Eli (2015 film)

Eli
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Yuvaraj Dhayalan
Produced by	G. Sathis Kumar S. Amarnath
Written by	Yuvaraj Dhayalan
Starring	Vadivelu Sadha
Music by	Vidyasagar
Cinematography	Paul Livingstone
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan T. S. Jay
Production company	City Cine Creations
Distributed by	City Cine Creations
Release date	19 June 2015 (2015-06-19)
Running time	154 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Eli (English: Rat) is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language spy comedy film written and directed by Yuvaraj Dhayalan. The film features Vadivelu and Sadha in the lead roles. Vidyasagar composed the film's music. Eli was released on 19 June 2015 to negative reviews. In September 2017, the sequel, "Eli the Prophet" is expected to be released. The sequel follows the life of Eli the Prophet, a figure of the great Jacobist cult, and has amassed much anticipation for its release.

The film is set in 1960s Chennai (Madras then). A police officer and a social worker give speech about ban of cigarettes in All India Radio. Then three men get out from a car . They were thieves and were headed by Eli (Vadivel) a petty thief (who once aspired to become a police officer), who pretends to be a thief who has sold all his robbery items to a jewellery shop owner. The jewellery shop owner had no contact with him and his henchmen dressed as police take all the items pointed out and pretend to arrest Eli and loot the shop. He uses his tricks and loots many other places . One day he enters the house of retired police officer Mr. Rangarajan who had rejected him at the police selection. He loots everything except his photograph. When the current police I.G came there to meet Rangarajan, Eli pretends as though Rangarajan had vacated his house and he is performing rituals and not to disturb him. When the police officer meets Rangarajan on the way he is shocked to find that he had been tricked and Eli had looted the house.

Later when the police officer tells Rangarajan to send a police spy to catch the illegal cigarette cartel leader Nagaraj, Rangarajan recommends Eli to capture him. Eli pretends to be one of Nagaraj's henchmen and with the help of Julie captures Nagaraj red handed and hands him over to the police and also the policeman who had been helping Nagaraj.

Eli is the second film of Vadivelu with Yuvaraj Dhayalan after Tenaliraman (2014). In March 2015, Sadha was confirmed to play the female lead in the film.Pradeep Rawat plays the film's antagonist. In an interview with Sudhir Srinivasan of The Hindu, Dhayalan said that the inspiration for the film's title came from the repeated usage of the word "rat", which is a term used to denote a spy, in the Martin Scorsese film The Departed (2006).