Pokkiri

Pokkiri is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Prabhu Deva and produced by Kanagarathna Movies. The film stars Vijay in the lead role alongside Asin, Prakash Raj, Nassar, Mukesh Tiwari, Vadivelu, Sriman, Anandaraj, Napoleon, Vincent Asokan, Subbaraju and Master Bharath. It is the Tamil remake of the 2006 Telugu film Pokiri, directed by Puri Jagannadh. In the film, a young IPS officer working under Police Commissioner Mohammed Maideen Khan IPS goes undercover as a rogue to take out the anti-socials.

The film was officially announced in July 2006, in addition to the official title. Principal photography commenced the same month. It was predominantly shot in Chennai, and wrapped by late-November. The film has music composed by Mani Sharma, cinematography handled by Nirav Shah and editing by Kola Bhaskar.

Pokkiri was released theatrically on 12 January 2007 and received positive reviews with praise for Vijay's performance, action sequences and music. It became a commercial success, running for more than 200 days at the box office. Six years later, it was dubbed in Hindi as Wanted Baaghi and was also dubbed in Odia as Wanted Police, as well as Malayalam under the same title as the Tamil version. Vijay's Pokkiri was re-released multiple times in Kerala. A re-mastered version in 4K was re-released worldwide in theatres on 21 June 2024.

Plot
The city of Chennai is rife with the nefarious activities of land mafia. There are two rival gangs: one under Ali Bhai, who resides in Dubai where he controls the India operations through his skilled henchmen Guru and Korattur Logu, as well as his girlfriend Mona; and another operated by a local goon named Narasimhan. They threaten builders and landowners into giving them protection money or property through force, extortion, or murder. Mohammed Maideen Khan takes charge as the new Police Commissioner of Chennai and starts cracking down on crime.

Tamizh, a thug in the city, is abducted by Logu and his henchmen. Tamizh has taken a contract from Narasimhan to beat up Logu, which he does. Seeing Tamizh’s potential, Guru and Mona invite Tamizh to join their gang. Tamizh declines, stating that he does not work for any gang but is ready to do anything for money. Meanwhile, Tamizh falls in love with Shruthi, an aerobics teacher, when he visits his best friend Saravanan's aerobics class, but she mistakes him for a pervert. Shruthi lives with her widowed mother, Lakshmi, and younger brother, Pappu. Body Soda, a bogus kung fu master, lives above Shruthi's house and frequently, albeit comically and unsuccessfully, tries to convince her to marry him. Govindan is a corrupt inspector in the colony where Tamizh and Shruthi live. He is on Ali Bhai's payroll and is supporting him. He lusts for Shruthi and decides to make her his mistress, even after she rejects him multiple times.

Tamizh's first assignment with Ali Bhai's gang is to kill a member of Narasimhan's gang. However, the police show up at the spot where Tamizh and the other gangsters are waiting. Tamizh engages the cops long enough for the others to finish the task and flee. He also helps Shruthi escape from Govindan. She is impressed by his kindness, and a friendship soon blossoms between the two, leading to the development of unspoken romantic feelings for each other. When Shruthi tries to express her feelings to Tamizh, they are attacked by members of Narasimhan's gang, whom Tamizh finishes off in the presence of Shruthi. Shruthi is shocked to learn that Tamizh is a cold-blooded gangster with no qualms about killing people. Later, having been rebuked by Shruthi and Lakshmi multiple times, Govindan arranges for some thugs to pretend to assault Shruthi and they accept his demands. Tamizh learns of this and thrashes Govindan incognito. After much ado and mental anguish, Shruthi accepts Tamizh's love. Soon, Guru is found dead, presumably killed by Narasimhan in retaliation against the deaths of his gang members at the hands of Tamizh earlier, which forces Ali Bhai to come to Chennai from Dubai and kill Narasimhan. He also meets Tamizh to discuss the killing of a minister by blowing up a school. Tamizh disagrees with Ali Bhai's method as it would involve killing women and children, which goes against his principles.

In the middle of their argument, the police raid the club and arrest Ali Bhai. His gang members retaliate by kidnapping Maidenn's daughter, drugging her, and creating a lewd video of her which they threaten to release to the media if Ali Bhai is not released, forcing the embattled commissioner to release Ali Bhai. However, in her drugged state, Maideen's daughter reveals that her father had placed an undercover officer as a mole in Ali Bhai's gang. The gang members find out that a police officer by the name of Satyamoorthy, the son of a retired police inspector Shanmugavel, has gone undercover to finish off the underworld mafia gangs and is now a part of their gang. Ali Bhai meets Shanmugavel and kills Saravanan, believing he is Satyamoorthy and gets angry when he finds out it’s not him. Ali Bhai then kills Shanmugavel to lure the real Satyamoorthy. When Satyamoorthy actually turns up, everyone, especially Shruthi and Govindan, is shocked to see that he is Tamizh (now revealing his true identity as an IPS officer). Satyamoorthy (Tamizh) had gone undercover by posing himself as a criminal. It is further revealed that Satyamoorthy was the one who killed Guru and not Narasimhan. After Shanmugavel's and Saravanan's funerals, Satyamoorthy forces Govindan to call Ali Bhai to find out his location, which is Binny Mills. He goes there and starts to eliminate Ali Bhai's gang members one by one, rescuing Maideen's daughter in the process. In a final confrontation, Satyamoorthy thrashes and kills Ali Bhai by slashing his throat with a broken glass window. After this, he also shoots Govindan dead and says the following words: Oru vaati mudiyu panita naa yen pecha naane kekamaten (transl. Once I make a decision, I won't listen even to my own words).

Development
After the failure of Aathi in January 2006, for nearly six months Vijay was listening to stories, but none had appealed; he was supposed to remake Dharani's Bangaram (2006), until its failure made him look for other options. Being a childhood friend of Mahesh Babu from his Madras days, he watched Pokiri (2006) and felt that it would also work well in Tamil. After some difficulty in finding the right director for adapting it in Tamil, Prabhu Deva was selected, directing his first film in Tamil after the failure of his second directorial, Pournami (2006).

Filming
The film was launched on 6 July 2006. Vijay's father, S. A. Chandrasekhar, conducted a special puja at the Sri Arunachaleswarar Temple in Tiruvannamalai. On Saturday night, which was the full moon day, an auspicious occasion for the presiding deity there, he spent a full hour before the Lord seeking his blessings. He also prayed at the Sacred Church at Velankanni. Asin was selected, pairing with Vijay for the second time after Sivakasi (2005).

The first day of shoot for the film was held at the new Pillayar Kovil at AVM studios, with various dignitaries gracing the occasion. Vijay's mother Shobha Chandrasekhar gave the clap for the first shot. The first scene shot was with Asin and Vijay, the lead pair in the film, in an elevator that was specially designed for the film. Principal photography was completed in late November.

Music
The soundtrack has 8 songs composed by Mani Sharma. Two of the songs from the original Telugu version were retained and remade in Tamil including "Dole Dole Than" and "En Chella Peru Apple". The soundtrack also features a remix of the song "Vasantha Mullai" from Sarangadhara (1958).

Theatrical
The film was released on 12 January 2007 at the festival of Pongal weekend, alongside Ajith's Aalwar and Vishal's Thaamirabharani. The USA's premiere happened on 11 January 2007, a day before its worldwide release. The film grossed ₹6.1 crore in Tamil Nadu in opening week from 142 screens.

In 2019, the film also had a limited re-release on the occasion of Vijay's birthday.

Distribution
The film's distribution rights were sold for around inr 120000000 or inr 150000000.

Home media
The satellite rights were bought by Sun TV. Ayngaran International released the DVD of the film in 2008. The film also had a Blu-ray release in United Kingdom on 21 June 2009.

Box office
The film was commercial success and ran for over 200 days in Tamil Nadu. The film completed a 50-day run in 146 centres and a 100-day run in 60 centres. The film completed a 175-day run in 15 centres, and a 275-day run at one theatre. The film ran for 100 days in one centre at Kerala. It was the third-highest grossing Tamil film at that time in Kerala after Anniyan (2005). Vijay's Pokkiri collected ₹75 crore in its 200 day run at the box office.

Critical response
The Hindu wrote, "After watching the Telugu Pokkiri, one wondered how it could be rehashed to suit Vijay. Well, kudos to Prabhu Deva for doing a fine job of the remake". Sify said that the film was "enjoyable while it lasts". Indiaglitz stated that Vijay stole the show with his "typical 'Vijayisms' (action, humor and punch dialogues)" and that the show was "action-packed entertainer". Behindwoods review felt that Vadivelu and Prakash Raj's performances were lackluster, and stated that Raj " might do well to sit back and analyze the roles that he accepts," but concluded that the movie overall "packs a punch." Rediff.com gave the movie two stars, stating "there's nothing more tedious than a badly made remake." Nowrunning.com stated that "Pokkiri is attractively packaged and presented". Oneindia.in stated that "Pokkiri is a full length action movie of Vijay." Ananda Vikatan rated the film 42 out of 100. Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "'Pokkiri' is not much different from the earlier gangster films. And if it manages to hold interest to a point, it's mainly due to the Vijay-factor and it's racy narrative style." Lajjavathi of Kalki wrote Prabhu Deva has scored a six in the first film, and his screenplay is elegant and stunning, leading to the last scene and loved the way he moved the film by keeping suspense here and there.

Legacy
Some of the quotes from the film that became popular were: "Vada Poche", "Plan Panni Pannanum" spoken by Vadivelu and Vijay's dialogue "Oru Vaati Mudivu Panta, Yen Pecha Naane Kekka Maaten" became popular and was repeated multiple times in his 2022 film Beast. One of Vadivelu's dialogue "Vada Poche" inspired a comedy show in Sun Music with same name. The dialogue also inspired a song sung by Velmurugan and Powerstar Srinivasan in Arya Surya (2013). Other dialogue of Vadivelu, "Plan Panni Pannanum" also inspired a film of the same name.

The intro fight scene was shown in the Malayalam film Daddy Cool (2009). The scenes from the film were parodied in Thamizh Padam as hero being an undercover cop. The song "Pokkiri Pongal" is mentioned during the song "Adada" in Pokkiri Simon (2017), where Asin's jogging scene is also parodied. Vijay's dialogue before entry fight "Nee adicha piece naan adicha mass" is referenced in the Shylock (2020) Malayalam movie during Mammootty's second entry fight. Nelson acknowledged Pokkiri as an inspiration for his directorial Beast (2022). Pokkiri was also parodied in the Star Vijay comedy series Lollu Sabha, in an episode named Bakery.