Maragadha Naanayam (Eng: Emerald Coin) is a 2017 Tamil fantasy-comedy film. Written & Directed by ARK.Saravan, Maragadha Naanayam stars Aadhi and Nikki Galrani in the lead roles. The teaser of the movie released on March 11. The film was dubbed and released in Telugu as Marakathamani. Maragadha Naanayam was released to critical acclaim from critics as well the audience.
Prelude: Nearly a thousand years ago King Irumporai of the Pallava dynasty possessed a huge emerald medallion, which he treasured above all else. He obsessed over it so much he wouldn’t let anyone near it. When he died at the age of 94, he is buried with the stone. Eventually someone retrieved it from his grave and the medallion changed several hands. But as the legend goes, anyone that has ever touched the stone died of unnatural causes. In 1992 it was owned by a man Gajaraj who safely hid it in his house. One day as he was leaving his home after checking on the medallion, he is hit by a truck and killed.
Present day: Sengutuvan (Aadhi Pinisetty) and Ilango (Daniel Annie Pope) are two small time crooks that work for a local jewel smuggler Ramadoss (Ramdoss) They are pursued by a police sub inspector, but they manage to elude him. Sengutuvan has a crush on a girl (Nikki Galrani) he sees at the bus station every day. But he never approaches her. One day as Sengutuvan is watching the girl, another man pulls up beside her and tells her to get on his bike. He then rides up to Sengutuvan and introduces himself, informs him he is now engaged to the girl and that he should stay away from her. Sengutuvan wishes to hear her voice once, but she doesn’t say anything as the two leave.
A few months later Sengutuvan and Ilango see the couple, now married. The girl, Chanakya(Nikki Galrani), seems unhappy and is verbally and physically abused in public.
A Chinese businessman comes to the city looking to acquire the Emerald stone (Maragatha Naanayam). He hires a contractor John (Mime Gopi) who has connections with local mobs that could do the job. He offers Rs 10 Crores for the contract, but no one would touch the job as they are afraid of the curse.
During one of their routine smuggling encounters, Sengutuvan and Ilango are caught by the police officer that was pursuing them. They are taken into interrogation, where a senior police officer, sympathetic to their boss, reveals what they are doing is small time business and lets them go. Sengutuvan who has bigger ambitions is disappointed and tells his boss they should do something big. He, however, is not motivated. Sengutuvan decides to pursue the contract to find the Emerald stone on his own and is later joined by Ilango.
Ilango convinces Sengutuvan to approach a local priest (Kota Srinivasa Rao)who could protect them from the curse. Sengutuvan is unconvinced with the stories. The priest then hands him a lemon, at which point the ghosts of the 132 people killed by the curse are revealed to Sengutuvan. The priest tells them if they are going to pursue the stone, they will need to seek the help of one of the ghosts.
Back home Sengutuvan and Ilango complete the ritual to summon one of the ghosts, Ilango’s uncle who was killed by the curse. But before the ghost could appear they are interrupted by the news that Ramadoss has died from heart attack. They attend to his funeral and return home. Ilango wakes up to find Ramadoss whom they buried the day before, standing in front of him. It turned out during the burial, the lemon fell out Sengutuvan’s pocket on to dead hands of his boss. Ilango’s uncle’s ghost possessed the body and has appeared in front of them as summoned.
Regretting their decision they want to send the ghost back. But the priest tells them once summoned for a job they must finish it, or terrible things will happen to them. Ilango’s uncle ghost tells them they will need to bring back three more of his friends for the mission. For which they will need to find 3 corpses. The ghost can tell when and where someone is going to die and he directs them to gather the three bodies. The first is an old panhandler (Sangili Murugan)who died alongside the road. The second is a man (Arunraja Kamaraj) decapitated by a freak accident. The third happens to be Chanakya who Sengutuvan had a crush on, as she hangs herself. Ilango’s uncle successfully bring two of the ghosts to their new bodies. But one of them, a Tamil teacher, has trouble staying in the old panhandler’s body and keeps jumping in and out of the corpse.
Sengutuvan, Ilango and the three ghosts, now in their borrowed bodies pursue the Emerald stone. Following the initial lead, they interrogate Pandurangan (M S Baskar) while posing as the henchmen of the most powerful local gang leader Twinkle Ramanathan (Anandaraj) This leads them to recover an emerald medallion, which turns out to be a fake. But their methods draws the attention of Twinkle He previously rejected the idea of pursuing the stone, but changes his mind.
After realizing they recovered a replica, the group continues to piece clues together. They find the man who made the fake. As he is dying, the man gives them clues to who ordered the fake medallion – a local Doctor. They find his son, who is also a Doctor and kidnap him. Before they can get him to tell them where the original medallion is, they are rounded up by Twinkle’s men and are taken to his torture chamber. They manage to escape the torturers and eventually manage to find the original.
Despite the warning from Ilango’s uncle, the two men Sengutuvan and Ilango could not fight the temptation and touch the stone, and thereby cursed.
They arrange for a meeting with the Chinese businessman for the exchange. But on the way, they are pursued by a mysterious driverless truck. The sight of which reminds the ghosts how they were killed – by the same truck. John and the Chinese businessman are run over by the truck and killed. Sengutuvan manages to elude the truck initially and recover the suitcase full of money.
They then run into the Tamil Teacher who is in the panhandler’s body. He tells them they must return the stone to the grave of the king to lift the curse. On the way to the grave site, they are pursued by both the mystery truck and Twinkle’s gang hellbent on taking the stone from them.
The group manages to elude both and get to the grave site. Before they can return the stone the gang shows up. Sengutuvan tries explaining the curse to Twinkle. But he wouldn’t listen. He then makes a deal that they will place the stone in the grave, which they can then take. Twinkle agrees to it. Sengutuvan and Ilango place the stone in the grave and therefore released from the curse. Twinkle has one of his men recover the stone.
Having completed the job, Sengutuvan and Ilango bid goodbye to the four ghosts. And the ghost inside Chanakya’s body allows Sengutvan to listen to the voice of her and propose him. And then her body is also buried. They bid a sad farewell to Ilango’s uncle.
At the closing scene, Sengutuvan and Ilango see Twinkle panicked and scared. He tells them the truck got to them and a mysterious dark figure killed his man who recovered the stone and is now pursuing him.
Directed by ARK Saravan
Produced by G. Dillibabu
Screenplay by ARK Saravan
Story by ARK Saravan
Starring Aadhi, Nikki Galrani, Anandaraj, Ramdoss, Daniel Pope
Music by Dhibu Ninan Thomas
Cinematography PV Shankar
Edited by Prasanna GK
Production Axess Film Factory
Release date June 16, 2017
Running time 132 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
