Mr. Local

Mr. Local is a 2019 Indian Tamil language romantic comedy film written and directed by M. Rajesh. The film stars Sivakarthikeyan and Nayanthara in the lead roles, marking their second collaboration after Velaikkaran. The principal photography of the film commenced around May 2018 and post-production was progressing as of February 2019. It was theatrically released in India on 17 May 2019.

Plot
The film begins in a jail in Paris, where a prisoner named Manohar (Sivakarthikeyan), who is from Chennai, India, has just been released on bail provided by the Indian Embassy. Before his release, he tells the jail warden about how he ended up in the Paris jail.

Manohar is a middle-class youth who worked as a salesperson in KUN Hyundai managed by Kuthala Sithambaram (Robo Shankar). One day, he met with a minor accident involving Keerthana Vasudevan (Nayanthara), who is a television serial producer. Keerthana is an arrogant woman and very soon developed a hatred for Manohar, who constantly irritated her with his antics. Keerthana's hatred for Manohar was such that she bought the KUN Hyundai showroom only to fire him, and even went to the extent of firing Sithambaram and Manohar's friend Raja (Sathish) just because they opposed her decision of terminating Manohar. Manohar soon developed romantic feelings for Keerthana, but this only increased the friction between the two. Later, Keerthana met with an accident and was admitted to the hospital by Manohar, who even donated blood to her to save her life. Keerthana, who appeared grateful to Manohar for his gesture, invited him to Paris to meet her aunt and uncle and spend a few days with them, but this turned out to be a trap hatched by Keerthana to get rid of Manohar once and for all. Keerthana spoke ill of Manohar's family, which caused him to get angry and slap her. For this reason, he had been arrested.

In the present day, following his release, Manohar borrows the warden's motorbike to meet Keerthana before leaving for India. He sees Keerthana being chased by goons led by her fiancé Ashwin (Narayan Lucky) since she had called off the engagement after finding out that Ashwin is a transgender man and a misogynist as well. Manohar saves Keerthana from Ashwin and his goons, after which he leaves for India. It is at this juncture that Keerthana realises that she too loves Manohar. She returns to Chennai a few days later and accepts Manohar's love.

Cast

 * Sivakarthikeyan as Manohar (Mr. Local), Works at Hyundai Car Showroom at Chennai
 * Nayanthara as Keerthana Vasudevan, CEO of KV Entertainments and Mano's rival
 * Raadhika Sarathkumar as Easwari, Mano's mother
 * Sathish as P. Raja, Mano's friend and also works at showroom
 * Yogi Babu as Auto Sekar, Mano's area friend
 * Narayan Lucky as Ashwin, Bussinesman and Keerthana's bride
 * Thambi Ramaiah as Lakshman, Keerthana's uncle and KV Entertainments Manager
 * Robo Shankar as Kuthala Sithambaram, Manager at Hyundai Car Showroom
 * John Vijay as Lawyer Arjun Reddy, Personal ungraduated lawyer of P. Raja
 * "Eruma Saani" Harija as Divya, Mano's sister
 * Nakshathra Nagesh as Sowmiya, Serial Artist
 * Dhadi Balaji as Serial director
 * Shalu Shammu as Asha Jasmine, Works at cae showroom and Kuthala's sight girl
 * Anil Murali as Inspector Prasanna Kumar, corrupted police

Production
Filming began in May 2018, marking Sivakarthikeyan's 13th film as lead actor. Portions of the film were shot in Chennai. The first look poster of the film was unveiled by actor Sivakarthikeyan himself through his Twitter account on 2 February 2019. The filmmakers confirmed that the film is not a remake of the 2017 Telugu hit film Nenu Local which starred Nani. The film was shot extensively in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Music
The score and soundtrack were composed by Hiphop Tamizha. The lyrics were written by Hiphop Tamizha, Mirchi Vijay, K. R. Dharan, Rokesh, Paul B. Sailus and SanGan.

Reception
Wetalkiess gave the film 2.75 out of 5, calling it an average movie which could have been better. Behindwoods gave it 2.0 out of 5, stating that "Mr. Local misses out on entertainment".