Action (2019 film)

Action is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Sundar C and produced by R. Ravindran under his banner Trident Arts. The film stars Vishal and Tamannaah Bhatia, alongside Akanksha Puri, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Ramki, Chaya Singh, Yogi Babu and Kabir Duhan Singh. The music was composed by Hiphop Tamizha, while cinematography and editing were handled by Dudley and N. B. Srikanth respectively. The film marks Aishwarya Lekshmi's debut in Tamil cinema, Vishal's second collaboration with Sundar after Aambala and with Bhatia after Kaththi Sandai.

Action was released in theatres on 15 November 2019. The film was critically panned and underperformed at the box office, earning approximately ₹11.97 crore against a budget of ₹44 crore.

Plot
Subhash is a Col in the Indian Army, whose father is the retired CM of Tamil Nadu, and is now succeeded by his elder son Saravanan. Subhash calls his whole family along with his lover, Meera for a short trip. During a campaign involving the Prime Ministerial candidate Guptaji, Saravanan finds out that his friend Deepak has fled after extracting ₹40 crore on loan. Saravanan calls Deepak, who tells him to leave the ceremony.

On the other hand, Subhash tries to converse with Meera during the campaign and sends her a message. Realizing that she left her phone in the car, Meera goes to the parking lot, where her phone gets exchanged with that of a killer. After noting the killer duo's vehicle number, Meera tries to escape but gets attacked and brutally stomped to death by a woman disguised as a cop. Retrieving the phone, the woman gives a call to the cell bomb placed in a cooler at the stage. The bomb goes off, killing Guptaji and knocking down Saravanan and his family.

Subhash gets shattered to find Meera's corpse, while Saravanan gets framed for the assassination with the help of Deepak. Having recorded a conversation with Deepak, Saravanan calls for a press conference at his house amidst violent protests, but is found hanging in his room thus making the media believe that he was involved. Subhash finds out about the killer woman through the vehicle number Meera noted on her palm. Looking at the tattoo on her neck in the CCTV footage at the vehicle store and her phone's screen, Subhash manages to track her and finds that she is Kiara, a London-based assassin.

Subhash, with the help of a hacker Jack, manages to trace Kaira and fights off her henchmen and kill her by hanging her in the same way she hanged Saravanan to death. Later, Subhash arrives in Istanbul and is joined by his brother-in-law Maya Kannan and friend Lt Diya. Targeting Deepak's account, they plan to extract the money. The mission goes as planned and Subhash retrieves the money from Deepak's account. However, the trio traces Deepak's location and finds him in Algornia, where they find him dead and a chase ensues, resulting in a heroic escape.

Subhash realises a person, posing as a blind man, has killed Deepak and framed him. They find that the person is the police commissioner of Turkish Police Service. Using Diya as a bait, Subhash lures the commissioner and his henchmen into a trap and fights them off, where he threatens to kill the commissioner, who then reveals that Syed Ibrahim Malik, a Pakistan-based terrorist is the real conspirator behind the explosion.

With the help of his Lt Gen. Rehman, Subhash decides to bring Malik to India on his own, where Diya accompanies him. They reach Lahore illegally, where a covert operative Imran Khaleel introduces him to Malik's location and armed forces. Learning of Malik's daughter's wedding, Diya enters the house with a fake ID card during the celebrations and secretly drops flammable balls, which led to a fire accident during the sunrise. Malik is ordered by the Pakistan Army Gen. Tahir Iqbal to accompany his officers to a safe house. Using the opportunity, Subhash chases after the vehicle and successfully takes Malik hostage.

Following a car chase, Subhash manages to escape, while Diya and Imran wait for him at the airport, but Malik is left in the car. Tahir admits Malik to a hospital, where he realises it is Malik's body double, who was ordered by Malik to accompany Tahir's army due to being held on gunpoint by Subhash. The two engage in hand-to-hand combat, following which Subash captured him. Disguised, Subhash and his gang board the plane before Tahir orders to stop it after the airport authorities identify Subhash.

The flight to India is stopped and Tahir rushes inside, only to realise that Subhash and his team took off in a flight to Nepal. Landing in Nepal, Subhash hands over Malik to the Indian Army. During the posthumous honouring of Saravanan, more conspirators including Saravanan's senior and ex-PM candidate Varma are arrested and it is also revealed that Subhash killed Malik during a staged escape.

Music
The film's music was composed by Hiphop Tamizha, who had previously collaborated with Vishal and Sundar C on Aambala. The lyrics were written by Pa. Vijay, Hiphop Tamizha, Arivu, Paul B. Sailus and Navz47. The album features five tracks, all of which were released as singles before the full album was released on 30 October 2019.

Theatrical
Action was theatrically released worldwide on 15 November 2019.

Home media
The satellite rights of Action were sold to Star Vijay, while Amazon Prime Video acquired the digital rights and began streaming the film on 16 December 2019. The film was released on DVD in Japan on 4 November 2020, and the Hindi-dubbed version was released on YouTube by Goldmines Telefilms on 4 October 2020.

Critical response
Action received mixed reviews from critics.

The Times of India gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "A handful of action set pieces, set in exotic locales, strung together by a semblance of a plot." Sreedhar Pillai of Firstpost gave 2/5 stars and wrote "If only the film had a script with some logic and was a bit racier, it could have been a time pass entertainer". Sify gave 2/5 stars and "Action is a below-average action thriller from Sundar C- Vishal combo."

Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion wrote "Like any self-respecting popcorn entertainer, there are OTT moments aplenty. Killer mehndi cones? Bring ’em on, but there’s always a little surprise around the corner." Anjana Shekhar of The News Minute wrote "The film jumps, rolls and air flips from one chase-action sequence to another of which just a couple of them are memorable." S. Srivatsan of The Hindu wrote "Sundar C wants his film to retain the international-ness of the Mission Impossible series, but its tone-deaf attitude doesn’t even cross the Mayavaram border."

Box office
Action grossed ₹7.7 crore in Tamil Nadu, ₹4 crore in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and $82 thousand (₹57 lakh) from overseas during its theatrical run.

Controversy
The Madras High Court directed actor Vishal to compensate Trident Arts for the financial losses incurred from the film Action. Vishal had committed to covering any shortfall if the film did not earn ₹20 crore, but it grossed less than ₹12 crore. Despite agreeing to make another film, Chakra, as compensation, Vishal produced it under his own banner. The court allowed Chakra to release on OTT and ordered Vishal to provide a guarantee of ₹8.29 crore for the losses.