Kaala is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language sociopolitical action drama film written and directed by Pa. Ranjith and produced by Dhanush. Starring Rajinikanth in the lead role, the film was announced in 2016. The film was earlier scheduled to be released on 27 April 2018 but was postponed to June due to the standoff between Nadigar Sangam and Digital Service Providers on the increase of Virtual Print Fee charges along with the 2018 Tamil Nadu protests for Kaveri water sharing issue which also led to the delay in release of other Tamil films. Kaala premiered in Malaysia on 6 June 2018, followed by a release in 1,800 theatres in India on 7 June 2018. The film was also dubbed into Telugu and released as Kaala and in Hindi as Kaala Karikalan. The film is the first Indian film ever to be released in Saudi Arabia.
| Kaala | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Pa. Ranjith |
| Produced by | Dhanush |
| Written by |
Pa. Ranjith Aadhavan Dheetchanya Makizhnan B. M. (Dialogues) |
| Starring |
|
| Music by | Santhosh Narayanan |
| Cinematography | Murali G. |
| Edited by | A. Sreekar Prasad |
Production company |
Wunderbar Films |
| Distributed by | Lyca Productions |
Release date |
|
Running time | 159 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
| Budget | ?140 crore |
| Box office | est. ?159.56 crore |
Contents
Plot
In Mumbai, the people who had migrated from Tamil Nadu are living in the Dharavi slum. Union minister Haridev "Hari Dhadha" Abhayankar (Nana Patekar), previously a gangster who had carried out attacks in Dharavi, tries to evict the people and seize their land. Over the years he becomes a minister and plans to clear the area to construct buildings using his construction company in the form of government scheme with the help of his supporter Vishnu Bhai (Sampath Raj). But, Karikaalan "Kaala" (Rajinikanth), living in Dharavi, opposes it to protect the area and his people. His ex-lover Zareena (Huma Qureshi) returns to her native Dharavi as a representative non-governmental organization that hopes to improve the living standards in Dharavi unbeknownst of Hari Dhadha’s intentions. Hari Dhadha’s assassination attempt on Kaala, in order to take control of the area, kills Kaala’s wife Selvi (Easwari Rao) and elder son Selvam (Dileepan). Kaala decides to take revenge on him. Hari Dhadha threatens the people in Dharavi by creating problems, but Kaala encourages the people to protest against the government in order to give up the scheme. Hari Dhadha creates a curfew in Dharavi by using the help of Superintendent of Police (SP) Pankaj Patil (Pankaj Tripathi), who is his supporter. Along with some policemen and Hari Dhadha's right-hand man Sunil (Ravi Kale), the inspector raids area. Kaala fights with Hari Dhadha's henchmen and the police. Kaala's younger son Lenin (Manikandan), his daughter-in-law Charumathi "Puyal" (Anjali Patil) and his brother-in-law Vaaliyappan (Samuthirakani) also fight alongside him. Pankaj Patil gets arrested, after a video taken by a reporter (Ramesh Thilak) during the curfew provides evidence that the henchmen were brought into Dharavi to create problems with police's support. The police believe that Kaala is dead after his chawl is set ablaze and inform the media. But, the people of Dharavi deny the news claiming that he is dead. Hari Dhadha again enters Dharavi at a function for constructing a new building. Here Hari Dhadha begin to hallucinate the appearance of Kaala among the crowd behaves erratically. He is then killed by Dharvi people and the scheme is stopped by the government. With the success of Dharavi, many slums start to follow Kaala's way of protest to protect their neighbourhood irrespective of illegal occupation of lands.
Cast
- Rajinikanth as Karikaalan "Kaala"
- Nana Patekar as Haridev Abhayankar (Hari Dhadha)
- Eswari Rao as Karpooravalli (Selvi)
- Huma Qureshi as Zareena
- Samuthirakani as Vaaliyappan
- Anjali Patil as Charumathi Puyal Gaekwad
- Dileepan as Selvam, Karikaalan's second son
- Nitish Veera as Kathiravan, Karikaalan's eldest son
- Manikandan as Lenin, Karikaalan's youngest son
- Vikram as Karikaalan's third son
- Aruldoss as Mani, Dharavi MLA
- Aravind Akash as Sivaji Rao Gaekwad
- Sayaji Shinde as Minister of Maharashtra
- Sampath Raj as Vishnu
- Ravi Kale as Sunil
- Pankaj Tripathi as SP Pankaj Patil
- Arundhati as Karikaalan's daughter-in-law
- Suganya as Karikaalan's daughter-in-law
- Sakshi Agarwal as Karikaalan's daughter-in-law
- Ramesh Thilak as Praveen, TV Reporter
- Kanna as Beemji
- Bikramjeet Kanwarpal as Manu Constructions Builder
- Vishalini as Devi
- Anitha as News reader
- Suryakanth as MLA candidate
- Dopeadelicz as one of the Dharavi residents
Production
Development
Following the commercial success of director Pa. Ranjith's gangster romantic drama Kabali (2016) starring Rajinikanth, actor-producer Dhanush announced that he had signed the duo to work on a new film for his production house, Wunderbar Films during late August 2016. Refuting reports that the film would be a sequel to Kabali, Dhanush announced that production would begin during mid-2017 following the completion of Rajinikanth's work for Shankar's science fiction film 2.0 (2018). In early May 2017, the producers received an open letter from Sundar Shekar Mishra, the foster son of gangster Haji Mastan, threatening that the makers should not depict his father in negative light and if they did, they would face consequences. In reply, Ranjith denied the film was a biopic of Haji Mastan and clarified that the film was based on fictional events, while revealing that Rajinikanth would play a man from Tirunelveli who escapes to Mumbai as a child and goes on to become a powerful don living in Dharavi slums. The title of the film, Kaala was announced in late May 2017, with promotional posters carrying the film's first look released in Tamil, English, Hindi and Telugu.
Casting and crew
Following the announcement of the film, Wunderbar Films sought to cast Vidya Balan in a leading role, but the actress turned down the offer. Actress Huma Qureshi was later added to the cast in early May 2017 to feature in a role opposite Rajinikanth.[26][27] Marathi actress Anjali Patil also announced that she would be playing an important role in the film through a post on her official Twitter account.[28] Several members of the technical crew of Kabali were retained for Kaala, with A. Sreekar Prasad replacing Praveen K. L. as the film's editor during its pre-production stage.[29] Bollywood actor Nana Patekar has been signed to play a politician who is the antagonist.[30][31][32] As said earlier, Huma Qureshi is not paired with Rajinikanth; Easwari Rao is doing that role.[31] Dileepan of Vathikuchi fame is playing as one of the sons of Rajnikanth and Huma Qureshi is playing Zareena, Rajnikanth's ex-girlfriend.[33][34]
Filming
Shooting of this film started on 28 May 2017 at Mumbai and the lead actor Rajinikanth participated in this first schedule.[35][36][37][38][39] Due to heavy rains in Mumbai, the team had taken a break and erected a set at Chennai with Mumbai as its backdrop.
Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of Mahindra Group, was interested in the jeep which was used in the first look poster of this movie. He tweeted that he would love to acquire that jeep for his company's auto museum.[40][41]
Legal issues
K. Rajashekaran of GSR Vinmeen Creations filed a case claiming the title of this film against Pa Ranjith, Rajnikanth and Dhanush. His allegation was that he had registered the title Kaarikalan with the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce.[42][43] In response, Wunderbar Films filed a counter-affidavit saying the story was written by Pa Ranjith and the title Kaala is registered by M/s Mini Studio, a sister concern of Wunderbar Films, with Tamil Film Producers Council on 24 May 2017.[44]
Soundtrack
| Kaala (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Santhosh Narayanan | ||||
| Released | 9 May 2018 | |||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Language |
Tamil Telugu Hindi | |||
| Label |
Wunderbar Studios Divo | |||
| Producer |
Santhosh Narayanan Dhanush | |||
| Santhosh Narayanan chronology | ||||
| ||||
Tamil tracklist
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