Kaakha Kaakha

Kaakha Kaakha (titled The Police in the UK) is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. It stars Suriya and Jyothika in the lead roles, with Jeevan playing the antagonist. The film featured music composed by Harris Jayaraj and cinematography by R. D. Rajasekhar.

Kaakha Kaakha was released on 1 August 2003 to highly positive reviews and was considered a comeback film for producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu and Suriya's first biggest blockbuster.

Plot
Anbuselvan, an orphan and an honest, stone-hearted IPS officer in the Chennai City Police, works as the ACP in the Crime Branch. Anbuselvan and his IPS friends Srikanth, Arul, and Ilamaran are recruited as a part of a special unit of police officers, who are battling organised crime in Chennai. Anbuselvan is violent and laconic in his duties and finds little patience for his personal life. The unit is ruthless in its confrontation with criminals, going as far as assassinating gang members. The unit is finally disbanded after 5 encounters in 3 months by Human rights authorities, and Anbuselvan is posted to duties in the control room.

One day, Maya, a school teacher, rebuffs Anbuselvan's routine questions regarding safety, not knowing that he is a police officer. Anbuselvan meets Maya again when she and her friend are questioned for driving without a license. However, Anbuselvan lets them off with a warning. When one of Maya's students has a problem with local kids, she asks Anbuselvan for help. Anbuselvan resolves this problem, and a mutual respect grows between them, where they begin to see one another. When Maya gets into a road accident, Anbuselvan helps her recover, and they fall in love. Srikanth and his wife Swathi become good friends with Maya.

Meanwhile, Agaram Sethu, a gangster who escaped the encounter operations, meets his estranged brother Pandiya, who returns to Chennai after 14 years of crime life in Maharashtra. Pandiya has a peculiar tactic: he kills a family member of his opponent, but leaves the opponent alive to rot in depression over the loss of his family member. Sethu's gang, aided by Pandiya's planning, commits major kidnappings in the city and becomes powerful in 6 months. The special unit is reassembled by the commissioner with all four back in the crime branch. The unit tracks down and kills Sethu in a railyard, while the others escape.

Pandiya takes over the gang, promising grave revenge against the special unit for Sethu's death. Pandiya and his gang members target the families of the special unit, but the police close in, and a badly injured Pandiya barely escapes Anbuselvan. Pandiya and his men brutally kill Ilamaran the same night, and escape. The entire department is mobilised and all family members of the remaining three are sent into hiding. Maya and Anbuselvan get married in a hurry and leave for Pondicherry, but Pandiya and his thugs track down the couple at their cottage. Pandiya and his thugs kidnap Maya and seemingly kill Anbuselvan, who later survives and is admitted to the hospital by Srikanth and Arul.

Srikanth reveals that Swathi was kidnapped earlier at the airport and confesses that he was the one who gave away Anbuselvan's location to Pandiya for Swathi's safe return. Srikanth feels extreme remorse over the brutal events that happened to Anbuselvan and Maya. While in the hospital, they receive a message from Pandiya to meet him at a particular location in Andhra Pradesh. When they go there, they find two packages, one containing Swathi's severed head and the other containing Maya's arm flesh. Srikanth and Anbuselvan are distraught, with the former being hysterical upon seeing Swathi's head.

In an agony of grief and guilt at being responsible, Srikanth shoots himself dead. Anbuselvan and Arul track down Pandiya before he can escape from Tamil Nadu and fights with the gang. Anbuselvan aims to shoot Pandiya, but Pandiya shoots Maya while using her as a shield and she dies in Anbuselvan's arms. An enraged Anbuselvan tracks down Pandiya and brutally finishes him off, avenging Maya and his friends' deaths. In the aftermath, Anbuselvan continues his job as an IPS officer, while still reminiscing about his moments with Maya.

Production
The film was initially titled as Paathi (Half) and then as Kalam, before the team opted to change the title to Kaakha Kaakha. Gautham Vasudev Menon revealed that he was inspired to make the film after reading of articles on how encounter specialists shoot gangsters and how their families get threatening calls in return, and initially approached Madhavan, Ajith Kumar, Vikram and Vijay for the role without success. The lead actress Jyothika asked Menon to consider Suriya for the role, and he was subsequently selected after Menon saw his portrayal in Nandha. Many producers refuse to do this film as they could not make a film on the budget fixed by Menon that too with Suriya; it was Thanu who finally agreed to produce the film. Jeevan portrayed the antagonist and his voice was dubbed by Menon.

Menon did a rehearsal of the script with the actors, a costume trial with Jyothika and then enrolled Suriya in a commando training school before beginning production, which he described as a "very planned shoot". To prepare for the role, Suriya met real-life police officers Vijayakumar and Shailendra Babu and discussed about their encounter experiences. An outhouse set was built at Nuwera Eliya at Sri Lanka which cost inr 500000. To build the set on 24 feet of water, art director Rajeevan hired thirteen carpenters, two painters and the set was built within 15 days and the green-grass roof of the house had to be watered every day to prevent the grass from drying up. The scene where Suriya falls from the outhouse, he performed it without a stunt double. The film had an alternate ending which showed Jyothika's character surviving; it was released only on DVD.

Soundtrack
The film's music was composed by Harris Jayaraj marking his second collaboration with Menon after Minnale. The song "Ondra Renda" is based on "Dil Ko Tumse Pyar Hua" from the 2001 Hindi film Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein in which Harris himself was the music director.

Release
Kaakha Kaakha was released on 1 August 2003.

Critical response
Guru Subramaniam of Rediff.com labelled Kaakha Kaakha a "career high film" and wrote "Though the director is a tad biased while describing the police, one must salute his positive attitude." Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu described it as for "action lovers who believe in logical storylines and deft treatment." Cinesouth wrote "Goutham has made an action film without getting caught in the masala trap. Appreciated!".

The film was a major breakthrough for Menon and Suriya.

Remakes
Gautham Vasudev Menon remade the film in Telugu as Gharshana (2004) for producer Venkata Raj and it went on to be highly successful in Telugu theatres. In July 2004, Menon agreed terms to direct and produce another version of Kaakha Kaakha in Hindi with Sunny Deol in the lead role and revealed that the script was written five years ago with Deol in mind, but the film eventually failed to take off. Producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah approached him to direct the Hindi version of the film in 2010 as Force and Menon initially agreed before pulling out again. The film was also remade in Kannada in 2011 as Dandam Dashagunam. Menon and the original producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu also floated an idea of an English version with a Chechnyan backdrop, though talks with a potential collaboration with Ashok Amritraj collapsed.

Accolades
In addition to the following list of awards and nominations, prominent Indian film websites named Kaakha Kaakha one of the 10 best Tamil films of 2003, with Rediff, Sify and Behindwoods all doing so. The film was, before release, in "most awaited" lists from film websites.