Bairavaa

Plot

Bairavaa (Vijay), a collection agent for ICCI Bank in Chennai, is a righteous person who is willing to employ even violent means to get back the money from the debtors. During his manager's daughter's wedding, he comes across Malarvizhi (Keerthy Suresh), a medical student from Kallidaikurichi in Tirunelveli district, and immediately falls in love with her. When he goes to the Koyambedu bus station to propose his love to Malarvizhi before she leaves Chennai, he notices her cornered by a group of thugs who plan to kill her as she was allegedly involved in an attack on an Union Minister's son Charan (Roshan Basheer), however they back off after receiving a call from one Periyakannu alias PK (Jagapathi Babu) from Tirunelveli, who tells them not to harm her. Bairavaa confronts Malarvizhi, who tells him why PK spared her life.

Malarvizhi studies in PK Medical College in Tirunelveli, whose chairman is PK, a criminal don and politician who runs Tirunelveli along with his right-hand man Kottai Veeran (Daniel Balaji). The college has no basic facilities, including a proper building and good doctors. Malarvizhi and her best friend Vaishali (Aparna Vinod) lodged a complaint against the college to the MCI, who decided to blacklist the college after noting the poor facilities. To save his reputation, PK made a deal with the MCI officials to revoke the suspension in exchange for them having sex with a girl from the college. Vaishali, who was the girl chosen by the officials, was found raped and killed the next morning. Malarvizhi's father (Aadukalam Naren), a sincere police officer, began an investigation into PK's involvement in Vaishali's death, but he too was killed by PK in retribution. After her father's death, Malarvizhi dragged PK to court, where the judge declared that Malarvizhi should not be expelled and must not be harmed till the case is resolved, even though she had filed the complaint against PK. Though PK respects the judge's decision, he harasses Malarvizhi indirectly through the college lecturers and by cutting power and water to her locality. He plans to kill her once the verdict is declared in his favour. During the marriage, Malarvizhi had given the video evidence of Vaishali being raped to Charan, since, being an Union Minister's son, he would have access to the NIC where the video would be investigated. Charan was later attacked by PK's henchmen, who then took away the video evidence and put the blame on Malarvizhi. Bairavaa, on hearing Malarvizhi's story, decides to help her fight PK and get justice for Vaishali and leaves for Kallidaikurichi with her.

Posing as an Income Tax officer, Bairavaa conducts a raid at PK's mansion, taking away all the evidence which holds PK responsible for Vaishali's death. PK soon realises that Bairavaa is after him and a cat-and-mouse game begins between Bairavaa and PK. In the process, PK gets back the evidence and destroys them, leaving Bairavaa with no evidence to implicate PK, though he manages to get five more days time from the court to get the required evidence. Meanwhile, Kottai Veeran's wife, who was terminally ill, passes away. Bairavaa decides to take advantage of Kottai Veeran's love for his wife to get him on his side and make him approver against PK. He switches PK's asthma inhaler with nitrous oxide. PK, who inadvertently inhales the gas before going to Kottai Veeran's wife's funeral, begins to laugh uncontrollably, even during the funeral, causing Kottai Veeran to turn against him and accept Bairavaa's offer of becoming approver. In revenge for betraying him, PK confronts Kottai Veeran and hacks him to death.

Bairavaa decides to finish off PK once and for all as that is the only way he can now get justice for Vaishali. He frames PK for plotting to assassinate the Prime Minister of India while he is on the way to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. The news spreads all across India and soon it is ordered to shoot PK on sight. PK, realising that he is cornered, tries to kill Bairavaa before he dies, but Bairavaa manages to dodge him. He then disguises himself as a NSG commando, blends in with the real NSG commandos who have arrived at the building and kills PK.

In the end, the verdict is declared in favour of Bairavaa and Malarvizhi. PK's henchmen are arrested while the students of PK Medical College are shifted to another college. In a press conference, Bairavaa, while supporting private colleges, says that it is important that the person heading such colleges are honest and sincere enough to ensure that the students are safe and receive a good education.

Development

In September 2015, Vijaya Productions signed on to finance a project directed by Bharathan, which would feature Vijay and Keerthi Suresh in the lead role. This is the first time Vijay and Keerthy Suresh act together. Aparna Vinod who debuted in the Malayalam film Kohinoor also plays a pivoted role in the film. Bharathan continued to write the script through late 2015, while it was announced that Vijay would join the team to start filming after the completion of his other venture, Theri (film) (2016). The technical crew of the film includes Santhosh Narayanan as the music director, Praveen K. L. as the editor, M. Prabhaharan as the art director, Anal Arasu as the fight master and lyrics are taken care of by Vairamuthu.

Sources say that almost 10 directors have approached Vijay for his 60th film. Giving his time and thoughts to the directors and their stories, Vijay will soon make a decision and it was also quoted that Vijay wants his every third film to bring him out of the comfort zone and experiment with diverse roles and genres. But adding to that list, the following are the story-tellers were lined up including S. J. Suryaah, Samuthirakani, Hari, Bharathan, Karthik Subbaraj, Mohan Raja, Prabhu Deva and M. Sasikumar. It was earlier reported that S. J. Suryah had given his one-liner to Vijay, who has given his nod. It's also said that Suryah has signed A. R. Rahman to compose the music and the film is going to be produced by Chandraprakash Jain.

More to the speculation, Bharathan has narrated his script and Hari might direct the story funded by Vijaya Productions who were also the producers of Ajith Kumar's Veeram, finally Bharathan was confirmed by the producers to direct the film.

Casting

Alongside the lead actor, it was revealed that Sathish, Y. G. Mahendra, Sreeman, Aparna Vinod, Harish Uthaman would be a part of the film. Papri Ghosh has been signed as the third female lead after Keerthi Suresh and Aparna Vinod. It is also reported that Vijay will be donning dual roles in the film with one of the characters speaking Nellai Tamil dialect and the other character will appear with a tonsured head. The film will also have one more heroine for Vijay who is kept under wraps. Malayali actress Aparna Vinod is the latest addition to the cast of this movie. The actress has signed on the dotted lines recently to play the second female lead in the flick. Speaking to the Times of India, Aparna Vinod has claimed that she never expected to bag such a big film project and she is happy to be working with Vijay in the film. Talking about the role, she said, "She plays a village belle, a vital character that will carry the story forward." Meanwhile, it is said that the first look of "Bairavaa" along with the title will be out on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi, 5 September 2016. Producer and actor R. K. Suresh is rumored to be the third villain in this movie, joining the likes of Jagapati Babu and Daniel Balaji.

Filming

The film began production in Chennai in early April 2016 and an introductory song for Vijay which was shot in the city. In the first schedule Vijay, Comedian Sathish and heroine Keerthi Suresh was shot for their roles. The shooting for two song sequences has been completed in the first schedule. The first song was the colourful opening song which was choreographed by Dinesh master.

The first schedule of the movie took place at EVP, Poonamallee in a court setup on 11 April 2016, and the scene reportedly features Vijay, Jagapati Babu and others.

The temple set was erected in Binny Mills as a Thiruvizha setup and the scene reportedly will feature Vijay, Keerthi Suresh, Harish Uthaman, Sathish, Sija Rose, Thambi Ramaiah and others. The choreographer of the songs was dance master Dinesh.

Soundtrack

Santhosh Narayanan was signed to compose the film's music and collaborated with Vijay and Bharathan for the first time. Vijay and Priyadarshini recorded a song for the film. The music album of Bairavaa was launched on 20 December in Chennai. IndiaGlitz rated the album 3 out of 5 and stated "Bhairavaa is filled with action and Santhosh Narayanan has worked his magic again,as he has rolled out an album, which is always in tune with the mood of the movie's crux. Movie Crown Rated the album 2.5 out of 5 and stated the album has Santhosh Narayanan Touch and the makes the album as enjoyable. Behindwoods.com stated "Bairavaa is a fun filled album from Santhosh Narayanan" and rated the album 2.75 out of 5.

Critical reception

Sify.com rated the movie 3 out of 5 and stated that "the movie keeps the audience entertained, thanks to the two intelligently choreographed action sequences (cricket stunt and the interval block) along with a touching flashback. As usual, Vijay once again proves his capability of carrying a film on his strong shoulders. Keerthy Suresh as a homely girl from Nellai played her portions well. Bharathan's catchy punchlines that every mass dialogue of Ilayathalapathy receives thundering response and makes the movie an engaging entertainer". Behindwoods rated the film 2.25 stars out of 5, with its verdict stating that "even Vijay's screen presence could not save a middling script". OnlyKollywood.com also rated the movie 3 out of 5 and stated " Bairavaa is doubtlessly an out an out vijay entertainer and it's unimaginable how empty the film would have been without him. The Hindu rated it 2 out of 5 stars indicating "Bairavaa: masala movie without spice!"