Vikram Vedha

Vikram is an honest police inspector who has a black-and-white sense of good and evil while Vedha is a dreaded gangster who understands the gray in between. Vikram's best friend Simon leads an encounter unit formed to eliminate Vedha. In one encounter, the squad kills some of Vedha's henchmen and frames an unarmed individual as a criminal killed by Vikram to avoid further inquiry. As the unit plans another encounter, Vedha enters the police station and voluntarily surrenders. When Vikram interrogates him, he offers to narrate a story to him. The first act relates about Vedha becoming a drug smuggler. He warns his younger brother Vignesh, nicknamed "Pulli" (skilled) due to his exceptional mathematical skills, to stay away from crime, but Pulli is forced to carry drugs by a rival gangster, Ravi. When Pulli and his friend Chandra are caught by the police, Pulli confesses and Ravi is arrested immediately. On his boss Sangu's orders, Ravi attacks Pulli, leaving a permanent scar on his hand. Vedha asks Vikram if he should kill Ravi or Sangu. Vikram replies that Sangu was the real culprit and that Ravi is just a weapon, to which Vedha wholeheartedly agrees and implies that he killed Sangu. Vedha's lawyer, who turns out to be Vikram's wife, Priya, intervenes and bails him out. Vikram realises that the unarmed individual framed by them for avoiding inquiry was actually Pulli, based on the mark on his hand. Worried that Vedha might try to kill Simon, Vikram rushes to save Simon, but finds him and Chandra shot dead. SP Surendhar dismisses it as a botched encounter. Priya refuses to divulge Vedha's whereabouts to Vikram. Enraged by this, Vikram raids Vedha's tenements, captures and drags him out to a forest, preparing to shoot him. Before he is shot, Vedha requests Vikram to listen to another story. The second story relates to Pulli, now grown up, offering to launder Vedha's income by investing it in shares. Vedha's boss Cheta invests in this venture. However, Chandra is supposedly kidnapped and the money goes missing. Chandra returns and reveals that she stole the money to start a new life, but came back because she loves Pulli. Vedha returns the money to Cheta, who orders him to kill Chandra. Vedha asks Vikram if he should respect Cheta and carry out the order or disobey him and support Pulli and Chandra, thus inciting a gang war. Vikram replies that he should support Pulli, to which Vedha agrees. Realising Pulli's innocence causes Vikram to fumble momentarily, allowing Vedha to attack and subdue him. Vedha tells Vikram to investigate Simon and Pulli's deaths. Vikram begins his investigation with Simon's informant, Kaattai, who led them to Pulli's hideout, but finds that Kaattai has been killed. Vikram and his unit try to find the killer, where he takes a moment to recollect and finds one of the members of the Kerala Quotation Gang from Vedha's story. Vikram apprehends and fights him, only for the gang member to almost kill Vikram before getting shot and killed by his unit member Santhanam. Vikram searches his room, but finds a cigar and learns that the cigarette is filled with marijuana instead of tobacco. Vikram deduces that Ravi is behind the encounter and informs Vedha at his restaurant, who brings Ravi to an abandoned factory. Vikram arrives and meets Vedha, who tells Vikram the third and final act. Vedha had sent Pulli and Chandra to Mumbai. He noticed that only his men, except Cheta's, were being targeted and eliminated by the police. On Ravi's confession, Vedha says that Simon was bribed by Ravi to kill his men. Vedha asks Vikram if Simon was right, since he became corrupt to pay for his son's medical procedure. Vedha kills Ravi, leaving Vikram frustrated on finding out who had killed Simon. Surendhar and the unit arrive, where he castigates Vikram for letting Vedha escape again. Vikram slowly realises that the entire unit had also been bribed by Ravi. Surendhar reveals that Ravi paid them to kill Vedha and Chandra's abduction was intended to get Pulli out of Mumbai, which would lure Vedha out of hiding. However, a guilt-ridden Simon had gone to save Chandra, but the unit had killed them both. As the unit prepares to kill Vikram, Vedha reappears and saves him. A gunfight ensues, and Vikram disables all his colleagues with Vedha's help, but kills Surendhar. After the events, both men turn on each other. Vikram asks Vedha if he should let him go for saving his life or kill him since he is a criminal. The film ends with a standoff between them. == Cast ==

The Cops • R. Madhavan as Inspector Vikram • Prem Kumar as Simon • Achyuth Kumar as Surendhar • Manikandan as Santhanam • George Vijay Nelson as Prabhakar • Babu as Ansari • Vaaladi E. Karthik as Pandian • E. Ramdoss as Velraj • Satya as Hari • Gopi as Thiyagarajan The Gangsters • Vijay Sethupathi as Vedha • Hareesh Peradi as Cheta • Vivek Prasanna as Ravi • Augustine as Vellai • Kutta as Ganja • Amar as Sangu • Siva as Dilli • Sugunthan as Jijo • Babu as Gundu Babu • Vijay Muthu as Muni • Ashok as Kaattai The Families • Shraddha as Priya • Varalaxmi as Chandra • Kathir as Vignesh (Pulli) • Gowrilakshmi G as Anitha • J. K. Abhay as Alex • Akash as young Pulli • Vaishnavi as young Chandra • Gaurav Kalai as Dilip == Production ==

Development After the release of Va (2010), the husband and wife director duo, Pushkar and Gayathri, took a break from filmmaking. They decided to explore other genres during this time as their earlier films, Oram Po (2007) and Va, were comedies. The duo planned to make their next project, which would be titled Vikram Vedha, with a more serious tone where emotions like anger, hatred, and pain drove the characters' motives. This led to their decision to develop characters whose actions are not entirely good or evil. In a January 2015 interview with journalist and film critic Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu, S. Sashikanth, the owner of production house YNOT Studios, confirmed that he would produce the project. Pushkar and Gayathri continued to develop the script throughout 2015, completing it in April 2016. Richard Kevin also worked as an assistant director in addition to handling the film's editing. Casting Pushkar and Gayathri met R. Madhavan while working on the post-production phase of Sudha Kongara's Irudhi Suttru (2016). In addition to growing a beard for his role, Madhavan did not workout to lose weight. Instead, he followed a strict diet, including not eating anything after 6:00 pm and keeping a gap of five and a half hours after each meal. Sethupathi sported a salt and pepper beard for the role of Vedha. Kathir was cast in the role of Vedha's brother Pulli because Pushkar and Gayathri were impressed by his performance in Kirumi (2015). In October 2016, Shraddha Srinath was cast as Vikram's wife after her performance in U Turn (2016) made an impression on Pushkar and Gayathri. This was then officially finalised after her screen test. The same month, John Vijay was signed to play a gangster but later opted out due to scheduling conflicts with the Malayalam film Comrade in America (2017). Filming Vikram Vedha was made on a budget of ₹11 crores (about US$1,661,631 in 2017). The first schedule consisted of filming scenes featuring Sethupathi, Kathir and Varalaxmi for five days. The second schedule commenced on 28 November 2016 with additional scenes involving Sethupathi shot at Vyasarpadi. On 15 December 2016, Madhavan began shooting for his solo sequences and the portions where he appears alongside Sethupathi in the middle of the second schedule. The climax sequence was filmed over four days at Binny Mills. Production continued throughout December 2016, with Sethupathi finishing his work in early January 2017. Principal photography concluded later that month after sequences featuring Madhavan and Shraddha were shot. The entire film was completed over a period of 53 days. Opening sequence Sandhya Prabhat and Jemma Jose designed the opening animated sequence which Nassar narrated. In an interview with S. Naagarajan of The New Indian Express, Prabhat said that Pushkar and Gayathri wanted her "to adapt the theme of the [Baital Pachisi] for the opening credits". After drafting the initial sketches of the animated characters, the duo then gave Prabhat "a scene-by-scene picturisation" of their perspective of the tale in addition to requesting she make the entire sequence "look aesthetic". Prabhat and Jose designed the sequence to synchronise with the track "Karuppu Vellai". According to Jose, the colouring for the sequence was mainly grey, black, and white and shades of red for Vetala's eyes, in keeping with the film's theme. Pushkar and Gayathri wanted Prabhat and Jose to use a "desaturated" palette with "strong and powerful" tones. The sequence was traditionally animated as Prabhat and Jose believed that "complex graphics and multi-layered effects" would distract the audience from understanding the film's main plot. The entire animated sequence, from storyboarding to animation took one and a half months to complete. == Themes and influences ==

As the film is inspired from Baital Pachisi, == Music ==

The soundtrack album for Vikram Vedha and the background score was composed by Sam C. S. with lyrics written by Mohan Rajan, Muthamil, Vignesh Shivan and the composer respectively. Sam had previously worked with Pushkar and Gayathri on television commercials, before they decided to recruit him, after his work on Puriyatha Puthir, which was his debut film. ==Marketing==

The film's official title poster was released on 2 February 2017. The teaser trailer, featuring action sequences between Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi, was released on 13 March 2017. The official trailer was released by actors Shah Rukh Khan and Sivakarthikeyan, through YouTube on 22 June 2017. == Release ==

Theatrical Vikram Vedha was initially given an "A" certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification due to the amount of violence present. The producers, however, successfully approached the censor board again to get a "U/A" certificate so it would have more appeal to family audiences. The film was scheduled to release on 7 July 2017, but was postponed due to the strike by the Tamil Film Producers Council over the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax in India and the removal of the Local Body Tax imposed by the Government of Tamil Nadu on the council. After the state government reached an agreement with the Producer's Council to set up a committee to look into the issue, screening of films at theatres resumed on 6 July. Vikram Vedha, along with Hiphop Tamizha's Meesaya Murukku, was subsequently released worldwide on 21 July 2017. R. Ravindran under his Trident Arts banner distributed the film in Tamil Nadu and released it to 350 screens across the state. ATMUS Entertainment handled distribution in the United States. == Reception ==

Box office Vikram Vedha grossed 170 million worldwide in the first weekend of its theatrical run, earning 100 million in Tamil Nadu alone. By the end of its second weekend, the total box office collections for the film in Tamil Nadu were 250 million. As of December 2017, the film has earned 600 million (about US$9,063,444 in 2017) globally. Critical response Vikram Vedha opened to critical acclaim with praise for all major aspects of the production. Writing for The Indian Express, Manoj Kumar R called it "the best film to release in Tamil this year". He felt that though both Madhavan and Sethupathi "have competed with each other" in providing performances that were "intense and convincing", it was Sethupathi who "manages to draw the applause and whistles from the audience for his natural performance". Karthik Kumar of the Hindustan Times labelled Madhavan's performance "good" and believed Sethupathi played Vedha with "unmatchable swag", adding he was "unarguably the best thing to have happened to the film". M Suganth, in his review for The Times of India, found Madhavan to be "stylish and serious" and Sethupathi as "all swag". Ragesh Gopinathan from Malayala Manorama thought the film "a work of sheer brilliance" with "the perfect blend of style and substance". Gopinathan also believed that Srinath, Varalaxmi and Peradi "offer a realistic portrayal of their characters." In his review for Firstpost, Sreedhar Pillai described the film as "a triumph of smart writing, superb characterisation and terrific performances by the lead actors Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi who make it crackle". He also commended Varalaxmi's performance as Chandra, saying that she "lends the film some warmth" despite being cast in "an insignificant role". Suganth noted that all the conversations between the characters, and even the opening sequence, were "carefully assembled puzzle pieces". However, he criticised the convoluted plot structure and the "lack of gravitas", which made the film seem "tiresome" and "laidback". Karthik commended Pushkar and Gayathri's writing which "succeeds in piquing the intellect of audiences like no recent Tamil film". Likewise, Sudhir Srinivasan, writing for The New Indian Express praised Pushkar and Gayathri's "beautifully written, incredibly well-made" contemporary adaptation of the Baital Pachisi. Mythily Ramachandran, in her review for Gulf News, believed the "powerful writing" of Puskhar and Gayathri's screenplay, the "well defined" characters and "flawless performances" from the entire cast, were the film's main highlights. Pillai and the Sify reviewer found Vinod's cinematography and camera angles helped create the appropriate "tension and mood" and perfectly capture the environment of North Chennai. including Best Director and Best Screenplay Writer (both received by Pushkar–Gayathri), Best Actor (Sethupathi) and Best Background Score (Sam). The film also won four Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards, three Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards, two Techofes Awards, an Edison Award, and four Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. == Remake ==

In March 2018, Pushkar–Gayathri announced that they would direct the film's Hindi remake, to be produced again by YNOT Studios. The Hindi remake, also titled Vikram Vedha, was released on 30 September 2022. == In popular culture ==

The interrogation scene from Vikram Vedha was parodied in Tamizh Padam 2. == References ==