''Magamuni'' () is a 2019 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, nati ...

-language

crime drama film In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

written and directed by Santhakumar. The film stars

Arya Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...

in dual roles along with

Indhuja Ravichandran Indhuja Ravichandran is an Indian actress who appears in Tamil films. She is known for her notable works in ''Meyaadha Maan'' (2017), ''Mercury'' (2018) & ''Bigil'' (2019). Career Indhuja Ravichandran, born and brought up in Vellore, Tamil ...

and

Mahima Nambiar Mahima Nambiar is an Indian actress who appears in Tamil and Malayalam films. Early life and career Nambiar hails from Kasaragod, Kerala. In 2014, she was pursuing a BA in English Literature privately. She is a trained classical dancer and a ...

Kaali Venkat Kaali Venkat (born 5 May 1984) is an Indian actor who mainly appears in Tamil language films. Personal life Venkat hails from Kudaiyadevanpatti a village near Kovilpatti. Venkat used to act in dramas during his school days. With an ambition to ...

, Rohini,

Jayaprakash V. Jayaprakash is an Indian actor and producer who works in Tamil and Telugu-language films. He ventured into film business in the early 2000s as a producer, making several films under his banner GJ Cinema and later turned actor, with Cheran's ...

Ilavarasu Ilavarasu is an Indian cinematographer and actor, who works in the Tamil film industry. He started his career as a cinematographer and worked for 13 films, winning a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for one of them. He, however, became better known ...

, and

Aruldoss Aruldoss is an Indian actor who has appeared in supporting roles in predominantly Tamil language films. Prior to focusing on an acting career, he worked as a cinematographer for several films. Career After completing school, Aruldoss worked a ...

play supporting roles.

S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. Th ...

scores music for the film, and editing is handled by

V. J. Sabu Joseph V J Sabu Joseph is a film editor working in the Tamil Film Industry. His work on ''Vallinam'' brought him the National Film Award for Best Editing in the year 2013–2014. Film career He entered his Film Editing career in 2002. He had previ ...

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

of the film commenced during November 2018. It was theatrically released by Tarun Pictures on 6 September 2019 to highly positive reviews from both critics and audience. Magamuni has won several international awards from various film festivals across the world.

Plot

The film travels back and forth between two characters. Magadevan is a cab driver in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and also works as a thug for a corrupt politician named Muthurajan. Muniraj is a good Samaritan and organic farmer who believes in

Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intro ...

's teachings, thinks the world of

Tamil literature Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from T ...

, and lives in a village near

Erode Erode () is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Erode is the seventh largest urban agglomeration in the state, after Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Tiruppur and Salem. It is also the administrative headquarters of the E ...

. It is made clear that Maga is an atheist while Muni practices

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

and spreads the word of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

. Maga thinks the world of his wife Viji and five-year-old son. He is also trying to turn a new leaf and leave the world of crime. Muni, on the other hand, is happy living with his loving mother. He wants to be a "Nitya Brahmachari" (bachelor), and at the same time, impart knowledge to students. Deepa is a journalism student and the daughter of a local landlord named Jayaraman, who is in awe of the soft-spoken Muni. Trouble erupts for Maga when one of Muthuraj's rivals, Guru Narayanan, tries to fix him in an earlier murder case, which was planned by him for Muthuraj. Muthuraj, in order to save himself and his nephew, enters into connivance with the police and makes Maga the bad guy. At the same time, Jayaraman does not like his daughter moving around with Muni, a lower-caste man, and wants to eliminate him. Jayaraman plans to kill Muni via snakebite in his farm; however, Muni is saved and admitted on the hospital by Deepa. Meanwhile, Maga is framed for the murder of Guru Narayanan's brother Surya Narayanan and is wanted by the police. Maga plans to escape to

Vizag , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museum, ...

with his family and lead a normal life. He requests Muthuraj to pay him his balance money so that he can start a new life. However, he does not know that Muthuraj has betrayed him by disclosing his whereabouts to the police and Guru Narayanan. While Maga is on the way to meet Muthuraj, he is chased and shot by the police. Maga, despite being severely wounded, escapes the place by boarding a goods train. Policemen track Maga's location using his mobile phone signal and find that he is somewhere near

. Maga contacts Muthuraj again requesting for help. Muthuraj asks Maga to meet Jayaraman (who also is Muthuraj's friend) in Erode so that he could get some money. In the meantime, policemen search all the hospitals around Erode, suspecting Maga to be treated for his injury. Finally, the police finds Muni in a hospital (as he was admitted for his snakebite) and arrests him, mistaking him for Maga. Meanwhile, Maga goes to Jayaraman's house seeking help. There, a drunk Jayaraman gets shocked upon seeing Maga and mistakes him for Muni, who has come for revenge. Jayaraman tries to attack Maga, but Maga kills Jayaraman to safeguard himself. Maga's friends find out the true identity of Muthuraj and inform Maga. Maga feels bad for being betrayed by Muthuraj. On the other hand, Muni is handed over to Guru Narayanan by a corrupt police inspector (

G. M. Sundar G. M. Sundar is an Indian actor and film producer who has acted in a number of Tamil films. He turned producer for the film ''Urumattram''. Career He studied acting at the Film and Television institute, Adyar. He was given his first role b ...

). Guru Narayanan's henchmen attack Muni as a means of revenge, believing him to be Maga. Muni is critically injured and is admitted in the hospital. The police also arrests Viji and her son. Viji thinks that Maga is dead and commits suicide by jumping into a well. Maga learns about Muni from his friends, and he rushes to see him in the hospital. Maga understands that Muni is his twin brother. A small flashback is shown where Maga and Muni's mother was mentally ill, and she left the two children alone on an empty train platform and went away. Maga and Muni are separated when they were kids. Maga was grown in an orphanage, while Muni was adopted by a widow. Maga gets furious knowing about Viji's death and decides to kill the baddies. He goes to Muthuraj's place and kills everyone including Muthuraj, the police inspector, and Guru Narayanan. As Maga was also shot by police before, he also gets admitted in the same hospital where Muni is present. Unfortunately, Muni passes away. After a few months, it is shown that Maga comes to Muni's village as he feels guilty of Muni's death and decides to follow Muni's path of literature and peace of mind. Maga's son is rescued and is raised by Muni's adoptive mother. When Maga is asked what his name is, he says, "Magamuni."

Cast

as Magadevan and Muniraj *

as Viji *

as Deepa *

as Dr. Raghu * Rohini as Muni's mother * Jashik as Prabha Arya'son *

as Jayaraman *

as Muthurajan *

as Guru Narayanan * Madhan Kumar as Aadhi Narayanan * Bala Singh as Politician *

as Corrupt Police Officer * Krishnamurthy as Surya Narayanan *

Deepa Shankar Deepa Shankar is an Indian actress who has worked predominantly in the Tamil movie industry. Deepa has worked in movies like '' Maayandi Kudumbathar'' (2009), ''Kadaikutty Singam'' (2018) and ''Doctor'' (2021). She made her debut in popular telev ...

as Gomathy, Muthuraj's wife * Yogi as Gopal, Muthuraj's assistant * Supergood Subramani as Therumunai Thirumurthy * ''Sembaruthi'' Sanjay as Deepa's brother * Nakkalites Chella * Thangamani Prabhu

Production

The film was announced by Santhakumar, who is known for his critically acclaimed ''

Mouna Guru ''Mouna Guru'' () is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Santha Kumar and produced by M. K. Thamizharasu. The film stars Arulnidhi and Ineya, while John Vijay, Madhusudhan Rao, Uma Riyaz Khan, Krishnamoorthy, and Bala ...

'', which was released in 2011. The filming commenced on 14 November 2018, marking the director's second film in his career. The shooting held at a brisk pace and predominantly shot in

, Kancheepuram and

. Filmmakers roped in actor Arya to play the male lead who was signed to portray dual roles, one an assassin and another a farmer and vallalar follower.

Release

Theatrical

It was theatrically released by Tarun Pictures on 6 September 2019. It's Dubbed in Hindi as Mahamuni in 2021 February under Goldmines Telefilms.

Home media

The Satellite Rights of the Film was acquired by Colors Tamil. The film is available on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

and

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

for digital streaming.

Box office

In the opening weekend, Magamuni collected at the Chennai box office.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film is composed by

S. S. Thaman Ghantasala Sai Srinivas Thaman (born 16 November 1983), known professionally as Thaman S, earlier as S S Thaman, is an Indian music composer, professional drummer, and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu films and Tamil films. Th ...

, continuing his collaboration with the director after

. The lyrics written by Kavignar Muthulingam and Krishnamoorthy Dhanushkodi.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt10370932 2010s Tamil-language films Indian crime thriller films Indian crime drama films 2019 thriller drama films 2019 crime thriller films 2019 crime drama films 2019 films