Maanaadu () is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language science fiction political action thriller film directed by Venkat Prabhu and produced by Suresh Kamatchi. The film stars Silambarasan as a man who is stuck in a time loop and repeatedly relives the day that Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister is assassinated at a political rally. The ensemble cast which includes S. J. Suryah, Kalyani Priyadarshan, Manoj Bharathiraja, S. A. Chandrasekhar, Y. G. Mahendran, Karunakaran, Premgi Amaren, Aravind Akash and Anjena Kirti.
The film was officially announced in July 2018. However, due to Silambarasan's unprofessional behaviour, which caused an extensive pre-production work, the producer ousted the actor in August 2019. The issues were resolved in November 2019, with principal photography commencing in February 2020. It was shot in Chennai, Pondicherry, Yercaud, and Hosur. Despite being affected twice due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, filming wrapped by July 2021.
Maanaadu was released on 25 November 2021 in theatres, and was a critical and commercial success.
Plot Abdul Khaliq, an NRI from Dubai, is travelling via flight to Coimbatore from Delhi, to reach Ooty. He intends to help his friend Eswaramoorthy elope with his lover Zarina Begum on the day of her marriage with the help of their other friend Syed Basha. His co-passenger Seethalakshmi introduces herself as the groom's friend in Zarina's wedding. The next afternoon, they elope and escape from the wedding with the bride's family in pursuit. On the way to the registrar's office, an unknown man suddenly falls on their car and is severely injured.
The man, Rafiq, is revealed to have been pursued by cops headed by Inspector John. They are subsequently captured on the orders of Dhanushkodi, the corrupt DCP. Khaliq is forced by Dhanushkodi and John to attend a political gathering led by Chief Minister Arivazhagan and is instructed to shoot Arivazhagan with a pistol while Dhanushkodi threatens to kill his friends. Khaliq reluctantly shoots Arivazhagan. John shoots Khaliq dead in the ensuing chaos.
Upon being killed, Khaliq awakens to find himself mid-flight earlier that day shortly before he met Seethalakshmi. After attempting to help Eswaramoorthy elope again, he finds himself in the same spot where the police had previously accosted him. Khaliq is shocked to encounter Rafiq again, this time unscathed. Rafiq enters his car attempting to flee the police. The police catch up to them and Khaliq is shot dead by Dhanushkodi this time. Awaking mid-flight again, Khaliq attempts to avoid interacting with the police, but this time is killed by Zarina's brother Mansoor. He finally realises that he is trapped in a time loop.
Khaliq explains the matter to his friends and Seethalakshmi, who tells him about the stories of time looping and Ujjain's Kaal Bhairav, the Hindu god of time. Khaliq realises how he, having been born in Ujjain in Kaal Bhairav's temple, might be behind the time loop (Khaliq looping at the same spot is the result of the aircraft flying over Ujjain at that moment) and that he has to clear a set objective to escape the loop. Khaliq begins investigating the political gathering once again and sees a cameraman shoot at Arivazhagan with a disguised sniper rifle. Using the time loop to his advantage, Khaliq locates the hitman and restrains him to prevent the assassination. However, Arivazhagan is killed in an IED bombing while leaving the gathering.
Khaliq confronts Dhanushkodi and laments that Arivazhagan's assassination would lead to a dangerous religious riot and cause further societal conflict. Dhanushkodi, who has also been stuck in a time loop when his blood accidentally transfused into a wounded Khaliq in one of the previous loops, realises that Khaliq dying resets the time loop every time and prevents him from achieving his goal of causing a religious riot.
Dhanushkodi is revealed to be working for Paranthaman, a veteran aide of Arivazhagan, who is unhappy with the nepotism inside his party. Paranthaman wants to get to power by assassinating Arivazhagan and Dhanushkodi expects to benefit from such a transfer of power by orchestrating the assassination. Khaliq is given a final warning by Dhanushkodi to stay away from his assassination and resets the loop. He attempts to warn Arivazhagan's son Mugilan of the impending assassination. In the process, he is captured by Paranthaman. Khaliq eventually figures out Tamizhvanan, a local Hindu figurehead already knew of Paranthaman's plans to assassinate Arivazhagan. Tamizhvanan was killed earlier that day.
On knowing Arivazhagan and Tamizhvanan are close, Khaliq realises that he needs to save Tamizhvanan and get him to ask Arivazhagan to prevent the gathering. After many futile attempts and near-misses, Khaliq successfully kidnaps Tamizhvanan and convinces him about Arivazhagan's impending assassination. With his help, Khaliq manages to meet and convince Arivazhagan that an assassination was being planned by showing a video where Tamizhvanan asks Arivazhagan to trust Khaliq.
Arivazhagan confronts Paranthaman by acting like he is suffering from sudden palpitation. He is convinced that Khaliq is telling the truth after Paranthaman pleads for him to attend the conference. A fight ensues between Khaliq and Dhanushkodi. Mugilan is shot, but successfully calls the guards. Paranthaman attempts to suffocate Arivazhagan, but is killed by Khaliq. Dhanushkodi tries to kill Arivazhagan but Khaliq takes the bullet, saving him. Dhanushkodi is killed by the guards.
Khaliq wakes up in the hospital, having seemingly ended his time loop. Arivazhagan thanks Khaliq for saving his life and explains that Paranthaman's death was written off as a cardiac arrest for political reasons. Later, Seethalakshmi, having been convinced by Khaliq that he is a RAW agent, helps his friends in kidnapping Zarina and they all arrive at the hospital while being chased by Mansoor and his men. Khaliq stands up to face Mansoor, who lunges at him.
In the post-credits scene, Khaliq awakens to find the time loop has still not ended.
Cast
The bus stand portrait of late actor Manivannan is featured in the film as Kalaiselvanar, the predecessor of Arivazhagan in his political party.
Production
Development In August 2016, Venkat Prabhu announced that he would be collaborating with Silambarasan for a future project. In June 2018, producer Suresh Kamatchi of V House Productions, officially confirmed their next venture with Silambarsan and Venkat Prabhu. The project was revealed to be an action thriller. On 9 July 2018, Venkat Prabhu announced the title of the film as Maanadu, with a poster release, revealing that the film will be based on political backdrop. Venkat Prabhu added that the film would be a political thriller, his first attempt at the genre. The film, however, uses this as a subplot for the film whilst the story revolves around time loop.
Despite few developments in the project, in August 2019, Suresh Kamatchi announced that he had ousted Silambarasan from the film citing the actor's failure to commit to dates properly, although the film had undergone pre-production work for close to a year before Silambarasan's exit. The producer claimed that the film will go on production with another actor in the lead role, while Silambarasan later chose to launch another new project titled Maghaa Maanaadu immediately after his removal from Maanaadu. Suresh Kamatchi, along with several other producers came forward with an official complaint to the Tamil Film Producers Council about Silambarasan's poor punctuality during the same month. In November 2019, the producers announced that Silambarasan would come back to the project after sorting out the issues, and the project was expected to be re-launched.
Casting With the film's cast and crew not being announced yet, it was rumoured that A. R. Rahman was being approached to compose the music and P. C. Sreeram being hired as the cinematographer. In January 2019, Raashii Khanna, was in talks to play the female lead, however Kalyani Priyadarshan was later cast. In June 2019, Yuvan Shankar Raja, who is known for his successful collaborations with Silambarasan and Venkat Prabhu, signed in as the composer.
In January 2020, the makers announced the complete cast and crew, which includes S. A. Chandrasekhar, Bharathiraja, Premgi Amaren and Karunakaran, along with cinematographer Richard M. Nathan, editor Praveen K. L., action director Stunt Silva and costume designer Vasuki Bhaskar, being a part of the project. Furthermore, the team also included S. J. Suryah, Manoj Bharathiraja, Daniel Annie Pope and Y. G. Mahendran, to the film's cast. Prabhu initially wanted Arvind Swamy to play the DCP Dhanushkodi, but he could not allot dates, resulting in Suryah being cast. Silambarasan was reported to play a Muslim in the film, whose character name was revealed as "Abdul Khaaliq" with a poster release on Silambarasan's birthday, 3 February 2020. It is a reference to Abdul Haliq, the legal name of Yuvan Shankar Raja following his conversion to Islam in 2014. Badava Gopi joined the film's sets during the filming schedule in Pondicherry in November 2020.
Filming Principal photography commenced on 19 February 2020 with a puja being held on Chennai, where the team planned to few scenes in the venue and move to Hyderabad for a 40-day schedule. Following the accident held on the sets of Indian 2, the producer Suresh Kamatchi had assured an insurance of crores to the film's cast and crew, also ensuring the safety of the workers on the film sets. On 27 February 2020, the team moved to VGP Golden Beach at Chennai, for a song shoot featuring Silambarasan which was choreographed by Raju Sundaram, was being filmed at a huge set with around 200 dancers from Mumbai and Bangalore.
The team later moved to Ramoji Film City at Hyderabad on 11 March for the film's second schedule. However, the film council in Hyderabad declined permission to shoot the film until 19 March for safety reasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, thus the film's shooting being put on hold. Later the shooting of the film resumed at Pondicherry on 9 November 2020, with Silambarasan joining the sets post the completion of his film Eeswaran (2021). The schedule took place for a month and was completed within 9 December 2020. The team headed to Yercaud on 25 December 2020, to shoot major sequences without featuring Silambarasan.
A huge set was erected at the EVP Film City in Chennai, resembling a political gathering, and several lead stars were part of this schedule. The set works began in mid-February 2021 and took place for more than a month. Venkat Prabhu revealed that it was a challenging one to shoot a sequence with lot of artistes involved during this pandemic situation. He further added that the team planned to shoot this sequence in a quick time, citing the rise of COVID-19 infections in Chennai following the hot weather in the city. The shooting of the schedule was wrapped up on 5 April 2021, and then planned for another sequence to be filmed in Maldives airport, but was delayed further since the government had imposed ban on passengers from India arriving in the country due to surge in COVID-19 cases. After the statewide lockdown due to second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the team later shifted to Hosur Aerodrome on 6 July 2021 for the final schedule and filming was completed on 9 July 2021. The production team planned to shoot the entire film in 85 days, but filming was completed within 68 days.
Post-production