Soodhu Kavvum

<p>Friends Kesavan, Sekar, and Pagalavan meet Das, a middle-aged man who does low-profile kidnappings for a living, and has an Shalu. Since they are unemployed and broke, the trio decides to become his assistants. Das follows five rules of “kednaping”, the first of which is to avoid abducting people from political backgrounds. One day, the gang kidnaps a boy and successfully extorts ransom from his father, Nambikkai Kannan. Nambikkai’s contractor brother has been arrested for attempted bribery by State Minister Gnanodayam, an honest politician. Impressed with Das’s kidnapping skills, Nambikkai asks him to kidnap Gnanodayam’s son, Arumai Pragasam, as revenge and offers to pay Das up to (equivalent to 34 million or US$400,000 in 2023). Das initially hesitates, but eventually agrees after being convinced by Kesavan, Sekar, and Pagalavan. The next day, the gang sets out to kidnap Arumai but is astonished to see him get kidnapped by another group. They kidnap Arumai from the other kidnappers and discover that the first kidnapping was by Arumai himself to extort money from his father. Arumai manages to convince Das and his men to collude with him to obtain ransom money from his father. The group demands 20 million from the minister and receives the money. An argument over splitting the cash arises between Arumai and Das’s gang, during which their van loses control and falls from a bridge. Arumai escapes with all the money, and Das visualises Shalu dying. The minister seeks the assistance of Bramma, a ruthless policeman and specialist, to hunt down the kidnappers. Arumai returns home and hides the money in his room. Das devises a plan to kidnap Arumai again to retrieve the money. They accidentally meet Arumai and kidnap him again. Das frees Arumai after making him promise not to tell anything about them to the police. Arumai also promises to return their share of the money. Bramma learns that Arumai staged his own kidnapping and uses this information to threaten Arumai into testifying against Das’s gang. Arumai that Das’s gang did not kidnap him, leading to their acquittal. Enraged, Bramma takes the gang to a remote location, and brutally beats them in a dark room with the aid of . Instead of shooting them with his officially issued gun, he retrieves from his jeep an illegal, homemade gun he had seized from a crook. When he tucks it behind his back in his trousers, the rusty gun misfires into Bramma’s buttocks, allowing Das’s gang to escape. Gnanodayam breaks into Arumai’s room and takes the money bag to the (CM), who provided the ransom money. When he opens the bag, the CM is shocked to find newspapers instead; Arumai had transferred the cash to another bag and gave Das’s gang their share. The CM calls Arumai to his office and asks him to stand as a candidate in the upcoming in lieu of his father, who never brought much income to his party due to his refusal to be corrupt. The CM praises Arumai’s shrewdness and believes that he can rake in a substantial income of (equivalent to 5.1 billion or US$60 million in 2023) in five years for the party, as a young minister. Arumai wins the elections, becomes , immediately gets a ministerial post, and appoints Sekar and Kesavan as his personal advisers, while Pagalavan becomes an actor. Das continues his “kednaping” business with a new band of men. They kidnap a woman who resembles Shalu, later realising that she is Shalini Gupta, a minister’s daughter. Thus, Das has broken his first rule of kidnapping again. is the directorial debut of , a short-film director who won the title of in the first season. The title is derived from an ancient Tamil maxim. Nalan said the film originated when one of his friends saw his short film named ( ), and asked Nalan what would happen if its “wickedest character” became a minister. Nalan then developed a story about how a minister’s son, a criminal, himself becomes a minister. The character was the genesis of the script, while the other characters were added as the film progressed; Nalan, described the storyline being driven by the plot over characters, though many felt the film was character driven. Because of his affinity for and having watched numerous films in that genre, Nalan set the film in the genre as he felt that “the plot can be quite serious but you can treat it like a comedy” and a familiar genre for him. After writing the script, he narrated it to producer who liked it, resulting in the project being materialised. Nalan stated that he did not want a stereotypical kidnapper or villain to kidnap the minister’s son, resulting in him developing the character of Das, an incompetent kidnapper. He initially envisioned in the role, but was cast instead. Because Sethupathi was not as old as the 40-plus character, he put on weight and made his hair look grey, as Nalan did not want him to look like an ideal Tamil film hero. Nalan said that while he did not intend for the kidnapper to be the central character, it was perceived that way due to Sethupathi’s casting. When Nalan showed the script to his friends, they felt it was too “male-centric” and insisted he include a lover for the kidnapper which Nalan resisted, as he felt a romantic angle would spoil the mood of the film. Later, the idea of an came to his mind and was cast in the role of Shalu. Shetty, having been playing mainly rural roles to that point, hoped the film would change her onscreen image. She also briefly portrays Shalini Gupta, a non-imaginary character. Nalan initially offered to play the Inspector Bramma, but Simha declined as he did not want to be in antagonistic roles, having already portrayed one in (2013); the role went to . Simha sought to instead portray the character Pagalavan, and although Nalan was unconvinced, agreed after persuaded him. , who was cast in the role of Arumai Pragasam, stated that C. V. Kumar initially envisioned in that role. The name of the character was re-used from Nalan’s short film, where Karunakaran played the same role. was cast after a successful audition. It is his feature film debut, not counting the use of his photograph in (2012). The film also features in his first significant role. began filming on 12 December 2012. Karunakaran sustained a knee injury after a stunt sequence, so the “Kaasu Panam” song sequence was shot with him mostly seated, and minimal dancing. The whole film was complete by April 2013. The soundtrack album and background music were composed by . The audio rights were purchased by . The soundtrack album was released on 27 March 2013 at , . was released on 1 May 2013 ( ) alongside and . It was distributed by in Tamil Nadu, along with Studio 9 Productions and Abi & Abi Pictures. In 2014, the film was selected for screening in the , being the only Tamil film of 2013 to be screened there. It was also screened at the 2018. received critical acclaim. wrote for , “Nalan Kumarasamy’s is a demonstration of what’s possible when films are made for the sheer joy of making films. There isn’t a single calculated moment, something cynically aimed to satisfy this segment of the audience or that one. Everything is organic, the events rooted in a nutty story and sprouting through a brilliant screenplay”. S. Saraswathi from gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, ” is an engaging film, with ingenious characters and entertaining situations” and called it a “must-watch”. N Venkateswaran from gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote, “Nalan Kumarasamy establishes himself as a director to watch out for in this laugh riot of a debut film. Carrying off a dark comedy is no mean task, but Nalan hits the target right in his first attempt. His writing is crisp, the lines are down to earth and funny, the characters well-etched and the screenplay has no dull moments”. rated the film 45 out of 100. S Viswanath of wrote, “Be it performances by the principal players, iced with captivating cinematography, or sparkling dialogues… every ensemble that went into making the movie has fallen beautifully in place to make a black, cheeky thriller”. wrote, ” works big time due to smart writing and perfect characterisation. Final verdict on is that it is a gutsy great film. It is one of the best films to have emerged out of Kollywood in a long, long time”. Malini Mannath from wrote, “Engaging screenplay, deft narration, well-etched characters and twists and humour generated at unexpected moments, make a wacky jolly fun ride”. Vivek Ramz from rated the film 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, “The film is technically rich even with the budget constraints. Except the poor graphics in the pre-interval scene […] the film looked neat with some fine shots by Cinematographer Dinesh Krishnan”. He also appreciated the writing, cast performances, editing and music. grossed (US$14,000) in Chennai theatres on its first weekend. In its opening weekend it grossed (US$19,000) in the US which was a disappointing result. The film had collected (US$620,000) in two weeks in Tamil Nadu, according to (IANS). In June 2013, IANS reported that it had earned (US$1.4 million) against a budget of under (US$590,000). Sudhish Kamath picked as one of five films that have redefined Tamil cinema in 2013, writing, “This film is a joy to watch, full of laughs and unpredictable situations with great wit, dark humour and satire. Writer-director Nalan Kumarasamy, the winner of the first season of , is one of the most exciting filmmakers of our times with his ability to turn a cliché on the head”. was featured in IANS’s list of 10 best southern films of 2013, who called it “unarguably the funniest film of the year”. and listed it in the year-end top Tamil films lists, too. The film became a major breakthrough for Sanchita Shetty, and , who played a gangster doctor, making him a much-sought after actor in Tamil cinema for identical roles. was remade in Telugu as (2015), and in Pakistan in Urdu as (2018). In June 2013, the Kannada remake rights were bought by and . By October the same year, had bought the Hindi remake rights. Neither of those remakes materialised. was a part of Nalan’s planned trilogy termed the “Trilogy of Trick”. In October 2014, he announced the second instalment of the trilogy titled , a to . Despite its initial announcement, the film did not materialise; Nalan attributed this to numerous black comedy films released after the success of , prompting him to make a film in a different genre, that became (2016). A true sequel, titled , was announced in April 2023 directed by S. J. Arjun, with a largely different cast and crew, and playing the lead role, while a few cast members from returned to the sequel. The film was released on 13 December 2024. Arjun also revealed his plans for a third film in the series.</p>