The Tiger (2005 film)

The Tiger (also known as Tiger) is a 2005 Indian Malayalam-language political action thriller film directed by Shaji Kailas and written by B. Unnikrishnan. It stars Suresh Gopi and Siddique in the lead roles, while, Sai Kumar, Anand and Rajan P. Dev appear in supporting roles.

The Tiger was released on 16 December 2005 and became a commercial success at the box office. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Police Samrajyam.

Plot
A container packed with fake currency is stopped at the check post by Thomas Kurien, an honest senior customs officer along with city commissioner Rajath Naidu, but is shocked to learn that Rajath himself is a part of the gang, who shoots down Kurien to save himself. Few months later, Jnanashekhara Varma, who is the DG of Vigilance Department makes a controversial press conference, in which he alleges the role of hawala transactions in the sudden rise in the crimes in the state. The statements were directly pointed at seniors in the state cabinet and police department.

Varma is summoned by the CM in the presence of Rajya Sabha MP John Varghese, and is warned of serious actions, unless he gives a proper explanation in the next couple of days. Instead of falling in lines of CM, Varma threatens him of further revelations in coming days. The next morning, Varma is found dead in his bedroom. John Varghese is also involved in several hawala dealings taking place in the state including terror activities. Crime Branch DIG "Tiger" Chandrashekhar is appointed to solve the mystery of Varma's death, where he is assisted by Joseph Pothen and Sudev Sachidanand.

In the meantime, Suhara Ahmed is a young journalist who along with her friend Kishore is found missing. She is believed to have certain sensational information regarding a minister named Vakkachan. Chandrasekhar meets her father Vivekam Ahmed Sahib, who leads him to Suhara's personal computer, which sheds light to certain truths. One day, Suhara is found in midst of a forest, critically wounded. Chandrasekhar admits her to the hospital, but her life is targeted many times. Chandrasekhar finds out shocking information regarding the anti-national activities of Vakachan along with John Varghese from Suhara's video tapes.

Vakkachan is forced to resign from the cabinet and is arrested by Chandrasekhar, who follows John Varghese to the sea port and learns about his plan to escape to Turkey. However, Varghese is stopped by Chandrasekhar, who also learns that his subordinate Sudev is none other than Musafir, an ISI agent and Varma and Kishore's killer. Sudev tries to shoot Chandrashekhar, but finds that the gun Chandrashekhar gave him had no bullets. Chandrashekhar reveals about his suspicion about the presence of a traitor when they were attacked while transporting Suhara to the hospital.

Since Sudev was the only outsider in the team, Chandrashekhar enquired about his track record and found that Sudev was present every time in the presence of Musafir was detected. In order to get concrete evidence against Sudev, Chandrashekhar secretly entered his house and managed to decrypt Sudev and Varghese's terrorism plans (which was stored in Sudev's Hard disk drive and CD's) with the help of experts, thus foiling all their plans to turn Kerala into a safe haven for terrorism. Chandrasekhar shoots down Musafir and kills John Varghese with a time bomb.

Cast
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Release
The film was initially scheduled to release on Christmas.

Reception
A critic from Sify wrote that "In effect Tiger has the right mood and creates anxiety and dread essential for racy thriller. In sum the reliable Kailas-Gopi combo deliver the goods. Satisfaction guaranteed for audience who love action based investigative thrillers". A critic from Nowrunning wrote that "The Tiger has all the essentials for a racy thriller. The reliable Shaji Kailas - Suresh Gopi team has not lost its touch even after a gap of seven long years and has a hit on its hands". A critic from Indiaglitz wrote that "Tiger is certainly a typical Suresh Gopi-Shaji Kailas film. But all through it is interesting and intelligent. In the event, the film emerges as a roaring entertainer with a smart suspense that is maintained till the end". A writer from Rediff.com wrote that the film was "an investigative police story that left us [the audience] unsatisfied".