Boomerang (2019 film)

Boomerang is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language black comedy film written, produced and directed by R. Kannan. The film features Atharvaa, Megha Akash and Indhuja Ravichandran in the lead roles, while Upen Patel plays an antagonistic role alongside Sathish, and RJ Balaji in supporting roles. The music was composed by Radhan with cinematography by Prasanna Kumar and editing by R. K. Selva. The film released on 8 March 2019. It is partly inspired by the 1997 American film Face/Off.

Plot
The movie begins in a hospital, with a patient being rushed to the operation theater. The patient is revealed to be Siva (Atharvaa), whose original face at that moment is not shown. It is revealed that Siva's face was heavily damaged in a fire accident and that the doctors think that a face transplant is the only way out to rectify his facial deformities. At the same moment, another patient, Shakthi (Atharvaa), is admitted in the hospital. He is declared brain dead, and doctors request his mother, Gowri Tiruselvan (Suhasini Maniratnam), to donate his organs. Upon hearing the pleas of Siva's parents, she relents, and Siva's face is swapped with that of Shakthi's. Siva, who gets a new lease of life, plans to start a business to take care of his family. Little did he know that he has to face several issues in the coming days. After getting attacked by some strangers a couple of times, Siva realizes that someone is after his life. Following an attempt on his life, Siva and Gopal (Sathish) realize that the troublemakers could be targeting his face and not him in particular, as not many were aware of his face transplantation surgery. Siva learns from Gowri that his face donor was not really her son, and from another friend, that this person hailed from a Village near Trichy. Siva sets out to Trichy with Gopal and his girlfriend Gee Gee (Megha Akash) to know Shakthi's whereabouts. In a parallel storyline, it is revealed that Gee Gee had rejected Siva earlier (owing to not liking his looks prior to surgery), and during the course of the train journey, Siva reveals his true identity. Gee Gee feels guilty and asks for his forgiveness, after which the two reconcile.

In Trichy, Siva and Gopal go about trying to find out more about Shakthi, when yet another attempt is made on Siva's life. While chasing the perpetrators by car, Siva accidentally knocks down a person on the road. Out of guilt, Siva admits the person in a hospital, and there they meet Maya (Indhuja Ravichandran), who narrates Shakthi's life to them and tells them why people are after Siva. Shakthi, along with his friend Shanmugam (RJ Balaji) and Maya, work for a multinational company on a project. Due to some internal conflicts, the three are sacked from their jobs, along with many others. Shakthi gets frustrated and decides to go back to his village and do farming instead of continuing in the IT industry. Initially, Shakthi and his friends face resistance in the form of the local councillor (Ravi Mariya), who was insisting on all farmers selling their lands to him for money instead of continuing agriculture. He even instigates Shakthi's father against his own son, but in a public meeting with the villagers, Shakthi, Shanmugam, and Maya convince the villagers to help them unite a dry river in their village with an overflowing river in a village 20 kms away, by building a canal. The reason being shown is that the said river has a surplus amount of water and often floods that village during monsoon, and the idea is to use the excess water by means of the canal for farming.

The villagers, pleased with idea, offer their support to Shakthi. Shakthi and his friends initially face tough challenges in the form the government officials and even the local police, but overcoming all struggles, the trio, supported by the villagers, protests in front of the district collector's office to obtain permission for constructing the canal. Things go awry when two goons enter the crowd in disguise and incite violence, thus forcing the police to charge on them. Initially miffed about the nuisance, the collector argues, but after hearing out Shakthi and his friends, he relents and gives permission. The trio and the villagers begin work in full earnest. While the work is going on, a sudden landslide occurs, and in a bid to escape, a lot of people get buried underneath and lose their lives, including Shanmugam.

In the present day, Maya reveals that she never heard of Shakthi after that. She also tells that Shakthi felt very guilty of indirectly causing so much life loss. Intrigued, Siva requests Maya to tell more about the river interlinking project that they worked on. Shakthi's laptop is locked, and upon seeing a face recognition option, Siva unlocks it using his newly-obtained face. The laptop contains details about various people supporting Shakthi and his friends in the initiative, including residents of that neighboring village. It also contains an unsent mail addressed to Maya. In an attached clip, a video reveals Shakthi's final moments; wherein he tells that Maya needs to know certain truths. After finding out about a bomb that actually triggered the landslide (from a device that Shanmugam latches on to before his death), Shakthi rushes to the Sub-Inspector (E. Ramdoss) and urges him to take action.

The Sub-Inspector turns out to be a traitor and takes Shakthi to Sooraj (Upen Patel). It is revealed that Sooraj caused Shakthi and his friends to lose their jobs and also face trouble from the local government, officials, and police. The goons at the collector office too are revealed to be henchmen sent by Sooraj, who even has the councillor on his payroll. Sooraj wanted to privatize the electricity supply to the region and hence, caused so much trouble. In the ensuing fight, the Sub-Inspector gets killed, while Shakthi gets grievously injured but somehow escapes from Sooraj before the latter tries to kill him. After escaping in a lorry, Shakthi records the video and attempts to send it to Maya. Siva is emotionally touched by Shakthi's past story and hence decides to avenge his death by killing Sooraj. At this juncture, it is revealed that the person knocked down by Siva is none other than Sooraj, who has realized that the person who saved him is not Shakthi, as Shakthi would never have done so. Sooraj tells Siva that he will instruct his henchmen to stand down, and Siva can go live a happy life. Siva, on the contrary, is not interested in helping Sooraj anymore. During their train journey, Gee Gee tells Siva about a drug that when administered into a person, causes excessive adrenaline rush, eventually leading to death by loss of breath, also leaving no traces in the blood. Siva uses this same method to kill Sooraj, hence successfully seeking revenge from him for killing Shakthi. In the final scene, Siva is shown alighting the bus to go to Shakthi's village, possibly to continue the work the latter had left unfinished.

Cast

 * Atharvaa as Siva and Shakthi
 * Megha Akash as Gee Gee, Siva's girlfriend
 * Indhuja Ravichandran as Maya, Shakthi and Shanmugam's colleague
 * Sathish as Gopal, Siva's friend
 * RJ Balaji as Shanmugam, Shakthi’s friend
 * Upen Patel as Sooraj
 * Suhasini Maniratnam as Gowri Thiruselvan
 * J. Mahendran as Himself, Judge of Short Film Contest
 * Ramkumar Ganesan as Akash, a channel owner
 * Jeeva Ravi as Siva's father
 * Malavika Avinash as Siva's mother
 * Dheshika Jagannathan as Siva's sister
 * E. Ramdoss as Sub-Inspector
 * Ravi Mariya as Councillor
 * Vinodhini as Doctor
 * Rajendran as Producer
 * Stunt Silva as Henchman out to kill Siva/Shakthi

Production
R. Kannan announced that he would direct and produce a new film starring Atharvaa in the lead role during October 2017. Megha Akash was signed on to portray the female lead actress, while Upen Patel was selected as the film's antagonist. For a particular look in the film, Atharvaa had to wear heavy prosthetic make-up with designers Preetisheel Singh and Mark Troy D’Souza assisting with the makeover.

The film was 90% completed by March 2018, before production was delayed as a result of an industry-wide strike the following month. The film was mainly shot for 45 days in and around Chennai, Aruppukottai, Virudhunagar and Theni, with a duet song shot in the Andaman Islands, before coming to a close in June 2018.

Soundtrack
This music is composed by Radhan and released by Sony Music India.

Releases and reception
Boomerang was released on 8 March 2019 and got mixed to positive response from audiences. It is a remake of the movie Yevadu (2014). The satellite rights of the film were sold to Zee Tamil and was premiered in April 14 2019 a month after the film's theatrical release.