Mankatha (; ), also known as Mangaatha, is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language crime action film written and directed by Venkat Prabhu and produced by Dayanidhi Azhagiri's Cloud Nine Movies. The film stars an ensemble cast of Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Lakshmi Rai, Anjali, Andrea Jeremiah, Ashwin Kakumanu, Vaibhav Reddy, Premji Amaren, Mahat Raghavendra, Jayaprakash, Aravind Akash and Subbu Panchu. It is Ajith's 50th film as a lead actor and the third and penultimate film of the production studio. The film follows Vinayak, a corrupt ACP in Mumbai, who joins a gang of four to plan a heist of cricket betting money in 2011 Indian Premier League.
The film had the tentative title of Thala 50, which was later officially announced in August 2010 under the initial official title Mangaatha, however, it underwent a change to Mankatha due to numerology reasons. Principal photography commenced in October 2010. It was shot for the most part in Chennai, the Dharavi slum in Mumbai and Bangkok and wrapped by June 2011. Following speculations regarding the film's release, Sun Pictures under Kalanithi Maran acquired the theatrical rights and distributed the film via Radhika's Radaan Mediaworks. The film has music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography handled by Sakthi Saravanan and editing by Praveen K. L. and N. B. Srikanth.
Mankatha released worldwide on 31 August 2011 in theatres to critical acclaim and became the second biggest opening Tamil film after Enthiran at the time of release.
Plot Vinayak Mahadevan, a corrupt ACP of Maharashtra Police, is suspended for having saved a smuggler Faizal from encounter killing. Kamal Ekambaram, a police officer, commits suicide due to leaks of his IPL gambling plans. Prithviraj, the new ACP, takes charge to end the betting scandals in IPL cricket in Mumbai. Prithvi then reveals that Kamal faked his death in a secret mission to draw attention to the betting scandals and returned under the name Praveen Kumar. Arumuga Chettiyar, an influential yet illegal business dealer and Faizal's boss, owns "Golden Theatres" in Mumbai, which has been converted into a gambling den and is the front for all his illegal businesses. Chettiyar uses his links with crime bosses in Mumbai and tries to route through his old theater, a cash of over to be used in betting.
Vinayak is introduced to Chettiyar through his girlfriend Sanjana, who is in love with Vinayak, but Vinayak only pretends to love her. Sumanth, a goon working for Chettiyar, hatches a conspiracy to rob the money with the company of his friends: Ganesh, a local SI; Mahat, who owns a bar in Mumbai and Mahat's friend Prem, an IIT graduate. Vinayak befriends the boys at Sumanth's marriage with Suchithra. One late evening, Vinayak meets Prem, who becomes inebriated and reveals their heist plan. Vinayak starts spying on them and confronts them on the day of the planned heist. The four take him in, promising him a fifth of the share. However, Vinayak has other plans as he wants to kill his accomplices and take the money. He promises to help them and divide it between them. After looting the money, they leave the money in an abandoned godown.
Later, all of them celebrate the turn of events at Mahat's bar, but Sumanth is identified at the party by Faizal and is later caught by him. Sumanth is cornered by Chettiyar, who orders Faizal to kill him for his treachery, but is rescued in time by Ganesh and Vinayak, and the trio escape from the hideout, taking Chettiyar hostage. While driving back to the godown, Vinayak finds Sanjana on the way and brutally shoves Chettiyar out of the vehicle in front of her. Sanjana is engulfed in grief when she learns of Vinayak's true intentions. Upon reaching the godown, they discover that Mahat and Prem had escaped with the cash and are accompanied by Sona, another woman who loved Vinayak. The three men are confronted by Faizal and Chettiyar's men, but manage to evade them and escape. Later, Sumanth turns against Vinayak after he discovers that his wife had been kidnapped by Chettiyar.
After a brief scuffle, Sumanth runs into Prithvi, who takes him into custody and rescues his wife on the condition that he turns approver and reveal everything. However, Sumanth is killed when Prithvi's wife Sabitha is kidnapped and threatened by Vinayak. Vinayak learns about Mahat and Prem's whereabouts through Ganesh, and along with him, starts pursuing them. Prithvi and the others follow suit, and all of them are holed up in a highway resort with the money. A sequence of events leads to the murders of the gang members one by one — Mahat is killed by Sona, who gets killed by Vinayak and Prem gets killed by Prithvi — with Ganesh and Vinayak remaining alive. A final fight ensues between Vinayak and Prithvi. At the final moment, Praveen throws a gun at Prithvi, who shoots Vinayak and a huge explosion rocks the shack, seemingly ending the fight.
After several days, the police receive information about Ganesh living in Thailand. Praveen arrives there, but comes across Vinayak. Praveen confronts him and calls up Prithvi to inform him of Vinayak's presence, but it is revealed that Prithvi and Vinayak have been best friends since their college days and took police training together. They had learnt about the betting money scheme by Chettiyar and operated the plan together, including Vinayak's faked death. Ganesh had also been killed by Vinayak as a part of the plan, and Prithvi and Vinayak escaped the explosion with the , each taking as their share. Prithvi informs Vinayak that their money is safe in the Bank of England and asks him to deal with Praveen. Vinayak snatches Praveen's gun and holds him at gunpoint, saying, "Game over".
Cast
Production Development Following the release of his film Aasal in February 2010, Ajith Kumar was signed by Dhayanidhi Alagiri's Cloud Nine Movies for a project touted to be directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. However, as Ajith participated in the 2010 season of the FIA Formula Two Championship, Gautham Vasudev Menon, unwilling to wait, decided to shelve the film and opted to focus on another project, which prompted Venkat Prabhu, who was keen on making a multi-starrer film featuring top stars, to sign the actor in his next film, after the director saw moderate success with his previous film, Goa. Prabhu had written three scripts, out of which the actor chose Mankatha, in which he would portray a character "with grey shades". Venkat Prabhu later disclosed that Ajith was never considered for the role when he wrote the first draft of the script but that he kept his "usual gang of boys in mind" while creating the characters. Vaibhav Reddy suggested that a "big hero" should play the protagonist, with actor Vivek Oberoi and Sathyaraj being considered first for the role. Ajith had called Prabhu at that time and expressed interest in performing a role similar to The Joker character played by Heath Ledger in the 2008 American superhero film The Dark Knight. With the protagonist role in Mankatha incidentally being such a character, Ajith immediately accepted the role, turning the film into a high-profile production. Prabhu further emphasised that the script had been altered due to Ajith's entry and he had incorporated "certain elements" that Ajith's fans would expect in a film and also said that "I approached Mankatha as a fan and asked myself how I would want to see Ajith sir on screen and then set out".
Pre-production The film officially commenced on 2 August 2010 with the formal launch and a simple pooja held at the AVM Studios, Chennai, coinciding with Ajith Kumar's 18th anniversary of his entry into the film industry. The film's title, initially being Mangaatha, derived from a popular Indian traditional card game, underwent a minor change in its spelling, due to numerological reasons. During the pre-production stage, while Venkat Prabhu was still working on the scriptment, sources claimed the film to be on the lines of Steven Soderbergh's heist film Ocean Eleven (2001). The story was later reported to revolve around a mafia gang gambling during the IPL season. In June 2011, reports emerged that the film was a remake of the 2008 Hindi film Jannat that was based on match fixing. However, Dhayanidhi and Venkat Prabhu quickly denied the news and assured that Mankatha was original. Upon completion of filming, Venkat Prabhu named it as "his favourite film so far" and "close to my heart".
Casting
The film was supposed to be a "multi-starrer", with several leading Indian actors expected to appear in it, which is a rare occurrence and would be the first of its kind in the Tamil film industry. Telugu actor Nagarjuna was first approached to essay a powerful character as a CBI officer, being initially confirmed by the director during the launch of the film. He had also conveyed interest in remaking the film into Telugu and playing Ajith's role in return, but since he could not adjust his call sheet, he was forced to pull out, with Arjun replacing him in November 2010. In an interview from August 2010, Venkat Prabhu had affirmed that Mohan Babu's son, Manoj Manchu, Ganesh Venkatraman, Venkat Prabhu's younger brother, Premji Amaren, who had been part of all his brothers' films, and a newcomer Mahat Raghavendra, a childhood friend of producer Dhayanidhi Alagiri, were signed to portray Ajith's sidekicks in the film. However, Manoj Manchu couldn't accept the offer due to a shoulder injury and was eventually replaced by Vaibhav Reddy, appearing in the third consecutive Venkat Prabhu film, while in December 2010, sources revealed that another newcomer Ashwin Kakumanu, who previously was seen in Nadunisi Naaygal, was roped in for the fourth role, replacing Ganesh Venkatraman. Nandha Durairaj later stated that he was offered the role as well, but had to reject it since he was busy shooting for Vellore Maavattam. Prasanna was also considered for the film only to reject due to busy schedules. Jai in 2013 revealed that he was initially roped in to play the police officer role but that Venkat Prabhu replaced him with Arjun after Ajith became part of the project.
Early reports suggested that Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kajal Aggarwal and Anushka Shetty were initially approached for the lead female roles, while in July 2010, reports surfaced that Shriya Saran and Neetu Chandra, and Lakshmi Rai were supposedly signed for the roles. However, the following month Neetu Chandra opted out of the film, refusing the project due to unavailability of dates. Subsequently, Trisha was signed to portray Sanjana, Ajith's love interest, pairing with him for the third time, with Lakshmi Rai being confirmed later, who was signed on to play an important and "lengthy role". Venkat Prabhu revealed that changes in the script resulted in changes of the female characters' personalities, clarifiying that Trisha was not the replacement for Neetu Chandra and that the characters offered to both were different, while adding that Trisha's role was specifically written for her. Prabhu further stated that Lakshmi Rai was first chosen to play Ashwin's pair, which was dropped when the screenplay was altered, and that she was eventually offered the role of Sona, resolving that Rai was not given a choice to select between the roles of Sanjana and Sona, as the actress had claimed post the film's release. Earlier, reports had claimed that model and actress Jacqueline Fernandez was also roped in for a guest role. In November 2010, Sneha was reported to be added to the cast to be paired opposite Arjun, however the role was later finalised with Andrea Jeremiah portraying that character. She was also expected to perform a song for the soundtrack album.