Thani Oruvan

Plot

A low-level party cadre Sengalvarayan (Thambi Ramaiah) is tying a flag to a street-lamp post. Suddenly his pregnant wife goes into labour, but he completely ignores it, as he is more dedicated to his leader and party. At the same time, the party's deputy leader (Nassar) visits the locality; as soon as he comes to know about this incident, the leader lends his car and orders his driver to immediately take the pregnant lady to the hospital; she delivers a baby boy named Pazhani before they get to the hospital. At the age of fifteen, Pazhani secures first rank in his 10th standard state exam and visits the party deputy-leader, now the chairman of the party and a member of the ruling coalition for his blessings with his father. While they are waiting in the party office for the leader to come in, they witness a murder of a rebel party candidate by their own revered leader due to caste-related comments by the rebel on him. When the leader asks Sengalvarayan to take the blame by saying that he killed the man due to rage about the rebel's comments, Pazhani volunteers to take the blame and is willing to go to jail, citing the leniency of juvenile laws in exchange for an MLA seat for his father in the upcoming by-election. The deal is agreed and carried out.

15 years later, trainee IPS officers Mithran (Jayam Ravi), Shakthi (Ganesh Venkatraman), Suraj (Harish Uthaman), Kathiresan (Sricharan) and Janardhan "Jana" (Rahul Madhav), discreetly assist the police in catching a gang which kidnapped four girls. One day Mithran receives a cryptic text message on his phone from an anonymous number stating that he/she is aware of their discreet activities. In the evening, they go out to meet that person who is revealed to be Mahima (Nayantara), who loves Mithran. Later that same night they happen to witness the murder of a man named Ramar who is a social activist with the pretense of snatch theft. Mithran and his friend catch the gang and their leader and hand them over to the police; however, four days later the leader of the gang comes to the IPS headquarters with the home minister. This political and organised crime comes as a shock to Mithran and his friends. Mithran takes them to his house and shows his research on connecting all small unrelated incidents into the global view of a hidden network of politicians, industrialists and criminals who bend the law for their own financial benefits. He singles out three prominent business oligarchs (a pharmaceutical mogul, a mineral magnate and a don). When he tries following one he realises that all three of them work as a group and they all work for a wealthy and influential scientist Siddharth Abhimanyu (Arvind Swamy). After the completion of his training, Mithran is awarded medals for specializing in dealing with organized crime during training and also for being the best probationer of the batch, and is posted as the ASP of the Organized Crime Unit.

Mithran discovers that Siddharth is Sengalvarayan's son Pazhani. After his release from juvenile detention center, Pazhani had his name changed and left India to complete his education abroad. After his graduation he returned to India and is now a well established scientist. Siddarth uses the medical field for the wrong reasons and his own profit. Sengalvarayan is now the incumbent health and welfare minister in the minority government headed by the party leader. At that time Angelina, a Swiss pharmaceutical company owner and activist tries to make generic medicines for life-threatening diseases available in India at low cost affordable by poor people. Siddharth's assassin kills Angelina before she can sign the agreement document with the government and shoots Mithran at the same time. While he is recovering from the gunshot wound in the hospital, an electronic bug (GPS + audio transmitter) is implanted during surgery. Through the bug, Siddharth listens all of Mithran's plans and continuously monitors his whereabouts and whatever he talks via audio transmission. Then comes evidence against Siddharth in the form of Manimekalai (Abhinaya). She was a scientist at Siddharth's research lab, where a seaweed that can cure diabetes is found abundantly in the oceans. Siddharth tries to sell the technology and rights to extract medicine from the seaweed to multinational pharmaceutical companies but is opposed by Manimekalai. So Siddharth arranges goons and the goons rape and kill her. But before being killed, she records a video and stores it in an SD card so that someone will find it. But before Mithran can find the card, Siddharth finds out and assigns Vicky (Vamsi Krishna) to recover the card, but Mithran tells Jana to get the card. He successfully gets the card after a fight with Vicky, but through the bug Siddharth knows this and kills Jana. Mithran comes back to his special house where he finds a pin has been changed in a picture which turns out to be the picture of Ananya Miss world of 2011 and a close acquaintance of Siddharth whose girlfriend Shilpa (Mugdha Godse) was also part of that event. Mithran doubts whether Siddharth himself would have come to his house. Mahima checks the finger prints on the pin keeping the gun case Mithran received from Siddharth in his posting ceremony and the finger prints match. A flashback reveals that Siddharth killed Shilpa's father so that she would not participate in the competition and as she will not have a ticket to go to her father's funeral he requests to take her in his chartered flight and wins her over. Mithran frantically searches for the bug which he eventually finds out and removes.

Mithran captures Vicky and records all the information from him. He drugs Vicky and manipulates Siddharth into killing him. At the same time, Siddharth's father reads the changed medical report, which contains very good medical contracts for public welfare and multiple accusations against the CM. When Siddharth learns about this, he asks Sengalvarayan to pretend to have chest pains and move outside to hospital. The ruling party forces Sengalvarayan either to resign within 24 hours or he will be dismissed. Mithran appeals to the CM that he has evidence and wants to arrest Siddharth, and he is granted permission to do so. Hence Siddarth kills his father using his goons in an accident and forces the CM to stop actions against him or he will lie that the CM killed his father for personal vengeance. But the next day at his father's state funeral, Mithran arrests him on the CM's orders.

When Siddharth is arrested, Mithran tells him that the medicine was patented in Manimekalai's name (despite Siddarth being the inventor) and will be made as generic medicine instead of a patent-protected one. It is also revealed that Sengalvarayan is alive, saved by Mithran and the public funeral held was for Jana. Mithran makes a deal that he would save Siddharth's life for information and evidence on all of his criminal associates and activities and gives him a bulletproof vest to fake his death during his transport to court.

They also plan to take down the set up planned by various VIPs to kill Siddharth when one of them gets close to Siddharth. Mithran takes him down and pushes Siddharth back. To Mithran's surprise, Siddharth does not wear the vest, and is fatally shot by Shilpa. Before dying, he tells Mithran that he hid all the evidence in an SD card in the bulletproof vest, adding that he had not done it for the nation but because Mithran had asked for it.

Production

In February 2013, Mohan Raja stated that he would direct his brother Jayam Ravi again in a film to be produced by AGS Entertainment and that he had been working on the script for the past six months. Unlike his earlier ventures which were mainly remakes, he was said to have developed an original story concept. Raja said, "This film is close to my heart; it's an experimental script and I've put my heart and soul in penning it". In July 2013, Nayantara signed on to be part of the project and her role was reported to be that of an aspiring police officer. Raja said he cast Nayantara opposite Ravi because he "wanted a matured actress like her to be a part of the film". Ganesh Venkatraman was cast for a pivotal role and the actor told that the film focuses on friendship and that he, Ravi and Nayantara played friends in the film. The film began without a title and was referred to by the tentative title, Thani Oruvan, which was confirmed as the film's official title in June 2014.

Filming started on 6 December 2013 with a two-day schedule in Chennai at Binny Mills where a railway station set had been erected and romantic flashback portions involving Ravi and Nayantara were shot. The crew then moved to Bangalore in January 2014 where filming was held at a police training college. As of February 2014, filming was underway in Mahabalipuram, Bangalore, Sri Ramanujar Engg College, Vandalur and Hyderabad. In March, Ravi stated that the team had also shot in Rishikesh, Dehradun and that the third schedule was currently happening in Mussoorie. In June 2014, Raja revealed that the team were still yet to film scenes featuring the lead antagonist with reports linking either Arya or Arvind Swamy to the role, the pair however refuted the reports. It was later revealed that Arvind Swamy would be playing the antagonist. Raja wanted to cast an actor "whose attractiveness would act as a distraction from his evilness. And I chose one of the most attractive male actors in this country for that role". In March 2015, it was reported that the film would also feature Bollywood actress Mugdha Godse, who had been paired opposite Arvind Swamy and would make her Tamil début. This film was shot on film roll (analogue form of film making) by cinematographer Ramji, which he feels may be the last Tamil film to get shot in film as the industry has moved to digital filming. The film's budget was initially planned to be ₹15 crores but surpassed ₹20 crores due to delay and budget overrun, Raja and Ravi had to forgo their salaries in order to complete the film.

Soundtrack

Devi Sri Prasad and Yuvan Shankar Raja were first reported to be the music composers of Thani Oruvan, with the latter revealing that he had been in talks. Hiphop Tamizha was finalised as the music director in March 2015. The soundtrack was launched at Suryan FM on 23 July 2015. The album received positive response from both audiences and critics. Only Kollywood rated the album 3 out of 5 stating,"Though Thani Oruvan is more of a script-centered soundtrack with little scope for experimentation, the composer makes this worth a listen with a couple of interesting tracks which will hit the marquee easily. Hip Hop Tamizha's musical quality is slowly picking its pace with every album". Ytalkies in turn stated "Overall, Hip Hop Tamizha consolidates his position in Kollywood by scoring a Hat-trick with ‘Thanioruvan".

Release

Sun Pictures initially signed a contract for the distribution rights for the film; they later opted out after numerous failures of Jayam Ravi and negative talk about the film; the satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.

Reception

The Times of India rated the film 4 out of 5 and wrote "Thani Oruvan is a bit too long [..] And even though it is a plot-driven film, the film gives us well-rounded characters, who lend the slightly far-fetched story plausibility". IndiaGlitz rated the film 4 out of 5 and called it a "must watch for any true movie lover". Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu wrote, "Thani Oruvan makes the most of the sustained cat-and-mouse game between Mithran and Siddharth. The authors (Subha), are credited as co-writers, and this is the first time their pulp sensibility really shines through", calling it "a pretty, smart pulpy thriller". Behindwoods rated the film 3.25 out of 5 and stated "Raja delivers a commercial entertainer with all its necessary elements in an intelligent manner and in an engaging fashion". Rediff stated "Thoughtfully etched-out characters add depth and intensity to the narration, while great music and impressive cinematography enhance the overall experience". Sify wrote, "Powered by a staggering performance from Jayam Ravi and Arvind Swamy, director Mohan Raja does a good job of creating a taut, intelligent, and deliciously twisted action drama that delivers so much more than your average thriller...what makes Thani Oruvan, an enjoyable watch is its, original screenplay, the smart presentation and excellent characterisation". Deccan Chronicle gave it 3.5 stars and wrote, "With the use of technology, an emphasis on slyness and mind over matter, director M. Raja and his team have crafted a film that is sure to keep you at the edge of your seat while entertaining you thoroughly in the process". IBN Live rated the film 3.5 out of 5 and wrote "The film stands on one and a half legs because Siddharth Abhimanyu will rank among the best villains whereas Mithran IPS will miss the mark in the heroes section by a large margin, Nayanthara is deliciously comfortable in her role as Mahima". It was reported that the concept of implanting electronic bug (GPS + audio transmitter) and monitoring the plan from the 2010 Korean movie I Saw the Devil was used in this movie which the director denied as co-incidence.

Box office

Thani Oruvan grossed ₹51.08 crore in 10 days worldwide. The Tamil film earned ₹1.28 crore in its first weekend; in its second weekend the film collected ₹1.06 crore at the Chennai box office. The total collection of the film by the end of 18 days was ₹74.86 crore.

Remakes

The film was remade in Telugu titled Dhruva with Ram Charan and Rakul Preet Singh as lead performers. The film was also remade in Bengali, titled One (2017) Starring Yash Dasgupta and Prosenjit Chatterjee as protagonist and antagonist respectively and Nusrat Jahan as the heroine. The movie is directed by Birsa Dasgupta and produced by Shree Venkatesh Films.. The movie is expected to be remade in Hindi as well, although yet-to-be-titled. The movie will star Salman Khan in the lead role and Arvind Swamy as the villain. The film is also expected to be remade in Kannada and Marathi languages.