Kodi (film)

Kodi is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language political action drama film directed by R. S. Durai Senthilkumar and produced by Grass Root Film Company. The film stars Dhanush in dual roles, alongside Trisha, Anupama Parameswaran (in her Tamil film debut), Saranya Ponvannan, S. A. Chandrasekhar, Kaali Venkat, Namo Narayana and G. Marimuthu. In the film, a politician has to compete against his lover, and his twin brother is also dragged into the conflict.

Dhanush, who produced R. S. Durai Senthilkumar's previous two films, Ethir Neechal and Kaaki Sattai, played the male lead actor in this film. Principal photography began in January 2016 and wrapped that March. The film's music was composed by Santhosh Narayanan, the cinematography is performed by Venkatesh S, and editing is handled by Prakash Mabbu.

Kodi was released on 28 October 2016, during the week of Diwali. It received five nominations in the Tamil branch at the 64th Filmfare Awards South, including Best Actor (Dhanush), Best Actress (Trisha) and Best Supporting Actress (Anupama and Saranya), but did not win any of them; Trisha instead won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Tamil. The film was remade in Kannada as Dhwaja in 2018.

Plot
Kodi and Anbu are twin brothers. Politics have been a part of Kodi's life ever since his birth in Pollachi. Kodi's father Murugan was a low-rung Democratic party worker, bringing him up in the world of politics before self-immolating in protest against a factory whose toxic mercury waste had ruined lives in the locality. Anbu, an engineering college professor, is not political at all. Kodi grows up being political with his friend Bhagat, and is in a relationship with Rudra who, like Kodi, has been a politician all her life but with the opposing Republican party currently in power.

While fighting members of the opposition on the street one day, Kodi breaks a trolley of eggs that Malathi is trying to sell to a shopkeeper. She chases after him to no avail, before leaving for an appointment at a college cafeteria where she has an interview for a contract to sell eggs. She comes across Anbu, mistaking him for Kodi, before finding out about his twin brother. Anbu and Malathi fall in love. Later on, Malathi tells him about how the factories near her village dump all of their mercury waste where people live, impacting the lives of the villagers negatively. Anbu is worried and tells Kodi.

Meanwhile, Rudra is frustrated about being stereotyped as lower down in her party because she is a woman. She overhears that Arivazhagan, the State education minister from the Coimbatore district, actually dropped out of school and falsified his election nominations. She tips this information off to the Democratic party, who file a suit against the Minister. The Minister loses the case and is disqualified from his position, and the by-elections are announced for the Pollachi constituency. Rudra befriends the ex-minister, becomes the interim District Secretary, and then kicks him out.

The Democratic party are excited for the by-elections despite the Republicans winning for the last 25 years. Kodi meets his Party Supremo, who tells him that they will talk about the opposition's scandal but after the by-elections. Meanwhile, Anbu provides the documents about the mercury waste to Kodi, who then finds out that his ex-minister and party senior Marimuthu, and the entire Democratic party, are responsible for what happened to the villagers affected by the factory, as they were the ruling party at the time. Feeling betrayed, he shares this with Rudra in confidence, who brings it up at her next public speech.

Enraged and embarrassed, the Democratic leader plots to keep Kodi silent by announcing him as their by-election candidate – now running right against Rudra. When the Republican party finds out about Kodi and Rudra's relationship, they start pressuring her to give up her candidacy. A depressed Rudra asks Kodi to meet her in the woods to talk, and she tells him about the ex-minister standing in her way to success before she eliminated him. They get ambushed by goons that Arivazhagan sent to kill Rudra, but Kodi beats them blue and black. Rudra suddenly backstabs Kodi, apologises, and tells him that he was her last obstacle. Kodi is broken by betrayal but decides to die for her, and the by-elections are cancelled for three months due to death of candidate.

Anbu goes to quarrel with Kodi's party members, and he is kicked out. Rudra meets Kodi's family and tells them she can convince her party to give Anbu the candidacy for MLA. Though the mother declines it angrily, Anbu accepts it and wins the by-election unopposed. Rudra is made the full-time District Secretary and an MP of Rajya Sabha as a bonus. Anbu, as MLA, comes to congratulate her; his look and body language are now completely changed to match his brother Kodi's, much to Rudra's dismay. Anbu lets her know that he is very invested and interested in his brother's murder as well as the mercury waste issue.

Kotraivel, a member of the Democratic party, finds a forest camera hidden in the woods that recorded Rudra killing Kodi. He threatens Rudra with this, and tells her to fix the mercury waste issue. Rudra uses Crime Branch Inspector V. Ravichandran as a pawn to destroy the evidence and kill Kotraivel, but is still afraid of Anbu finding out about everything as he was taking the documents about the factory to the court.

In an attempt to stop him, Rudra kidnaps his mother and Bhagat, and tells Anbu to come to the factory. Anbu realises that Rudra killed Kodi and he gets in to a fight with Rudra's goons, Kotraivel and Marimuthu, resulting in Anbu coming on top. He came to the factory with the intention to kill Rudra, but his mother tells him that it is not worth it and to spare her. As they leave, Bhagat impales Rudra with an iron rod, saying he wished for Rudra and Kodi to live happily but she ruined it, and tells her to go be with Kodi, i.e. in death.

Production
The project was first announced during August 2015, when Dhanush revealed that he would act in Durai Senthilkumar's next film, after he finished his ongoing commitments. Dhanush would appear in dual roles as two brothers. Vidya Balan was approached for the female lead, but was not willing to do a Tamil film due to date issues. Trisha was eventually signed on, pairing with Dhanush for the first time, and Shamili was signed on to portray the second leading female role. Shamili, after filming some scenes however, opted out due to work conflicts, before Anupama Parameswaran was confirmed as her replacement. The film is Anupama's Tamil debut, and the makers cast her after being impressed with her performance in the Malayalam film Premam (2015). The title Kodi was announced in December 2015. Initially scheduled to start shoot in early December 2015, plans were delayed as a result of the 2015 South India floods and the schedule was delayed by two weeks. Subsequently, the team held an official launch on 11 December 2015. Principal photography began on 5 January 2016, and wrapped in early March.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack album for Kodi is composed by Santhosh Narayanan. The lyrics of four songs were penned by Vivek while Dhanush and Arunraja Kamaraj wrote and sung the song Kodi Parakkudha. The audio rights of the film were acquired by Sony Music India. The complete album was released on 5 October 2016 at Prasad Labs, Chennai. The album consists of five tracks.

Sify gave a rating of 3 stars out of 5 and stated, "The ear-pleasing numbers make this a solid album". Behindwoods gave 2.75 stars out of 5 and stated "Kodi seems to be an apt composition for the film's subject".

Release
Kodi was released on 28 October 2016, during the week of Diwali. It was dubbed in Telugu as Dharmayogi, which released one day after the Tamil version. The television premiere of the Tamil version was held on 14 January 2017 on Sun TV.

Critical reception
Srinivasa Ramanujan of The Hindu wrote, "Director Durai Senthilkumar deserves credit for an engaging plot that includes a pre-interval block that jolts you. After all, when was the last time a commercial political film worked to a large extent without the existence of a dominating male villain?" Manathi Mannath of The New Indian Express concluded "Kodi worth a watch for its universal sensibility". M Suganth of The Times of India gave Kodi 4 stars out of 5 and stated, "Kodi shows how a good actor can make a film rise above its genre. Dhanush's performance here, subtly delineating the two roles, is a delight to watch. He shines in the mass hero moments as well as the dramatic ones". Sify stated that Kodi was "deliciously dramatic, and packed with sinister twists and turns with superb performances and solid writing" and rated 4 out of 5. Anupama Subramanian of Deccan Chronicle gave 3 out of 5 concluding "Overall, 'Kodi' with some fine performances, especially Dhanush's, and neat screenplay is an engaging political drama." Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express gave 3 stars stating Kodi "seems to be everything the Tamil audience wants for this festive season". Sreedhar Pillai, writing for Firstpost, stated "Kodi is a well written and packaged commercial entertainer that delivers the goods".

Box office
The film collected inr 150000000 in Tamil Nadu in two days. The film collected inr 65000000 in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala in first weekend. The film collected inr 45000000 in overseas, inr 4200000 in United States, inr 2600000 in the United Kingdom, inr 6200000 in UAE, inr 1200000 in France, inr 6500000 in Malaysia, inr 2300000 in Australia, international collection of inr 22500000 and global collection of inr 265000000 in first weekend.