Irumbu Thirai (2018 film)

Irumbu Thirai
Theatrical poster
Directed by	P. S. Mithran
Written by	P. S. Mithran Pon Parthiban Savari Muthu Antony Bhagyaraj
Produced by	Vishal
Starring	Vishal Arjun Samantha Akkineni
Cinematography	George C. Williams
Edited by	Ruben
Music by	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Production company	Vishal Film Factory
Distributed by	Lyca Productions Krikes Cine Creations
Release date	11 May 2018 (2018-05-11)
Running time	160 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Box office	₹1.05 billion

Irumbu Thirai (transl. Iron Curtain) is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by debutant P. S. Mithran. The film stars Vishal, Arjun, and Samantha Akkineni, with Yuvan Shankar Raja composing the soundtrack. The film was produced by Vishal Film Factory, and the venture began production in October 2016. The narrative centers around an army officer who starts hunting down a gang of hackers after they steal money from his account. This film was a blockbuster at box-office.

The film released worldwide on 11 May 2018.^[1] The film received positive reviews from critics and audience praising the performance of Vishal and Arjun, screenplay, direction, Yuvan's score and other technical aspects of the film. The film successfully completed a 100-day theatrical run. A spinoff, titled Chakra was released on 19 February 2021.^[2]

Plot[]

Major R. Kathiravan (Vishal Reddy) is working on anger management issues under chief psychiatrist Rathi Devi (Samantha) with the hope of resuming his job. Soon they both fall in love. She counsels him to go to his village to spend time with his father Rangaswamy (Delhi Ganesh) and sister (Darshana Rajendran). Kathiravan hates his father due to his habit of borrowing money, and he reluctantly does this. Kathiravan finds that his sister's fiancé (Rishikanth) Kesavan's family demands them to bear the marriage expenses. He realizes his mistake of abandoning his family and promises to fulfill his sister's wish.

Kathiravan returns to Chennai to apply for a loan, only to get it rejected everywhere. With the advice of his uncle (Robo Shankar), he takes his father to Chennai along with him and tries to get a loan in his father's name and too gets rejected everywhere due to financial security. They get approached by a man (Abdool) who claims to be a loan agent and tells them to forge documents to get a loan for a commission. Kathiravan initially refuses, but he reluctantly agrees to the man's offer and submits all the original documents to him. The man helps them in obtaining a loan of 6 Lakhs INR.

Initially, Kathiravan is overjoyed and starts the marriage preparation. Later on, when his father was unable to withdraw money due to insufficient balance, he informs Kathiravan, who in turn is shocked to know about the missing fund. Kathiravan enquires the bank staff in a futile effort. He gets frustrated and scolds his father. Unable to bear the words, his father attempts suicide. In the hospital, Kathiravan comes to know that his father took debts to extend Kathiravan's sick mother's (Sreeja Ravi) life. He feels remorseful after hearing this and starts loving his father. On Rathi Devi's advice and with the help of his friends in the military, he decides to the track down the person responsible.

Kathiravan manages to apprehend and chase a loan agent similar to his loan agent in order to extradite information. He gets a phone call from a private number which tells Kathiravan to release him as he tells him that he knows all details about Kathiravan and even threatens to release the private audio and video of his sister's phone on the Internet. Upon hearing this, Kathiravan gets shocked and decides to leave the agent, who gets fatally hit by a van. The mysterious person is later revealed to be Sathyamoorthy (Arjun), aka The White Devil who became the kingpin of the Dark Net by the use of the Y2k Problem. He runs an educational trust as a front for his cybercrime network.

Kathiravan tracks and confronts Sathyamoorthy. The latter reveals his knowledge of the former following him and tells him that he attacked his sister. Sathyamoorthy also tells Kathiravan that he put Rs. 10 Lakhs to his account from a flagged account for which he is court-martialed. Still, with the help of Rathi Devi, he tracks Sathyamoorthy's henchmen. At the server farm, the two finally engage in a fist fight. Sathyamoorthy, after a fight, defeats Kathiravan and burns the money due to his god-complex. All the people who were conned by Sathyamoorthy come to know about Sathyamoorthy by Kathiravan, and they reach the dock. Kathiravan gets up and beats up Sathyamoorthy, and the people get their money transferred back to their respective accounts. Meanwhile, Sathyamoorthy is arrested by the police but creates a new username named "Dark Angel", implying that he will return.

Cast[]

Production[]

Vishal decided to fund and act in a venture directed by newcomer P. S. Mithran in August 2016, and subsequently signed on actress Samantha to play the leading female role in the film.^[3][4][5] The team signed Arya to play the antagonist in October 2016, with the actor accepting terms without hearing the film's entire script.^[6] Subsequently, music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematographer George C. Williams and editor Ruben were added to the project. Designers NJ Sathya and Neeraja Kona also were revealed to be in charge of the costumes of the lead actors for the film.^[7]

The film began production following a launch event in October 2016, with Vishal and Samantha shooting scenes alongside actors Robo Shankar and Delhi Ganesh for the first schedule.^[8] Arya later opted out of the film citing that he was not ready to play an antagonist in Tamil cinema, and subsequently the team brought in Arjun.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} Before getting Arjun on board, Mithran was in talks to get S. J. Surya and Fahadh Faasil the role, but Surya chose Mersal and Fahadh chose Velaikkaran.^[14]

Soundtrack[]

The soundtrack and background score features music by Yuvan Shankar Raja. The songs were performed by relatively new singers. The album received positive reviews. IndiaGlitz, in its review, noted, "The album is a definite marker of Yuvan’s expertise with Athiradi, Yaar Ivan and Azhage. Playlist worthy"^[15] Behindwoods in its review said "Irumbu Thirai album is mix of melodies and theme based songs that will work better with visuals"^[16]

Release[]

It is dubbed into Telugu as Abhimanyudu, which was released on 1 June 2018.^[17] It is also dubbed into Hindi as The Return of Abhimanyu which is released by Goldmines Telefilms in 2019.^[18] The satellite rights of the film were sold to Zee Tamil. It also has a Malayalam dubbed version under the same title, and satellite rights were sold to Mazhavil Manorama^[19]

Box office[]

Tamil Nadu theatrical rights of the film were sold for ₹14.5 crore.^[20] The film grossed ₹105 crore (US$15 million) at the worldwide box office and became a blockbuster.^[21]

References[]

External links[]

• Irumbu Thirai at IMDb