Maari 2

Maari 2 is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film written and directed by Balaji Mohan. It is a sequel to his 2015 film Maari. Dhanush, besides producing the film under his company Wunderbar Films, also stars as the title character, continuing his role from the first film. The film also stars Tovino Thomas,Sai Pallavi, Krishna and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar. The music was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, the cinematography was done by Om Prakash and editing by Prasanna GK. The film was released on 21 December 2018 and received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot
Maariyappan "Maari" is a fun-loving gangster whose sidekicks are Sanikkizhamai and Robert, alias Adithangi (punching bag). Maari is chased around by Araathu Aanandi, an auto rickshaw driver who is totally in love with him. However, despite her efforts, he does not give her a second glance and constantly shows his annoyance toward her.

Meanwhile, gangster Gangadhar Beeja alias "Thanatos" escapes from prison after killing two officers. He is out for vengeance against Maari as his brother, a defence lawyer, promised to get Beeja released from prison. However, his brother is killed at the hands of Maari as the former tried to molest Aanandi's elder sister (unknown to Beeja). This is why Aanandi loves Maari. While returning from a party, Maari is attacked and Aanandi takes him to the hospital and takes care of him. Kalai's brother Vallavan is shown to be cooperating with Singayya, who has formed an alliance with Beeja to overthrow Maari.

Per Beeja's plan, Vallavan asks Sani to send Aanandi for a job, which turns out to be drug smuggling. She unknowingly goes to do the job and gets caught by Kalai. Upon being confronted, she tells him that Maari asked her to do it. This sparks doubt for Kalai. Vallavan is caught by Maari carrying drugs, and when Maari confronts Kalai, a fight erupts. Maari and his sidekicks set fire to all the drugs, and Beeja kills Vallavan, making it look as though Maari killed him. Kalai becomes enraged and orders his men to kill Maari, who is injured in the battle. Beeja reveals himself as the perpetrator and shoots Maari, but he is saved by Aanandi, who takes the bullet for him, which ends up in her spinal cord, paralysing her for life.

Vijaya Chamundeshwari is the newly appointed District Collector, who comes out to restore order and stop all gang violence. Maari goes into hiding with Aanandi, whose legs are paralysed. Eight years pass, and Beeja and Kalai have grown to become powerful gangsters, but when Kalai has a chance to become a legislative candidate of the ruling party, Beeja takes the opportunity to threaten Kalai and his family. Vijaya, now the Deputy Home Secretary, in an effort to find Maari, posts his picture along with Aanandi's in newspapers. Maari meets Vijaya and requests that she remove the photos. He then reveals that he was living in Tenkasi with an elderly couple.

Maari and Aanandi get married, Aanandi gets pregnant, and a healthy baby boy is born. However, due to complications from paralysis, Aanandi dies minutes after childbirth. Maari then raises the boy, called Kaali, with help from the old couple, Sani and Robert. Kaali is shown to have inherited Maari's behaviour and keeps picking fights in school. Maari then requests Vijaya stop coming after him as he has changed his ways. When Kaali sees some students teasing a teacher, he complains about them to the principal. In retribution, the boys chase and attack him, only to get beaten by Kaali. The local council member, who is also the father of one of the boys, summons Kaali in order to beat him up, but Maari goes and begs for forgiveness.

Meanwhile, the city police commissioner mentions to the media that there is an informant within Beeja's gang. Using his moles in the police department, Beeja tries to figure out who the mole is but fails. It is then revealed that there was no mole and that the whole story was fabricated to identify corrupt policemen in the department, including the commissioner. Further, it is revealed that Beeja has had ties with the commissioner and was the mole himself. He had been leaking information about his men in order to clear his name and become a candidate.

It is also revealed that despite begging for forgiveness, the counsellor insists on his son beating up Kaali, and so Maari beats up the counsellor and his henchmen. In a final encounter, the police turn against Beeja. Maari fights Beeja and paralyses him for revenge for Aanandi and reveals to him that Maari killed his brother to prevent him from killing Beeja for his wealth. Soon, Beeja gets sentenced to life in prison, and Maari is shown with his sidekicks, continuing his old life and reuniting with Kalai.

Development
Following the release of Maari, director Balaji Mohan announced the sequel in November 2015, with Dhanush again in the lead, and also hinted that the film would begin shooting from January 2016. In an interaction with the media, the director stated that the film will have more depth to Dhanush's character. Shooting for the film was expected to take place in early 2017, and the film's script was finalised in December 2016. However, the film shooting was rescheduled to August 2017, because of Dhanush's commitments with other projects. In September 2017, Mohan said via tweet that the film would be a bilingual film in Tamil and Telugu; however, the Telugu version was later dropped.

Casting
On 24 September 2017, it was announced that Malayalam actor Tovino Thomas had joined the cast, portraying the antagonist. A few days later, Sai Pallavi was finalised as the heroine. Later, actor Krishna joined the cast on 7 October 2017, and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar joined the cast in December 2017.

Anirudh Ravichander, who composed for the film's first installment, was expected to join its successor. However, Mohan announced in December 2017 that Yuvan Shankar Raja would be the composer of Maari 2. Om Prakash and Prasanna GK were retained as the cinematographer and editor respectively, following their work on the original film. A.Amaran was signed as the art director, replacing R.K.Vijaimurugan, who had handled art direction for the original.

Filming
The film's puja ceremony took place on 14 December 2017, and principal photography began on 22 January 2018. The first filming schedule took place in Tenkasi. Varalaxmi began shooting for her portions in mid-February. The makers completed 40% of the filming before a strike by the Tamil Film Producers Council occurred on 16 March 2018, with shooting resuming in April after the strike was called off. The music sequence for "Rowdy Baby" was filmed on 2 August, under the supervision of dance choreographer Prabhu Deva. After the sequence was filmed, the makers wrapped principal photography on 24 August 2018.

Music
Yuvan Shankar Raja composed the soundtrack album and background score for Maari 2, collaborating with Dhanush again after a 10-year hiatus, since their last film Yaaradi Nee Mohini (2008). The album also marks the composer's first collaboration with Balaji Mohan. The audio rights to the film are secured by the production house's subsidiary audio label Wunderbar Studios, with Divo as their digital partner. The album features three tracks written by Dhanush and Raja himself and was released on 5 November 2018, except for "Rowdy Baby", sung by Dhanush and Dhee, which was released as a single on 25 October 2018.

The music video for the single was released on YouTube in January 2019 and received positive reviews for the choreography as well as its cinematography. On September 24, 2023, the song became the first South Indian film song to clock over 1.5 billion views on YouTube. The other two songs written by Dhanush or Raja, "Maari Gethu" sung by Dhanush, Chinnaponnu, V.M. Mahalingam and Yuvan Shankar Raja, with lyrics penned by the latter and "Maari's Anandhi", written by Dhanush, and sung by Ilaiyaraaja and M. M. Manasi, were released as a part of the album.

Release and reception
Maari 2 was released on 21 December 2018. Srivatsan of The Hindu called the film a significant improvement over its predecessor, but criticised its second half, and overuse of characters. Anusha Iyengar of Times Now also called the film significantly better than its predecessor, especially with regards to Dhanush's performance and also praised the treatment of Tovino Thomas and Sai Pallavi's characters, but criticised the use of slow motion in the majority of fight scenes and felt the plot was becoming predictable. M. Suganth of The Times of India rated the film 2.5 stars out of 5, appreciating the "dignified" treatment of Sai Pallavi's character, but felt Varalakshmi was underutilised, and criticised the film's second half.

Accolades

 * 66th Filmfare Awards South
 * Best Choreography – Prabhu Deva & Jani Master for "Rowdy Baby" – Won
 * Best Male Playback Singer – Tamil – Dhanush for "Rowdy Baby" – Nominated
 * Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil – Dhee for "Rowdy Baby" – Nominated
 * Best Actress – Tamil – Sai Pallavi – Nominated