Thaanaa Serndha Koottam

<p>All the events in this movie happen in the period of 1986–1987. The film begins with Pallavaram Paranjothi Pandian attending an interview for a clerk’s post and getting rejected due to a lack of money for giving bribes to the officials. Now the story shifts to Nachinarkiniyan, aka Iniyan, attending interviews and his friend attending police interviews. Both were rejected due to a lack of bribe money for the post. Iniyan’s father, Porchelvan, works as a CBI office clerk. He wants his son to be an officer; hence, he pleads for his son’s posting to his higher officials. However, he earned the wrath of his senior official officer, Uthaman, a corrupt official. Once during a raid, he asks for money. Porchelvan did not approve of this and complained about Uthaman in the form of an anonymous letter. Uthaman learns of this and exacts revenge by purposely rejecting and humiliating Iniyan at the interview and later asking him to bribe in order to get the job. Iniyan and his father are dejected, and Iniyan’s friend is dejected due to his failure in the interview, and he later commits suicide. Iniyan is depressed after all these events and decides to loot money from corrupt and rich people. He loots black money and tries to reform society, making sure the deserved people get postings in government departments. He forms a gang with him and starts to heist by posing as CBI and income tax officers. The CBI appoints Kurunjivendhan to investigate and capture the thieves. Meanwhile, Iniyan falls in love with Madhu, and she accepts his marriage proposal. One day, the gang conducts an interview for the CBI (fake). The gang plans to raid a jewellery shop. Uthaman and Kurunjivendhan come to know about this, but learn that they already came and finished the raid. Kurunjivendhan, who apprehends Iniyan but appreciates his struggle against corruption, offers him and his gang to be police officers, but he rejects the offer as he believes that even more good can be done if he continues to do his deeds. He then reveals that all the police forces with Kurunjivendhan are actually the men he gave jobs to using the heist money. He escapes the place with ease. Following the success of the Hindi film (2013), its director revealed that he was approached by several filmmakers who were keen on producing a Tamil version of the film. subsequently bought the rights of the film and planned to produce the venture in collaboration with , who had made the original version, but the project failed to materialise. In August 2014, producer announced that he had purchased the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada rights to remake , and revealed that he would also direct all four ventures. Thiagarajan’s son was revealed to be playing the lead role in Tamil, and by March 2015, Srikanth Ravichandran, then husband of television host , was expected to direct the film. After a period of little development, Prashanth revealed to the media in September 2015 that the film’s shoot would commence soon after with as the director of the project. The film failed to materialise over 2016 and it was widely reported in the media that the remake rights of the original film had been transferred from Thiagarajan to and the film was to be made as by with in the lead role. The title was taken from a dialogue spoken by in (1995). However, in February 2017, Thiagarajan insisted that the film was still being planned with Prashanth in the lead role. In late 2017, Thiagarajan made an application seeking an interim stay of the film’s release, claiming that his studio Staar Movies still owned the film’s rights. He stated that Staar Movies had entered into an agreement with the original producers, , in August 2014 and obtained the rights to remake the film in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada and that the agreement was valid for a period of three years. In early January 2018, the High Court refused the interim order application and called for the issues to be decided in a civil claim. Vignesh Shivan agreed to work on at short notice, after another project, became delayed. ‘s asked Vignesh to do a project to star Suriya and the team chose to use an earlier script planned by Vignesh on the , like , where a group posing as (CBI) officers executed an income tax raid on the jeweller in , which he initially wanted to make with either actors or . The team claimed to legally purchase the remake rights of , but instead of copying the film scene-by-scene, Vignesh was insistent that it was adapted to make it suitable for Tamil audiences. The film was announced to the public in September 2016, with principal photography starting in early November 2016. was signed on as the lead actress, while an ensemble cast of veteran actors including , , and were also a part of the first schedule. Suresh Chandra Menon initially dubbed in his own voice, but it was later replaced with ‘s voice. The film was predominantly shot across Chennai and Mysore, with the shoot finishing in August 2017. Post-production works for the film were completed at Knack Studios in Chennai. The film was also dubbed in Telugu as , with Suriya choosing to dub for himself for the Telugu version for the first time. Vignesh Shivan teamed up with Anirudh Ravichander to compose the soundtrack and background score of the film, once again after Naanum Rowdydhaan. This film also marks the first collaboration of Anirudh with Suriya. The tracklist features five songs, with lyrics for songs were written by , and Mani Amudhavan, where the former and latter penned two songs each and the rest of the songs were penned by Vignesh Shivan. The soundtrack was released on 6 January 2018. was released worldwide in theatres on 12 January 2018, two days before the festival. It was dubbed and released into Telugu as on the same day. M Suganth of rated 3.5 out of 5 stars stating “The film works wonderfully well as long as it stays closer to the plot of Special 26, and the changes are superficial.” Kirubhakar Purushothaman of rated 2.5 stars out of 5 stating that “The film Thaanaa Serndha Koottam, starring Suriya released today and our review says that the film has not lived up to the original, Special 26.” Writing for , Sreedhar Pillai rated 3 out of 5 stars stating “TSK is an enjoyable ride for the entire family, and it’s refreshing to see Suriya back in form.” rated 3 out of 5 stars stating “It’s Suriyas committed performance, that keeps you invested in the narrative and the fascinating characters etched out brilliantly by Vignesh.” Vishal Menon of stated “For a film that handles serious topics, TSK remains a feel good, light-hearted film, tailor-made for the festival weekend”. Writing for , rated 3 out of 5 stars stating “Vignesh Shivn’s mass-ified remake of Special 26, starring Suriya, is quite entertaining.” Ashameera Aiyappan of rated 2.5 stars out of 5 stating “Walk in without expectation and let the Suriya and Keerthy Suresh starrer’s humour entertain you. As hard as the film tries to be serious, it is tough to take it so.” Anupama Subramanian of rated 3.5 out of 5 stars stating “Thaanaa Serndha Koottam is a fast paced heist that barely wastes a minute in portraying a comedic entertainer.” Manigandan KR of rated 2 out of 5 stars stating “If you haven’t watched the Hindi film (2013), chances are you will like .” As of 25 January 2018, the film reportedly collected (equivalent to 120 crore or US$14 million in 2023) worldwide, with the Tamil Nadu gross being (equivalent to 57 crore or US$6.7 million in 2023) and all-India gross at (equivalent to 57 crore or US$6.7 million in 2023) while the film collected (equivalent to 30 crore or US$3.6 million in 2023) overseas. At the , was nominated for the , and Ramya Krishnan was nominated for . Daasan won the for the song “Sodakku”.</p>