Velaikkaran (2017 film)

Velaikkaran
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mohan Raja
Produced by	R. D. Raja
Written by	Mohan Raja N. Baskaran
Screenplay by	Mohan Raja Subha
Story by	Mohan Raja
Starring	Sivakarthikeyan Fahadh Faasil Nayanthara Prakash Raj Sneha Vijay Vasanth
Music by	Anirudh Ravichandar
Cinematography	Ramji
Edited by	Ruben Vivek Harshan
Production company	24AM Studios
Distributed by	24AM Studios E4 Entertainment
Release date	22 December 2017 (2017-12-22)
Running time	160 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Box office	est.₹32.1crores

Velaikkaran (English: The Employee) is a 2017 Indian Tamil language social thriller film written and directed by Mohan Raja. Featuring an ensemble cast including Sivakarthikeyan, Fahadh Faasil and Nayanthara, the film has music composed by Anirudh Ravichander and cinematography by Ramji. Produced by R. D. Raja, the film is based on a sales executive named Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) who fights against food adulteration committed by high-class companies. The movie was released on 22 December 2017 to positive reviews.

Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) hails from Kolaikkara Kuppam aka Cooliekkara Kuppam a slum area in Chennai. He is one such responsible youth, who wants to focus on the upliftment of his fellow beings and he works hard for the same. Arivu starts Kuppam FM 90.8, a local radio channel with the help of the area gangster Kasi (Prakash Raj). In reality, Arivu tries to free the people of the area from the atrocities of Kasi, who is deliberately preventing them from becoming independent, so that he may continue to dominate the area. Arivu succeeds in turning the people of the area against Kasi, thus destroying his support.

Later, Arivu joins a leading FMCG company, Saffron and joins its sales department under Stella Bruce (Thambi Ramaiah). He also manages to bring his friend Bhagya (Vijay Vasanth) out of Kasi's gang and gets him a job in Saffron. He meets Aadhi (Fahadh Faasil), the Brand Manager of Saffron, who teaches him how to progress by doing smart work and Arivu considers him as his inspiration. On the night of April 1, Kasi and his gang attack Bhagya and brutally stab him in Saffron's godown (warehouse), whereupon he dies in the hands of Arivu. Arivu filled with rage, tries to attack Kasi. But, Kasi's rival Doss (Sharath Lohitashwa) attacks and brutally stabs him in retaliation for their previous encounter and Arivu admonishes Kasi for being such a paid henchman. Kasi reveals to Arivu that he killed Bhagya on a contract given by Jayaram (Anish Kuruvilla) the President of Saffron company, due to the fact that Bhagya tries to help Kasthuri (Sneha), who files a case claiming Saffron's products to be adulterated, due to which she had lost her son. Arivu is addressed by Kasi as being a worse hitman than he himself is. Arivu then saves Kasi. Arivu is also told by Kasi that all the products manufactured by his company are adulterated. He takes up a mission to fight such malpractices not only in Saffron, but also in all the other five major food companies, including the company New Fedora, which is owned by Madhav Kurup (Mahesh Manjrekar). Arivu shares all of his plans with Aadhi. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Aadhi is actually Adhiban Madhav and he is the son of Madhav Kurup. He joined Saffron to know their trade secrets and merge the company with New Fedora.