Maanagaram

Maanagaram
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lokesh Kanagaraj
Produced by	S. R. Prakashbabu S. R. Prabhu Prabhu Venkatachalam Gopinath Thanga Prabaharan
Written by	Lokesh Kanagaraj
Starring	Sri Sundeep Kishan Regina Cassandra
Music by	Javed Riaz
Cinematography	Selvakumar Sk
Edited by	Philomin Raj
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	₹50 million
Box office	est. ₹100 million

Maanagaram (lit. 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 Sundeep Kishan, Sri and Regina Cassandra in the lead roles, while Charle and Ramdoss 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][3]

Plot

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

Sri 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, but she does not reciprocate his feelings as he is jobless and very irresponsible. On the day of the interview, Sundeep comes to Regina's office and is threatened by a few men, that one of them loves Regina and if she doesn't agree, he will attack her with acid. Sundeep punches that man, and they flee the place. Sri passes the interview and goes to a bar with his friend (Vivek Prasanna). Sundeep is also in the same bar with his friends. The man who was punched by Sundeep is also there in the bar to get his revenge. He hires a group of rowdies who wait outside the bar and are ready to attack Sundeep when he gets out. But they mistake Sri for the target and beat him hard, while leaving him unconscious on the road. They also take away his certificates and his mobile cell phone. Later, one of the rowdies throws his certificate files into a taxicab car and keeps the phone. The taxicab car is a rental car owned by P.K. Pandian otherwise known as PKP (Madhusudhan Rao), the city's most powerful don. Charle is the taxicab driver who leases the car from PKP, and he comes to know that if any problem happens with the car, it will be dealt severely by PKP's henchmen. Charle finds the certificates and give it to the local police station.

Sri wakes up the next morning from the roadside and is shocked about the happenings in the city, while getting a bad impression about it. He calls his friend and he comes, takes him to his home where he freshens up, and leaves to report to job. Meanwhile, Sundeep tells his parents that he is going for an interview and boards into a particular bus in which the man, who he punched earlier travels. His aim is to attack that guy with acid. Unknowingly, Sri passes the bottle of acid in the bus to him and Sundeep carries out the attack and escapes. The police take Sri into custody as he passed the bottle. The police inspector is angry with Sri for his straightforward talk and slaps him. Sri's certificates are also in the same police station with the police constable. The constable takes out Sri for a tea break, where Sri identifies one of Sundeep's friends, who was involved in the attack. Sri nabs him and hands him over to the police. He then reports to Regina and tells her that he doesn't want this job as he doesn't like the city. He also tells her that he lost his certificates and will get eventually fired if he doesn't produce them. Regina gives him a one-day time to find the certificates and return to his job. Sundeep is also in the office at that time and he intervenes Regina and Sri, while shouting at Sri. Regina asks him to keep quiet, which becomes a quarrel. The police comes to the office and arrest Sundeep for the acid attack case. The inspector is revealed to be Sundeep's uncle (Ravi Venkatraman), and he warns them off by leaving them with a condition that none of them should enter Chennai for a month. Sundeep decides to take revenge on Sri by stealing his certificates from the station but doesn't do so. He still is angry with him and prepares to leave the city.

The rowdies who attacked Sri first are planning to kidnap a school kid and demand a ransom from his father. They hire Winnings (Ramdoss), one of the rowdies' friend from Pondicherry who claims himself to be an expert kidnapper. But actually, he is a fool and coward. He mistakenly kidnaps PKP's son. PKP's men start the search and kill everyone, whom they have doubts on. Winnings calls PKP and demands a crore. PKP sets out with the cash to save his son. The kidnappers know that PKP will definitely find them and they cannot escape his wrath. So they decide to kill PKP's son anyway. But PKP's son escapes. One of the rowdies begins searching, and the remaining two decide to lure PKP into a trap and somehow get the money.

Sundeep is ready to leave the city but wants to meet Regina and apologize to her. He comes outside her home, and she finally agrees to meet him. She reciprocates his feelings. Suddenly, she sees PKP's son jumping down from a small truck in which he was hiding. Since he was sedated, he seems drowsy. So, Regina asks Sundeep to drop PKP's son to safety. At that time, one of the rowdies, who is searching for PKP's son, finds them and tries to take him forcefully. Sundeep attacks him and saves PKP's son. He tells Regina to go home and sets out with PKP's son to return him to PKP. Meantime, PKP is infuriated due to repeated calls from the kidnappers, and they make him wander from one place to another without any result. Sundeep calls PKP to tell him that he has his son. But, PKP believes him to be one of the kidnappers playing his games. So, he warns him and hangs up the phone. Sundeep decides to drop PKP's son at his home.

Sri leaves his office and gets ready to go home. He is driven home by Charle. As he is new to the city, he doesn't know the route to Sri's place and neither does Sri. Since it is a night shift, they find it difficult to find the correct route. Sundeep's uncle gets news about the kidnapping of PKP's son, sets up a barricade near PKP's home, and sees Sundeep coming with PKP's son. Sundeep hands over PKP's son to his uncle and the constable, while leaving the scene, as his uncle scold him for not leaving the city yet. The police also have Winnings in custody in the jeep, who is apprehended for causing a nuisance. Winnings identifies the boy and reveals everything to Sundeep's uncle. Sundeep's uncle decides to play his own game. So he sends the writer away to buy some things for him, sets up Winnings as the kidnapper, tells him to call PKP, and makes him come to the location. His objective is so he can kill everyone and take the money all by himself.

Sri and Charle roam around the city unable to find the route, while Sri tells him that he doesn't like the city saying that people here are too mean and never help anyone. Charle tells him that one should start helping others first before expecting help from them. They run into the two rowdies who wait for PKP, but are suddenly attacked by them, after they see PKP's sticker on the car and ended up thinking that they have come to spy on them. Sri then identifies one of the rowdies to be his attacker, who attacked him outside the bar first, and Sri fights him back. He gains control and gets back his phone. Meanwhile, PKP's men trace Sri as his phone was also used by the rowdies to make the call to PKP. Sri then saves the Charle, who is injured by the rowdies and asks for help from the ongoers, but no one stops to help.

PKP arrives at the place where Winnings told him to come, and sees Winnings pointing a gun at his son's head. Sundeep's uncle hides in a building and instructs Winnings on how to get the money. Suddenly, Sundeep comes back to the place and witnesses the entire scene in which a chaos occurs. During the tussle with the gun, Sundeep's uncle and Winnings shoot PKP, and his son throws PKP's gun towards Sundeep, who shoots his uncle on one of his legs to save both PKP and his son. The constable now returns and lets Sundeep escape the scene, while informing the police that someone had shot Sundeep's uncle. Sundeep, the injured PKP, his son, and Winnings flee the scene. PKP decides to give the crore to Winnings, who eventually drove PKP and his son to safety at a hospital. But Winnings refuses to take the money and walks away. Sundeep decides to stay in the city and tells to himself that if criminals like his uncle can stay in the city, then why not him?

He then passes by Sri, who is demanding for a lift to save Charle. Seeing Sundeep, he stops asking, knowing that Sundeep won't help him due to their earlier encounters. But Sundeep gives them a lift and takes them to a hospital, saving Charle's life. Sundeep and Sri wait outside the hospital and begin to talk by asking their names. When suddenly, a few men appear and plan to attack Sundeep. They were the friends of the man on whom Sundeep attacked with acid. They come to get their revenge on Sundeep. Sri sees this and remembers what Charle told him about helping others. The film ends with Sundeep getting ready to attack and Sri joining him, symbolizing that they have overcome their differences and begin to help each other during tough times, even if they don't know each other's names, just like how the rest of the people in the city live by helping strangers.

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.^[4] Lokesh had previously worked as a director in Karthik Subbaraj's anthology film project, Aviyal (2016), in which his short film Kalam was included. 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.^[5] Actors Charle and Ramdoss were also subsequently signed on to play pivotal roles and the project was completed by September 2015.^[6][7] The film was revealed to be based on hyperlink cinema with Regina's role constant throughout the film.^[8][9] The film was shot and completed within a period of 46 days.^[10] Potential Studios begun promoting the film in February 2016, but later postponed efforts until early 2017 to get better timing for a theatrical release.^[11]

Soundtrack

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Deccan Chronicle	[12]
Sify	[13]
Times of India	[14]
Behindwoods	[15]
Only Kollywood	[16]

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.^[17]

Release

Prior to release, the producers held preview shows of Maanagaram in Chennai and its dubbed Telugu version Nagaram in Hyderabad. Both screenings were attended by film personalities, who widely praised the film.^[18] Maanagaram was released on 10 March 2017 and received positive reviews from critics.^[19][20][21] 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".^[22] 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".^[23] 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".^[24][25]

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.^[26] After release, several other Tamil film personalities including Rajinikanth and Suriya voiced their praise for the film.^[27][28] The movie was dubbed into Telugu as Nagaram.

References

External links

• Maanagaram on IMDb (IMDb)
• Maanagaram on Facebook