Kaakha Kaakha

<p>The movie starts with a man being shot and falls from his home to river but survives when he swims to ground.The man is revealed to be Anbuselvan,who now remembers his past :Anbuselvan, an orphan and an honest but stone-hearted officer in the , works as the in the Crime Branch. Anbuselvan and his IPS friends Shrikanth, Arul and Ilamaran are recruited as a part of a special unit of police officers, who are battling in Chennai. Anbuselvan is violent and laconic in his duties and finds little patience for his personal life. The unit is ruthless in its confrontation with criminals, going as far as assassinating gang members. The unit is finally disbanded by authorities when they assassinate five gangsters in three months, believing that killing them is more beneficial than arresting them and dealing with the legal system, and so Anbuselvan is posted to duties in the . One day, Maya, a school teacher, rebuffs Anbuselvan’s routine questions regarding safety, not knowing about his profession. Anbuselvan meets Maya again when she and her friend are questioned for driving without a license. However, Anbuselvan lets them off with a warning. When one of Maya’s students has a problem with local kids, she asks Anbuselvan for help. Anbuselvan resolves this problem and a mutual respect develops between them, where they begin to see each other everyday. When Maya gets into a road accident, Anbuselvan helps her recover and they fall in love with each other. Shrikanth and his wife Swathi become good friends with Maya. Meanwhile, Agaram Sethu, a gangster who escaped from operations, meets his estranged brother Pandiya, who returns to Chennai after 14 years of crime life in . Pandiya has a peculiar tactic: he kills a family member of his opponent, but leaves the opponent alive to rot in depression over the loss of his family member. Sethu’s gang, aided by Pandiya’s planning, commits major kidnappings in the city and becomes powerful in 6 months. The special unit is reassembled by the commissioner with all four back in the crime branch. One day, Agram sethu and pandiya goes to make a deal with Vasu Seth. On the deal, the unit tracks down and kills Sethu in a railyard, while the others escape. Pandiya takes over the gang, promising to exact revenge against the special unit for Sethu’s death. Pandiya and his gang members kill the family of Vasu Seth but left him alive. Then,Pandiya calls Anbuselvan to tell him that he will kidnap his girlfriend in front of his eyes.Alerted, Anbuselvan and his team find Pandiya where Anbuselvan injures him but Pandiya gets escaped but the same night Pandiya and his men murder Ilamaran. The entire department is mobilised and all family members of the remaining three are sent into hiding. Maya and Anbuselvan get married in a hurry and leave for , but Pandiya and his thugs track down the couple at their cottage. Anbuselvan tries to defend but his gun is unloaded. Pandiya and his thugs kidnap Maya and seemingly kill Anbuselvan, who later survives :Srikanth and Arul find Anbuselvan,who is left for dead and the two admits him to hospital. Anbuselvan gets recovered while Shrikanth reveals that Swathi was kidnapped earlier at the airport and confesses that he was the one who gave away Anbuselvan’s location to Pandiya and swapped his pistol’s magazine with an empty one, for Swathi’s safe return. Shrikanth feels extreme remorse over the brutal events that happened to Anbuselvan and Maya. While in the hospital, they receive a message from Pandiya to meet him at a particular location in . When they go there, they find two packages, one containing Swathi’s severed head and the other containing Maya’s arm flesh. Shrikanth and Anbuselvan are distraught, with the former being hysterical upon seeing Swathi’s head. Feeling guilty and responsible, Shrikanth shoots himself dead. Anbuselvan and Arul track down Pandiya before he can escape from and fights with the gang. Anbuselvan aims to shoot Pandiya, but Pandiya, while using Maya as a human shield shoots her and she dies in Anbuselvan’s arms. An enraged Anbuselvan tracks down Pandiya and kills him, avenging Maya and his friends’ deaths. In the aftermath, Anbuselvan continues his job as an IPS officer, while still reminiscing about his moments with Maya. revealed that he was inspired to make after reading articles about . The film was initially titled ( ), and then ( ) before the team opted for , a line from , a devotional song. Many producers refused to finance the film as they could not agree on the budget fixed by Menon; it was who finally did so. Cinematography was handled by , editing by and art direction by . Menon approached for the lead role, but the actor felt he could not convincingly play an encounter specialist. and were also approached, but were reluctant to play a police officer at the time. declined as he wanted a complete script, whereas Menon decided to finalise the climax only during filming. The lead actress asked Menon to consider for the role, and he was selected after Menon saw his portrayal in (2001). was cast as the antagonist after Menon saw him on a poster of (2002), the actor’s debut. His voice was dubbed by Menon. Menon did a rehearsal of the script with the actors, a costume trial with Jyothika and then enrolled Suriya in a commando training school before beginning production, which he described as a “very planned shoot”. To prepare for the role, Suriya met real-life police officers Vijayakumar and Shailendra Babu who discussed their encounter experiences. An outhouse set was built at at Sri Lanka which cost (equivalent to 18 lakh or US$22,000 in 2023). To build the set on 24 feet of water, Rajeevan hired thirteen carpenters, two painters and the set was built within 15 days and the green-grass roof of the house had to be watered every day to prevent the grass from drying up. Suriya performed the scene where his character falls from the outhouse without a stunt double. The film’s music was composed by , marking his second collaboration with Menon after . The song “Ondra Renda” is based on “Dil Ko Tumse Pyar Hua” from the 2001 Hindi film in which Harris himself was the music composer. All tracks are written by . was released on 1 August 2003. It was released in the United Kingdom under the title . The film emerged a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres. It had an which showed Jyothika’s character surviving, but was released only on DVD as an extra. Guru Subramaniam of labelled a “career high film” and wrote, “Though the director is a tad biased while describing the police, one must salute his positive attitude.” Malathi Rangarajan of described it as for “action lovers who believe in logical storylines and deft treatment.” wrote, “Goutham has made an action film without getting caught in the masala trap. Appreciated!”. rated the film 41 out of 100, praising Suriya and Jyothika’s performances and Menon’s direction, saying the director proved that -type films could be made even in Tamil. Menon remade the film in Telugu as (2004). In July 2004, he agreed terms to direct and produce another version of in Hindi with in the lead role and revealed that the script was written five years ago with Deol in mind, but the film eventually failed to take off. In 2010, producer approached him to direct the Hindi version (2011) and Menon initially agreed before pulling out. The film was also remade in Kannada in 2011 as . Menon and Thanu also floated the idea of an English version with a backdrop, though talks with a potential collaboration with collapsed. emerged a breakthrough for Menon and Suriya. Thanu considered it his comeback after the failure of (2001). Though Jeevan fetched significant attention for his role and more offers to play antagonists, he declined as he was only in favour of lead roles.</p>