Maanagaram


Maanagaram 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, Madhusudhan Rao, Ramdoss, 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.

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. On the day of the interview, Sundeep comes to Regina's office and is threatened by a few men. Sundeep punches one of those men. Sri passes the interview and goes to a bar with his friends. Sundeep and the man who he punched are also in the same bar. The latter hires rowdies, who wait outside the bar and are ready to attack Sundeep. They mistake Sri for the target, beat him, and take his certificates and phone. One of the rowdies throws the certificates into a taxi and keeps the phone. The taxi is a rental car owned by don P. K. Pandian alias PKP. Charle is the taxi driver who leases the car from PKP. Soon, he finds the certificates and gives them to the police station.
Sri wakes up the next morning and is shocked about the happenings in the city. He calls his friend, who takes him to his home. There, Sri freshens up and leaves for his job. Sundeep boards into a bus in which the man who he punched travels. His aim is to attack the man with acid. Sri unknowingly passes the acid in the bus to him, and Sundeep carries out the attack. The police take Sri into custody as he passed the acid. Sri's certificates are also in the police station. He later tells Regina that he does not want the job and that he has lost his certificates and will get fired if he does not produce them. Regina gives him a day to find the certificates. Sundeep is also in the office and shouts at Sri. The police comes to the office and arrests Sundeep for the acid attack. The inspector Neelakandan is revealed to be Sundeep's uncle, and he warns them off by leaving them with a condition that none of them should enter Chennai for a month. Meanwhile, the rowdies who attacked Sri are planning to kidnap a school kid and demand a ransom from his father. They hire Winnings, a man who claims to be an expert kidnapper but is actually a coward. He mistakenly kidnaps PKP's son. PKP's men start the search. Winnings calls PKP and demands a crore. PKP sets out with the cash to save his son. The kidnappers decide to kill his son.
Sundeep is ready to leave the city but wants to apologize to Regina. She soon reciprocates his feelings. Suddenly, she sees PKP's son jumping down from a truck and 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. 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. Later, Sri leaves his office and is driven home by Charle, who does not know the route to his place. 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. The police also has Winnings in custody. Winnings identifies the boy and reveals everything to Sundeep's uncle. Sundeep's uncle sets up Winnings as the kidnapper, tells him to call PKP, and makes him come to the location. His objective is to kill everyone and take the money for himself.
Sri tells Charle that he does not like the city, saying that people there are mean. Charle tells him that one should start helping others before expecting help from them. They run into the rowdies who wait for PKP but are attacked by them after they see PKP's sticker on the car. Sri gets back his phone and saves an injured Charle. Soon, PKP arrives and sees Winnings pointing a gun at his son. Sundeep comes back to the place. Sundeep's uncle and Winnings shoot PKP, and his son throws PKP's gun towards Sundeep, who shoots his uncle on his leg. PKP, his son, Sundeep, and Winnings flee. Winnings refuses to take the crore. Sundeep manages to save Charle. Sundeep and Sri wait outside the hospital and begin to talk by asking their names, when a few men appear and plan to attack Sundeep. They were the friends of the man whom Sundeep attacked with acid. 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.

Cast

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. Lokesh had previously worked as a director in Karthik Subbaraj's anthology film project, Aviyal, 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. Actors Charle and Munishkanth were also subsequently signed on to play pivotal roles and the project was completed by September 2015. The film was revealed to be based on hyperlink cinema with Regina's role constant throughout the film. The film was shot and completed within a period of 46 days. 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.

Soundtrack

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.

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. Maanagaram was released on 10 March 2017 and received positive reviews from critics. 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, extracting the best of performances from the entire cast, picture perfect frames, engrossing music and crisp editing, Lokesh has weaved a captivating thriller which is not to be missed". The satellite rights of the film were sold to STAR Vijay. 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". 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". 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."
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. After release, several other Tamil film personalities including Rajinikanth and Suriya voiced their praise for the film.
It was also dubbed in Hindi as Dadagiri 2 in 2019 by Goldmines Telefilms.