Kaththi (Eng: The Knife) is a 2014 Indian Tamil action movie written and directed by AR Murugadoss. Kaththi stars Vijay in dual roles while Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Tota Roy Chowdhury and Sathish play supporting roles. Anirudh Ravichander composed the soundtrack and score for Kaththi. Cinematography was done by George C. Williams and the film was edited by A. Sreekar Prasad. Lyca Productions and Ayngaran International bankrolled the venture and Eros International purchased the theatrical and audio rights for Kaththi. The story revolves around the tale of Kathiresan and Jeevanantham who are lookalikes and focuses on the issue of farmers committing suicide due to corporate encroachment.
In Kolkata, prisoner Kathiresan “Kathir” (Vijay), a petty criminal, helps the police capture an escaping prisoner Vivek Banerjee (Tota Roy Chowdhury), but he himself escapes afterwards. He goes to Chennai and decides to escape to Bangkok with his friend and fellow-criminal Ravi (Sathish). However, he drops this plan after meeting and falling in love with Ankitha (Samantha Ruth Prabhu) at the airport, who dupes him into believing that she wants to marry him after realising that he is having a crush on her. Later, Kathiresan and Ravi notice a man who resembles Kathiresan named Jeevanandam “Jeeva”, being shot by a group of thugs. They admit him to hospital, following which Kathiresan decides to impersonate the injured Jeevanandam to escape from the police. Under the name of his doppelgänger, Kathiresan and Ravi enter an old-age home run by Jeevanandam with the aim of collecting 25 lakhs (which is meant for the inmates of the old-age home) for their Bangkok trip, until he learns about his doppelgänger’s mission. Jeevanandam is a communist ideologue and a post-graduate in hydrology from the arid village of Thanoothu in Tirunelveli district who had discovered groundwater under some lands of the village which could be used as an irrigation source not only for the village, but for the entire Tirunelveli district and the neighbouring Thoothukudi district as well. But, an MNC owned by Chirag (Neil Nitin Mukesh) cheated the villagers into giving their lands for the construction of a factory. Jeevanandam was arrested by the police and the six villagers as for convince the issue with media and release of Jeevanandham commit mass suicide. On learning of the plight of Jeevanandam and the villagers, Kathiresan decides to fight for their cause while still under the name of Jeevanandam. The people of the old home and Kathiresan go to the jury and try to convince him to go in favour of them, but Kathiresan starts stating rules and scares the main jury person (whom Chirag had bribed). Kathiresan then sends a person (disguised as a hairdresser) to Chirag and makes him lay a fingerprint on Chirag’s neck. After that Chirag sends 50 men to kill Kathiresan but he soon defeats them using the coins the villagers gave when he was attending a ceremony for him….
Directed by AR Murugadoss
Produced by K. Karunamoorthi & A. Subashkaran
Written by AR Murugadoss
Starring Vijay, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Sathish
Music by Anirudh Ravichander
Cinematography George C. Williams
Edited by A. Sreekar Prasad
Production Ayngaran International & Lyca Productions
Distributed by Eros International
Release dates 22 October 2014
Running time 166 Minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
