Maanagaram

Maanagaram
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 (English: 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][4]The movie was dubbed into Telugu as Nagaram.

Cast

Plot

The names of the lead characters are not revealed in the movie. Shri comes to Chennai to attend an interview for a job in a BPO. Regina is the HR officer there. Sundeep 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 interview, Sundeep comes to Regina's office and he is threatened by a few guys that, one of them loves Regina and if she doesn't agree, he will attack her with acid. Sundeep punches that guy and they flee that place. Shri passes the interview and goes to a bar with his friend. Sundeep is also in the same bar with his friends. The guy 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 Shri for the target and beat him hard and leave him unconscious on the road. They also take away his certificates and phone. Later one of them throws his certificate files into a car and keep the phone. The car is a rental car owned by PKP, the city's most powerful don. Charlie is the driver who leases the car from PKP and he comes to know that any problem if happens with the car, will be dealt severely by PKP's henchmen. Charlie finds the certificates and give it to the local police station.

Shri wakes up the next morning from the roadside and is shocked about the happenings in the city and gets a bad impression about it. He calls his friend and he comes and takes him to his home where he freshens up and leaves to report to job. Meanwhile Sundeep tells parents that he is going for an interview and boards into a particular bus in which the guy who punched earlier travels. His aim is to attack that guy with acid. Unknowingly, Shri passes the bottle of acid in the bus to him and Sundeep carries out the attack and escapes. The police take Shri into custody as he passed the bottle. The Inspector is angry with Shri for his straightforward talk and slaps him. Shri's certificate are also in the same police station with the writer. The writer takes out Shri for a tea break where Shri identifies one of Sundeep's friend who was involved in the attack. Shri 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 one day time to find the certificate and return to job. Sundeep is also in the office at that time and he intervenes Regina and Shri and shouts at Shri. Regina asks him to keep quiet, which become a quarrel. Police come to the office and arrest Sundeep for the acid attack case. The Inspector is Sundeep's uncle and he warns them off and leaves them with a condition that none of them should enter Chennai for a month. Sundeep decides to take revenge on Shri 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 Shri first, are planning to kidnap a school kid and demand ransom from his father. They hire Winnings, one of the rowdies' friend from Pondicherry, Who claims himself to be an expert kidnapper. But he is a fool and is a coward. He mistakenly kidnaps the son of PKP, the Don. PKP's men start the search and kill everyone whom they have doubts on. Winnings calls PKP and demands one crore. PKP sets out with the cash to save his son. The kidnappers know that PKP will definitely find them and they cannot escape PKP's wrath. So they decide to kill the boy anyway. But the boy escapes. One of the rowdies begin searching and the remaining two of them 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. He comes outside her home and she finally agrees to meet him. She reciprocates his feelings and suddenly she sees the kidnapped boy jumping down from a small truck in which he was hiding. Since he was sedated he seems drowsy and Regina asks Sundeep to drop the guy to safety. At that time the kidnapper who is searching for the boy finds them and he tries to take him forcefully. Sundeep attacks him and saves the boy. He tells Regina to go home and he sets out with the boy to return him to his father. 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 and PKP believes that he must be one of the kidnappers playing his games. So he warns him and hangs up the phone. Sundeep decides to drop the boy at his home.

Shri leaves his office and gets ready to go home. His office is cab driven by Charlie. As he is new to the city, he doesn't know the route to Shri's place neither does Shri. Since its a night shift, they find it difficult to get the correct route. The inspector who now gets news about the boy's kidnapping, sets up barricade near PKP's home and he sees Sundeep coming with the boy. Sundeep hands over the boy to the police and leaves as his uncle scold him for not leaving the city yet. The police also have winnings in the custody in the jeep, apprehended for nuisance. Winnings identify the boy and reveals everything to the Inspector. The Inspector decides to play his game and he sends the writer away to buy some things for him and he sets up Winnings as the Kidnapper and tells him to call PKP and make him come to that location so that he can kill everyone and take the money all by himself.

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

PKP arrive at the place where Winnings told him to come and he sees winnings pointing a gun at the boy's head. The Inspector hides in a building and instructs Winnings on how to get the money. Suddenly Sundeep comes to the place sees this happening and a chaos occurs. During the tussle with the gun, the inspector/winnings shoots PKP and the boy throws PKP's gun towards Sundeep who shoots his uncle on his legs to save PKP and the Boy. The Writer now returns and he lets Sundeep escape the scene and informs the police that someone had shot the Inspector. Sundeep, the Injured PKP and his boy and Winnings flee the scene. PKP decides to give the one crore to Winnings who eventually drove PKP and his boy to safety. 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, why not him?

He then passes by Shri who is demanding for a lift to save Charlie. Seeing Sundeep he stops asking, knowing that Sundeep wont help him due to their earlier encounters. But Sundeep gives them lift and takes them to a hospital, saving Charlie's life. Sundeep and Shri wait outside the hospital begin to talk and ask their names and suddenly a few guys appear and plan to attack Sundeep. They were the friends of the guy on whom Sundeep attacked with acid. They come to get their Revenge on Sundeep. Shri sees this and remembers what Charlie told him about helping others. The film ends with Sundeep getting ready to attack and Shri 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 Metropolitan live, helping strangers.

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.^[5] 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.^[6] Actors Charle and Ramdoss were also subsequently signed on to play pivotal roles and the project was completed by September 2015.^[7][8] The film was revealed to be based on hyperlink cinema with Regina's role constant throughout the film.^[9][10] The film was shot and completed within a period of 46 days.^[11] Potential Studios begun promoting the film in February 2016, but later postponed efforts until early 2017 to get better timing for a theatrical release.^[12]

Soundtrack

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Deccan Chronicle	[13]
Sify	[14]
Times of India	[15]
Behindwoods	[16]
Only Kollywood	[17]

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.^[18]

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.^[19] Maanagaram was released on 10 March 2017 and received positive reviews from critics.^[20][21][22] 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".^[23] 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".^[24] 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".^[25][26]

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.^[27] After release, several other Tamil film personalities including Rajinikanth and Suriya voiced their praise for the film.^[28][29]

See also

• S. R. Prabhu
• Potential Studios
• Dream Warrior Pictures

References

External links

• Maanagaram on IMDb (IMDb)
• Maanagaram on Facebook