LKG (film)

LKG (an initialism for Lalgudi Karuppiah Gandhi) is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language political satire film produced by Ishari K. Ganesh and directed by K. R. Prabhu in his directorial debut. The film stars RJ Balaji and Priya Anand, while Nanjil Sampath, J. K. Rithesh, Ramkumar Ganesan and Mayilsamy play supporting roles. Leon James scored the music, while Vidhu Ayyanna and Anthony handled the cinematography and editing, respectively. The film released on 22 February 2019 to positive reviews and performed well at the box office.

Plot
Lalgudi Karupaiah Gandhi (LKG) is a councillor from Lalgudi ward in Trichy rural and belongs to the ruling party. LKG aspires to quickly achieve big in politics, unlike his father Azhagu Meiyappan, who neither achieved fame as a politician nor made money. The incumbent Chief Minister (CM) of Tamil Nadu and ruling party chief, Avudaiyappan Mudhaliar, falls ill and gets hospitalised, while Bojappan, the party general secretary, becomes the interim CM. Since Avudayappan is the MLA from Lalgudi, LKG decides to put all efforts to contest in the by-election on behalf of the ruling party, once Avudaiyappan dies.

However, LKG feels that he needs to create some media visibility to get into Bojappan's good books. LKG gets the paid help of Sarala Munusamy (Sara M. Samy), an employee of V Analytica, an MNC which is involved in election strategy formulation. LKG goes to Delhi to protest and create an awareness against diseases, which gets media attention. Finally, LKG gets Bojappan's attention and meets him at party HQ in Daryaganj. Within a week, Avudaiyppan dies, Bojappan becomes the official Chief Minister, and a by-election is scheduled in Lalgudi constituency. Bojapan urgently announces that LKG is the by-election candidate at the party's general body meeting. Most of the party members and ministers do not agree with Bojappan's decision.

The ruling party's deputy-General secretary Ramraj Pandian, who was in USA when Avudayappan died, comes to the meeting hall. He is furious and feels betrayed by Bojappan's actions. He reminds him that he had been elected as MLA from Lalgudi, his hometown, in a hat trick in last 17 years, and only relinquished the seat due to Avudayappan's personal request in the previous general election. He announces that he will contest in the election as an independent candidate, and once he wins, Bojappan will be expelled from the party and government, while he becomes the new CM.

LKG realises the hardships of contesting in the elections. He understands that people are in favour of Ramraj due to his strong influence, hard work, caste and image. Also most of the state ministers, ruling party bigwigs, and MLAs do not work for LKG as they want to remain neutral to join the victor of the by-election. LKG devises a strategy to tarnish Ramraj's image with the help of meme creators and his sidekicks. He spreads rumours that Ramraj is actually a woman disguised as man, which results in the public trolling Ramraj on social media. Ramraj is also insulted when he is unable to sing "Tamil Thai Valthu" during a college function. Ramraj discovers that V Analytica is behind LKG and strikes a deal with Sara to support him.

Per Sara's advice, Ramraj goes to Delhi and meets national ruling party leaders. He also tries to break the ruling party of Tamil Nadu and prevent Bojappan from trying to take all the party MLAs to a resort. It is revealed that Sara was actually pretending to be on Ramraj's side. She comes back to help LKG, but a tussle comes within the party, while some party senior leaders do not want LKG to gain fame. However, Bojappan is in favour of LKG. During election, LKG wins against Ramraj, but Bojappan gets arrested in corruption cases, and LKG becomes the CM-elect of the state, due to Bojappan's efforts.

The next morning, LKG is at the podium to be sworn-in, where he is shot by a sniper. However he survives as he was wearing a bulletproof vest, having anticipated such an incident. The sniper is a youngster who aspires to some new-gen honest politicians. LKG tells the media that he is in to bring a change and that he has transferred the corruption cases against Bojappan to the CBI. He also says there are numerous educated youngsters contesting in elections independently with a hope of bringing a change but go unnoticed by the public due to big political parties staying in the limelight. The sniper is convinced, and the entire state believes that LKG will bring some good to the state, unlike other politicians. However, Sara smiles upon seeing LKG; he is just becoming a corrupt politician through his speech trying to woo public which was her strategy as well to win the hearts of people. Also, LKG silently reveals that he never intends to bring Bojappan out of prison.

Production
The film was officially announced in May 2018. It is the directorial debut of K. R. Prabhu, who previously worked as an associate of Prabhu Deva. K. R. Prabhu was the son of producer K. Rajan, and had previously worked as an actor in films including Aval Paavam (2000). It was produced by Ishari K. Ganesh of Vels Film International. The filmmakers hired RJ Balaji to play the lead role as Lalgudi Karuppiah Gandhi in the film, in fact making his first main lead role in a film. He also wrote the story and screenplay, while cinematography was handled by Vidhu Ayyanna, and editing by Anthony. Ramarajan was originally offered to portray the antagonist, but declined due to the character's introduction only mid-way through the film; J. K. Rithesh was instead chosen, and LKG became his final film as actor before his death in April 2019. Rithesh said he accepted the role because of his friendship with Ganesh. One song sequence was shot by Vignesh Shivan; it was shot in various locations in New Delhi, that includes India Gate, Janpath, Rajpath and the New Parliament House.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack and background score for LKG is composed by Leon James. The album features six songs with lyrics contributed by Pa. Vijay, Vignesh Shivan, Ko Sesha, Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass and Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai. The audio rights were acquired by Think Music. Leon had reinterpreted the song "Ethanai Kaalam Dhaan" from Malaikkallan (1954), featuring additional lyrics by Ko Sesha and released it as single on the Republic Day, 26 January 2019, under the Saregama record label, which bought the original rights of the song. The remix version was sung by Sean Roldan. The second single, "Thimiru Kattaadha Di", which was penned by Vignesh Shivan and sung by Sathyaprakash, was released on 7 February 2019.

The soundtrack album consists of other four songs were released on 9 February 2019, during the Final T20 match between India and New Zealand, which was aired on Star Sports Tamil, where the lead actor RJ Balaji, holding on the commentary. The lyrical video of, "Tamizh Anthem", was released by Anirudh Ravichander on 20 February 2019, coinciding with World Mother Tongue Day. The song was penned by Pa. Vijay and rendered by Sid Sriram and Chinmayi, along with veteran artists P. Susheela, L. R. Eswari, and Vani Jayaram. The song features elements of "Tamil Thai Valthu" written by Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai, which was separately included in the soundtrack album.

Release
The film was earlier scheduled to release in January 2019 during the Pongal festival, clashing with Petta and Viswasam, however the release was postponed. The theatrical rights of the film in Tamil version was sold to Sakthi Film Factory, and the theatrical rights of the film in Karnataka were sold to ANK Films. The film was released on 22 February 2019.

Marketing
The announcement of the film was done on Star Sports Tamil after a huge buzz created by the team painting street walls stating Balaji's entry into politics. The film is one of the few to have multiple brands as sponsors, including Nippon Paint and Ponvandu Detergents. A dedicated team worked on the marketing and promotions of the film right from the scripting phase till release. The release date was officially announced by the team on 11 February 2019 from the #BlueRoom at Twitter Headquarters, Mumbai. LKG is the first South Indian film to use the Twitter #BlueRoom for announcement of release date of film.

Home media
The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV. The film had its television premiere on 14 April 2019, with the Tamil New Year Day.

Reception
While M. Suganth of The Times of India said that this is a "satisfying political satire film and in-arguably the best of recent politics based movies", S. Subhakeerthana of The Indian Express notes that in spite of it being a "crowd-pleaser", the story "doesn't rise above spoofing the clichéd political characters and situations". Sify appreciated the film's "satirical take on contemporary murky politics" in the country, and noted that Balaji's comic timing and image was "another big advantage". Baradwaj Rangan wrote for Film Companion, "LKG, [...] is more about the writing (credited to "RJ Balaji & friends") — and like many films of this genre, it works when the gags work, and falls flat when they don't" and that Balaji "does well in this tailormade part".