Masss

<p>A released prisoner named Kamal Ekambaram murders former Shanmuga Sundaram during a morning jog. On the other hand, Masilamani alias Masss and his friend Jet Li (Jettu) are small-time . Masss meets Manini, a nurse, and they subsequently fall in love. While trying to escape after a heist goes wrong, Masss and Jettu meet with a car accident, after which Masss starts seeing dead people with whom he can communicate. Jettu died in the accident and is now a ghost, too. Masss forms a group of loitering ghosts to earn money by performing fake and extorting money from scared, rich people while promising the spirits that he would, in exchange, fulfil their last wishes. Meanwhile, Manini, who thought Masss was working for a , discovers the fake exorcisms and leaves him. The same day, Masss and Jettu meet a ghost called Shakthivel (Shakthi), a man from and a lookalike of Masss. Shakthi seemingly helps the duo by informing them about black money stashed in a locker by Anthony Xavier, a hawala , in his warehouse at Sembikarai but has other plans in mind and wants to use Masss for that. He sabotages their plan and tricks Masss into running over Anthony while Kamal arrives and steals the money from the locker in the resulting chaos. Corrupt Vikram Lakshman takes charge, investigates the case, and learns Masss is involved in the murder. Subsequently, the ghosts start striking against Masss as they assume that he is just using them to cheat later on. Masss yells at them and orders them to leave. Just then, Shakthi arrives at the request of the ghosts. They depart with Shakthi while Jettu manages to convince Masss. Masss agrees and fulfils the ghosts’ wishes so they attain salvation, which makes him a better person. All these good deeds of Masss change Manini’s assumptions of him positively. At the same time, Shakthi uses Masss to meet another person, Madhivadhanan alias Madhi, an and associate of Anthony at his quarry and later uses him to kill Madhi. Masss, furious with Shakthi for making him a double murderer, yells at him to leave, threatening to commit suicide.While escaping the quarry with Jettu, Masss encounters R. K., alias Radha Krishnan, Anthony and Madhi’s partner, who gets reminded of Shakthi, and orders his men to catch Masss. Kamal arrives there and rescues him, and later he reveals Shakthi’s past, where Masss realises that Shakthi is his father. : Shakthi was a in and a , who married Anuradha (Anu), a teacher at his daughter Megha’s school, just for Megha’s wish. Shakthi secretly learned that Anu loves and takes care of Megha. Soon, they both fell in love, and Anu gave birth to a son (Masss). Anu owns an acre of land in India, which she wanted to donate to an orphanage where they could build a new orphanage. Kamal, the only family friend of Anu residing in India, agreed to help with the registration. Shakthi and Anu, along with Megha and infant Masss, arrived in India to complete the registration but learned that R. K. and Anthony forged documents and planned to take the land away to construct flats. Since Shakthi remained undeterred and did not give way, R. K., Anthony, Madhi, and Sundaram, along with their goons, killed Shakthi, Anu, and Megha and pinned the murders on Kamal, for which he got imprisoned for all these years. Masss survived because Megha had left him safe in an impoverished family’s small house nearby. : Through Masss, Shakthi wanted to kill the people responsible for his family’s demise. After discovering the truth, Masss plans to kill R. K. himself. R. K., knowing who Masss is, tries to kill him, but Kamal saves Masss. However, because R. K. hits Masss on the head with a fire extinguisher, he loses the ability to see and converse with the spirits. With the help of Vikram, whom Masss bribed to double-cross R. K., Masss finally kills R. K. As Masss fulfils Shakthi’s last wish, he obtains salvation and joins Anu and Megha in heaven. In the , Masss, now a reformed man in a respectable position, has married Manini and has a young son, Shakthi (named after his grandfather), who has the ability to see and converse with ghosts, while Jettu remains on Earth with Masss and his family, accompanying Shakthi at all times. In early December 2013, reported that Venkat Prabhu’s next film after (2013) would feature Suriya as the male lead and would also be produced by the actor himself under his newly launched company 2D Entertainment. Three days later the project was confirmed by the director, who however clarified that Studio Green would co-produce it along with 2D Entertainment. Subsequently, lyricist was signed to write the dialogues for the film. As with Prabhu’s earlier films, composer Yuvan Shankar Raja and editor Praveen K. L. were added to the technical crew, while R. D. Rajasekhar was signed as the cinematographer, replacing Prabhu’s usual cinematographer . The film was touted to be the first Tamil film to be shot in from the beginning, but Venkat Prabhu later informed that it was not true. It was reported to be a , while Venkat Prabhu stated that he was “trying something new” and that he could not reveal the genre. The film was rumoured to be titled as , however Venkat Prabhu announced on 5 July 2014 via Twitter and Facebook that it had been titled . On 25 May 2015, the film was renamed with a Tamil title , to be exempted from the State Government’s thirty percentage . Reports in January 2014 indicated that Suriya would be playing a in the film. Further more, he was said to be given two different looks, one of them having him sport long hair. After completing the film, Suriya stated that he had played two characters, Masilamani, a conman, and Shakti. Venkat Prabhu went on to add that Shakti was a . Nayanthara was signed to play one of the female leads along with , while the director’s brother Premji was given a significant supporting role as in all of Prabhu’s films. was reported to be playing the villain, but the director stated that Mohan was not approached for any role in the film. Actor-director informed that he had “a special character to essay in , a very significant one”. In August 2014, the reported that , who had worked with Venkat Prabhu in (2008), had been added to the cast and would be playing a prominent role, however, he was replaced by Parthiban. Actors , and Daniel Annie Pope of (2013) fame were reported to be playing the roles of spirits in the film. On 10 August 2014, actress informed that she would be a part of the project. The next day, actor-director Samuthirakani was announced to be part of the project. Sanjay Bharathi was given a supporting role and participated in the schedule. In November 2014, Amy Jackson opted out of the project, explaining that the makers had changed her character and the script, which would have resulted in her shooting only for half the number of days than she was initially committed to. She was replaced by Pranitha Subhash who joined the film’s cast later the month. In October 2014, Riyaz Khan was named to be a part of the film, and was said to be playing “a very important role with a unique characterization”. Prinz stated that he played one of the villains in and that he would appear for a short duration but share screen space with Suriya. The film was officially launched with a puja ceremony on 14 April 2014, coinciding with . Principal photography was reported to start from 11 July 2014, but commenced three days earlier in . The first schedule was shot in a house on the stretch for 15 days. The crew with Suriya and Nayanthara shot some scenes at a hospital in Chennai. The first and second schedules of the film were completed by early September 2014. The team reportedly continued filming in , and – in . Forty per cent of the filming was completed by the end of September 2014. In November 2014, the first song was filmed, which was choreographed by Ajay Raaj. By early December, the team shot crucial portions including a duet song sequence involving Suriya and Pranitha in . Following the schedule in Bulgaria, filming continued in by January 2015. Later, the makers completed the film’s principal photography on 20 April 2015. Prabhu’s norm composer Yuvan Shankar Raja associated with the former for the sixth time. The film’s soundtrack album features seven tracks composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, with two instrumentals and a remix done by Premgi Amaren. The lyrics for the songs were written by , Madhan Karky and . The album was released under the label on 8 May 2015. remixed and orchestrated the tune of “Gandi Baat” from the Hindi film (2013), as “Sema Masss” which was not included in the film. The soundtrack received positive reviews from critics. The film was initially scheduled to release in March 2015. However the makers officially announced that the film would be released on 1 May 2015. Later, the makers have postponed the release to avoid clash with ‘s . On mid-April 2015, the makers confirmed that the film would be released on 15 May 2015. However, to avoid clash with ‘s , which was also produced by Suriya, the makers pushed the release to 29 May 2015. The film was released in around 1900 screens worldwide, including 425 screens in , 570 screens in and , 143 screens in , 100 screens in , 140 screens in and nearly 600 plus screens in overseas territories, thus becoming the biggest release in Suriya’s career. The worldwide distribution rights of were sold to Eros International for approximately (US$7.2 million). , a subsidiary of was confirmed to distribute the film in Tamil Nadu. Sopnam Films bought the distribution rights for as well as two other Studio Green productions, and . The rights to Karnataka region were sold to distributor Srikanth. The first poster of was released on 22 October 2014, coinciding with the festival. The official teaser was released on 25 April 2015 after midnight. Upon release, gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5 and said, “It has the expected Venkat Prabhu elements, the crowd-pleasing supernatural factors treated in a slightly different way and of course, Suriya in all his glory.” also awarded the film 3.5 stars and said, “One thing obvious throughout the film is the effort taken by the director to make his movie watchable for audience [ ] of all age groups. It has romance, some spooky elements, comedy, witty one-liners, action, songs and dance.” rated it 3 stars as well and wrote, “Thanks to Suriya’s brilliant performance and Venkat Prabhu’s intriguing story telling ability, will surely be enjoyed by the masses albeit poor VFX hindering the quality of the movie.” gave 3 stars out of 5 too and stated, “Venkat Prabhu has been stereotyped as the director who loves party hard movies, a bit of adult humor and all that, but in he has steered clear of those elements and has given a wholesome family entertainer with an interesting storyline.” also rated the film 3 out of 5 and added, “The film lacks the raciness of or , but there is enough inventiveness and to the scenes to keep us entertained.” rated 3.5 out of 5 and described as “a no-holds-barred entertainer with all the essential ingredients.” gave the film 3.5 stars on a scale of 5 and commented, “There is non-stop excitement, with all the characters in the film being on some kind of high, literally bursting with energy.” rated the film 3.5 out of 5 as well, saying that “the film drives up to an intersection where one sign says horror and another, entertainment, and firmly decides on the latter while paying just a passing reference to the former.” also gave the film 3.5 stars and wrote, “The paranormal twist in is what keeps you interested but there are too many twists; some predictable and some good.” Writing for , stated, “The idea behind the supernaturally themed is terrific, even it feels like a mashup of many spirit-driven films…the thing with Venkat Prabhu’s films these days…(is)…they’re all ideas and no follow-through…It’s only in the last hour or so that begins to score.” Malini Mannath from wrote, “Not very funny, not very scary, and not very original, Venkat Prabhu’s attempt at crafting his first supernatural-comic-vendetta flick, turns out to be a disappointing and a boring affair…The director weaves in a hotchpotch of situations, the screenplay is sloppy and narration is jerky. The characters are one too many and the genuinely appreciative moments are few and far between.” The film grossed around 49 crore worldwide in its opening weekend, including (US$2.1 million) net in Tamil Nadu alone with 1.84 crore from Chennai alone. collected nearly 3 crore in during its first weekend. It collected 1 crore from alone on its first day. From the overseas markets, it reportedly earned (US$1.9 million) in its first three days. The film has grossed approximately (equivalent to 119 crore or US$14 million in 2023) worldwide from both Tamil and Telugu versions in its lifetime. was listed as one of the .</p>