Iravukku Aayiram Kangal

Iravukku Aayiram Kangal is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Mu. Maran. The film features an ensemble cast including Arulnithi, Ajmal Ameer, Mahima Nambiar, Vidya Pradeep, Chaya Singh, and Suja Varunee, while Anandaraj, John Vijay, Lakshmy Ramakrishnan, and Aadukalam Naren play supporting roles. Sam CS composed the soundtrack. Axess Film Factory began production in March 2017. The film was released in 11 May 2018 to mostly positive reviews from critics and became a box office success.

Plot
Bharath (Arulnithi) is a taxi driver who is in love with Suseela (Mahima Nambiar), a nurse. He is a fan of writer Vyjayanthi (Lakshmy Ramakrishnan). Once, Vyjayanthi rides in Bharath's taxi and notices a man and his bike. She tells Bharath that her late husband had the same bike and died under mysterious circumstances, so she is investigating his death. One evening, when Suseela returns from a wedding in a cab, the driver tries to misbehave with her. Ganesh (Ajmal Ameer) saves her, and she thanks him. When Suseela goes home, she finds that Ganesh has missed his pendrive and tries to return it to him. When they meet again, Ganesh tries to pursue her inappropriately. Ganesh also finds that Suseela is in love with Bharath and warns her to cut off all ties with Bharath. Suseela then meets Bharath and tells him about the problems that Ganesh created, but they find her client Roopala (Chaya Singh) trying to drown herself. They save her, and she tells about her problems with her abusive husband Vasanth (John Vijay). In addition to her woes, she inadvertently connected with a wrong person who had tricked her into unconsciousness and filmed her nude and is now blackmailing her for money, who films her nude and blackmails her for money. They find out that the person is none other than Ganesh. Bharath notices that Ganesh owns the bike that Vyjayanthi had mentioned.

Meanwhile, retired businessman Murugesan (Anandaraj) tries to find female escorts but falls into Ganesh's trap and loses money and jewels. It is revealed that Ganesh is actually a conman who operates with Anitha (Vidya Pradeep) and Maya (Suja Varunee), and they cheat wealthy people and extort money from them. Murugesan follows Ganesh and finds his address with the help of Narain Vaidyanathan's (Aadukalam Naren), who gives Murugesan a ride by chance. That same night, Bharath also finds Ganesh's address and follows him to his house to retrieve Roopala's video and warn him to stay away from Suseela. Murugesan coincidentally goes into Ganesh's house at the same time to get back his stolen money and jewelry. As a result, Bharath spots Murugesan walking past him when he is about to enter. A neighbor reports the men loitering near the house to the police. When the police arrives to investigate, they learn that Maya is murdered, and Bharath is immediately identified as a suspect. He escapes from the police and assumes that Murugesan is the killer, but the latter reveals that she was already dead when he went into the house. Murugesan also accidentally picked up the murder weapon in a panicked state and left his own gun there. Bharath finds that the car that Ganesh and Anitha used to con Murugesan actually belonged to Narain. Narain also reveals that he was a victim of Ganesh. Maya had befriended him online, and they were in a relationship when Ganesh entered, threatened both of them at gunpoint, and stole Narain's money and car, but the police found the car and returned it to Narain. Narain had been thinking that Maya disappeared from his life, but he saw her with Ganesh. Unable to bear Maya's betrayal, Narain goes to her house to kill her, but he found her dead. However, Narain found that a different man was leaving the house when he entered.

Bharath looks for the man who left the house and finds that it is Vasanth. Vasanth had an affair with Anitha, and Ganesh filmed them together and blackmailed him for money. When Vasanth finds that Anitha was part of the scam, he is enraged, but Ganesh beats him up. Vasanth goes to her house to kill them both and exits the place minutes before Narain enters. When Ganesh blackmails Vasanth about his video with Anitha, Vasanth does not care, but when Ganesh blackmails Vasanth with Roopala's nude video, he agrees to give money. Bharath follows Vasanth as he goes to Ganesh, and a fight ensues between them where Anitha and Ganesh are killed. Bharath tells Vasanth that the entire plan to extort money from him was made by Roopala. She wanted to separate from Vasanth because of his abusive behavior, but she also wanted to get money from him, so she approached Anitha and Ganesh to help her make a compromising video of Vasanth to blackmail him, and she would then pay them for their work. Ganesh, being a big time conman, wanted to double-cross Roopala's plan and take the money for himself. In order to do this, he and Anitha made a nude video of Roopala and shut her off. Because of her inability to act against both Vasanth and Ganesh, she tries to commit suicide when Bharath and Suseela save her. In a turn of events, Ganesh and Anitha plan to join together and leave Maya out so that the number of shares will just be two. Maya learns of this, and when she threatens them, Ganesh kills her once and for all. It is during this time when all four men - Bharath, Murugesan, Vasanth, and Narain - coincidentally enter the crime scene and unwittingly become suspects. Roopala and Vasanth are arrested for the whole conspiracy, and Bharath is released and marries Suseela.

A major twist arrives in the form of Vyjayanthi, who has been following Maya's murder. She calls Bharath, requesting his permission to write a book based on this event. Much to Bharath's shock, Vyjayanthi narrates a changed plot where, in Ganesh's desperate desire for Suseela, he films her nude and threatens her. When Bharath comes to know of this and of Roopala's video, he decides to confront Ganesh and erase both videos. Meanwhile, Maya learns that Ganesh is after Suseela, so she threatens him to split the shares into three instead of two. If he fails to do so, she will tell Anitha about Suseela. When Bharath and Suseela go to Ganesh's house to retrieve the videos, Maya tries to attack Bharath, but Suseela kills her. Bharath and Suseela erase the videos and leave the crime scene. When Bharath finds that Murugesan had taken the murder weapon by mistake, he plants it in Ganesh's car and frames him for Maya's murder.

In the present, Bharath disagrees with the changed plot and requests Vyjayanthi to find an alternative one. Later, when he visits her, he finds her murdered, implying that her version of the story may be true. It is left to the audience as to who is Vyjayanthi's murderer.

Production
Mu. Maran, an erstwhile assistant director to Raghava Lawrence and K. V. Anand, announced in February 2017 that his first directorial venture would be a crime thriller featuring Arulnithi. Titled Iravukku Aayiram Kangal after a song from Kulamagal Radhai (1963), Maran revealed that the film was based on real life incidents which he had read about in newspapers. While Arulnithi would portray a taxi driver, actress Mahima Nambiar was signed to play a nurse, after the director was impressed with her performance in Kuttram 23 (2017). Actors Ajmal and Anandaraj also signed the project in March 2017, with filming starting during the month. Initially, Vishal Chandrasekhar was selected as music composer for this film as depicted on the teaser of the film. But in a turn of events, Sam CS replaces Vishal as the music director.

Soundtrack
The songs and background score were handled by Sam CS, and the lyrics were written by the composer himself. The soundtrack consisted of three tracks and two themes having five songs in total, which received positive reviews from the critics praising the usage of new sounds and the tracks that suited the respective situations of the movie.

Release and Reception
The production cost of the film was valued at ₹6 crore. The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV (India). The film received mostly positive reviews from critics praising the story, screenplay and the performances of the cast. Thinkal Menon from The Times Of India rated the movie 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, "The major attraction of the film is its two hours duration and its racy screenplay."