Sketch (2018 film)

The movie begins with Jeeva (Sketch) narrating his story. His uncle Dorai used to tow and bring back vehicles for which the monthly EMI had not been paid. However, during a fight, he loses his hand, and Sketch gets the job. Sketch does his day-to-day job perfectly. Dorai's right-hand Ravi wanted to take over the business. However, Bhaskar Settu (Boss) agrees with Sketch coming up to the position. One day at a college, Sketch tows a scooter that belonged to Manju, Ammu's friend. Another day, he happens to meet her on a bus. When some other guy tries to touch her, Sketch bats away his hand. At the same time, the bus stops quickly, causing Sketch to bump into Ammu. She mistakes this as him trying to make advances on her and yells at him. Only later does she realize that he was trying to protect her, and she falls in love with him. One day, Sketch loses a bike while bringing it back to the garage. The owner gets angry and demands two lakhs from Settu. Sketch realizes that this was a plot by Ravi to embarrass him. He faces them to get back the stolen bike and the money. This earns him back Settu's trust, so they celebrate with alcohol. In the end, Settu talks about a time when his father was insulted by "Royapuram" Kumar, a local goon. Settu asks Sketch to sketch a plan to steal Kumar's car. Sketch steals Kumar's car and ends up in a goose chase with police that ends with Sketch creating a rivalry with Kumar. Kumar brings a gang from another state to finish off Sketch and his team. One by one, Sketch's friends die, and Sketch is confused who the killer is. At last, it is revealed in a twist that four boys who were working along with Sketch in Settu's garage were the real killers. They killed them to take Sketch's position. Sketch forgives them and protects the boys from police by asking them to run away. The film ends with indicating Sketch is alive and with a moral: "avoid child labour."

In November 2016, director Vijay Chander, who had previously made Vaalu (2015), revealed that his next project would feature Vikram in the lead role. Produced by Silverline Film Factory, who had worked on an incomplete fantasy film titled Karikalan with Vikram during 2010, the film was widely reported to be a remake of the American film, Don't Breathe (2016).[2][3] Denying the reports, Vijay Chander later clarified that it was an original script and the film would be set in North Chennai.[4] M. Sukumar was selected as cinematographer, while S. Thaman collaborated with Vijay Chander again despite reports that Anirudh Ravichander was set to be signed.[5][6]

Sai Pallavi was signed to play the lead actress in the project, marking her first leading role in Tamil films. She later opted out of the film and returned her advance in late February 2017, citing scheduling issues with her work on the Tamil language remake of the Malayalam film Charlie (2015) directed by A. L. Vijay.[7][8] She was later replaced by Tamannaah, who stated it was "liberating to see a strong storyline in a commercial pot-boiler".[9] Actors Ravi Kishan, R. K. Suresh and Radharavi were selected to portray antagonists in the film.[10][11] Actor Vishwanath, who had a breakthrough role in Pa. Ranjith's Kabali (2016), was signed on to play a supporting role in the film, with Vijay Chander requesting the actor to take reference of Kalaiyarasan's role in Madras (2014) for his particular character.[12] Actress Sri Priyanka, previously seen as the lead actress in small budget films, was also selected to portray second lead actress in the film.[13][14]

Following a period of delay, the film began its shoot at Binny Mills in Chennai during early February 2017, with Vikram choosing to simultaneously work on the project alongside his commitments for Gautham Menon's spy thriller Dhruva Natchathiram (2017).[15][16] The film's title, Sketch, was revealed to the media in April 2017.[17][18] The shoot of the film was completed in August 2017, after which the makers began the promotional campaign.[19]

The soundtrack and background music of Sketch are scored (compiled from several sources) by S. Thaman. Five songs have been released from the film as singles, after being released by other composers.

Sketch was released on 12 January 2018 coinciding with the week of Thai Pongal and clashing with another major release, Thaanaa Serndha Koottam and Gulaebaghavali.[20]

The film's dubbed versions were also released in Telugu and Hindi. The Telugu dubbed version was released simultaneously with the Tamil version while the Hindi dubbed version was released on YouTube by Goldmines Telefilms on 16 September 2018[21].

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• Sketch on IMDb