Madras Cafe

Madras Cafe
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Shoojit Sircar
Produced by	John Abraham Shoojit Sircar Ronnie Lahiri
Written by	Somnath Dey Shubendu Bhattacharya Juhi Chaturvedi (dialogue) Tushar Jain (additional dialogue)
Screenplay by	Somnath Dey Shubendu Bhattacharya Dusan Tolmac (additional screenplay)
Starring	John Abraham Nargis Fakhri Rashi Khanna Siddharth Basu Prakash Belawadi
Music by	Shantanu Moitra
Cinematography	Kamaljeet Negi
Edited by	Chandrashekhar Prajapati
Production company	JA Entertainment Rising Sun Films
Distributed by	Viacom 18 Motion Pictures JA Entertainment
Release date	23 August 2013 (2013-08-23)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹350 million
Box office	₹510 million

Madras Cafe is a 2013 Indian political thriller spy film directed by Shoojit Sircar and starring John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri, Rashi Khanna and Leena Paul in lead roles. The film is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the time of Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war and assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The film deals with an Indian Army special officer who is appointed by the intelligence agency R.A.W. to head covert operations in Jaffna shortly after Indian peace-keeping force was forced to withdraw.

Madras Cafe was released on 23 August 2013. Box Office India stated the film did above average business. The film won the National Film Award for Best Audiography for Nihar Ranjan Samal (location sound recording) and Bishwadeep Chatterjee (sound design) at the 61st National Film Awards.

As per John Abraham, "Madras Cafe brings us closer to what changed the political history of India." The film, set in India and Sri Lanka, is a political spy thriller with the backdrop of the Sri Lankan Civil War. Major Vikram Singh (John Abraham) is an Indian Army special officer who is appointed by the intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing to head covert operations in Jaffna shortly after Indian peace-keeping force was forced to withdraw. As he journeys to Sri Lanka with the intention of disrupting the LTTE rebels, he becomes entangled in rebel and military politics. There he meets a British journalist Jaya Sahni (Nargis Fakhri) who wants to reveal the truth about the civil war, and in the process he uncovers a conspiracy to assassinate "a former Indian prime minister", Rajiv Gandhi, through the use of plastic explosives. Although Vikram tries, at 10:10 pm, an LTTE suicide bomber kills Gandhi while bowing down to put a garland on his neck.