Rajini Murugan

Plot

Rajini Murugan (Sivakarthikeyan) is an unemployed youth from Madurai who spends his days roaming around with his best friend Thotathree (Soori) and supplying food to his grandfather Ayyankalai (Rajkiran), a highly respected gentleman who has large properties of land. Ayyankalai wants to divide all his properties among his children and grandchildren, but except Rajini Murugan and his father Malligarajan (G. Gnanasambandam), who is the headmaster of the local school, the rest of the family is settled abroad and never visit Madurai.

Meanwhile, following the advice of an astrologer (who claimed that Rajini Murugan will get married and be rich within three months), Rajini Murugan starts wooing his childhood sweetheart Karthika Devi (Keerthy Suresh). Karthika's father Neelakandan (Achyuth Kumar), an ardent fan of Rajinikanth, was the best friend of Malligarajan and had given Rajini Murugan his name when he was born, but fell out with Malligarajan and his family due to a misunderstanding involving Rajini Murugan and Karthika when they were children. Since then, Rajini Murugan and Karthika are not on speaking terms, and Neelakandan forbids any sort of contact between the two. Nevertheless, Rajini Murugan opens a tea stall outside Karthika's house to stay close to her and follows her day and night. The stall is later destroyed by a customer who pulls down the shop in the process of taking a banana. Later, he and Thothathree start a real estate company. A gangster "Ezhrai" Mookan (Samuthirakani), whose only work is to extort ₹100,000 from businessmen, tries to swindle the same amount from Rajini Murugan, but fails and ends up paying ₹100,000 to him.

Ayyankalai, who is fed up with Rajini Murugan's antics, decides to immediately divide his properties so that Rajini Murugan can benefit from his share of the property. He fakes his death, which forces his children and grandchildren to come to Madurai. Mookan claims that he too is a grandson of Ayyankalai (through the son of Ayyankalai's first wife) and starts demanding his share of the property. This leads to confrontation between Rajini Murugan and Mookan and their feud is soon brought before the panchayat. The panchayat declares the verdict in favour of Ayyankalai and Rajini Murugan. Mookan, accepting defeat, receives ₹100,000 from Rajini Murugan as compensation. It is then revealed that Mookan staged the whole drama to get back his ₹100,000 from Rajini Murugan. Meanwhile, Karthika accepts Rajini Murugan's love and Neelakandan also begins to approve their relationship.

In the end, Ayyankalai reveals that he does have a grandson through his first wife's son. The grandson is revealed to be none other than Bosepandi from Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam (Sivakarthikeyan). Bosepandi refuses to accept his share of his grandfather's property, advising him and his family not to sell the property and instead convert it into a 5-star hotel and hand it over to Rajini Murugan. Ayyankalai and Rajini Murugan agree with him.

Production

In August 2013, director Ponram's next project was announced, which was said to star Sivakarthikeyan and be produced by Lingusamy. D. Imman was selected to compose the film's music and Balasubramaniem was handed the cinematography. Sivakarthikeyan was reported to play a real-estate broker in the film.

Nazriya Nazim and Samantha Ruth Prabhu were among the forerunners for the lead female role, which went to Lakshmi Menon. However, she was subsequently replaced by Keerthy Suresh. Her role was said to be a "feisty one", which included the character performing some street fights with other women. Soori was selected to play Sivakarthikeyan's co-star in the film. Rajkiran was selected to play the role of Sivakarthikeyan's grandfather. Principal photography commenced on 25 August 2014.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by D. Imman, which is the third time he has contributed to the score for a film starring Sivakarthikeyan after Manam Kothi Paravai and Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam. Sivakarthikeyan has sung a song in this film too. The audio was launched on 16 June 2015. The lyrics were written by Yugabharathi.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Zee Thamizh. Shooting finished in March 2015 . The film is confirmed by Thirupathi Brothers on Twitter for release on 14 January 2016.

Critical reception

Behindwoods gave the film 2.5/5 stars, "A fairly entertaining family drama". The Guardian rated it 3 out of 5 stars, saying, "This long-gestating slice of fun about the successes of the world’s least ambitious individual is a likable, irreverent ride". The Hindu wrote that "there’s pretty much nothing in Rajini Murugan that will even startle you, let alone blow your mind."