Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru

Plot

The film starts with a masked killer entering an apartment and murdering a young couple, Krish and Shruti one cold, rainy night in Coimbatore. Five years later, Deepak, the retired police inspector who lost his leg while investigating the case, receives a call from a friend. The friend's son is adamant on becoming a police officer. So, the friend sends his son to Deepak so Deepak can brainwash him into not joining the force since his parents feel it is too dangerous. When the son arrives, he asks Deepak to tell him how he became crippled. Deepak begins to narrate his story of the final case that robbed him of the job he loved.

Five years ago, on the same night of the murder, three college friends named Fabian, Melvin and Mano run over someone. Fabian decides to hide the body in their car boot and dispose of it the following day. However, they are stopped by the traffic police. They beat up the police officers and flee with the body in their car, returning to Fabian's home.

The next morning, Deepak receives a complaint that the dead body of a young man, later revealed to be Krish, has been found on the streets. The witness is a local paperboy who was the one who found Krish's dead body earlier that day. After giving his statement, he starts yelling from outside the station, claiming that he just saw the same white car from the crime scene when he found the body. However, the car rushed away after he started yelling.

A gun with Krish's fingerprints is found nearby, leading forensic officers to suspect it might be a suicide case. However, Gautham, Deepak's enthusiastic new constable theorizes that it might be a homicide. They learn of the three college students Fabian, Melvin and Mano who are the only ones who use that street to return home after a day of partying every night. They go to interview the boys. They find nothing suspicious but it is clear to them that the boys are hiding something.

Later, Deepak and Gautham visit the scene of another possible crime, which is the apartment from the beginning of the film. Shruti, who lives there alone, is found missing with traces of blood on the bedroom wall by her friend, Vaishnavi, before dawn. After questioning her neighbours, Deepak and Gautham learn Shruti has a boyfriend who visits her apartment occasionally. Forensic officers soon learn that Shruti's blood type is O+, but the blood found in her bedroom is type B+. Deepak quickly remembers that Krish's blood is type B+ too. When Deepak shows Krish's photo to Shruti's next door neighbour, he says Krish looks like the boyfriend but he cannot be sure. Since Shruti's apartment is now a crime scene, Deepak arranges for Vaishnavi to stay with a neighbour for the night.

While leaving Shruti's apartment building, Deepak sees a group of film students getting into a fight with the security guard for filming at the area. He confiscates their camera and returns to his station.

After more investigating, Deepak and Gautham learn that Shruti had launched a police report against Mano for Eve teasing. When the three boys are summoned to the police station, Mano denies ever harassing Shruti, explaining that they only briefly met when they had a small accident ten days ago. Later that day, Krish's father,Sriram, a former police officer, comes to the station and is told about his only son's death. Back in present day, Deepak explains to his friend's son that the most depressing part of being a police officer is telling someone they had just lost someone they love.

Finally back home for the day at night, Deepak is told by his neighbour that someone had been waiting outside his house for hours. Then, the film students pay Deepak a visit to take back their camera. While looking through their footage, Deepak notices Vaishnavi arriving at Shruti's apartment building much earlier than dawn. Together with Gautham, Deepak goes to question her, only to find she had left in a hurry. During this time, they bump into Mano, who reveals what actually happened to him and his friends the night before. Also, after Deepak left their house, they found the dead body had gone missing from their car boot. Just then, the paperboy shows up and tells them that he knew what they did last night. He then blackmails them into giving him money. Deepak tells Mano to go home to his friends and pretend they had not talked.

Deepak and Gautham visit the paperboy to question him but learn that he was not the one who removed the anonymous dead body from the boys' car boot. Seeing that there is no solid suspect with no proper motive, Deepak theorizes that this is the work of a psycho killer. They also finally track down the white car's number plate and learn that it is registered under Krish name. While driving to Chennai to track down Vaishnavi, they came across the white car from the crime scene. While chasing it down, Deepak and Gautham meet with a tragic accident in which Deepak looses one of his legs. Having explained how he lost his leg, Deepak ends his story and goes to answer a phone call.His friend calls to explain that his son will not be coming. Shocked, Deepak gets his gun but is instead held at gunpoint by his guest who claims to be Krish's brother. He then forces Deepak to continues his story from where he left off.

While recovering at the hospital, Deepak is visited by Vaishnavi who reveals what actually happened that night. She arrived at Shruti's apartment the night before and found Krish and his friend waiting outside the door. Vaishnavi lets them in but Shruti angrily asks them to leave. It is then revealed that Krish has been posing as Mano all this time and it was he who had been harassing her all this time. Just then, Rajiv, Shruti's actual fiance, whom her neighbour had seen but could not identify, arrived but is knocked out. Krish then raped Shruti while his friend filmed everything. Krish and his friend then took Shruti with them in his car, leaving Vaishnavi and Rajiv behind. Krish warned Vaishnavi to not call the police or he would release the video of him raping Shruti on the internet. They then take Shruti hostage and Krish's friend starts to molest her in the car which Krish guards standing outside. Rajiv manages to wake up and overpower Krish, turning Krish's gun on him and shoots him. Krish's friend tries to escape by running and accidentally gets hit by Fabien's car. Later Rajiv follows them, retrieves the corpse and takes out the phone which has the rape recorded and proceeds to discard his body. He and Shruti then spent the next 24 hours hiding from the police while Vaishnavi stayed back to help manipulate the situation. Before midnight, Vaishnavi met up with Rajiv and Shruti at the station to leave the city forever and escape the police. However, when Vaishnavi learns from the news that Deepak met with an accident, she returns to Coimbatore to explain what really happened.

Back in present day, Deepak reveals to his assailant that he knows he is not Krish's brother since Sriram only has one son. The assailant then reveals himself as Gautham, who was in coma for the last five years and whose face was burned in the accident. He had reconstructive surgery after waking up and made it his life's mission to track down the killer, who he knows is Rajiv. Traumatized by his lost youth, Gautham had sworn to bring Rajiv to justice as he blames him for his coma. He had seen Rajiv's face during the car chase that led to the tragic accident and was shocked to see Rajiv visiting Deepak earlier that week at his home. Deepak finally confesses that Rajiv is his son and that he had been at first unknowingly covering up for him throughout their investigation as Rajiv has not informed his father of his visit to coimbatore or his girlfriend. Gautham shoots Deepak in the chest and is then shot at by the police.

As he is being saved, Deepak recounts how had this story been told from Gautham's perspective, he would have ended up being the villain. He concludes how the Hindu concept of Karma is like a boomerang since what goes around always comes around.

Production

In September 2015, Rahman revealed that he would work on a Tamil action film to be directed by Karthick Naren, then only aged twenty one years old. Rahman stated that was initially apprehensive about signing on to feature in a film to be made by newcomers and held a few hearings despite being impressed with the way the script was presented to him through a narration that was both "appealing and convincing". Debutant director Karthick revealed that Rahman was his "only choice" for the lead role, while stating the script was "the culmination of an intensive probe into the world of crime" and that his father would back the film as the producer. Sujith Sarang, Sreejith Sarang and Jakes Bejoy, who had previously worked together in Thakka Thakka (2015), collaborated again to work as the cinematographer, editor and music composer for the project. Sachin Sudhakaran and Hariharan worked on the sound engineering for the film, with Rajakrishnan assisting as the mixing engineer. Apart from Rahman, the only other notable actor cast in the film was Delhi Ganesh, with most of the remaining actors being newcomers. Ashwin Kumar, who previously appeared in a supporting role in Jacobinte Swargarajyam (2016), was also picked to play a role, with his identity kept secret during the promotions. Rookie actress Yaashika Aanand appeared in the role of Shruti, her second film appearance following a brief role in Kavalai Vendam (2016). Anjana Jayaprakash, who portrayed the role of Vaishnavi, was a college senior of the director and was signed after the pair had a mutual interest for working on short films.

The film was predominantly shot in October and November 2015, over a period of 28 days in and around Chennai, Coimbatore and Ooty. The film's first look was released by director Gautham Menon through a poster in January 2016, while R. Madhavan and A. R. Rahman released a further poster and the trailer of the film, respectively, during August 2016. Prior to the theatrical release of the film, Rahman screened the film for his friends in the film industry.Soundtrack

Soundtrack contains two songs composed by Jakes Bejoy and the lyrics were written by Vivek and Mani Amudhan.

Release

The film was theatrically released across Tamil Nadu on 29 December 2016, alongside seven other films and played initially in 95 screens. However, by the first show, the film started receiving a good response, and positive word-of-mouth meant that 160 screens played the film in its second week. Furthermore, the film was moved from smaller halls in cinemas to the biggest main screens in several multiplexes across Chennai. It subsequently went on to become a profitable venture at the box office, with Sify.com stating it was a "multiplex super hit". Following the release of the film, it received widespread critical acclaim with several Indian actors and technicians praising the venture. Rahman praised the team and stated he was "left in awe at the efforts of the youthful brigade, and things fell in place as if it was programmed that way" and noted that "the success should inspire other directors to think out of the box". Leading Tamil film technicians including A. R. Rahman, Shankar, AR Murugadoss and Karthik Subbaraj tweeted appreciating the film, as did actors such as Sivakarthikeyan, Rana Daggubati and Prashanth.

In his review for The Hindu, film critic Baradwaj Rangan gave the film a positive review and concluded that Dhruvangal Pathinaaru was "a procedural with solid writing, first-rate filmmaking", adding that the director had "announced that he’s a filmmaker". Similarly, The New Indian Express gave the film a very positive review stating "an eminently watchable suspense- thriller, Dhruvangal Pathinaaru has a universal sensibility and a feel that makes Tamil cinema proud", while also singling out Rahman stating he gave a "truly brilliant performance and the best in his career". Sify.com wrote it was a "well executed whodunit murder mystery" and added that the film "engages us throughout and keep throwing surprises till the end". Likewise, Behindwoods.com noted that it was "an engaging thriller with an impressive storyline" and that "Karthick is a director to look out for". Indiaglitz.com stated it was a "fantastic thriller", concluding "D16 is surely the surprise end package to the year 2016, a good finish from a logically sound and promising director supported by a good cast and fine technicalities".