''Velaikkaran'' () is a 2017 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

action thriller film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

written and directed by

Mohan Raja Mohan Raja is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter who primarily works in Tamil and Telugu film industries. After making his debut in the Telugu cinema, Telugu film ''Hanuman Junction (film), Hanuman Junction'' (2001), he went on to remake seve ...

. Produced by

R. D. Raja R. D. Raja is an Indian film producer, creative producer, lyricist and movie promotion consultant who primarily works in the Tamil film Industry also known for his films produced in Tamil cinema through his production company, 24AM Studios. E ...

under his banner 24AM Studios. The film stars

Sivakarthikeyan Sivakarthikeyan (born 17 February 1985), also referred to as SK, is an Indian actor, singer, film producer, lyricist, and television presenter, who works predominantly in Tamil films. He has also won a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, four Edison A ...

Fahadh Faasil Fahadh Fazil (8 August 1982) is an Indian actor and film producer who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema and has appeared in few Tamil and Telugu films. He has acted in more than 50 films and has received several awards, including a Nati ...

Nayanthara Diana Mariam Kurian, known professionally as Nayanthara, is an Indian actress and film producer who is known for her work in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. She was in the ''Forbes India'' "Celebrity 100" 2018 list, with her total annual ...

, Sneha and

Prakash Raj Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam-language films, he is the recipient of several ...

in lead roles.

Mahesh Manjrekar Mahesh Vaman Manjrekar (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, əɦeːʃ maːɲd͡zɾekəɾ born 16 August 1958) is an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer who works primarily in Hindi films, alongside Marathi language, ...

Sathish Sathish Muthukrishnan (born 23 May 1987) is an Indian actor and comedian working in the Tamil film industry. He made a breakthrough portraying a role alongside Sivakarthikeyan in '' Ethir Neechal'' (2013). He won Edison Award for Best Comedian ...

Thambi Ramaiah Thambi Ramaiah is an Indian actor, director and comedian who works in the Tamil film industry. He has also worked occasionally as a lyricist. He directed three films, ''Manu Needhi'' (2000), '' Indiralohathil Na Azhagappan'' (2008) and '' Maniy ...

RJ Balaji Balaji Patturaj (born 20 June 1985), popularly known as RJ Balaji, is an Indian actor, radio jockey, television presenter, comedian and film director in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is best known as the host of the 92.7 Big FM shows ''The Night Sho ...

Vijay Vasanth Vijay Vasanth (born Vijayakumar Vasanthakumar on 20 May 1983) is an Indian politician who is a Member of Parliament from Kanyakumari Loksabha constituency. He contested and won the bypoll that took place for Kanyakumari Loksabha constituency i ...

Robo Shankar Robo Shankar is an Indian standup comedian who has appears in character roles in Tamil films. He made his breakthrough with STAR Vijay's ''Kalakkapovathu Yaaru'', performing standup comedy. He is a now cast as regular on several shows on Star V ...

and Rohini play supporting roles. The film's music is composed by

Anirudh Ravichander Anirudh Ravichander (born 16 October 1990), also known Mononymous person, mononymously as Anirudh, is an Indian film scorer music composer music producer singer and instrumentalist who primarily works in Tamil films. He is the son of actor Ra ...

, with cinematography by Ramji. The film is based on a sales executive named Arivazhagan (Sivakarthikeyan) who fights against food adulteration committed by high-class companies. The film was released on 22 December 2017 to highly positive reviews with praise for Sivakarthikeyan and Fahadh Fassil's performances, story, social message, screenplay, cinematography, Anirudh's soundtrack and background score.

Plot

Arivazhagan aka Arivu hails from Kolaikkara Kuppam a.k.a. Cooliekkara Kuppam, a

slum A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...

area 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 ...

. He is one such responsible youth who focuses on working for the betterment of his fellow beings, and he works hard for the same. Arivu starts Kuppam FM 90.8, a local radio channel with the help of the area gangster, Kasi. In reality, Arivu tries to free the people of the area from the atrocities of Kasi, who is deliberately preventing them from becoming independent, so that he may continue to dominate the area. Arivu succeeds in turning the people of the area against Kasi, thus destroying his support. Later, Arivu joins a leading

FMCG Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), also known as consumer packaged goods (CPG), are products that are sold quickly and at a relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable household goods such as packaged foods, beverages, toiletries, can ...

company called Saffron and joins its sales department under Stella Bruce. He manages to bring his friend Bhagya out of Kasi's gang and gets him a job in Saffron. He meets Aadhi, Saffron's brand manager, who teaches him how to progress by doing smart work, and Arivu considers him as his inspiration. On the night of 1 April, Kasi and his gang attack and stab Bhagya in Saffron's warehouse, whereupon he dies in Arivu's hands. Arivu, filled with rage, tries to attack Kasi, but Kasi's rival Doss attacks and stabs Kasi in retaliation for their previous encounter. Arivu admonishes Kasi for being a paid henchman. Kasi reveals to Arivu that he killed Bhagya on a contract given by Jayaram, the President of Saffron. The motive was that Bhagya tried to help Kasthuri, who filed a case claiming Saffron's products to be

adulterated An adulterant is caused by the act of adulteration, a practice of secretly mixing a substance with another. Typical substances that are adulterated include but are not limited to food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, fuel, or other chemicals, th ...

, due to which she lost her son. Arivu is addressed by Kasi as being a worse hitman than he himself is. Arivu then saves Kasi, who tells Arivu that all products manufactured by Saffron are adulterated. Arivu takes up a mission to fight such malpractices not only in Saffron, but in all the other five major food companies, including the one owned by Madhav Kurup. Arivu shares all of his plans with Aadhi. Meanwhile, is revealed that Aadhi is actually Adhiban Madhav, Madhav's son. He joined Saffron to know their trade secrets and merge the company with his father's company. Arivu manages to convince his company's staff to manufacture products as per government regulations for two days. At the same time, he convinces the staff of the other companies to wear a kerchief on their dresses for the next two days, thus tricking the owners into believing that their workers have turned against them. However, Aadhi manages to foil Arivu's plan and coerces the other owners to write over the major shares of their company to Madhav, thus making him the deciding authority of all their companies. Aadhi manages to turn the employees against Arivu by tricking them into believing that Arivu worked as a spy for Madhav. Stella Bruce then slaps and humiliates Arivu, while Aadhi pretends to defend Arivu, claiming that he is innocent and that it is the new president who conspired all these. After this, Arivu reveals to Aadhi that Stella Bruce was his ally, and he now knows that Aadhi is the true traitor. Aadhi then burns down the godown containing the unadulterated products and reveals to Arivu that he is Madhav's son and will be the next CEO of the company. Aadhi also convinces the staff through his clever tactics and makes them propose his name as the new CEO, also revealing to Arivu that he will make them manufacture adulterated products without their knowledge, now that he commands their loyalty, support, and trust. Arivu goes to the

Radio Mirchi Radio Mirchi (also known as 98.3 Mirchi) is a nationwide network of private FM radio stations in India. It is owned by the ENIL, EntertainmentNetwork India Ltd (ENIL), which is one of the subsidiaries of The Times Group. ''Mirchi'' is Hindi f ...

radio station on the night before 1 May. He reveals that after the fire, one of the injured department heads of Saffron, Karpaga Vinayagam, called him into the ambulance and told him that he followed the regulations on the third day too. Arivu learned from the other Saffron team workers - Kennedy, Vinoth, Ansari, and Sivaranjani - that after manufacturing quality products for two days, they could not bring themselves to manufacture adulterated products on the next day. They confirm they all followed government regulations, thus manufacturing quality products on the next day. Aadhi, now the CEO, hears the workers say that they will rebel against him and depose him if he tries to revert to manufacturing adulterated products. Arivu adds that the loyalty of all the employees in every field should not be wasted by showing it towards unethical employers. Aadhi then vents his frustration about the failure of his plan. All the people in the city show their support to Arivu, who celebrates his success with his love interest Mrinalini, friends, family, the people of his slum, and the people of the city as the film ends.

Cast

as Arivazhagan (Arivu) *

as Adhiban Madhav (Aadhi) *

as Mirnalini "Miru", Arivu's love interest * Sneha as Kasthuri *

as Kasi *

as Stella Bruce *

as Sriram *

as Hari *

as Bhagya *

as Chinna Thambi * Rohini as Ponni *

Charle Velmurugan Thangasamy Manohar (born 6 March 1960), professionally credited as Charle, is an Indian actor who works in Tamil cinema. He has acted in more than 800 Tamil films as a comedian and supporting actor. He was named after the English co ...

as Murugesan *

Ramdoss Ramdoss, better known as Munishkanth, is an Indian actor who appears in Tamil language films. He had notable roles in films, including ''Mundasupatti'' (2014), ''Maanagaram'' (2017), ''Maragadha Naanayam'' (2017) and ''Raatchasan'' (2018). Ca ...

as Karpaga Vinayagam *

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 ...

as Ansari *

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 ...

as Vinoth * Mansoor Ali Khan as Kennedy *

Vinodhini Vaidyanathan Vinodhini Vaidyanathan is an Indian actress and writer who has mainly worked in Tamil cinema and theatre. She made her debut in A. R. Murugadoss's ''Engaeyum Eppothum'' portraying Ananya's sister. She is best known for her performances in O ...

as Sivaranjani *

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 ...

as Kishta * Y. G. Mahendra as Narayanan * Madhusudhan Rao as Madhusudhan *

as Madhav Kurup *

Sharath Lohitashwa Sharatchandra Lohithaswa (born 5 May 1972), known popularly as Sharath Lohithaswa, is an Indian actor mostly known for his work in Kannada and Tamil films. He has had a successful career in theatre, where he continues to work, and television. A ...

as Doss *

Anish Kuruvilla Anish Yohan Kuruvilla is an Indian actor and director who predominantly works in the Telugu film industry. Before becoming a director, he was an executive producer with Sekhar Kammula, played the lead role in ''Dollar Dreams'' (2000), and play ...

as Jayaram (voice over by

Amit Bhargav Amit Bhargav is an Indian actor who has appeared in films and television shows in Tamil, Kannada, and Hindi. He became popular for his role in the Kannada television series '' Seethe'' in which he played Lord Rama. He was noted for his short ro ...

) *

Nagineedu Vellanki Nagineedu is an Indian actor who primarily works in Telugu and Tamil films. He won Nandi Award for Best Villain for his role in ''Maryada Ramanna''. He played a similar role in G. S. Karthik's 2013 film '' Adda''. Early life He was a ...

as Loknath *

Vivek Prasanna Vivek Prasanna is an Indian actor who appears in Tamil language films, mostly in supporting roles. In 2017, he won the Vijay Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the film ''Meyaadha Maan''. Career Vivek Prasanna grew up from ...

as Babu *

Uday Mahesh Udhayabhanu Maheswaran (born February 21 st 1970) is an Indian actor and director. He directed two Tamil Tamil films: ''Naalai'' (2006) and '' Chakkara Viyugam'' (2008). As an actor, he is best known for his portrayal of Vishwanathan in the STAR ...

as Naga Sudarshan * Balaji Venugopal as Saffron Assistant Senior Manager *

Saravana Subbiah Saravana Subbiah is an Indian film director and actor, who has appeared in Tamil language films. He made his directorial debut with ''Citizen'' (2001), before making the romantic drama, '' ABCD'' (2005). Career Saravana Subbiah made his directo ...

as TV Host *

Maya S. Krishnan Maya S Krishnan is an Indian actress, model and singer who works in the Tamil film industry. She made her acting debut in the college musical film '' Vaanavil Vaazhkai'' (2015). Early life Maya was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India and did h ...

as Actress * Vazhakku Enn Muthuraman as Food Inspector * Shyam Prasad as one of the Board of Directors * Vijayraj as Saffron Staff * Mithun Raj as Saffron Interview Candidate * Rajie Vijay Sarathy as Sriram's mother * Abdool as TV Stabilizer Salesman * Yuva Lakshmi as Vani * RJ Sha as himself (

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

)

Production

Development

In December 2015, an official press announcement from producer

revealed that director

and

would collaborate for his second production venture. A launch event for the film was held on 11 March 2016, with the team announcing their intentions of starting the shoot in late 2016.

Cast and crew

signed the film in April 2016, in collaboration with Sivakarthikeyan, while Malayalam actor

was also brought in to appear in a pivotal role in the film, marking his debut in Tamil cinema. Prior to the start of shoot, several actors were finalised for supporting roles including Sneha,

, Rohini and

also joined the cast.

Vivek Harshan Vivek Harshan (born 28 May 1981) is a National Film Awards winning Indian film editor who works predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films. He has frequently collaborated with Amal Neerad since the beginning of his career. '' Big B'', ''Iyobinte ...

and

T. Muthuraj T. MuthuRaj (born 29 July 1969 in Coimbatore, India) is an Indian film production designer. He entered the film industry after completing his B.Sc. degree in fine arts as first assistant to Sabu Cyril after which he has served as production d ...

joined the team as the music composer, editor and art director respectively. Likewise

Anal Arasu Anal Arasu (born as C. M. A. Arasakumar) is an Indian fight master/action choreographer, who works in the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi film industries. He started his career as an extra fighter and assistant to stunt masters including, K ...

was selected as the stunt choreographer, while Vishnu Govind and Sree Shankar were put in charge of sound editing and mixing. In a turn of events, editor

Ruben Reuben or Reuven is a Biblical male first name from Hebrew רְאוּבֵן (Re'uven), meaning "behold, a son". In the Bible, Reuben was the firstborn son of Jacob. Variants include Rúben in European Portuguese; Rubens in Brazilian Portuguese ...

replaces Vivek Harshan, which is evident on the latest film poster released for Deepavali season.

Filming and post-production

Production started with the film as yet untitled in November 2016, in T Nagar, Chennai. The shoot continued throughout January at Prasad Studios in Chennai where art director Muthuraj had erected a large set resembling Chennai's slums. In February 2017, Behindwoods reported that the film tentatively being given the title of ''Velaikkaran.'' This was after the team bought the title rights from

who had registered it for a future film. Behindwoods also reported that Fahadh Faasil would dub himself in Tamil in this movie, a first for him.

Music

The soundtrack album and background score of this film were composed by

. The album consists of five songs with

Madhan Karky Madhan Karky Vairamuthu is an Indian lyricist, screenwriter, research associate, software engineer, and entrepreneur. A holder of a doctorate in computer science from the University of Queensland, Karky began his professional career as an ass ...

and

Vivek Vivek (or Bibek/Bivek in some regions) (विवेक in Devanagari script) is a masculine given name that is popular in South Asia, particularly in India and Nepal. It is of Sanskrit origin and means "wisdom" and/or "conscience". Vivek may refe ...

penning one song, and the rest of the songs were penned by

Viveka ''Viveka'' ( sa, विवेक, viveka) is a Sanskrit and Pali term translated into English as discernment or discrimination. Viveka is considered as first requirement for the spiritual journey. The next requirement in the joureny in Vedanta, ...

. The album was released by

Sony Music India Sony Music Entertainment India Pvt. Ltd. is the record label operated by Sony in Chennai, India. The company began operation in 1997, and it was the first record company in India to be 100% foreign-owned, with Sony being a Japanese corporatio ...

. The first single track "Karuthavanlaam Galeejaam" sung by Anirudh and written by Viveka was released on 28 August 2017, which picturises the life of the slum people, and also notes, that the lyrics intent to celebrate the working class and their contribution towards the development of the city. The song is filmed, in a huge set erected at Prasad Labs,

for a slum like concept. The second single was released on 2 November 2017. The combined single track "Iraiva + Uyire" sung by Anirudh and

Jonita Gandhi Jonita Gandhi is a Canadian playback singer of Indian descent. She has recorded songs predominantly in Hindi and Tamil languages with few in Punjabi, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam languages. Some of her most acclaim ...

consists of two songs "Iraiva" and "Uyire" which deals about love and life respectively. The song genres in these two of these, were alternatively different. While "Iraiva" is a solo number which consists of a slow melody with rock beats in between, "Uyire" is a slow enhancing duet, with beats involved in it.

and

went to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in September 2016, to shoot this duet in the picturesque locations of the country. The tracklist was released on 2 December 2017, through the official

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account of the production house. The audio launch event for the film was held on 3 December 2017 at

ITC Grand Chola Hotel The ITC Grand Chola is a 5-star luxury hotel in Chennai, India. It is located in Guindy, opposite SPIC building and along the same row of buildings as Ashok Leyland Towers. The building, designed by Singapore-based SRSS Architects, is of mixed ...

where Sivakarthikeyan,

and Anirudh Ravichander along with other cast and crew, were present at the venue, while Nayanthara and

did not attend the audio launch. The event was streamed live on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

. The songs were released simultaneously in other digital streaming platforms. Later, the audio launch was telecasted on

Star Vijay Star Vijay is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly Star India), a subsidiary of Asianet Star Communications. The channel's headquarters is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Star Vijay change ...

on 10 December 2017. The album received positive reviews from critics. Behindwoods rated the album 3 out of 5 stars, with a quote "Variety is the name of the game, and Anirudh is one of its best players!" Hindustan Times gave positive reviews stating "Anirudh Ravichander delivers a box full of surprises". Studioflicks rated 3.5 out of 5 and gave a verdict "Sivakarthikeyan-Anirudh duo strikes gold again" stating that "Velaikkaran strikes spectacularly with three instant hits that includes Idhayane, Karuthavanlaam Galeejaam, and Iraiva. The other tracks sounding like signature songs will definitely gain its impact with the visuals."

Release

Theatrical

On the first day of the film's shoot, the producer R. D. Raja revealed that the film would have a theatrical release on 25 August 2017. In April 2017, the production house has announced that the release date is postponed to 29 September 2017. Due to delays in post production, the film's release date was shifted to the

Christmas season The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late Novembe ...

, 22 December 2017.

Marketing

The first look poster was initially slated to release on 1 May 2017, coinciding with the Labour Day. But it was released on 5 June 2017, which features Sivakarthikeyan as a marketing executive, with a bag in one hand and a knife in another hand. The second look poster of the film was released on 8 August 2017, on actor Fahadh Faasil's birthday, which features Sivakarthikeyan and Fahadh Faasil. Following this, the teaser of the film was released on 14 August 2017. A motion poster, describing the film's cast was released on 6 December 2017.

Home media

The film is dubbed in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as ''Ghayal Khiladi'' and released on

on 6 January 2019 by Goldmines Telefilms.

Reception

Box office

The film collected in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

and close to in overseas. The film collected over at the worldwide box office and was declared a box office success.

Critical response

Baradwaj Rangan Baradwaj Rangan is an Indian film critic, writer, and formerly the deputy editor of ''The Hindu''. He later became a senior editor of Film Companion. Rangan won the National Film Award for Best Film Critic in 2006. Before joining ''The Hindu'' ...

Film Companion Anupama Chopra () is an Indian author, journalist, film critic and director of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. She is also the founder and editor of the digital platform Film Companion, which offers a curated look at cinema. She has written sev ...

wrote "The addressing of class in Tamil films is nothing new – and we know slum-resident Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) is going to run a scratch across these rich men’s lives – but the dignity in this film is. It wants to be a crowd-pleaser, but with class."

References

External links

* {{M. Raja 2017 films 2017 action thriller films Films shot in Chennai Indian action thriller films Indian thriller drama films Films scored by Anirudh (composer) Films directed by Mohan Raja Films shot in Malaysia Films about social issues in India 2017 thriller drama films 2010s Tamil-language films