Maari (film)

Maari
Theatrical release poster
Tamil	மாரி
Directed by	Balaji Mohan
Produced by	Listin Stephen R. Sarathkumar Raadhika Sarathkumar Dhanush
Written by	Balaji Mohan
Starring	Dhanush Kajal Aggarwal Vijay Yesudas Robo Shankar
Music by	Anirudh Ravichander
Cinematography	Om Prakash
Edited by	Prasanna GK
Production company	Wunderbar Films Magic Frames
Distributed by	Magic Frames
Release date	17 July 2015 (2015-07-17)
Running time	138 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Maari is a 2015 Tamil gangster comedy film written and directed by Balaji Mohan starring Dhanush and Kajal Aggarwal. The film was jointly produced by Listin Stephen and Raadhika Sarathkumar's Magic Frames and Dhanush's Wunderbar Films. Anirudh Ravichander composed the film's soundtrack and score while Om Prakash undertook the film's cinematography. After being in pre-production phase since March 2014, principal photography began on 4 November 2014 and lasted till 15 March 2015. The film was shot in and around Chennai and Tuticorin. Maari was released on 17 July 2015. The film received mixed reviews.

A constable talks to the new subinspector Arjun (Vijay Yesudas) about Maari, a local rowdy, who rose to fame after killing a rival rowdy. Maari(Dhanush) is an irritating guy, who along with his henchmen Sanikilamai (Robo Shankar) and Adithangi (Kalloori Vinoth), constantly pesters the people in the area and extorts money from them. His main line of work is in training racing pigeons. His boss is Velu, a bigger don who also is involved in the pigeon races as well as the smuggling of sandalwood.

Maari constantly has fights with "Bird" Ravi (Mime Gopi), another local rowdy who is also working under Velu. One day, a lady named Sridevi (Kajal Aggarwal) enters the business, trying to open a boutique in Maari's area. Maari forcefully becomes her partner in the business, which angers her after she loses some customers. She decides to help Arjun to catch Maari by getting close to him, pretending to fall in love with him and incriminating him with evidence of his confession: he had tried to kill the rival rowdy, but failed. Somebody else had killed him, and he took the credit. Maari is soon arrested by Arjun. 6 months later, when he is released, he finds out that Velu also has been arrested, and that Arjun is actually a corrupt cop - he and Ravi are working together and have arrested some people in the area under the pretext of smuggling, to extort money. Maari decides to take revenge on the duo. He first frees the local people from the extortion by Ravi's gang, when Sridevi also falls in love with him for real. Later he captures one of Arjun's smuggling vehicles and the driver and forces him to release Velu. When he takes revenge by burning the pigeon coop of Maari, he gets angry and beats up Ravi and Arjun, with the former agreeing to confess to everything. Angered, Arjun stabs Ravi but eventually gets arrested by the Revenue Department after his constable reveals all the secrets. Finally Sridevi approaches Maari to confess her love, which he rejects, returning to pester the local people and extort them for cash.