskrit language. People * Vaibhav Deshpande (born 1987), Indian cricketer * Vaibhav Kaul (born 1991), Indian photographer * Vaibhav Madhukar Pichad (born 1974), Indian politician *Vaibhav Mangle (born 1975 ...

Vani Bhojan Vani Bhojan (born 28 October 1988) is an Indian actress who works in Tamil cinema. She made her Telugu film debut with ''Meeku Maathrame Cheptha'' in 2019 and her Tamil film debut with '' Oh My Kadavule'' in 2020. Early life and family Bho ...

Venkat Prabhu Venkat Kumar Gangai Amaren (born 7 November 1975), better known by his stage name Venkat Prabhu, is an Indian filmmaker, actor and playback singer in Tamil films. After completing his education, he began pursuing an acting career, with his firs ...

, and Poorna, while Easwari Rao and

Mime Gopi Mime Gopi is an Indian stage and film actor who has appeared in predominantly Tamil films including ''Madras'' (2014), ''Kathakali'' (2016), and ''Kabali'' (2016). Career Mime Gopi already acted in Saravanan Meenatchi season 1 along with Mirch ...

play supporting roles. It was released on 14 August on

ZEE5 ZEE5 is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The ZEE5 mobile app is available on Web, Andro ...

Plot

Ilavarasi, a police inspector, sets out to investigate the murder of a fellow colleague. However, the evidence appears to be fabricated and suggests involvement of someone from her own department.

Cast

as Vasanth *

as Meena *

as Moorthy * Poorna as Malliga * Easwari Rao as Inspector Illavarasi *

as Sampath *Poraali Dileepan as Malliga's husband * Dileepan as the new inspector (cameo appearance)

Production

The film production began in 2019 and was supposed to be the feature film debut of television actress

; however, ''

Meeku Maathrame Cheptha ''Meeku Maathrame Cheptha'' () is a 2019 Indian Telugu-language comedy drama film written and directed by Shammeer Sultan, and produced by Vardhan Deverakonda and Vijay Deverakonda under the banner King of the Hill Entertainment. The film featu ...

'' (2019) ended up releasing first. The film is produced by actor

and is about two corrupt policemen played by

and

. Nithin Sathya had previously worked with Vaibhav and Venkat Prabhu in ''

Chennai 600028 II ''Chennai 600028 II'' is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language sports comedy film co-produced, written and directed by Venkat Prabhu, who also produces the film along with S. P. B. Charan under Black Ticket Company and Capital Film Works. The film, w ...

''. The title ''Lock Up'' was chosen because the film is about a police lock-up and is based on several true incidents. This venture was promoted as the first film in which Vaibhav plays a police officer although he played a police officer in '' Taana'' (2020). Venkat Prabhu portrays the antagonist for the first time in his career.

Soundtrack

Release

''Lock Up'' was released on 14 August 2020 on the

over-the-top An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...

(OTT) media service

. It was initially scheduled for a theatrical release in November 2019 after post-production work had been completed. However, the delay of the film and subsequent

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

meant that the theatrical release was dropped in favour of an OTT release.

Reception

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' gave the film a rating of three out of five stars and noted that "A positive factor is the lack of unnecessary deviation from the main plot and the way unsolved sub-plots are connected in the latter half". ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

'' wrote that "''Lock Up'' is a praiseworthy attempt in the investigative thriller space. It’s also one of the better Tamil films among the recent direct OTT releases. Even though the writing is amateurish at places, you don’t nitpick because the film never gets outright boring and manages to keep us engaged".

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 11216782 2020 direct-to-video films 2020 directorial debut films 2020 films 2020 thriller films 2020s mystery thriller films 2020s Tamil-language films Films not released in theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic Indian mystery thriller films ZEE5 original films