Iraivi

Iraivi
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Karthik Subbaraj
Written by	Karthik Subbaraj
Produced by	C. V. Kumar K. E. Gnanavel Raja Abinesh Elangovan
Starring	S. J. Suryah Vijay Sethupathi Anjali Kamalinee Mukherjee Bobby Simha Pooja Devariya
Cinematography	Sivakumar Vijayan
Edited by	Vivek Harshan
Music by	Santhosh Narayanan
Production company	Thirukumaran Entertainment
Distributed by	Studio Green Abi & Abi Pictures
Release date	3 June 2016 (2016-06-03)
Running time	153 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Iraivi (transl. Goddess) is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language crime drama film written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj and produced by C. V. Kumar, K. E. Gnanavel Raja and Abinesh Elangovan under their banners Thirukumaran Entertainment, Studio Green and Abi & Abi Pictures, respectively. The film features an ensemble cast including S. J. Suryah, Vijay Sethupathi, Bobby Simha, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Anjali, and Pooja Devariya. The plot revolves around three financially struggling men trying to overcome their problems by involving in criminal activities, not realising the impact their efforts are having on the women in their lives.

Karthik Subbaraj drafted the script during the production works of Jigarthanda in September 2013 and took more than a year for its completion. The film was formally announced in February 2015, with principal photography beginning that May and ending that September. The film features music composed by Santhosh Narayanan with cinematography handled by Sivakumar Vijayan and edited by Vivek Harshan.

Iraivi released on 3 June 2016, and received positive reviews from critics . In 2017, Anjali was nominated for the Best Actress award at the 2nd IIFA Utsavam awards, and Pooja Devariya received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress award at the 6th South Indian International Movie Awards.

Plot

The film centres around three men and the women in their life: a struggling and alcoholic film director Arul (S. J. Surya) and his wife Yazhini (Kamalinee Mukherjee); Arul's best friend Michael (Vijay Sethupathi) and his wife Ponni (Anjali); and Arul's younger brother Jagan (Bobby Simha).

Arul was a renowned film director until he fell out with the producer of his latest directorial film, because of which the film never released. To overcome his sorrow, he became a chronic alcoholic and started harassing Yazhini. Though Yazhini often threatens to divorce Arul for his behaviour, she changes her mind each time due to her love for him.

Michael, an artefact dealer, is forced to marry Ponni, despite being in love with a widow named Malar (Pooja Devariya). However, Malar has no love for Michael, merely considering their relationship as friends with benefits. Michael openly reveals to Ponni that he is not interested in being her husband and ignores her.

Yazhini tries to convince Arul to seek the producer's forgiveness and get his film released so that they both could return to a normal life. When Arul refuses, the producer himself steps in and asks Arul to pay him ₹4,00,00,000 to get his film released. Michael and Jagan, with the help of their friend Ramesh (Karunakaran), steal a temple idol and sell it for ₹4,00,00,000 so that Arul's film can be released. Unfortunately, the producer has already decided to remake Arul's film with an entirely new cast and with his own brother as the director. Arul confronts the producer, who tries to kill him. In a fit of rage, Michael bludgeons the producer to death and is soon sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for his crime. An angry Ponni starts ignoring her husband, never visits him in jail, gives birth to their daughter, and eventually returns to her village. Meanwhile, Yazhini returns to her parents' house and files for a divorce against Arul, fed up of his alcoholism.

Arul is sent to rehab to overcome his alcoholism and is released two years later. Now sober, Arul tries to convince Yazhini to return to him, to no avail. Meanwhile, Arul and Jagan bail out Michael, who leaves for Ponni's village in an attempt to restart his married life with her. Ponni agrees to come back with him on the condition that he breaks his friendship with Arul. The deceased producer's widow and brother meet with Arul and decide to sell the production rights of his film to him for ₹20,00,000. To get the money, Michael and Jagan again team up with Ramesh to steal an idol from a Kerala temple and sell it. However, Ramesh drugs Michael and runs away with the idol. Michael is arrested the following morning, but he manages to escape from the police and return to Chennai.

On confronting Ramesh, he finds out that Jagan was responsible for getting him arrested at Kerala. Jagan was also in love with Ponni and was disgusted at the way Michael treated her. When Michael was in jail, Jagan declared his love for Ponni, who reciprocated but was forced to return to her village the next day as she was unable to decide between Michael and Jagan. Jagan then decided to get Michael arrested so that Ponni could leave Michael for good and start a new life with him. After confronting Ponni over her love for Jagan, both Michael and she decide to forget everything that happened and plan to leave Chennai to start a new life.

Arul, who has successfully acquired the production rights for his film, decides to once again convince Yazhini to return to him. Yazhini, who is getting engaged to another person, Vasanth (Vaibhav), forgives him and agrees to return to him as long as Vasanth agrees. Meanwhile, Michael picks up a fight with a drunk Jagan over Ponni. During the fight, he accidentally kills Jagan, forcing him and Ponni to go into hiding, but he does not tell her that he killed Jagan. When the train that Michael and Ponni are travelling in stops at Palur, Arul, who has found out that Michael had killed his brother, notices him and shoots him in revenge. As Arul is taken to prison, he contacts Yazhini and pretends that he has once again returned to his drunken habits as he does not want her to suffer with the stigma of being a criminal's wife, effectively ending their relationship.

In the end, with their respective husbands out of the way, Ponni and Yazhini relish their newly found freedom by enjoying the rain. Yazhini only watches the rain, leaving the viewers to introspect on how she is not ready to venture out into the world alone yet, while Ponni allows herself to get drenched, finally letting go.

Cast

• S. J. Suryah as Arul Dass
• Vijay Sethupathi as Michael
• Anjali as Ponni
• Bobby Simha as Jagan
• Kamalinee Mukherjee as Yazhini (Yazhu)
• Pooja Devariya as Malarvizhi
• Karunakaran as Ramesh
• Radha Ravi as Dass
• Vadivukkarasi as Meenakshi
• Cheenu Mohan as John
• Gajaraj as Ramalingam
• Bagavathi Perumal as Varun
• Kaali Venkat as Bhagyam
• Rajashree as Kala
• Ramachandran Durairaj as Mahesh
• R. K. Vijay Murugan as Murugesan
• Vivek Prasanna as Director
• Senthil Kumaran as Senthil
• Agavamma as John's wife
• Settai Sethu as Bala
• Rameez Raja as Rakesh
• Kasthuri Patti as Sagayam
• Vaibhav as Vasanth (cameo appearance)
• Santhosh Narayanan in a special appearance in the song Kadhal Kappal

Production

Development

Karthik Subbaraj began writing for his untitled third project before the completion of Jigarthanda in September 2013, but the launch of the film has been pushed ahead due to the delay in Jigarthanda's release. In September 2014, reports claimed that the film will be titled as Iraivi and will be produced by C. V. Kumar's Thirukumaran Entertainment banner. In February 2015, Thirukumaran Entertainment officially confirmed the project with cinematographer Gavemic U. Ary, editor Vivek Harshan, and composer Santhosh Narayanan. But Gavemic U. Ary was later replaced by Sivakumar Vijayan.

Karthik Subbaraj has stated that the works of K. Balachander, Balu Mahendra and J. Mahendran, whose films being women-centric had inspired him to do the film. He also said that the film will be centred on how women influence men in modern society.

Casting and filming

In February 2015, Subbaraj released a press statement confirming the casting of Bobby Simha, Vijay Sethupathi and S. J. Suryah as the lead actors, with Karunakaran in a major role. In May 2015, Anjali was confirmed as one of the lead actresses. Kamalinee Mukherjee was confirmed the following month, marking a return to Tamil films after Kadhalna Summa Illai (2009). Principal photography began on 20 May 2015. Filming took place mostly in Wayanad and Chennai. Anjali completed shooting her portions in mid-September 2015. Filming was completed by 30 September, and post-production works began. Dubbing works began in November 2015.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album is composed by Santhosh Narayanan, who earlier collaborated with Karthik Subbaraj in his previous movies, Pizza and Jigarthanda. The album features six tracks with lyrics written by Vivek, Muthamil and Mani Amudhavan. On the occasion of Women's Day (8 March 2016), Santhosh recorded a powerful song dedicated to women, with his mother Mahalakshmi Rajagopalan rendered vocals for the song. The audio launch was held on 15 April 2016.

Siddharth K of Sify gave 3.5 out of 5 to the album and stated "Santhosh Narayanan is back in style!". Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote "Less album-friendly (perhaps more situational) soundtrack from Santhosh."

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Onnu Rendu"	Vivek	S. J. Surya	03:12
2.	"Kadhal Kappal"	Muthamil	Santhosh Narayanan	04:03
3.	"Solla Thudikkudhu Manasu"	Vivek	R. K. Sundar	03:24
4.	"Dhushta"	Vivek	Meenakshi, Dhee	03:46
5.	"Othaiyila"	Mani Amudhavan	Anthony Daasan	02:19
6.	"Manidhi"	Vivek	Brinda, Ananthu, Santhosh Narayanan	04:55
Total length:				21:39

Marketing and release

In early January 2016, the first look poster was released, and the caption "Sila woMENkalin kadhai" (Story of few woMEN) was highlighted by commentators for the way it capitalised the word "men". As a part of the promotional campaign, the making of the film premiered a four-episode series, documenting the film's making, starting from 22 May 2016. The producers also collaborated with The Sight Media to launch an in-auto LED branding, with the clips and video promos of the film being available for customers travelling in Chennai autos through the LED panels installed there.

The film was initially announced to release on 20 May 2016. Due to the release of Idhu Namma Aalu and Marudhu during the month, the team pushed the release to 3 June. The film had its television premiere on 5 September 2016 via Jaya TV.

Reception

The film opened to positive response from critics. M. Suganth of The Times of India gave 3.5 out of 5 and stated "Karthik's writing is novelistic, with each character having their own well-sketched arcs." In his review for The Hindu, Baradwaj Rangan wrote " Iraivi is an unusual feminist film, in the sense that it's seen entirely through the prism of sympathetic male characters. This is bound to happen when there are so many people, so many strands, when we don't follow one person's simplistic "you go, girl" journey. But when the parts are so well-crafted, we don't complain as much about their sum not adding up to a satisfying whole." Gauthaman Baskaran of Hindustan Times wrote "Iraivi in the end seems like a story gone astray, the lives of several people destroyed by male egoistic rage that seeks solution in blood and gore. There is very little to cheer in the 160-minute work, which, though has some interesting performances by Simha, Surya and Anjali." Kirubakar Purushothaman of India Today gave 3 out of 5 and stated "The story of Iraivi is about the victimisation of the females in the film by the malevolent arrogance of their respective not-so-better halves."

S. Saraswathi of Rediff.com gave 3.5 out of 5 to the film stating that "The beautifully etched out characters, the performances, the exceptional music and the thought-provoking message makes Karthik Subbaraj's Iraivi a must watch." Giving 3 out of 5 stars, Anupama Subramanian of Deccan Chronicle wrote "The movie has a feminist theme and the bold characters have semblance to one we used to see in K. Balachander's films." Vikram Venkateshwaran of The Quint wrote "Iraivi disturbingly tells you that gender is not based on one's plumbing. All of the characters, including the women who are victimised, only seek happiness for themselves. And that's what makes it so real and relatable." Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute reviewed "Subbaraj does suggest that women ought to stop depending on men for their happiness but sadly, even then, none of his female characters MAKE that choice actively. The men do it on their behalf. The women are like characters from Waiting for Godot, hoping that someday, things will get better without taking charge of their own lives. This is a very simplistic depiction and does injustice to both genders. It is also unreal though we may be tricked into believing that it is completely realistic."

Controversies

The film features an egoistic film producer played by Vijay Murugan who is shown as a ruthless, money-minded person who does not care about the feelings of a struggling director, played by Suryah. Post-release, few members of the Tamil Film Producers Council including P. L. Thenappan criticised Karthik for allegedly portraying the producer's character in poor light and also threatened to issue a "red card" against the director. K. E. Gnanavel Raja, who co-produced and distributed the film also expressed his disappointment against the issue. Some reports claimed that Karthik's fallout with film producer Kathiresan during the production of Jigarthanda is the reason why he portrayed the character as such. After Karthik issued a letter to the Tami Film Directors Union explaining his position, the problem was amicably resolved.

Impact

Inspired by the film, a showroom named Iraivi was organised by Vijay Sethupathi's sister in Chennai.

External links

• Iraivi at IMDb 
• Iraivi at Rotten Tomatoes