Kodi (film)

Plot

For Kodi (Dhanush), politics has been a part of his life ever since his birth. His father Murugan (Karunaas), a low-rung party worker, brings him up to become a politician, before setting himself on fire, protesting against a factory whose toxic mercury waste has ruined lives in the locality. Kodi’s identical twin, Anbu (also Dhanush), is a contrast to his rough-and-tough brother. He is a college lecturer and a pacifist.

Kodi is the secretary of his party’s youth wing and his adopted assistant who is more brother like to him is Bhagat Singh (Kaali Venkat). His girlfriend Rudra (Trisha), who belongs to the ruling party and has been in politics since childhood like him. Here enters egg-seller Malathi (Anupama Parameswaran), whose eggs are broken by Kodi. When she chases him, she comes across Anbu and mistakes him as Kodi. That day, she goes to Anbu"s college for some work and there she sees him and slaps him, takes away his phone and him to return her broken eggs' money and then take it. In between happens series of comical incidents. Anbu falls in love with Malathi. Malathi tells him her village pathetic condition due to the factory's mercury waste, which Anbu tells Kodi.

Kodi soon tells this matter to Thalaivar (S.A. Chandrasekhar), who tells that they would take up this matter. Meanwhile, Kodi comes in possession of documents relating to the factory, from which he comes to know that his party member Marimuthu (G. Marimuthu) and the whole party is responsible for what has happened to the villagers. He angrily tells it to Thalaivar, who tells that it is true. Depressed, he shares this information with Rudhra who speaks up this matter in public, causing great embarrassment to Kodi's party and the party thinks he would not remain silent and this could ruin his party’s chances in the election, and to keep him silent, his party leadership announces him as their candidate. Problems soon arise as Rudhra's party members come to know about the Kodi-Rudhra's affair, and start pressurizing Rudhra to give up her candidacy. A depressed Rudhra is called upon by Kodi to him in the woods. When they meet together, the goons sent by former MLA Arivazhagan (Namo Narayana) of the region, who was dethroned by Rudhra using her tactics, attacks them. Kodi defends them by finishing up the goons but in the end he is stabbed by Rudhra, who tells him that she imagined if he died then there is no obstacle for her. Kodi dies for her sake.

Rudhra meets Kodi's family after funeral and tells them that her party is willing to give Anbu the post of MLA because she became MP of Rajya Sabha. Kodi's mother (Saranya Ponvannan) denies, but Anbu accepts it. Anbu wins the by-election unopposed. Anbu changes his look as Kodi and behaves more like Kodi. His mother tells Rudhra that a Doctor told her that if one of the twins die, than the other one would either wish to die like them or they would like to live the other one's life. Soon, Anbu takes up two matters, first is to find his brother's murderer and the second is to solve the issue of the factory. When he tells Rudhra to start up the process of removal of factory, she tells him to wait for some time. Anbu uses his brain and starts up the process, much to the annoyance of Rudhra. Soon, Kotraivel (Rajasimman) a member of Kodi's party finds out a camera, in which the video showing Rudhra killing Kodi is recorded and he threatens Rudhra to stop the factory issue. Rudhra uses the Inspector (Anil Murali) as a pawn, and lures him that she would promote him as D.S.P. if he would kill Kotraivel. They drive to the location where the member has called Rudhra. In between Anbu calls the inspector to inquire about Kodi's case and asks him where he is, to which he tells a wrong location to Anbu, but Anbu finds it out and follows him. When they meet the inspector holds him at gun-point and he gives the to Rudhra, but she already emptied the gun of inspector and gives the loaded gun to Kotraivel and he kills the inspector. That night police come to Anbu's house to inquire him about the inspector's death as he was the last one to call him. The police suspected that Anbu was pressuring the inspector. Rudhra arrives there and orders the police to leave. But Anbu questions Rudhra about Kodi which made her feel guilty and she leaves the place. Anbu tells Bhagat that he suspects Rudhra because when he followed the inspector he found his dead body and when he checked his phone there were many calls to Arivazhagan. But when he inquired Arivazhagan he told that it was him who sent goons to kill Rudhra and Kodi, but they did not kill Kodi and after that only Rudhra was present with Kodi. Rudhra begins to feel that Anbu will find out the truth and moreover, the documents related to the factory were being taken to the court by Anbu. In order to stop him, Rudhra kidnaps his mother and Bhagat and tells him to come to the factory. In the end, a fight between Anbu and Rudhra's goons along with Kotraivel and Marimuthu takes place which results in Anbu emerging victorious. When he is about to kill Rudhra his mother tells him to leave her, in order to remain lonely and unhappily for the rest of her life. Soon, Bhagat kills her saying she did not deserve to live and go away with Kodi.

Production

The project was first announced during August 2015, when Dhanush revealed that he would act in Durai Senthilkumar's next film, after he finished his ongoing commitments. Dhanush revealed that the film would be a political thriller and that he would appear in dual roles as two brothers. Shriya Saran was first selected as the heroine by Dhanush but she couldn't allot dates for the film. Vidya Balan was then approached for the negative role in the film, but was not willing to do a Tamil film due to date issues. Trisha was signed as the female lead of the film. After unsuccessful negotiations with Rakul Preet Singh, who could not allot the dates, Shamili was signed on to portray the second leading female role. Shamili however became unwell during the shoot of the film and as a result of Dhanush's tight schedule, the makers chose to replace her. Madonna Sebastian was initially reported to have signed the film, before Anupama Parameswaran was confirmed as the second lead actress. Initially scheduled to start shoot in early December 2015, plans were delayed as a result of the 2015 South Indian floods and the schedule was delayed by two weeks. Subsequently, the team held an official launch on 11 December 2015. Shooting started on 5 January 2016.

Critical reception

Srinivas Ramujan of The Hindu wrote 'Director Durai Senthilkumar deserves credit for an engaging plot that includes a pre-interval block that jolts you. After all, when was the last time a commercial political film worked to a large extent without the existence of a dominating male villain?' India.com wrote 'Dhanush & Trisha Krishnan’s film gets the BEST political thriller label' Manathi Mannath of The New Indian Express concluded 'Kodi worth a watch for its universal sensibility'.

M Suganth of Times Of India gave Kodi 4 stars out of 5 and stated 'Kodi shows how a good actor can make a film rise above its genre. Dhanush’s performance here, subtly delineating the two roles, is a delight to watch. He shines in the mass hero moments as well as the dramatic ones. Sify stated 'Kodi is deliciously dramatic, and packed with sinister twists and turns with superb performances and solid writing' and rated 4 out of 5.

Press KS called it 'a political mass entertainer with excellent performance by Dhanush and Trisha. Dhanush shines out and out with his dual role play. Commercial dialogues score high' giving 3.5/5. Latha Srinivasan of IB Times said 'Director Durai Senthilkumar and Dhanush have given a total commercial film for the audience this Diwali. Watch the film for Dhanush's strong performance as Anbu and especially Kodi. This Diwali, this Kodi is set to fly high'. Bollywoodlife said 'Dhanush’s double act is impressive but Trisha is the bigger surprise'. Deccan Chronicle gave 3 out of 5 concluding 'Strong characterization and powerful cast makes it a winner.' Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express gave 3 stars stating 'Kodi, which released on Diwali, seems to be everything the Tamil audience wants for this festive season'. Firstpost stated 'Kodi is a well written and packaged commercial entertainer that delivers the goods'.

The Telugu version Dharmayogi also received positive reviews and became a commercial success.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album for Kodi is composed by Santhosh Narayanan. The lyrics of four songs were penned by Vivek while Dhanush & Arunraja Kamaraj wrote and sung the song Kodi Parakkudha. The audio rights of the film was acquired by Sony Music India. The complete album was released on 5 October 2016 at Prasad Labs, Chennai. The album consists of five tracks. Sify gave a rating of 3 stars out of 5 and stated "The ear-pleasing numbers make this a solid album". Behindwoods gave 2.75 stars out of 5 and stated "Kodi seems to be an apt composition for the film's subject"