Kaali (2018 film)

Kaali
Directed by	Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi
Produced by	Fatima Vijay Antony
Written by	Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi
Starring	Vijay Antony Anjali Sunaina Amritha Aiyer Shilpa Manjunath
Music by	Vijay Antony
Cinematography	Richard M. Nathan
Edited by	Lawrence Kishore
Production company	Vijay Antony Film Corporation
Distributed by	Red Giant Movies
Release date	May 18, 2018 (2018-05-18)[1]
Running time	133 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	25cr
Box office	8cr

Kaali is a 2018 Tamil language action period drama film, directed by Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi, starring Vijay Antony in the lead alongside Anjali, Sunaina, Amritha Aiyer and Shilpa Manjunath. Produced by Fatima Vijay Antony, the film began production in March 2017 and was released on 18 May 2018.^[2]The film will also be released in Telugu language as Kaasi.^[3]

Plot

Bharath (Vijay Antony) is a successful surgeon in America. Every time he sleeps, he gets a recurring dream about a bull chasing a baby and the voice of a woman; this leaves him confused. When Bharath's mother goes into an emergency kidney transplant surgery, he decides to be her donor, but his father reveals that it may not be possible because he is an adopted son. After his mother's successful surgery, Bharath goes to India to find out about his biological parents. Upon inquiry in the orphanage he grew up, he finds his mother's village and goes there. He befriends Gopi (Yogi Babu) in the village. Together they find that Bharath's mother's name is Parvathy, his actual name was Kaali, and she died trying to save him from a charging bull. Bharath assumes his given name Kaali and is able to piece together the reason for his dreams. When he asks about his father, nobody seems to know who he is. So Kaali sets up a free clinic in the village and tries to do a DNA match test of all the patients who come there. The villagers line up to receive free treatment from him, and there is a sharp decrease in the number of patients coming to a local Siddha doctor Valli (Anjali). She is upset and plays pranks on Kaali, and they get to know to each other.

Meanwhile, Kaali and Gopi have their suspicions on the village head Periyasamy (Madhusudhan Rao) because he is left handed just like Kaali. So they get him drunk and ask about his past, where a young Periyasamy (Vijay Antony) is in love with his college mate Thenmozhi (Amritha Aiyer), but they face opposition from their parents due to caste differences. They plan to elope when they find that Themozhi is pregnant, but due to problems at Periyasamy's house and communal riots in the village, he arrives later than expected, and Thenmozhi consumes poison and dies thinking he had betrayed her. When Kaali asks her name, Periyasamy tells that she is Thenmozhi, and Kaali realizes that Periyasamy is not his father after all.

Later, in a drunken brawl at a local bar, Kaali and Gopi come across a man 'Thala Vetti' Maari (Nassar) who has the name 'Parvathy' tattooed on his arm. So they try to find out about him and he tells that the tattoo is the name of is his girlfriend. A young Maari (Vijay Antony) is a thief and goes to a house in the middle of the night to steal. He finds a married woman Parvathy (Shilpa Manjunath), trying to kill her husband. He threatens her and steals money and jewels while she watches in terror. Once Maari is out of the house, Parvathy follows him and tries to fight him and retrieve the stolen things, but he overpowers her. Somehow, this incident blossoms into love between the two and they try to elope to escape Parvathy's influential, abusive, and aged husband Gounder (Vela Ramamoorthy), who forcefully married her. Gounder finds out about the affair and orders his men to kill them. Parvathy dies trying to save Maari. In rage, Maari chops off Gounder's head, and this begins a communal riot in the village. Kaali now finds that Maari is also not his father.

In the meantime, the DNA test results come, and Kaali surprisingly finds a match with an old woman who may be his grandmother. She tells that she had a daughter who worked in the church and died in a fire accident, and Kaali realizes that his mother's name is not Parvathy but Poomayil (Sunaina). He is suspicious of Father John (Jayaprakash), a kindhearted person who has the respect of all the villagers. He tries to match John's DNA and reads his personal diary where he comes to know about John's past. A young John (Vijay Antony) comes to the village to become a Christian priest. He finds about the casteism in the village and people are still being subjected to ill treatment. He abolishes caste system and teaches the villagers to be united. Certain upper caste members object to this, and Gounder is one of them. His henchman Das (RK Suresh) beats up John, and Poomayil tends to him while he recovers. They accidentally make love, and Poomayil becomes pregnant. John realizes his mistake and tries desperately to convince Poomayil to elope with him and get married, but she refuses saying that the whole village is united only because of John, and if he leaves now, they will go back to their old ways.

While this conversation happens, Das sets fire to all the lower caste community's huts in the wake of Gounder's murder committed by Maari. A communal riot begins, and a lot of people die in the fire accident. Das is arrested and vows to take revenge on John. Poomayil is also presumed to be dead. John becomes a priest and has been serving the village as per Poomayil's wish since then. But in reality, Poomayil escapes the village without anyone's knowledge and had given birth to Kaali and lived under a different identity as Parvathy until she died. Kaali now finds that his biological father is John and his DNA also matches to prove it. Das comes out of jail and tries to kill John, but Kaali saves him. Kaali chooses to hide the truth from John and let him live in peace and continue his service to the community. He leaves the village since his mission is complete and takes along his maternal grandmother and Valli with him to America.

Cast

• Vijay Antony as Kaali (Bharath), Young Periyasamy (Samy), Young Maari, and Young John
• Anjali as Valli
• Sunaina as Poo Mayilu (Parvathy)
• Amritha Aiyer as Thenmozhi
• Shilpa Manjunath as Parvathy
• Vela Ramamoorthy as Gounder, Parvathy’s husband
• Nassar as Thala Vatti Maari
• RK Suresh as Das
• Jayaprakash as Father John
• Yogi Babu as Gopi
• Madhusudhan Rao as Periyasamy

Production

In January 2017, it was reported that Vijay Antony would work on a project to be directed by Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi, who had earlier made Vanakkam Chennai (2013).^[4] In March, Vijay Antony confirmed that he would star and also produce the film, which was titled Kaali, with Kiruthiga revealing it would be a "family drama".^[5][6] Four actresses were cast in the film: Anjali, Sunaina, Amritha Aiyer and Shilpa Manjunath.^[7][8]

After shooting for the film alongside his commitments in Srinivasan's Annadurai (2017), Vijay Antony chose to briefly prioritise his work for Kaali in April 2017, after Annadurai's co-producer Raadhika underwent a tax raid on her properties.^[9][10] He later continued to shoot for both films simultaneously.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Critical reception

A Chennaivision reviewer wrote: "On the whole, the first half of Kaali is impressive and interesting. But things fail to impress us much in the second half. It is a mixed ride of positive and negative things."^[15] Ashameera Aiyappan of The Indian Express wrote, "Kaali would have been more effective had it been an anthology of three stories of estranged love set in late 1980s, where society plays the devil." ^[16]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Kaali consists of five songs composed by Vijay Antony.^[18]

The Telugu soundtrack album is titled Kaasi.^[19]

References

External links

• Kaali on IMDb