Kaali

<p>Bharath, a surgeon in , experiences recurring dreams about a bull and a woman’s voice. After his mother’s emergency transplant surgery, Bharath decides to be her donor, but his father reveals he is adopted. After his mother’s successful surgery, Bharath goes to to find out about his biological parents. He meets villager Gopi and learns that his mother’s name is Parvathy, and his real name is Kaali. Bharath assumes Kaali’s given name, but nobody knows his father. He sets up a free clinic in the village and conducts a DNA match test on patients. It leads to a decrease in the number of patients coming to a local doctor named Valli, who becomes upset but later learns Kaali’s good nature. Meanwhile, Kaali and Gopi have suspicions about the village head, Periyasamy, because he is left-handed, like Kaali. They get him drunk and ask about his past, where a young Periyasamy is in love with his college mate, but they face opposition from their parents due to caste differences. They plan to elope when they find that , but due to problems at his house and communal riots in the village, Periyasamy arrives later than expected. His girlfriend consumes poison and dies upon thinking that he has betrayed her. When Kaali asks his girlfriend’s name, Periyasamy tells him that she is Thenmozhi, and Kaali realises that Periyasamy is not his father. Later, in a brawl at a local bar, Kaali and Gopi come across a man named “Thala Vettiyaan” Maari, who has the name “Parvathy” tattooed on his arm. They try to find out about him, and he tells them the tattoo is his girlfriend’s name. A young Maari is a thief and goes to a house in the middle of the night to steal. He finds a woman named Parvathy trying to kill her abusive husband, Gounder, who her. Maari threatens Parvathy and steals money and jewels from her. Once Maari leaves the house, Parvathy follows him and tries to retrieve the stolen things, but he overpowers her. This incident blossoms into love, and they try to elope to escape Gounder. Gounder finds out about the affair and orders his men to kill them. Parvathy dies while attempting to save Maari. In a rage, Maari chops off Gounder’s head, and this begins a communal riot in the village. Kaali finds that Maari is also not his father. Kaali finds a match with an older woman named Vellathayee, who may be his grandmother. She tells him about a daughter who worked in the church and died in a fire. Kaali discovers his mother is Poomayilu, not Parvathy. Kaali becomes suspicious of Father John, a kindhearted man who has the villagers’ respect. Kaali matches John’s DNA and reads his diary, where he learns about his past. John, a young Christian priest, discovers casteism and abuse in the village and abolishes it. He teaches unity and aims to abolish the caste system. However, some upper caste members object, including Gounder. Gounder’s henchman, Das, and his men thrash him, and Poomayilu tends to him. John accidentally with Poomayilu, and she becomes pregnant. John repents to a priest and tries to convince Poomayilu to elope, but she refuses, fearing that the village will return to their old ways if he leaves. While this conversation happens, Das sets fire to all the lower caste community’s huts in the wake of Gounder’s murder. A communal riot begins, and many people die in the fire. The police arrest Das and vows to take revenge on John. Poomayilu is also presumed to be dead. John becomes a priest and has been serving the village as per Poomayilu’s wish since then. In reality, Poomayilu escaped the town without anyone’s knowledge, gave birth to Kaali, and lived under a different identity as Parvathy until she died. Kaali now finds that his biological father is John. Das leaves jail and tries to kill John, but Kaali saves John, and a villager kills Das. John thanks Kaali for his help. Kaali chooses to hide the truth from John and let him continue his service to the community. He leaves the village as he completes his mission and takes his grandmother and Valli to America. In January 2017, it was reported that Vijay Antony would work on a project to be directed by Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi, who had earlier made (2013). In March, Vijay Antony confirmed that he would star and also produce the film, which was titled , with Kiruthiga revealing it would be a “family drama”. Four actresses were cast in the film: , , , and . After shooting for the film alongside his commitments in Srinivasan’s (2017), Vijay Antony chose to briefly prioritise his work for in April 2017, after s co-producer underwent a tax raid on her properties. He later continued to shoot for both films simultaneously. The soundtrack of Kaali consists of five songs composed by Vijay Antony. A Chennaivision reviewer wrote: “On the whole, the first half of Kaali is impressive and interesting. But things fail to impress us much in the second half. It is a mixed ride of positive and negative things.” Ashameera Aiyappan of The Indian Express wrote, “Kaali would have been more effective had it been an anthology of three stories of estranged love set in late 1980s, where society plays the devil.”</p>