Vada Chennai () is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language crime drama film written and directed by Vetrimaaran. Produced by Lyca Productions, Wunderbar Films and Grass Root Film Company, the film stars Dhanush as Anbu, a skilled carrom player who becomes a reluctant participant in a gang war between two rival gangsters. The cast also includes Kishore, Samuthirakani, Daniel Balaji, Pawan, Andrea Jeremiah, Aishwarya Rajesh and Ameer. It is the first instalment in a planned universe.
The film had been in the news since late 2009, with an official announcement only made in November 2011 that the filming would commence by March 2012. After being temporarily shelved, the film re-materialized in May 2015 with a new cast; featuring Dhanush as the lead, making his third collaboration with the director after Polladhavan (2007) and Aadukalam (2011). Principal photography for the film, which commenced in June 2016, was wrapped up in February 2018. The cinematography for the film was done by Velraj, editing was handled by G. B. Venkatesh and R. Ramar, and the musical score was composed by Santhosh Narayanan.
Vada Chennai was initially slated to release on 13 September 2018, during the Ganesh Chathurthi festival, but was postponed to 17 October 2018, because of the post-production work. The film received critical acclaim, praising its direction, plot, music, action sequences and cast performances, while criticising its dialogues. Post-release, the film drew controversies, about the fishermen community, in which a few scenes from the film were found offensive, after the director decided to remove the scenes from the movie, and added further new scenes.
The film received several awards at the 2018 Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards, including Best Actor for Dhanush, Best Supporting Actor for Ameer and Best Music Director for Santhosh Narayanan. At the 8th South Indian International Movie Awards, the film received several nominations, including Best Actor for Dhanush, which was the only win at the ceremony. The film was nominated in three categories at the 66th Filmfare Awards South, in which Dhanush won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. A sequel and a prequel for the film were planned by Vetrimaaran, which will be made into a web series.
Plot 1987: Sentil, Guna & Thambi
Guna, "Jawa" Pazhani, Velu, and Senthil kill a "high profile" crime boss at a restaurant in North Madras (Madras is the former name of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India). Senthil requests Guna and Velu to surrender for the murder while he bails them out. A year later, the pair is still in prison, which creates a deep rift between them and Senthil, despite Mani(who is considered to be the godfather of the hood) and Thambi, the crime boss's younger brother intervening.
2000: Anbu, Senthil and the Jail
The new warden of the Madras central prison plans to weed out all nefarious activities in the prison, which are being controlled by Senthil from the 7th block. Senthil sells drugs worth millions every month in a very elaborate manner, and never steps out of the 7th block, fearing for his life from Guna's men in the 11th block. Anbu and Velu's brother Siva is brought into the prison for fighting. Anbu saves one of Senthil's henchmen Raju, from being killed by Siva. Anbu is placed in the 11th block under Velu and Mani. During a raid, Anbu gives away a mobile phone belonging to Mani and is almost killed for doing so, before being saved by the warden. He is shown to have saved his right hand from any injury, while being attacked.
1991: Anbu, Carrom, & Padma
Anbu, a 20 year-old skilled carrom player who has been taught to play carrom in his childhood by Rajan who was a respected person in the hood where Anbu lives in. He used to be friends with Siva who often gets him to play bet matches. On the night Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated, the entire hamlet where Anbu lives loots nearby shops and makes away with various goods. A masked girl steals a sewing machine from Anbu, but he lets her go. The next morning, the local cops, along with Thambi, arrive to recover the stolen goods. Despite having his goods returned, the shopkeeper is keen on filing a complaint against Anbu, as he had hit him the previous night under the pretext of not returning the sewing machine, Anbu then goes to Siva for help but Guna's brother Shankar who is friends with Siva tries to give Anbu his weapons to warn the shopkeeper but Anbu refuses. In turn, Anbu goes and accosts the girl Padma, but she refuses to return it. Anbu gets beaten up by the shopkeeper and loses badly in that year's carrom tournament. Anbu and Padma begin a relationship, during the course of which Anbu saves Guna from contract killers during a festival, and Guna manages to defeat them resulting in few of them getting killed. The killers then reveal that they are Senthil's men and things only worsen between Guna and Senthil.
2000: Raju helps Anbu shift to the 7th block after he cleverly smuggles in contraband for Raju. Meanwhile, Senthil is still trying to harbour political aspirations through a local politician named Muthu, who is also in prison.
1996: Anbu, Padma, & Pazhani
Pazhani teases Padma after she and Anbu are caught kissing. Pazhani also beats up Padma's brother Kannan. Anbu goes to speak to Pazhani, but is beaten up as well and Pazhini tells him that he is going to kidnap Padma with his men. After Thambi refuses to help him, Anbu and Kannan go back with weapons belonging to Guna's brother to threaten him and the duo find Pazhini drunk. They ask Pazhini to let Padma go but he refuses and finds out that Kannan has a weapon. Pazhini tries to attack Kannan only for Anbu to stab him, Kannan then stabs Pazhini when he tried to kill Anbu, and Anbu stabs Pazhini one more time which ends up killing him. Pazhani's men chase the two, but they escapes without being identified.
2000: Anbu requests Senthil to organise a carrom tournament for the prisoners, which will also help Senthil to make peace with the strict prison chief and also promote his political aspirations. The tournament is conducted throughout the prison. Senthil, Siva and Anbu all proceed to the knock-out semi-finals. The final two rounds of the tournament are held in the common prison courtyard, which implies that Senthil must come out. Velu and Mani try to utilise the opportunity to kill Senthil and heavily arm their boys. Senthil is alerted and gets ready to kill his assassins with their own weapons. However, Senthil's right thumb is injured accidentally, and he withdraws from the tournament. Anbu and Siva proceed to the finals and Anbu requests Senthil to be present for the finals to raise morale. Senthil agrees and arrives to watch the final. Seconds after Anbu wins the final, the tournament tent is collapsed and two gangs clash. During the chaos, Velu kills Senthil's informant and Senthil is able to aptly defend himself and manages to kill few of the henchmen there after defeating Siva. However, Anbu stabs Senthil in the neck with a wooden shard broken from the carrom board, leaving him heavily injured and paralysed for life. Raju is the only witness, but doesn't talk as Anbu spared his life from Siva earlier and saves him again when Siva tried to kill him again after Anbu stabbed Senthil. Later, Anbu explains to Raju about his loyalty towards Guna.
1996: Anbu, Guna, & Chandra
After Anbu and Kannan eliminate Pazhani, Thambi arranges for them to be sheltered by Guna. Guna initially believing his brother committed the crime beats his brother Shankar despite Velu and Chandra's pleas for him to stop. Shankar tells him that he did not commit the crime as he is too scared to become a don like him and berates him for his upbringing as no one in the hood is willing to respect him since he is his brother. When Anbu and Kannan reveal to Guna that they committed the crime, Guna beats Anbu up and humiliates him in front of Velu, Siva, Shankar, and his henchmen, he also tells the duo that Pazhini is dead from his wounds which shocks them. Guna then plans to send the two men far away for their safety, his wife Chandra persuades him to instead send his own brother, Shankar, to prison in Anbu’s place arguing that the move would benefit everyone involved. Guna agrees, and Anbu and Kannan are placed on boats and sent into hiding with Siva. Shankar gains respect in Guna's block and does not take Mani's warning of Senthil seriously. Within two days, Shankar is caught in prison by Senthil when he witnesses Shankar engaged in a compromising homosexual act with Raju in the bathroom as Senthil used Raju to enter Guna's block as a spy and gain Shankar's trust which Raju manages to do as Shankar becomes aroused by him and forces him to engage in certain acts. Despite Shankar's pleas Senthil kicks him and refuses to listen to him, he also has Raju tell the police that Shankar accidentally slipped in the bathroom as Senthil murders Shankar despite Shankar repeatedly telling him that he did not commit the crime and only agreed to accept the crime on his brother's orders. A Devastated and guilt-ridden, Anbu vows his loyalty to Guna for life as Guna assures him that it is not his fault. Later, as Senthil seeks to secure a party leadership position, he surrenders to the authorities and proposes a truce with Guna. However, Guna soon discovers that Senthil has secretly submitted both his and Velu’s names to the police hit list. Meanwhile, Anbu approaches Padma's family to request her hand in marriage. Her father refuses, but with Kannan’s help, Anbu brings Padma to his home regardless. Simultaneously, Guna and Velu summon Anbu and outlines a plan for him to enter prison, gain Senthil’s trust, and ultimately eliminate him. Raju warns Anbu that he will be in danger if Senthil's henchmen find out that he is the real culprit and that Guna is not as caring as Senthil which leaves Anbu to wonder whether Senthil is a better person than Guna.
2000: Anbu is bailed out of prison by Guna, but tells him that he does not want to work for Guna and wants to hone carrom players instead. Anbu then marries Padma.
2003: At a coming-of-age ceremony for Thambi's daughter, a road contractor requests Guna and Senthil to come together to help in evicting people from Anbu's hamlet with the promise of houses and jobs. Anbu's friend Hameed, a bank officer, has petitioned against the project, and Guna requests Anbu's help to talk to Hameed. During the ceremony Senthil also arrives and talks caringly with Anbu treating him like his own kin. Senthil's wife Maari tries to make Guna, Velu and Thambi reveal who the real culprit behind her husband's stabbing is, as the road contractor is trying to make a truce between Senthil and Guna but Guna refuses to reveal Anbu. Later, Anbu then tells everything to Padma, including Rajan's story and how he had fought for the local people and wonders whether to betray Hameed or not despite Padma's assurance that everything will be alright.
1987: Anbu, Rajan, and the Hood