Marudhamalai (film)

Marudhamalai is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film directed by Suraj and produced by V. Ravichandran. The film stars Arjun Sarja and Meera Chopra (credited as Nila) and Vadivelu in the lead roles, while Vadivelu, Lal, Raghuvaran and Nassar play supporting roles.

Marudhamalai was released on 7 September 2007, and became a commercial success at the box office. Vadivelu won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Comedian for his work in the film.

Plot
Marudhamalai (Arjun), goes to work as a constable in the town of Nachiapuram after passing his police training by getting a merit selection. Here he meets 'Encounter' Ekambaram (Vadivelu), his senior officer. He is asked to do all sorts of petty work for him, and one day, Marudhamalai loses a convict on the way to the court due to Ekambaram's soft heart. He then has to clean the floors of the inspector's house, and there he falls in love with Divya (Meera). Then, later in the market, after Ekambaram is humiliated by a beggar, Marudhamalai sees Maasi (Lal), the 'boss' of the city, killing a person who stood for a candidate in the elections. That constituency has not had an MLA for the last 16 years due to Maasi. Maasi's caste people have been 70% majority in that Nachiyarpuram MLA constituency, but the government named the constituency as a Reserved Constituency 16 years ago. Since then, Maasi either postpones the MLA election by murdering a candidate or making sure that his house servant from a lower caste is elected as MLA and then resigning immediately to cause a vacancy of the office. Since Maasi has his caste's support and heavy income, the government has kept ignoring him.

Then the chief election commissioner Suryanarayanan IAS (Raghuvaran) comes to the town. He meets and challenges Maasi to stop him from holding by-elections in that area. Then, during the election day, despite a lot of security, Maasi's men, with the help of a man who acts as a guard, comes and drives away from the people who came for voting and are about to kill the commissioner, when Marudhamalai's father (Nassar) slaps Maasi for creating violence. At that time, Marudhamalai comes, beats up Maasi's men, and humiliates Maasi in front of all the people by handcuffing him with his dhoti. Maasi is then arrested and sentenced for 15 days imprisonment without bail.

For his bravery, Marudhamalai is initially suspended, but then promoted to the inspector of the station. With 12 days remaining in Maasi's imprisonment, Marudhamalai seals off his illegal sources of income, and arrests Maasi's henchmen for choking his empire. To exact revenge, Maasi's brother kills Marudhamalai's father by car-bomb. Later, he kills Maasi's two brothers using various unofficial methods, and Maasi vows to kill him the day he is released. Later, as Maasi is released, Marudhamalai gets an order to kill him. He fights the men single-handedly and kills them all, proving his bravery. Marudhamalai is further promoted as DSP.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by D. Imman. This is his 25th film as a music composer in both background score and music.

Reception
Behindwoods wrote "On the whole a good fun filled first half and illogical second half explains Marudhamalai." Sify wrote "It is a mass movie laced with all essential ingredients that will work big time at the box-office." Rediff called the film as "yet another potboiler about an upright young police constable single-handedly wiping out goondas and rowdies, armed with a bare minimum of weaponry and lethal fists." The HIndu wrote "Suraaj’s scoring points include comedy and dialogue. Having said that, the film is only a cheerful version of the recent Kireedam. Like Ajit in the latter, Arjun joins the police force because his dad wants him to, and both the fathers are in the police department themselves. The similarities between Kireedam and Marudhamalai don’t end here". Jaanu of Kalki wrote the director who puts comedy in the first half and lifts the film, relied on action in second half and went bad. As a result, Marudhamalai hangs in the middle.