Soodhu Kavvum (Tamil: Soodhu Kavvum English: Evil Engulfs)
is a 2013 Tamil comedy film directed by Nalan Kumarasamy of Naalaya Iyakunar
fame. The film's main concept is about how baloney has engulfed people's
day-to-day life and modern society. It features Vijay Sethupathi and Sanchita Shetty
in the lead roles. The film was released on 1 May to universal acclaim from
critics. It became a blockbuster and is set to be remade in various Indian
languages.
Story:
Friends Kesavan (Ashok Selvan), Sekar (RJ Ramesh Thilak) and
Pagalavan (Bobby Simha) meet Das (Vijay Sethupathi), a middle-aged man with an
imaginary girlfriend named Shalu (Sanchita Shetty) who does low-profile
kidnappings for a living. Broke, the trio decide to become his assistants. Das
follows a Five Rules of kidnapping (which Das spells and writes as
"kednapping"), which makes kidnapping easier to do. One day, they
kidnap a young boy and successfully obtain ransom money from his father Nambikkai
Kannan. Nambikkai's contractor brother has been arrested for attempted bribery
by State Minister Gnanodayam (M. S. Bhaskar), a disciplined politician who
plays by the book. Impressed with Das' kidnapping skills, Nambikkai asks him to
kidnap the minister's son Arumai Pragasam (Karuna Karan) as revenge and offers
to pay Das up to INR20 million (US$340,000).
The next day, the four men set out to kidnap Arumai but are
astonished to see him get kidnapped by another group. They kidnap Arumai from
the other kidnappers and discover that the first kidnapping was staged by
Arumai himself to extort money from his father. Arumai manages to convince Das
and his men to collude with him to obtain ransom money from his father. The
group demand INR20 million (US$340,000) from the minister and receive the money
An argument over splitting the cash arises between Arumai
and the rest during which their van loses control and falls from a bridge.
Arumai runs away with all the money. The minister seeks the assistance of
Encounter Specialist Bramma, a brutal and merciless cop to hunt down the
kidnappers. Arumai returns to his house and hides the money in his room. Das
devices a plan to kidnap Arumai again to retrieve the money. They accidentally
meet Arumai and successfully kidnap him again. But Das lets Arumai go free,
after making him promise that he should not tell anything about them to the
police. Arumai also promises to return their share of the money. Bramma finds
that Arumai staged his own kidnapping and uses this information to threaten
Arumai into testifying against the Das gang.
Arumai tells the court that the Das gang did not kidnap him
and they are acquitted. A furious Bramma takes the gang to a remote location
and brutally beats them and raises his department gun to kill them. In spite of
shooting them with that gun,he goes out and takes another gun from the police
car. He inserts that gun in his pants' pocket. And then they are saved by that
rusty gun which misfires into Bramma's buttocks, allowing them to escape.
Arumai's father breaks in and takes the money bag to the Chief Minister, who
provided the ransom money. When he opens the bag, the minister is shocked to
find it filled with newspapers instead of cash. Arumai had transferred the cash
to another bag and gives the Das gang their share.
The Chief Minister calls Arumai to his office and asks him
to stand as a candidate in the upcoming elections in lieu of his father, who
never brought much income to the party due to his refusal to be corrupt. The
Chief Minister praises Arumai's shrewdness and believes he can rake in
substantial income for the party. Arumai wins the election and appoints Sekar
and Kesavan as his Personal Advisers. Pagalavan becomes an actor. Das continues
his kidnapping business with new band of young men. They kidnap a woman who
looks exactly like Shalu, but later only he knows that she is a Minister's
Daughter, which means he has broken the 1st rule of Kidnapping again.