Imaikkaa Nodigal

Imaikkaa Nodigal is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by R. Ajay Gnanamuthu. It stars Nayanthara with Atharvaa, Raashii Khanna, and Anurag Kashyap, with the latter two both marking their debut in Tamil cinema in prominent roles. Vijay Sethupathi plays an extended cameo. The music was composed by Hiphop Tamizha, cinematography by R. D. Rajasekhar, editing by Bhuvan Srinivasan, and produced by C. J. Jayakumar. The film is a situational story focalizing on how a serial killer is apprehended by an intelligent CBI officer.

The film marks the Tamil debut of Raashii Khanna and Anurag Kashyap. Imaikkaa Nodigal was released by theatrically on 30 August 2018, and received highly positive reviews from critics and audience, and became a commercial success at the box-office.

Plot
A serial killer disrupts peace in Bengaluru by kidnapping, where he goes by the name of the highly notorious serial killer Rudra, who was announced dead five years ago. After another such case, in which the CBI are involved, he declares himself to be alive and not dead. Anjali Vikramadithyan IPS, who dealt with the earlier case of Rudra, is re-appointed to deal with him.

In Chennai, Anjali's brother Arjun, who is an MBBS doctor is facing a rough time in his relationship with Krithika Rao, by accusing her of cheating, and she eventually breaks up with him. To make it up to her, he and his two year distant friend, Vinoth, travel to Bengaluru to meet her. The cat-and-mouse game between Rudra and Anjali becomes intense when Rudra brings Arjun into the game by kidnapping Krithika and demanding a ransom from her father. In an effort to save Krithika, Arjun follows Rudra's orders and gets framed as Rudra, making things much more complicated for him. Anjali is suspended and her family gets placed under house arrest, while Inspector Narayan takes over the case.

After a series of clues, Arjun deduces that former ACP Martin Roy is Rudra. He fights with Martin, only to get injured. Martin reveals that five years ago Rudra was actually Anjali. Feeling betrayed that he was suspended from the case having come so close to cracking it, Martin went rogue, murdered his wife, and staged three murders of high profile people, similar to the ones that Rudra had done. Meanwhile, Anjali too deduces Martin’s identity as Rudra.

Arjun escapes from Martin’s clutches and confronts Anjali over being Rudra. She reveals that her real motive was to avenge the death of her husband Vikramadithyan, as he, along with Anjali were caught in an accident, caused by four influential drug addicted youngsters who instead of helping them decided to cover up the incident by murdering them and Vikramadithyan was left to die with Anjali. However, a pregnant Anjali survived the accident and gave birth to her daughter Shalini. To seek vengeance for Vikramadithyan's death, Anjali created a serial killer named Rudra and brutally finished those youngsters. After killing the last one, she declares him as Rudra and closes the case.

Arjun feels guilty, not knowing the pain his older sister had suffered. He and Anjali together trap Martin using Narayan. Arjun fights and distracts Martin long enough for Anjali and Narayan to arrive with their force and Narayan shoots Martin dead. Arjun and Krithika reconcile while Anjali and Shalini listen to the recording of her father's last words for her.

Cast

 * Nayanthara as CBI Officer Anjali Vikramadithyan IPS / Rudra (voice dubbed by Deepa Venkat)
 * Atharvaa as Dr. Arjun, Anjali's brother
 * Raashii Khanna as Krithika "Krithi" Rao, Arjun’s girlfriend (Voice dubbed by Raveena Ravi)
 * Anurag Kashyap as Ex-ACP Martin Roy / Rudra (Voice dubbed by Magizh Thirumeni)
 * Vijay Sethupathi as Vikramadithyan (Vikram), Anjali's late husband (Extended cameo)
 * Manasvi Kottachi a Shalini "Shalu" Vikramadithyan, Anjali's and Vikram's daughter
 * Ramesh Thilak as Vinoth
 * Devan as CBI Officer Narayan Gowda (Voice dubbed by Chetan)
 * Uday Mahesh as Mr. Gowda
 * Vinoth Kishan as Dr. Vineeth
 * Sai Krishna as Ram
 * Vivek Raju as Prathap
 * Abishek Raaja as Surya
 * B. Suresha as Minister
 * Aarthi as CBI Officer
 * Ranesh as CBI Officer
 * Vetrivel Raja as Nageshwar
 * Ashok Pandian as Anjali and Arjun’s father
 * Kishore Rajkumar as Arjun’s friend
 * Kumar Natarajan as Krithi's father
 * Vikram Anand
 * Aravinth Sundar
 * Jeeva Ravi as George, Jessica's father (uncredited)

Development
In May 2016, Ajay Gnanamuthu, who had previously made the successful horror film Demonte Colony agreed to work on a new film starring Atharvaa in the lead role. Initially reported to be a "romantic-thriller", it was revealed that the film was initially supposed to be made as the director's debut was delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. Thereafter, Jayakumar of Cameo Films agreed to finance the venture and revealed that the shoot would begin during September 2016. For the technical crew, R. D. Rajasekhar was selected as the cameraman, Selvakumar as the art director, Pattukottai Prabhakar as the dialogue writer and Poorthi Pravin as the costume designer. Only Bhuvan Srinivasan was retained as the film editor, continuing his association with the director. Meanwhile, Hiphop Tamizha was selected to be the music composer, while the film was titled as Imaikka Nodigal during September 2016.

Casting
The team signed actress Nayanthara to play the main female lead role in this project, as Gnanamuthu was looking for a "strong female protagonist", and after hearing the script, the actress immediately agreed to be a part of the venture. She played the elder sister of Atharvaa. For a further role, the team were on the lookout for a "pan-Indian actor" considering Prabhu Deva, Gautham Vasudev Menon, and Anurag Kashyap for the character, and the latter was signed to do antagonist's role. The voice for Anurag was dubbed by director Magizh Thirumeni. Raashii Khanna was also signed on to portray another character in the film, and its marking her latter debut in Tamil cinema, appearing as Atharvaa's love interest, and it had been confirmed that Vijay Sethupathi would be seen playing 15-minute cameo role as Nayanthara's husband. Actor Kottachi's daughter, Manasvi, was cast as Nayanthara's daughter.

Filming
Filming took place in Bengaluru. In December 2016, Imaikkaa Nodigal became the first film to be shot inside the tunnel stretch of the Namma Metro. Filming took place after metro services ceased at 10 PM. According to Jayakumar, "The script of the film demanded shooting in various places of Bengaluru. The crew has been shooting in the city for the last 25 days. In the metro tunnel stretch, and shot scenes for two nights." A cycle fight featuring Atharvaa. Lee Hon Yiu, a Cycle stunt specialist from Hong Kong, was brought down to work on this cycle stunt choreographed by 'Stun' Siva. Lee Honiyu is working along with the films stunt choreographer Stun Siva. This bicycle stunt was shot in five days at Bengaluru. Filming ended on 17 December 2017.

Music
The musical score and songs featured in the film are composed by Hiphop Tamizha, and the lyrics are by Kabilan Vairamuthu, Mohanrajan, and Hiphop Tamizha. The album was released on 27 June 2018 alongside the film's trailer.

The first single from the film has been released 4 October 2017, titled as Kadhalikathey, sung by Hiphop Tamizha and Kaushik Krish. Another single Vilambara Idaivelai sung by Christopher Stanley, Sudharshan Ashok, Srinisha Jayaseelan, and Hiphop Tamizha was released on 5 March 2018.

Release
Imaikkaa Nodigal was released on 30 August 2018. The satellite rights were sold to Colors Tamil and the Telugu dubbed version titled Anjali CBI was released on 22 February 2019.

Critical reception
Imaikkaa Nodigal received positive reviews from critics and audience.

The Times of India and Hindustan Times rated the film 3.5/5 with Times of India stating "Apart from a few make-believe scenes, the director manages to keep the twists unpredictable and the thrill factor engaging till the end." and Hindustan Times Noting "Nayanthara has succeeded yet again by picking a character that we have never seen her portray. Anjali is not perfect at what she does but her agenda is to catch the killer, played by Anurag Kashyap."

Film critic Baradwaj Rangan described the film as "A generic, barely watchable serial-killer thriller that squanders a great premise."