Tamil language
Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...
Vivekh
Vivekanandan (19 November 1961 – 17 April 2021), known professionally as Vivek,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 ...
Dev
Dev, sometimes capitalized as DEV, can be referred as:
People Single names
* Dev (born 1982), Indian actor
* Dev (born 1984), British radio presenter, DJ and actor
* Dev (born 1989), American singer
* Dev, Indian actor
First names
* Dev Anand (19 ...
and Paige Henderson, and is produced by Indus Creations, an arts group based in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
. The film was released on 19 April 2019, a day after the start of the
2019 Indian general election
General elections were held in India in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to elect the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the result was declared on 23 May. Around 912 million people were eligible to vote, and voter ...
.
Plot
The film moves ahead through two parallel storylines, one involving a small girl who is held captive in a farmhouse along with her mother and abused by her father. Her mother is bedridden in a paralyzed state, and hence, the two are unable to escape, while the father is involved in the drug and flesh trades.
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 ...
, Rudhran Ganesan is a
Deputy Inspector General Of Police
A Deputy Inspector General of Police (abbreviated as DIG) is a high-ranking official position in Police in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka.
India
Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) is a rank i ...
in Crime Branch, who has a knack for solving crimes, whilst observing the crime scenes and imagining himself in the criminal's shoes to deduce how the crimes occurred. He solves the murder of a small family as his last case and retires from the Police by age. He has distanced himself from his son Ajay, as the latter married his lover against Rudhran's wishes. It is later revealed that Ajay had informed of this love two days prior to his marriage date, thus causing humiliation to Rudhran. Now retired, Rudhran comes to
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
to spend time with Ajay upon insistence by the Police Commissioner, Manimaran. Both Rudhran and Ajay are people who have not spoken much in three years, and they try to bury the hatchet. Rudhran also does not want to talk to Ajay's American wife, Alice Harlin. While Rudhran visits Seattle to solve the family hurdles, he comes across certain strange events involving his new neighbours.
Initially, he rubbishes them off and tries to blend in the new atmosphere, with some help from Bharatidasan and his daughter Ramya, the latter of which is also Ajay's colleague. One day, while Ajay and Rudhran are out on a day trip to explore the city, one of his neighbours goes missing. Almost immediately, Rudhran's police instincts kick in, although he is warned by the local police to stay away from the investigation. Ajay too reprimands Rudhran for getting involved, reminding him that he is retired. However, his instincts refuse to give in. Rudhran secretly inspects the house of the missing neighbour and almost gets caught for the same. The same night, he encounters another young boy named Carlos, in the neighborhood, who subsequently goes missing. The neighbours, including Ramya's mother, stereotypically blame a few seemingly shady people for the kidnappings, including a Pakistani national and a black man.
Rudhran refuses to believe these stereotypes and thinks like a cop would, often dragging Bharathi into his personal investigations. During a conversation regarding the case, Ramya angrily leaves the dining table, and Rudhran learns of her sad past. Apologizing to Bharathi, Rudhran continues to investigate the case of the kidnappings. One day, Rudhran leaves early with Bharathi to inspect a crime scene, it is when he has his first conversation with Alice. Previously, he had a verbal altercation with Ajay regarding the latter's marriage. Ajay refused to talk to Rudhran after that. A couple of days later, Ajay goes missing. Now, Rudhran is caught in an emotional turmoil. He has to battle his cop instincts and deal with his emotions as a father. Based on some suspicions, Rudhran and Bharathi tail the black man to a far off warehouse. Unfortunately, both are caught by the perpetrators, but thankfully, Bharathi had dialled 911 before blacking out, thus enabling both of them to be saved in time.
While leaving from there, Rudhran finds the body of Mona (first victim), and this creates a new twist in the tale. At the precinct, Rudhran and Bharathi realize that someone is trying to throw them off the trail of the case, thus indicating that they are nearing the criminal. Following another hunch, Rudhran goes to the house of the Pakistani national, Majid, but finds out that the only thing Majid can be accused of is giving shelter to Syrian refugees, whom Majid was trying to protect; lest they be branded as terrorists. Then, Rudhran realizes that Ajay went missing on a Wednesday, the day that garbage gets collected in their neighborhood every week. Following this lead, they rush to the garbage dump, but it turns out to be a dead end. After some more pondering, Rudhran rushes to Bharathi's house and asks Bharathi to call Ramya, who has gone to drop Alice, but neither of them picks up the call.
Rudhran rushes with Bharathi to
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
, claiming that Ajay is held up there. It is only then revealed that the small girl in the parallel storyline and Alice are one and the same, with the other storyline being a flashback. 12 years ago, the teenager Nicole Burke loses her mother and decides to step up to her abusive father and shoots him dead. Nicole's vengeance grows with her, and she slowly takes revenge on all those who wronged her during her childhood. Growing up, Nicole changed her name to Alice and worked as a child care consultant in schools to make sure no other child suffers her fate. It is revealed that Mona used to abuse kids who came to her photo studio for taking pictures, and Carlos used to take obscene videos of other students in his school after drugging them. Alice/Nicole got rid of them. Rudhran deduces that Alice/Nicole has killed many people in the past, many of who have committed such crimes and gotten away with it.
Ajay is the only positive thing that seemed to have happened in Alice's life. While usually quiet with others, Alice slowly warms up to Ajay, and the two eventually get married. On the night of the verbal altercation with Rudhran, Ajay notices Alice's childhood photo in a missing person's report on TV and gets surprised. The next day, Ajay goes to Odessa and sees Alice chopping up someone. It is where he comes in contact with the dandelions that give him a rash, the same kind of rash were found on Mona's body. Shocked at this revelation about Alice, Ajay waits for her to return home and confronts her. Afraid of losing Ajay, Alice comes back from work the next day without informing anyone, in a black pickup truck and kidnaps Ajay. The truck is spotted by the garbage collector, and he conveys the same to Ramya, who was having Rudhran's phone, thus forcing Alice/Nicole to kidnap Ramya as well. Cut to the present, Alice has Rudhran and Bharathi at gunpoint and instructs her dog to guard them while she tries to escape with Ajay.
Rudhran successfully evades the dog and goes out to stop Alice, who desperately tries to start her pick up truck (Rudhran has earlier blocked its exhaust to prevent her from escaping). While Rudhran tries to calm Alice, Ajay comes to his senses, and Alice finally drops her gun. The movie ends with the police arriving at the scene and a voice-over by Rudhran indicating that we need to step up against child abuse and let the Vellai Pookal (dandelions) bloom independently.
Cast
*
Vivekh
Vivekanandan (19 November 1961 – 17 April 2021), known professionally as Vivek,V. T. M. Charle as Bharatidasan
* Pooja Devariya as Ramya
*
Dev
Dev, sometimes capitalized as DEV, can be referred as:
People Single names
* Dev (born 1982), Indian actor
* Dev (born 1984), British radio presenter, DJ and actor
* Dev (born 1989), American singer
* Dev, Indian actor
First names
* Dev Anand (19 ...
as Ajay
*Paige Henderson as Alice Harlin / Nicole Burke
**Gabrielle Castronover as young Nicole Burke
*Lionel Flynn as Ethan
*Gajaraj as
DIG
Digging, also referred to as excavation, is the process of using some implement such as claws, hands, manual tools or heavy equipment, to remove material from a solid surface, usually soil, sand or rock (geology), rock on the surface of Earth. Di ...
*Sudha Rajasekaran as Meena
*Anny Havland as Mona
*Micheal Horstman as Carlos
*Mohammed Firaz as Majid
Production
''Vellaipookal'' was filmed in multiple locations in the Seattle metropolitan area, including WNP-3 and WNP-5 (more commonly known as the Satsop Nuclear Plant), as well as 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 ...
.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film was composed by Ramgopal Krishnaraju, with all lyrics written by
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 ...
The film was released on 19 April 2019. The movie was well received by critics and audiences alike upon its release. Vivek's performance was highly praised, with many praising his departure from his traditional comical roles. Anantha Vikatan rated the film 43 out of 100, saying that it was on par with its contemporary hits '' Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru'' and '' Ratsasan''.