Petta (film)

Petta is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj. The film was produced by Kalanithi Maran under the banner Sun Pictures. The film stars Rajinikanth in the title role along an ensemble cast including Vijay Sethupathi, Simran, Trisha Krishnan, M. Sasikumar, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bobby Simha, Sananth Reddy, Megha Akash, and Malavika Mohanan. The music was composed by Anirudh Ravichander with editing done by Vivek Harshan and cinematography by Tirru. The film was released on 10 January 2019. The film crossed over ₹250 crore at the box office. the highest-grossing south indian film worldwide in 2019. The film is the first 200 crore south indian film in 2019.

Plot
Kaali (Rajinikanth), an elderly man, takes up the job of a boys hostel warden at a college in Darjeeling. He notices that the hostel is dominated by a group of unruly final-year students, which are led by Michael (Bobby Simha), the spoiled son of a local leader named Gnanam (Aadukalam Naren). Kaali puts a stop to Michael's antics, which leads to enmity between the two. Kaali also forms a close bond with a NRI hostelite named Anwar (Sananth Reddy), who is in a relationship with Anu (Megha Akash), the daughter of Mangalam (Simran), a pranic healer. Kaali convinces Mangalam to accept her daughter's relationship with Anwar, and they end up falling in love.

Michael, who lusts for Anu, is angered on hearing of her relationship with Anwar. He attempts to harass them, only to be stopped by Kaali, who ensures the suspension of Michael and his friends, with Anwar recording and sharing the humiliation of Michael and his gang. This video is noticed far away in Uttar Pradesh by a local goon named Jithu (Vijay Sethupathi), the son of a powerful politician called Singaaram alias Singaar Singh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). Singaar, on seeing Anwar in the video as well as in a photo with his mother on Facebook, sends his men to Darjeeling to kill Anwar, for hitherto unknown reasons. At the same time, Michael, humiliated at his suspension, sends his men to beat up (but not kill) Kaali. Michael's plan backfires as he and his men are caught in the fight between Kaali and Singaar's men. Kaali subdues Singaar's men, following which Anwar learns about his past.

Anwar is the son of Maalik (M. Sasikumar), who was Kaali's best friend. It is also revealed that Kaali's real name is Petta Velan and that he was a well-respected man in his village in Madurai district. Twenty years ago, Maalik was in love with Poongodi (Malavika Mohanan), who was impregnated by him out of wedlock. When Petta heard of this, he and his wife Saraswathy alias Saro (Trisha Krishnan) managed to convince Poongodi's father Rajapandi (J. Mahendran) to get Poongodi married to Maalik, even though Rajapandi and Petta were sworn enemies. Unfortunately, Rajapandi's two sons, Devaaram (Vettai Muthukumar) and Singaar, vehemently opposed the alliance as well as the transfer of property to Poongodi. They then killed their father. Petta, on hearing about Rajapandi's murder, killed Devaaram during Rajapandi's funeral and chased Singaar out of the village. In retribution, Singaar orchestrated a bomb blast during Poongodi's seemantham, killing Maalik, Saro, and Petta and Saro's son Chinna. Petta found out that Poongodi was still alive and took her to safety. Poongodi gave birth to a boy, who was none other than Anwar, and both of them left for Australia as refugees to escape from Singaar. On hearing this story, Petta and Anwar, along with Michael's henchmen (Michael and Petta having settled their differences), leave for Uttar Pradesh to finish off Singaar.

In Uttar Pradesh, Petta and Anwar come into confrontation with Jithu, who is determined to kill them both after he also learned about the animosity between Petta and his father. They manage to escape from him. Later, Petta meets Jithu privately and tells him that he is none other than his son Chinna, who did not die in the bomb blast, but was adopted by Singaar after finding out that he was still alive. When Jithu confronts Singaar regarding his parentage, the latter sends his men to kill Jithu, who is rescued by Petta. Along with Anwar and Michael's henchmen, Petta and Jithu then barge into Singaar's mansion and kill him and his henchmen.

Following Singaar's death, Petta has a surprise in store for Jithu. He reveals that Jithu is not his son and that he really is Singaar's son. He used him to lead him to Singaar as part of a strategy to kill the latter. He further adds that Chinna had died in the bomb blast 20 years ago and that the men sent to kill Jithu were his own and not Singaar's. He then tells Jithu that whether he should kill him or leave him alive, but with the risk of him rebelling against Petta in the future, just like his father. After some time, as Petta points the gun at Jithu, the screen turns black and a gunshot is heard.

Cast

 * Rajinikanth as Petta Velan (Kaali)
 * Vijay Sethupathi as Jithu
 * Simran as Mangalam
 * Trisha Krishnan as Saraswathy (Saro)
 * M. Sasikumar as Maalik
 * Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Singaaram (Singaar Singh)
 * Bobby Simha as Michael (Mike)
 * Sananth Reddy as Anwar
 * Megha Akash as Anu
 * Malavika Mohanan as Poongodi Maalik
 * J. Mahendran as Rajapandi
 * Vettai Muthukumar as Devaaram
 * Guru Somasundaram as the District Collector
 * Aadukalam Naren as Gnanam
 * Y. Gee. Mahendra as Ram Prakash
 * Ramdoss as Chittu
 * Chinni Jayanth as Cheenu
 * Vivek Prasanna as College Professor
 * Ramachandran Durairaj as Gnanam's henchman
 * Manikandan R. Achari as Gnanam's henchman
 * Deepak Paramesh as Michael's friend
 * Adithya Shivpink as Michael's friend
 * Thennavan as Minister Thangam
 * Gajaraj as Shanmugam
 * Shabeer Kallarakkal as Arjith
 * Venkatesh as Selva Vinayagam
 * Vaibhav Reddy in a special appearance as Idhayam Murali in the song "Aaha Kalyanam"

Development
In early February 2018, after completing his filming commitments for Pa. Ranjith's Kaala (2018), Rajinikanth held final discussions with a group of young directors, including Arun Prabu Purushothaman, Atlee and Karthik Subbaraj for his next project. On 23 February 2018, production house Sun Pictures announced that they would produce a film starring Rajinikanth to be directed by Karthik Subbaraj. To accommodate the film's shoot throughout the course of 2018, the director postponed the pre-production work of another proposed film starring Dhanush for Y NOT Studios. Subbaraj revealed that he was confident about approaching Rajinikanth to work on his film, after the actor was impressed with his earlier project, Jigarthanda (2014) and expressed a desire to collaborate. The pair had first discussed the script in early 2017, but Rajinikanth did not take a final call until finishing his existing filming commitments to Kaala and 2.0 (2018). Talking about the project, Subbaraj initially revealed that the film would be an "action drama" which was "fictional" but "realistic".

Anirudh Ravichander was signed on to work as the film's music composer in early March 2018, in a move which saw him collaborate with his maternal uncle Rajinikanth, and Subbaraj, for the first time. Tirru and Vivek Harshan were selected to be the film's cinematographer and editor respectively, continuing their collaboration with Subbaraj following their work in Mercury (2018). Likewise, stunt choreographer Peter Hein also joined the team thereafter. In late May 2018, Subbaraj and Tirru went on a recce to scout locations in Nepal and North India to shoot the film. The film's title Petta was revealed on 7 September 2018.

Casting
Vijay Sethupathi was signed on to play a character in April 2018, and accordingly reworked his dates to fit the film into his busy schedule. The actor signed the film after a month of media speculation that he would portray a villainous role, and revealed that he signed the film as he had blind trust in Subbaraj, and initially did not request to listen to the script. Subbaraj had also been keen to sign Fahadh Faasil for a role in the film, but the actor's filming commitments for Varathan (2018) meant that he could not allot dates. Hindi film actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui joined the cast in July 2018, while two other regular collaborators of Subbaraj, actors Bobby Simha and Sananth, were also signed to play pivotal roles in the film. Other members of the cast included supporting actors Guru Somasundaram, Ramdoss, Shabeer Kallarakkal, Deepak Paramesh, Adithya Shivpink, and Manikandan R. Achari.

For leading female roles, the team held discussions throughout March 2018 with actresses Trisha, Deepika Padukone, and Anjali, but neither were signed immediately. In July 2018, the producers announced that Simran had joined the cast to play as pair of Rajinikanth. Trisha was eventually added to the cast in August 2018, while Malavika Mohanan was also signed to appear alongside Rajinikanth. Megha Akash was cast as Sananth's pair, and joined the shoot before the release of any of her initial Tamil films, Boomerang, Enai Noki Paayum Thota and Oru Pakka Kathai. In October, M. Sasikumar and J. Mahendran joined the cast.

Filming
Principal photography began in June 2018. The first schedule of the shoot began on 7 June at Eastern Forest Rangers College at St. Mary’s Hill, Kurseong in Darjeeling, with the initial portions lasting nine days. The team then shot in other location across Darjeeling and the hill towns for a further month, in locations including St. Paul’s and Mount Hermon School. To finish the first schedule, the team returned to Kurseong for six days. An audition to cast 150 local actors was also held in Charbagh, Lucknow during the first schedule. During the making of the schedule, Rajinikanth met with politician Gautam Deb, who helped the makers have a hassle free shoot in exchange for the promotion of tourism in the area. Principal photography wrapped in October 2018, fifteen days ahead of schedule.

Release
Petta was released on 10 January 2019.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by Anirudh Ravichander, for the first time for a film starring Rajinikanth and replacing Subbaraj's usual music director Santhosh Narayanan, who collaborated for his films before.

The first single, a dappan koothu number titled "Marana Mass" was released on December 3, featuring the vocals of Anirudh Ravichander and S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. The second single and the full album tracklist are expected to be released on December 7 and December 9 respectively.

The audio rights were secured by Sony Music on 6 December 2018.

Lyrics are written by Vivek, Ku. Karthik, Dhanush and Karthik Subbaraj.
 * Tamil


 * Hindi


 * Telugu