Velaikkaran (2017 film)

Velaikkaran
Directed by	Mohan Raja
Written by	Mohan Raja N. Baskaran
Screenplay by	Mohan Raja Subha
Story by	Mohan Raja
Produced by	R. D. Raja
Starring	Sivakarthikeyan Fahadh Faasil Nayanthara Prakash Raj Sneha Vijay Vasanth
Cinematography	Ramji
Edited by	Ruben Vivek Harshan
Music by	Anirudh Ravichandar
Production company	24AM Studios
Distributed by	24AM Studios E4 Entertainment
Release date	22 December 2017 (2017-12-22)
Running time	Released Cut: 160 minutes Director's Cut: 195 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Velaikkaran (English: The Worker) is an Indian 2017 Tamil language social thriller film written and directed by Mohan Raja. Featuring an ensemble cast including Sivakarthikeyan, Fahadh Faasil and Nayanthara, the film has music composed by Anirudh Ravichander and cinematography by Ramji. Produced by R. D. Raja, the film is based on a sales executive named Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) who fights against food adulteration committed by high-class companies.

Plot

Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) hails from Kolaikkara Kuppam aka Cooliekkara Kuppam a slum area in Chennai. He is one such responsible youth, who wants to focus on the upliftment of his fellow beings and he works hard for the same. Arivu starts Kuppam FM 90.8, a local radio channel with the help of the area gangster Kasi (Prakash Raj). In reality, Arivu tries to free the people of the area from the atrocities of Kasi, who is deliberately preventing them from becoming independent, so that he may continue to dominate the area. Arivu succeeds in turning the people of the area against Kasi, thus destroying his support.

Later Arivu joins a leading FMCG company, Saffron and joins its sales department under Stella Bruce (Thambi Ramaiah). He also manages to bring his friend Bhagya (Vijay Vasanth) out of Kasi's gang and gets him a job in Saffron. He meets Aadhi (Fahadh Faasil), the Brand Manager of Saffron, who teaches him how to progress by doing smart work and Arivu considers him as his inspiration. On the night of April 1, Kasi and his gang attack Bhagya and brutally stab him in Saffron's godown, whereupon he dies in the hands of Arivu. Arivu filled with rage, tries to attack Kasi. But, Kasi's rival Doss (Sharath Lohitashwa) attacks and brutally stabs him in retaliation for their previous encounter and Arivu admonishes Kasi for being such a paid henchman. Kasi reveals to Arivu that he killed Bhagya on a contract given by Jayaram (Anish Kuruvilla) the President of Saffron company, due to the fact that Bhagya tries to help Kasthuri (Sneha), who files a case claiming Saffron's products to be adulterated, due to which she had lost her son. Arivu is addressed by Kasi as being a worse hitman than he himself is. Arivu then saves Kasi. Arivu is also told by Kasi that all the products manufactured by his company are adulterated. He takes up a mission to fight such malpractices not only in Saffron, but also in all the other five major food companies, including the company New Fedora, which is owned by Madhav Kurup (Mahesh Manjrekar). Arivu shares all of his plans with Aadhi. Meanwhile, it is revelaed that Aadhi is actually Adhiban Madhav and he is the son of Madhav Kurup. He joined Saffron to know their trade secrets and merge the company with New Fedora.

Arivu manages to convince the staff of his company to manufacture products as per Government regulations for two days, while he convinces the staff of the other companies to wear a kerchief on their dresses for the next two days, thus tricking the owners into believing that their workers have turned against them. But, Aadhi manages to foil this plan of Arivu and coerces the other owners to write over the major shares of their company to Madhav Kurup, thus making him the deciding authority of all their companies. Aadhi then manages to turn all the employees against Arivu by tricking them into believing that Arivu worked as spy for Madhav Kurup. Stella Bruce then slaps Arivu and humiliates him, while Aadhi pretends to defend Arivu claiming that he is innocent and it is the new president who conspired all these. After this, Arivu reveals to Aadhi that Stella Bruce was his ally and now he knows that Aadhi is the true traitor. Aadhi then burns down the godown containing the unadulterated products and reveals to Arivu that he is the son of Madhav Kurup, and that he will be the next CEO of the company. He also convinces the staff through his clever tactics and makes them propose his name as the new CEO, also revealing to Arivu that he will make them manufacture adulterated products without their knowledge, now that he command their loyalty, support and trust.

Arivu goes to the Radio Mirchi radio station on the same day (May 1) and reveals that after the fire accident, one of the injured department heads of Saffron called him into the ambulance and told him that he followed the regulations on the third day too. Arivu also got to know from the other team workers of Saffron that after manufacturing quality products for two days, thry could not bring themselves to manufacture adulterated products on the next day, and they all followed Government regulations, thus manufacturing quality products on the next day too. Aadhi now the CEO, hears the workers say that they will rebel against him and depose him if tries to revert to manufacturing adulterated products. Arivu further adds that the loyalty of all the employees in each and every field shouldn't be wasted by showing it towards unethical employers. Aadhi vents out his frustration on the permanent failure of his plan.

All the people in the city shows their support to Arivu. Arivu celebrates his success along with Mrinalini (Nayanthara), his friends, family, the people of his slum and people of the city as the movie ends.

Cast

• Sivakarthikeyan as Arivu, a young man from the slum area called as Kolaikara Kuppam to uplifted from there.
• Fahadh Faasil as Adhiban Madhav (Aadhi), son of New Fedora's owner Madhav Kurup but he worked as Brand Manger at his competitive company Saffron to known the company secrets.
• Nayanthara as Mrinalini (Miru), a documentary film director who tries to expose the womanizer in the society but a media people used her and portrait her as bad.
• Prakash Raj as Kasi Annan, a head of Kolaikara Kuppam who used the people on slum to his own profit. A young boys who finished their school education want to join with him. He also a contract killer.
• Sneha as Kasthuri, after death of her husband her child was a only hope to her. Her son loved to eat Saffron products. After the several times, her son suffered with cancer. Doctor's said, that junk foods also the reason. Kasthuri filed case against the company but unused. So, she make herself as proof by taking the Saffron products only. The plan dropped by Arivu and admitted her at hospital.
• RJ Balaji as Sriram, Miru's brother and son of the person in whose house Ponni works as a maid. Also a cousin to Miru.
• Sathish as Hari, a Salesman and Arivu's friend.
• Vijay Vasanth as Bhagya, Kasi's on of the trusted guy and Arivu's best friend. Arivu take him to Saffron by out from Kasi's gang. He was discovered the Kasthuri case and helped her by theft a pattern rights from MD's room. Finally, the owner paid Kasi to kill him.
• Robo Shankar as Chinna Thambi, slum guy and a co-RJ in Kuppam FM.
• Thambi Ramaiah as Stella Bruce, a Salesman in Saffron and fixed as Arivu's menthore. Arivu's used him as he against Arivu in everything but reality its planned by Arivu
• Vinodhini Vaidyanathan as Sivaranjani, one of the department head.
• Rohini as Ponni, Arivu's mother who earned money as maid at Sriram's house.
• Charle as Murugesan, Arivu's father
• Kaali Venkat as Vinoth, one of the department head.
• Ramdoss as Karpaga Vinayagam, one of the department head.
• Aruldoss as Ansari, one of the department head.
• Mime Gopi as Kishta, Kasi's right hand.
• Mansoor Ali Khan as Kennedy, one of the department head
• Y. G. Mahendra as Narayanan, Saffron company General Manager
• Madhusudhan Rao as Madhusudhan, owner of a leading company.
• Uday Mahesh as Naga Sudarshan, owner of a leading company.
• Sharath Lohitashwa as Doss, a rowdy and Kasi's enemy.
• Anish Kuruvilla as Jayaram, Managing Director of Saffron Company
• Nagineedu as Loknath, Saffron's spy at New Fedora Company
• Mahesh Manjrekar as Madhav Kurup, Adhipan's father and New Fedora's owner
• Balaji Venugopal
• Yuva Lakshmi as Vani
• Maya S. Krishnan
• Abdool as TV stabilizer salesman
• Vivek Prasanna as Kasi's henchman
• Vijayraj
• Dr. Ravinthran Mariappan as an office worker
• Mithun Raj
• Muthuraman as a food inspector
• RJ Sha as himself in a special appearance

Production

In December 2016, an official press announcement from producer R. D. Raja revealed that director Mohan Raja and Sivakarthikeyan would collaborate for his second production venture. A launch event for the film was held on 11 March 2017, with the team announcing their intentions of starting the shoot in late 2016. Nayanthara signed the film in April 2017, while Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil was also brought in to appear in a pivotal role in the film, marking his debut in Tamil cinema. Prior to the start of shoot, several actors were finalised for supporting roles including Sneha, Prakash Raj, Rohini and Thambi Ramaiah. RJ Balaji, Sathish also joined the cast in mid-early-.

Anirudh Ravichander, Vivek Harshan and T. Muthuraj joined the team as the music composer, editor and art director respectively. Likewise Anal Arasu was selected as the stunt choreographer, while Vishnu Govind and Sree Shankar were put in charge of sound editing and mixing. In a turn of events, editor Ruben replaces Vivek Harshan, which is evident on the latest film poster released for Deepavali season.

The film began production untitled on 11 January 2017 in T Nagar, Chennai and shot in the area for up to a month. The shoot continued throughout January at Prasad Studios in Chennai where art director Muthuraj had erected a large set resembling Chennai's slums. In February 2017, it was reported that the film was developing under the title of Velaikkaran, after the team had bought the rights of the title from Vijay Vasanth who had registered it for a future film. Following 35 days of shoot, the team moved to Malaysia to continue filming. Some important portions and climax are to be shot in Malaysia. It's reported that Fahadh Faasil is to dub himself for the first time in Tamil in this movie.

Music

Untitled

The soundtrack and background music of this film are scored by Anirudh Ravichander who also scored for Siva Karthikeyan's previous film 'Remo' which was also produced by 24 AM studios. Velaikkaran is the 17th film and 15th Film as solo composer for Anirudh and 6th film along with Sivakarthikeyan.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singers	Length
1.	"Karuthavanlaam Galeejam"	Viveka	Anirudh Ravichander	3:28
2.	"Iraiva"	Viveka	Anirudh Ravichander,Jonita Gandhi	4:53
3.	"Vaa Velaikkaraa"	Vivek	Shakthisree Gopalan, Bjorn Surrao	2:35
4.	"Idhayane"	Madhan Karky	Anirudh Ravichander, Neeti Mohan	3:41
5.	"Ezhu Velaikkara"	Viveka	Siddharth Mahadevan	5:05
6.	"Velaikkaran Theme"			1:00
Total length:				19:02

Release

On the first day of the film's shoot, the producer R. D. Raja revealed that the film would have a theatrical release on 29 September 2017 (Pooja Holidays). In April 2017, the production house has announced that the release date is postponed to 29 October 2017. Due to delays in post production the film's release date was shifted to 22 December 2017. It is reported that STAR Vijay has acquired the satellite rights of this movie.

External links

• Velaikkaran at IMDb