Maari

<p>Police Constable Arumugam talks to the new , Arjun, about Maari, a local rowdy who rose to fame after killing a rival rowdy, Pandi. He wants to get evidence that Maari killed Pandi so that he can put Maari behind bars. Maari is an irritating guy who, along with his henchmen Sanikilamai and Adithangi, constantly pesters the people in the area and money from them. His main line of work is training . His boss is Velu, a don who is also involved in the pigeon races and . Maari constantly has fights with “Bird” Ravi, another local rowdy who is also working under Velu. One day, a lady named Sridevi enters the business, trying to open a in Maari’s area. Maari forcefully becomes her partner in the shop. He angers her after she loses a couple’s order after Maari purposely increases their bill. She goes to the police station and decides to help Arjun catch Maari by getting close to him, pretending to fall in love with him, and incriminating him with evidence of his confession. He had tried to kill the rival rowdy but failed. She shoots the talk with Maari in a drunken state, who describes the murder, saying that somebody else had killed him, and Maari took the credit. Arjun soon arrests Maari. Seven months later, when he is released, he discovers that the police also arrested Velu for sandalwood smuggling. The people discover that Arjun is a cop, and he and Ravi are working together and have arrested some people in the area under the pretext of smuggling to extort money and sent them to . Maari decides to take revenge on the duo. He first frees the local people from the extortion by Ravi’s gang, while Sridevi apologises to him and also falls in love with him for real. Sanikilamai reveals to Sridevi that Maari loved and cared his pigeons since no one cared for him. Pandi killed one of his pigeons so that is why Maari stabbed Pandi. Later, Maari captures one of Arjun’s smuggling vehicles and the driver, forcing Arjun to release Velu. Also, the people arrested for removing sandalwood get released, and the people respect Maari. When Arjun takes revenge by burning Maari’s pigeon coop, which kills 10 of his pigeons, he gets angry. He goes to Arjun’s sandalwood place and beats up Arjun, Ravi, and their henchmen. Ravi agrees to confess everything. Angered, Arjun stabs Ravi. Eventually, the arrives and arrests him after Aarumugam reveals his secrets to the department. Finally, Sridevi approaches Maari to confess her love to him, which he rejects, returning to pester the local people and extort them for cash. The collaboration between Listin Stephen and ‘s production house and director was first revealed in early January 2014, with and being signed on to be a part of the “romantic entertainer”. The first look poster released later indicated that Dhanush was a co-producer of the film. Balaji Mohan wanted the film not to be a bilingual like his previous ventures as he found it difficult to shoot the same shot twice and to retain the same energy in both of them. He said in an interview in March 2014 that he narrated a one-liner to Dhanush, on whose consent, he would develop the complete script after releasing (2014), adding that this film would “definitely not be a love story”. Dhanush said in early August 2014 that the project was in pre-production. was selected as the film’s music director, marking his fifth collaboration with Wunderbar Films. Prasanna, an assistant of , was signed in on as the film’s editor while undertook the cinematography. R. K. Vijay Murugan was signed in on as the film’s art director. On 7 November 2014, Mohan announced that the film was titled . Sources close to the film’s unit said that Dhanush would be seen as a local slum chieftain for which he had to speak in a Madras accent. Aggarwal, who was supposed to work with Dhanush in (2007), was cast on Dhanush’s insistence, who wanted to gain a foothold in Telugu cinema by cashing in on Aggarwal’s stardom there. She said in an interview that she overcame her fear of birds due to her experiences with pigeons during the film’s shoot. Although Aggarwal was signed during the film’s initial stages of production, she joined the sets in November 2014. , one of the cast of , was signed in on for an important role. Playback singer joined the team in December 2014, making his debut as an actor in Tamil cinema. He stated in late February 2015 that he would play the role of a police officer. Anirudh made a in the film and joined its sets in mid March 2015. began on 4 November 2014 at in Chennai. The film’s second schedule began on 25 November 2014. Dhanush confirmed the completion of principal photography on 15 March 2015 through his Twitter page. The soundtrack album was composed by , with lyrics written by , and . The film marks the third collaboration between Dhanush and Anirudh Ravichander. The album was released on 7 June 2015 through the record label. was released in theatres on 17 July 2015. It’s television premiere took place on on 10 November 2015, during . received mixed reviews from critics. wrote, “Save for the bits with Robo Shankar, the writing is shockingly ordinary — lots of tells, very little show…Does making a mass movie mean that you forget to make an interesting one?” gave 2 out of 5 and wrote, “If you, like many others, had been excited about after watching its trailer, be prepared for disappointment. Almost all the worst bits from the film are already in the trailer and the film clearly lacks the crackling energy that we see in the trailer. Maari largely feels like one huge build-up without any proper pay-off”. NDTV wrote, “A couple of mass moments and some quirky humor apart, there’s nothing in to justify the much-anticipated Balaji Mohan- Dhanush collaboration”. wrote, “the director isn’t capable of delivering a wholesome commercial entertainer with some story, some heroism and some cliches a la Dhanush’s recent blockbuster . Except for the story, we get everything else from , and that’s the smallest concern of the movie”, with the critic adding that “Dhanush saves a very ordinary film”. gave 0.5 out of 5 and wrote, “Uninspiring and predictable, director Balaji Mohan’s is just another mass masala movie created to idolise its hero”. wrote, “The director’s attempt to go ‘commercial’ this time, concentrating more on his hero than the script, backfires. The film gives a sense of Deja vu throughout, the real interesting moments very few and far between”, calling the film “a painless tedious experience, meant for hardcore Dhanush fans”. gave 1 out of 5 by saying Director Balaji Mohan has made the film with childish punch dialogues, slow-motion shots and an adrenaline flawless background score by Anirudh. It is a film that makes no bones, no pretenses about the fact that it is packaged for E audiences. Despite the release of , collected (equivalent to 30 crore or US$3.6 million in 2023) in its opening weekend, the highest for a Dhanush film to that point. A week later, it reportedly grossed (equivalent to 75 crore or US$8.9 million in 2023). Former health minister and politician , criticised Dhanush for portraying on-screen smoking in this film. Replying to this Dhanush, in an interview, stated “It is a call taken by the director of the film. The script and my character of a local thug demanded such a sequence in the film. But in real life, I don’t smoke. And I request my fans to take that as inspiration and not to smoke, and give up smoking if they are smokers.” A sequel titled , again directed by Balaji Mohan and starring Dhanush, was released on 21 December 2018. The glasses used by Dhanush in , is a single original piece. There is only one piece of the exact specification of roundness and measurement, and no duplicate and spare version of the glass exists. The crew carefully saved the glasses from and used in its sequel. The outfits worn by Dhanush in this film became popular after its release. Robo Shankar parodied Dhanush’s character in the film (2018).</p>