Taramani (film)

Story

Althiya Johnson is a young, Anglo Indian single mother working in the corporate sector in Chennai. One rainy evening, she takes shelter at an abandoned hut alongside a rugged young man, Prabunath. Although at first they appear to be suspicious of each other, they both eventually start talking and become friends.

Prabu reveals to Althiya how he works at a call center and hates his job. The only good thing about his workplace is it is located right opposite to his girlfriend, Sowmya's IT office. Sowmya is a highly educated but conservative young woman who get emotional easily. Prabu steals money from a sleeping stranger on the train and gives it to Sowmya so she can get her visa to relocate to The States. However, she meets another man there and marries him, leaving Prabu heartbroken. After learning that the man he stole from died of a heart attack, Prabu starts blaming himself and becomes depressed. He almost commits suicide at the Taramani railway station, but is saved by the station master, who becomes his good friend.

Later on, Althiya introduces Prabu to her son, Adrian and her mother. Her mother disapproves of Althiya's friendship with Prabu and this forces Althiya to leave the house. While spending the night at the railway station, Althiya explains that she caught her husband, Jacob having an affair with a man. Understanding that he can never love her, she lets him leave her not before learning that she is pregnant with his child. The following morning, she moves into her friend's empty apartment.

After an evening out in the sea, the three come across a school of dolphins. Prabu jumps in and swims with them for a while. Althiya once told Adrian that his father is away swimming with dolphins. Seeing Prabu with the dolphins, Adrian asks Althiya if he can call Prabu his father. She eventually confesses her love to Prabu. They both get engaged and move in together.

Prabu begins to become overprotective and eventually suspects Althiya is having an affair with her flirtatious boss. Things take a turn for the worse when Prabu reads a crude text message her boss sends to her phone. She makes him leave the apartment. Prabu then visits Sowmya, who is back in Chennai for a holiday. She gives him a box of chocolates as a gift but he rejects it. While her husband is out, he makes her take intimate photos with her to blackmail her for money. However, the chocolate box that she gave him actually contained more money than the amount he stole for her. Thinking that he would reject money, she lied to him that it was just chocolates. Ashamed at how much he had changed, Prabu leaves Sowmya's hotel room.

Meanwhile, Althiya does the same with her boss but uploads their photos together onto social media. Her boss then begs her to take them down, fearing that his wife and daughter will see them. Althiya successfully makes him apply for a transfer and is finally free from him sexually harassing her. A few days later, Althiya receives a phone call from Prabu. Thinking that he is going to reconcile, she answers. Instead, he berates her for having an affair with her boss since he had seen the stages photos of them online.

After having his heartbroken a second time, Prabu decides to embrace his dark side. He starts calling up lonely married women to flirt with them. He then records all their conversations and blackmails them for money. One of the women turns out to be the friend of the city's assistant police commissioner. While taping Prabu's phone, the policeman learns that one of the women he is contacting is his own wife. The policeman rushes home and beats up both Prabu and his own wife. Seeing the policeman abuse his wife and how she admits to sleeping with Prabu despite this not being true, Prabu is reminded of himself and how he treated Althiya. The wife then shoots herself with her husband's gun. The devastated policeman then lets Prabu leave.

In the meantime, Althiya lets Adrian travel to Velankani with her now estranged mother on a pilgrimage. She is then summoned to Adrian's school where his teacher shows him an essay he had written in class. In it, he reveals how complicated his life is with his mother's unorthodox lifestyle. She then decides to live only for her son.

With the money that he received from Sowmya, Prabu goes to the Muslim neighbourhood to repay the family of the man from whom he stole from years ago. The man's widow tells him that the postmortem report showed that her husband had died hours earlier before Prabu took his money and his body had been traveling lifelessly the entire day on the train. Seeing how forgiving the family is to him, Prabu learns his lesson and decides to start life afresh.

Prabu returns to Atlhiya's apartment building and asks her for her forgiveness. She forgives him but asks him to leave the city since they can never be together again. He accompanies her all the way back to her apartment, but she does not let him in. Seeing that she is serious in not wanting him in her life anymore, Prabu quietly leaves. After that he apologizes her continuously by giving roses n etc n they live happily there after.

Production

Prior to the release of Thanga Meengal (2013), Ram announced his next film named Taramani would feature actress Andrea and consequently, the first look of the movie was released in August 2013. Ram picked Andrea Jeremiah to play the lead role, labelling her as a "underutilized actress" and revealing that the film would be a "lifetime role" for her. In September 2013, the director held a test shoot and also filmed a song for the film. The filming for the project began in late November 2013 and a video book was released shortly after featuring the lead actors.

Talking about the delay of the film, Ram revealed that he had to make changes to the script as time had passed. For example, he remarked that the concept of using WhatsApp amongst Chennai folk was uncommon in 2013 but had to work it into the second half as it became more popular by the time of the film's release in 2017. He also revealed that he considered shelving the film after he noticed similarities with Mani Ratnam's O Kadhal Kanmani (2015) and Karthik Subbaraj's Iraivi (2016), which had contained similar taboo themes for audiences in Tamil Nadu.

Soundtrack

On 9 February 2014, a single song written, composed and sung by Andrea Jeremiah titled "The Soul of Taramani" that will not be part of the film or soundtrack album was released by actor Kamal Haasan and director P. Bharathiraja. The background score and soundtrack is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, with the album released on 30 December 2016.

Release

After four years of production works, Taramani had a theatrical release on 11 August 2017. After a slow start at the box office, the number of screens increased during the second week and the film progressed to become a big success in multiplex cinemas across Chennai. Taramani also won primarily positive reviews, with the Deccan Chronicle noting "on the whole, the film is a worthy watch that will leave you intrigued", while giving Andrea Jeremiah particular praise for her portrayal of the lead character. The Indian Express wrote "Despite its shortcomings, Taramani has a lot working in its favour. Andrea Jeremiah and Vasanth Ravi’s remarkable performances and of course, Ram’s witty, satirical interspersions in the narrative", while The New Indian Express also praised the film. In contrast, a critic from The Hindu wrote "the film tries to do too much" and labelled Ram's voiceovers as "preachy".