Kaithi (means Prisoner in Tamil) is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj. It is produced by S. R. Prakashbabu and S. R. Prabhu under the banner Dream Warrior Pictures and co-produced by Tiruppur Vivek under the banner Vivekananda Pictures. It stars Karthi in the lead role, along with Narain, Arjun Das, Harish Uthaman, George Maryan and Dheena in pivotal roles. In the film, a recently released prisoner races against time to drive poisoned cops to a hospital in exchange for meeting his daughter, while evading criminals chasing him.
Lokesh initially worked on two scripts after the success of Maanagaram, which he had scrapped working on it, due to the issues regarding the extensive research and casting process, until he came up with a news article about an ex-prisoner's life. He initially wanted Mansoor Ali Khan to play the lead role, but during the writing process, Karthi was demanded to play the lead, with the scale of the budget being increased further. The film was launched officially on 12 December 2018, with principal photography being held the following day, and was completed within August 2019. The film was entirely shot at night, without any day sequences taking place during the shoot. It is a song-less film, with the background score being composed by Sam C. S. The cinematography and editing were handled by Sathyan Sooryan and Philomin Raj respectively.
Kaithi was released on 25 October 2019, ahead of the Diwali festival. It opened to positive reviews praising the cast performances, direction, writing, realistic action sequences and exclusion of songs and other factors present in mainstream Tamil cinema. Following the positive reception, the film became a box-office success, grossing over ₹105 crore. The film was further selected for official screening at the International Indian Film Festival Toronto (IIFFT) in August 2020, and had won two Ananda Vikatan, three Norway Tamil Film Festival, SIIMA and four Zee Cine Awards respectively. The story is followed up in Vikram (2022) also directed by Lokesh, with both the films forming a part of the planned Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU), along with a sequel titled Kaithi 2 is under development. Kaithi is being remade in Hindi as Bholaa with Ajay Devgn playing the lead and a Kannada remake with Shiva Rajkumar also playing the lead.
Tropes pertaining to this movie:
- Anti-Hero: Dilli seems to be a decent guy who cares about his daughter Amudha but he kills the Big Bad's goons brutally and doesn't give a crap about the cops who are poisoned by The Mole until Bejoy tells him to deliver the poisoned cops to the nearest hospital so that he can be with his daughter. He is also the reason why Adaikalam's drug business goes awry before the events of the film.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Stephen Raj, the corrupt head of the Narcotics division in Tamil Nadu, seeks the help of Adaikalam, the most wanted smuggler of Tamil Nadu, to recover the drugs taken in Inspactor Bejoy's police station which wiill be delivered to an unknown drug lord.
- Chekhov's Gun: the captured M134 minigun. Dilli uses it to mow down Adaikalam's remaining men.
- Dirty Cop: Not only Stephen Raj is in leagues with the smugglers but also he planted a mole within the station: Paalpandi, who gives clues to Adaikalam's Mooks on entering the station.
- One-Man Army: Dilli. Best examples are him dispatching Adaikalam's men with ease when they are surrounded by them and later he mows down the remaining henchmen with a minigun when they make it to the station.
- Whole-Plot Reference: A police station besieged by criminals and a cop teams up with another criminal to take them down? It's basically Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) on a rural town. Add some moles on the way and the result will be the 2005 remake.
