Maanagaram

Maanagaram
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lokesh Kanagaraj
Screenplay by	Karthik Yogi Chandru A. Lokesh Kanagaraj
Story by	Lokesh Kanagaraj
Produced by	S. R. Prakashbabu S. R. Prabhu Prabhu Venkatachalam Gopinath Thanga Prabaharan
Starring	Sri Sundeep Kishan Regina Cassandra
Cinematography	Selvakumar S. K.
Edited by	Philomin Raj
Music by	Javed Riaz
Production company	Potential Studios
Distributed by	Potential Studios
Release date	10 March 2017 (2017-03-10)
Running time	137 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹4 crore
Box office	₹11 crore

Maanagaram (transl. Metropolis) is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj and produced by S. R. Prabhu. The film features Sri, Sundeep Kishan, and Regina Cassandra in the lead roles, while Charle, Madhusudhan Rao, Munishkanth, and Vivek Prasanna play supporting roles. Featuring music composed by Javed Riaz, the film finished production in late 2015, and was released on 10 March 2017. Upon release, the film won critical acclaim and became a successful venture at the box office.^[1][2][3]

Plot[]

The names of the lead characters are not revealed in the film.

An educated villager comes to Chennai to attend an interview for a job in a BPO. Regina Cassandra is the HR officer there. Sundeep Kishan is in love with Regina since college and stalks Regina, but she does not have a love interest in him.

On the day of the interview, Sundeep comes to Regina's office and is threatened by a few ruthless, rowdy men stating that if he stalks her and if she responds to him positively, they will throw acid on her face. They also show him a girl's face and tell how the men threw acid on her because she didn't have an interest on the men. Sundeep, in anger, punches one of those men.

Sri passes the interview and goes to a bar with his friends; meanwhile, Sundeep and the man who he punched are also in the same bar. Later, those rowdy men, who blackmailed Sundeep, hire 3 rowdies to beat-up Sundeep. But they tell these hired rowdies that if they stay, he might run away. And so they leave saying Sundeep is the guy wearing a red, chequed, shirt.

At that moment, Sri steps out of the bar, and they mistake him for the target, beat him, and snatch his bag (which has his original certificates) and phone. One of the rowdies throws the bag into a taxi and keeps the phone. The taxi is a rental car owned by a don named P. K. Pandian alias PKP (Madhusudhan Rao) a bigwig. Charle is the taxi driver who takes a rental car from PKP to earn money for his son suffering from asthma. He is also new to the city. Soon, he finds the certificates and gives them to the police station.

Sri wakes up the next morning and finds himself lying on the road. He calls his friend (Tiger Garden Thangadurai), who takes him to his home. There, Sri freshens up and leaves for his workplace to explain the missing-certificates situation.

Meanwhile, Sundeep, who tells he's off to attend a job interview in Regina's company, boards a bus in which the man who he punched travels. His plan is to attack the man with acid to give him a taste of his own medicine. Sri, who's also in the same bus, unknowingly passes the acid bottle to Sundeep, and Sundeep does out the attack and runs away with his friends. The police take Sri into custody as he passed the acid bottle. The Police Inspector also talks bad about him, for which Sri says he is innocent and the Police should not investigate like this. This enrages the Inspector who hits him. A constable intervenes and takes Sri out to the nearby tea stall. As they are having a conversation, another guy walks in. This other guy is the one who asked Sri to pass the acid bottle in the bus. Sri recognises him and the constable immediately takes him to the station. Sri's certificates are also in the same police station.

The 3 rowdies who mistook Sri for Sundeep make plans to kidnap a child and ask for ransom. They have a new joinee in the gang, and they send this new guy (Munishkanth) to go to the school and bring the child named Karthi, telling the teachers that his Karthi's father Chinnamalai is ill and that he is their driver. But when Munishkanth goes to the class and asks for Karthi, 5 boys stand up as they are all Karthi. Munishkanth trembles and fears getting caught as this is his first time working as a rowdy/kidnapper. But then, a boy raises his hand, saying he is the Karthi Munishkanth is looking for as his father was ill today morning. He also tells his teacher that MUnishkanth is his driver. Later the gang learns that the boy volunteered to go with Munishkanth to skip a Math Test and that he is PKP's son.

Sri heads to the office, and lets Regina know that he does not want the job, and walks away. Regina follows him and asks him to take the training as she will be held responsible if he quits like this. They have an argument in the waiting hall. Sundeep, who's also in the waiting hall, waiting for his interview, intervenes. Just then, the Police arrive and takes him along with them. Regina cries as she actually has feelings for him but just wouldn't let him know as he is too carefree and jobless. Sri meets Regina and says that he wants to quit because he has lost his certificates. Regina says she can manage for a day and asks him to bring the certificates somehow by the next day.

PKP's men start killing every enemy and other rowdies to see who kidnapped his kid. The gang then calls PKP and threatens him to bring at least 1 crore to get his son. PKP then starts his car and then follows what they say.

Sundeep is let go at the station as the inspector is his uncle. He then heads to the bus stop outside Regina's PG and waits to meet her. It's 12 AM at midnight when Regina is dropped at home in the office cab driven by Charle and has Sri in it. As Regina goes to meet Sundeep, she sees a kid hiding in a small truck and asks him for his father's number. The kid happens to be PKP's son as he escaped. She instructs Sundeep to first drop the kid at his house. Sundeep calls PKP to tell his son is with him but is not able to convey the message as his mobile gets switched off. He then meets his police uncle, Neelakandan (Ravi Venkatraman), who asks him to leave the kid with him. The inspector asks the boy to wait in the jeep. Munishkanth, who has also escaped from the gang, as he fears PKP will kill him, is also in the jeep. Munishkanth tells the truth to the Police. Neelakandan commands Munishkanth to call PKP and make him come, get his son with the ransom money. PKP comes there and finds Munishkanth pointing a gun at Karthik's Face. At that time, Sundeep comes and understands the situation. Eventually, Neelakandan comes there and shoots PKP and plans to shoot Munishkanth as well. But then, Sundeep shoots at Neelakandan's leg and instructs Munishkanth to take PKP and his son to the hospital.

At the same time, Charle and Sri, who are traveling in PKP's rental car, are stopped by the Gang and attacked as the gang suspects PKP has sent them to spy on the gang. They hit Charle and ask Sri to bring PKP, and if not, they'll kill Charle. Sri, who knows Charle has a sick son waiting for him at the hospital, decides to take the blame so that Charle can go to his son. But then Sri recognizes that this gang was the one that attacked him outside the bar the previous night and hits them back. He then takes Charle to the hospital with Sundeep's help.

Finally, Sri's lost files are returned to his home address by the kind-hearted head constable of Neelakandan's police station. Sri and Sundeep talking to their respective girlfriends are shown. Sundeep approaches Sri, and Sri thanks him for the lift. Sundeep asks his (Sri's) name; As he (Sri) is about to say his name, a gang which was hired by the man whom Sundeep punched previously challenges them for a fight. As Sundeep and Sri get ready to defend each other against these thugs, the screen cuts out to black.

Cast[]

Production[]

In April 2015, Sundeep Kishan began working on the project being directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj and produced by S. R. Prabhu's production house Potential Studios. Sundeep had earlier expressed an interest in producing the film himself, but later became busy with other commitments.^[6] Lokesh had previously worked as a director in Karthik Subbaraj's anthology film project, Aviyal (2016), in which his short film Kalam was included. The story was discussed with associate directors Maharajothi, krisha, archana and gopi and Titled Maanagaram and revealed to be a dark comedy thriller, actor Sri and Regina Cassandra were signed on to play other lead roles in the film, with filming beginning later that month.^[7] Actors Charle and Munishkanth were also subsequently signed on to play pivotal roles, and the project was completed by September 2015.^[8][9] The film was revealed to be based on hyperlink cinema with Regina's role constant throughout the film.^[10][11] The film was shot and completed within a period of 46 days.^[12] Potential Studios begun promoting the film in February 2016, but later postponed efforts until early 2017 to get a better date for a theatrical release.^[13]

Soundtrack[]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Deccan Chronicle	[14]
Sify	[15]
Times of India	[16]
Behindwoods	[17]

The film's score and soundtrack was composed by Javed Riaz. The album was released on 22 August 2016 as part of Madras Day celebrations.^[18] Riaz previously collaborated with Kanagaraj for a segment in Aviyal.^[19]

Release[]

Prior to release, the producers held preview shows of Maanagaram in Chennai and its dubbed Telugu version Nagaram in Hyderabad.^[20][21] Both screenings were attended by film personalities, who widely praised the film.^[22] Maanagaram was released on 10 March 2017 and received positive reviews from critics.^[23][5][24] The Deccan Chronicle called the film "an absorbing emotional thriller that is a must-watch", adding "with a solid story, deft handling and a seamless screenplay (despite a complex script), extracting the best of performances from the entire cast, picture-perfect frames (Selvakumar), engrossing music (Javed Riaz) and crisp editing (Philomin Raj), Lokesh has weaved a captivating thriller which is not to be missed".^[25] The satellite rights of the film were sold to STAR Vijay.^[26] Sify.com also stated "Maanagaram is a gripping film that seizes your full attention" and that it was "one of most genuine films in recent times".^[27] Similarly, a critic from The Times of India noted "director Lokesh Kanagaraj gives us an exquisite, even-handed thriller — handsomely shot, tightly edited and propped up by a grungy score — that unobtrusively makes its points while narrating a gripping story".^[5] Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion wrote "The air-tight deliberateness of this structure is given room to breathe by the randomness of the characters, who behave in ways we don’t expect."^[4]

The film became a commercial success at the box office, with screens being increased in its second week after it gained positive word-of-mouth reviews.^[28] After release, several other Tamil film personalities including Rajinikanth and Suriya voiced their praise for the film.^[29][30]

It was also dubbed in Hindi as Dadagiri 2 in 2019 by Goldmines Telefilms.^[31]

Awards and nominations[]

Remake[]

The film is being remade in Hindi as Mumbaikar by Santhosh Sivan starring Vikrant Massey and Vijay Sethupathi.^[33]

References[]

External links[]

• Maanagaram at IMDb
• Maanagaram on Facebook