Starring | Vijay, Samantha Akkineni, Samantha | ||
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Music By | A R Rahman | ||
Lyric By | Vivek | ||
Singers | A R Rahman, Shreya Ghoshal, Kailash Kher, D. Sathyaprakash, Pooja AV, Vishwa Prasad, G. V. Prakash Kumar, Naresh Iyer, Sharanya Srinivas | ||
Year | 2017 |
Mersal is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Atlee and co-written by Atlee, K. V. Vijayendra Prasad and S. Ramana Girivasan (dialogues). The film stars Vijay, Samantha, Kajal Aggarwal, and Nithya Menen. Vijay portrays three roles. The background score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, while the cinematography was done by G. K. Vishnu and edited by Ruben.
The film began production in February 2017 with actors Sathyaraj, S. J. Surya and Vadivelu amongst others in supporting roles. It is also the 100th production of Thenandal Studios Limited. The film was released worldwide on 18 October 2017, coinciding with Diwali. The Telugu version Adirindhi (also Adirindi) was released on 9 November 2017. The Hindi version will be released by Goldmines Telefilms.
The film opened to positive reviews with critics praising Vijay's performance, the cinematography, A.R. Rahman's soundtrack, social message and Atlee's direction, but criticized the cliché plot and excessive length. The film was a commercial success, grossing ₹251 crore (US$39.5 million) worldwide, becoming the fifth-highest grossing Tamil film and Vijay's highest-grossing film in his career. This movie is also the fifth highest grossing South Indian film of all time. The film completed 100-day theatrical run on 25 January 2018.
An ambulance driver, a medical-broker, a hospital HR and a surgeon, were mysteriously abducted at dawn. Alerted by the incidents, Ratnavel, a police officer with Tamil Nadu Police nabs the suspect. As the interrogation begins the suspect explains his motive, Maaran, popularly known as ₹5 doctor, as he charges the same amount for treatment from everyone, arrives for a medical seminar only to be mistaken at Paris Airport due to his cultural identity. After the seminar, Maaran displeases Arjun Zachariah, another doctor from Chennai, and his offer to team up with him, but develops mutual romantic feelings with his assistant, Anu Pallavi. He invites Pallavi and her nagging boss to his magic show, where Zachariah is killed deliberately under the pretence of performing a trick with him as a volunteer, shocking his friend and fellow doctor, Daniel Arockiyaraj.
After arriving back to Chennai, Maaran falls in love with Tara, a media anchor. When an auto-driver's school-going daughter meets with an accident, the treatment is delayed deliberately by the doctors an staff for greed resulting in her death and suicide of her mother. With the help of Vadivu, the people behind this incident were abducted, tortured and killed. Deducing the events, Daniel's henchmen traps Maaran, but gets beaten up by his brother Vetri, who body swaps Maaran and thus gets caught to the police and reveals himself as the magician who killed Zachariah in Paris, for his inhumanely approach in medical profession. Vetri then escapes and convinces Anu Pallavi of his killing Zachariah. As Daniel reaches out to Maaran, holding Tara and Sarala as hostage to find the whereabouts of Vetri, the latter traces Vadivu and confronts Vetri. Vadivu then narrates how the two are linked.
In the late 1970s, Vetrimaaran, a village wrestler marries Aishwarya, a Punjabi and comes back to his native place, Manoor (Madurai district) with his newborn kid, Maaran. He successfully chases out people who wish to build industry, and decides for a temple only to be thwarted by a fire accident resulting in death of kids due to lack of hospital. When Vetrimaaran, Aishwarya and the villagers, finally decide to build a hospital, Daniel and Zachariah were made as its chief doctors of the hospital and the ownership was also transferred to them. The hospital soon becomes famous for its free medical treatment to all. However, it soon turns out that Daniel and Zachariah were crooks who were after money, and they perform a caesarean section on Aishwarya when she was in labour with her second child, Vetri, with the intention of extracting more money from Vetrimaaran, even though she could deliver the child normally. After the child was declared stillborn, Aishwarya dies due to loss of blood and along with an overdose of anaesthetics, but not before revealing to Vetrimaaran the truth about Daniel and Zachariah. Determined, Vetrimaaran tried to kill Daniel and Zachariah but was beaten to death by Daniel and his henchmen, who also shatter a glass bottle on his son’s head, due to which Maaran is unable to remember what happened in his childhood before he was hit on head; he was safely placed into a lorry bound for Chennai before Vetrimaaran's death.
Meanwhile, Vetri did not turn out to be stillborn. He was adopted by Salim Ghosh, who taught him magic. As Maaran reconciles with Vetri, the police arrive and presumably arrest Vetri. However, when Daniel confronts Vetri in prison, it's revealed that he's actually Maaran, as the brothers switched places before the police arrived. Daniel goes to confront Vetri, who gets hit by Kasi, Daniel's henchman who killed Vetrimaaran. Maaran arrives and fights Daniel and Kasi while Vetri recovers from the latter's blow. The duo then kill Kasi and Daniel. Vetri is then arrested for his role in the murders, and sentenced to prison. Before going to jail, he declares that he would continue with the "cleansing process" of all corrupt doctors and hospital staff. In prison, Vetri contemplates a television news report in which a young girl dies due to negligent medical treatment, before vanishing off.