| Velaikkaran | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Mohan Raja |
| Produced by | R. D. Raja |
| Written by | Mohan Raja N. Baskaran |
| Screenplay by | Mohan Raja Subha |
| Story by | Mohan Raja |
| Starring | Sivakarthikeyan Fahadh Faasil Nayanthara |
| Music by | Anirudh Ravichander |
| Cinematography | Ramji |
| Edited by | Ruben Vivek Harshan |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | 24AM Studios E4 Entertainment Fox Star Studios |
Release date | |
Running time | 160 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Velaikkaran (lit. Worker) is a 2017 Indian Tamilaction thriller film[1] written and directed by Mohan Raja. Featuring an ensemble cast including Sivakarthikeyan, Fahadh Faasil and Nayanthara, the film has music composed by Anirudh Ravichander and cinematography by Ramji. Produced by R. D. Raja, the film is based on a sales executive named Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) who fights against food adulteration committed by high-class companies. The film was released on 22 December 2017.[2][3]
Arivazhagan aka Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) hails from Kolaikkara Kuppam a.k.a. Cooliekkara Kuppam, a slum area in Chennai. He focuses on working for the betterment of his fellow beings. Arivu starts Kuppam FM 90.8, a local radio channel with the help of the area gangster, Kasi (Prakash Raj). In reality, Arivu tries to free the people of the area from Kasi's atrocities.[4] Arivu succeeds in turning the people of the area against Kasi.
Later, Arivu joins a leading FMCG company called Saffron and joins its sales department under Stella Bruce (Thambi Ramaiah). He manages to bring his friend Bhagya (Vijay Vasanth) out of Kasi's gang and gets him a job in Saffron. He meets Aadhi (Fahadh Faasil), Saffron's brand manager, who teaches him how to progress. On the night of April 1, Kasi and his gang stab Bhagya. Arivu tries to attack Kasi, but Kasi's rival Doss (Sharath Lohitashwa) stabs Kasi, and Arivu admonishes Kasi for being a paid henchman. Kasi reveals to Arivu that he killed Bhagya on a contract given by Jayaram (Anish Kuruvilla), the President of Saffron. The motive was that Bhagya tried to help Kasthuri (Sneha), who filed a case claiming Saffron's products to be adulterated, due to which she lost her son. Arivu then saves Kasi, who tells Arivu that all products manufactured by Saffron are adulterated. Arivu decides to fight such malpractice not only in Saffron, but in all the other five major food companies, including the one owned by Madhav Kurup (Mahesh Manjrekar). Arivu shares his plans with Aadhi. It is revealed that Aadhi is Adhiban Madhav, Madhav's son. He joined Saffron to know their trade secrets and merge the company with his father's company.
Arivu manages to convince his company's staff to manufacture products as per government regulations for two days. At the same time he convinces the staff of the other companies to wear a kerchief on their dresses for the next two days, thus tricking the owners into believing their workers have turned against them. Aadhi manages to foil Arivu's plan and coerces the other owners to write over the major shares of their company to Madhav. Aadhi manages to turn the employees against Arivu by tricking them into believing that Arivu worked as a spy for Madhav. Stella humiliates Arivu, while Aadhi pretends to defend Arivu, claiming he is innocent. Arivu reveals to Aadhi that Stella was his ally, and he knows that Aadhi is the traitor. Aadhi burns down the godown containing the unadulterated products and reveals to Arivu that he is Madhav's son and will be the next CEO. He convinces the staff and makes them propose his name as the new CEO.
Arivu goes to the Radio Mirchi radio station the same day. He reveals that after the fire, one of the injured department heads of Saffron, Karpaga Vinayagam (Ramdoss), called him into the ambulance and told him that he followed the regulations on the third day too. Arivu learned from the other Saffron team workers Kennedy (Mansoor Ali Khan), Vinoth (Kaali Venkat), Ansari (Aruldoss), and Sivaranjani (Vinodhini Vaidyanathan) that after manufacturing quality products for two days, they could not bring themselves to manufacture adulterated products on the next day. They confirm they all followed government regulations, thus manufacturing quality products on the next day. Aadhi, now the CEO, hears the workers say that they will rebel against him and depose him if he tries to revert to manufacturing adulterated products. Arivu adds that the loyalty of all the employees in every field should not be wasted by showing it towards unethical employers. Aadhi then vents his frustration about the failure of his plan.
All the people in the city show their support to Arivu, who celebrates his success with his love interest Mrinalini (Nayanthara), friends, family, all the people of his slum, and the city.
In December 2016, an official press announcement from producer R. D. Raja revealed that director Mohan Raja and Sivakarthikeyan would collaborate for his second production venture.[5][6] A launch event for the film was held on 11 March 2017, with the team announcing their intentions of starting the shoot in late 2016. Nayanthara signed the film in April 2017, while Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil was also brought in to appear in a pivotal role in the film, marking his debut in Tamil cinema.[7][8] Prior to the start of shoot, several actors were finalised for supporting roles including Sneha, Prakash Raj, Rohini and Thambi Ramaiah.[9][10][11][12]RJ Balaji, Sathish also joined the cast.[13]
Anirudh Ravichander, Vivek Harshan and T. Muthuraj joined the team as the music composer, editor and art director respectively. Likewise Anal Arasu was selected as the stunt choreographer, while Vishnu Govind and Sree Shankar were put in charge of sound editing and mixing.[14] In a turn of events, editor Ruben replaces Vivek Harshan, which is evident on the latest film poster released for Deepavali season.[15]
Production started with the film as yet untitled in November 2016, in T Nagar, Chennai.[16] The shoot continued throughout January at Prasad Studios in Chennai where art director Muthuraj had erected a large set resembling Chennai's slums.[17] In February 2017, Behindwoods reported that the film tentatively being given the title of Velaikkaran. This was after the team bought the title rights from Vijay Vasanth who had registered it for a future film.[18][19] Behindwoods also reported that Fahadh Faasil would dub himself in Tamil in this movie, a first for him.[20]
| Velaikkaran | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 3 December 2017 | |||
| Language | Tamil | |||
| Label | Sony Music | |||
| Producer | Anirudh Ravichander | |||
| Anirudh Ravichander chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Velaikkaran | ||||
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The soundtrack and background music of this film are scored by Anirudh Ravichander who also scored for Siva Karthikeyan's previous film 'Remo' which was also produced by 24 AM studios. Velaikkaran is the 17th film as solo composer for Anirudh and 6th film along with Sivakarthikeyan.[21]
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Singers | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 'Karuthavanlaam Galeejam' | Viveka | Anirudh Ravichander | 3:28 |
| 2. | 'Iraiva' | Viveka | Anirudh Ravichander, Jonita Gandhi | 4:53 |
| 3. | 'Vaa Velaikkara' | Vivek | Shakthisree Gopalan, Bjorn Surrao | 2:35 |
| 4. | 'Idhayane' | Madhan Karky | Anirudh Ravichander, Neeti Mohan | 3:41 |
| 5. | 'Ezhu Velaikkara' | Viveka | Siddharth Mahadevan | 5:05 |
| Total length: | 19:02 | |||
On the first day of the film's shoot, the producer R. D. Raja revealed that the film would have a theatrical release on 29 September 2017 (Pooja Holidays).[22] In April 2017, the production house has announced that the release date is postponed to 29 October 2017. Due to delays in post production the film's release date was shifted to 22 December 2017. It is reported that STAR Vijay has acquired the satellite rights of this movie.[23] The film is dubbed in Hindi as Ghayal Khiladi and released on YouTube on 6 January 2019 by Goldmines Telefilms.[24]