Maamannan

Maamannan
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mari Selvaraj
Written by	Mari Selvaraj
Produced by	Udhayanidhi Stalin
Starring	Vadivelu Fahadh Faasil Keerthy Suresh Udhayanidhi Stalin
Cinematography	Theni Eswar
Edited by	Selva R. K.
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Production company	Red Giant Movies
Release date	29 June 2023 (2023-06-29)
Running time	155 minutes[1]
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹35 crore[2]
Box office	₹75 crore[3]

Maamannan (transl. Emperor) is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language political drama film written and directed by Mari Selvaraj, and produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies. The film stars Vadivelu as the title character, along with Fahadh Faasil, Keerthy Suresh, and Udhayanidhi Stalin in his final acting credit.

The film was officially announced in March 2022. Principal photography commenced the same month and wrapped in September. The music is composed by A. R. Rahman, while the cinematography and editing are handled by Theni Eswar and Selva R. K., respectively.

Maamannan released on 29 June 2023. The film received positive reviews from critics and was a commercial success, grossing ₹75 crore (US$9.0 million) worldwide against a production budget of ₹35 crore (US$4.2 million).^[4][5]

Maamannan is an MLA belonging to the Dalit community, who rose up the ranks from being a cadre of the Samathuva Samooganeedhi Makkal Kazhagam (SSMK) in Salem district, Tamil Nadu. Maamannan's son Athiveeran alias "Veera", is a practitioner of Adimurai who stopped talking to his father owing to emotional and physical trauma caused by a casteist attack from members of the local dominant community in his childhood. Rathnavelu is the SSMK district secretary for Salem and younger son of late ex-minister Sundaram, from a dominant community. Rathnavelu had fought a hard fight after his father's death, using all means available to reach the position of district secretary, despite not holding a public office. Rathnavelu's brash, aggressive behaviour often develops loggerheads with Maamannan.

Three months before elections, Rathnavelu's men destroy a free coaching center run by Veera's friends and his love interest Leela because it was affecting the business of a private coaching center run by Rathnavelu's elder brother Shanmugavel in his father's name. In retaliation, Veera and his friends destroy Rathnavelu's coaching center. Rathnavelu realizes that the issue might damage him inside the party and out, so he invites Maamannan and Veera to sort out this issue without further violence. At the meeting, Veera notices that Maamannan is standing while everyone else including Rathnavelu are sitting in chairs. Veera asks his father to sit down, where Rathnavelu remarks that Maamannan will never sit down in his house and that has been the tradition since forever. Veera continuously demands that Maamannan sits down, Rathnavelu gets enraged where he slaps Veera and pushes Maamannan who intervened when his son is hit. An enraged Veera kicks down Rathnavelu in retaliation.

Rathnavelu directs his men to beat up Maamannan and Veera where he runs to fetch his gun, but his wife Jyothi locks him inside the room to prevent further chaos. Veera beats up all the men who attack him and his father, and they leave. Rathnavelu plans to counter-attack and kill Maamannan and Veeran, but is ordered to stay put by the Chief Minister Ka. Sindhanai Rajan. Unable to attack Maamannan and Veera, Rathnavelu unleashes his dogs into the pigpen of Veera, resulting in the death of all except one pig. Veera, Maamannan, and their friends and family are deeply hurt by this symbolic cruelty. Sindhanai Rajan orders Rathnavelu and Maamannan to come meet him at the Party HQ in Chennai. He asks Rathnavel to apologize to Maamannan or forgo the party membership. Rathnavel quits from the party and joins the main opposite party MSSMK (Marumalarchi Samathuva Samooganeedhi Makkal Kazhagam) with some of his followers. The sacking of a district secretary of the ruling party creates shock in the political scenario. Rathnavel nominates a candidate of his choice to compete against Maamannan, who is campaigning for a third term as an MLA. He even fields his wife Jyothi in his place for another constituency in order to fully direct his efforts to defeat Maamannan.

Rathnavel challenges Maamannan that now that his support is not there, Maamannan will surely fail in the upcoming elections. A tight battle occurs during election campaign wherein Rathnavel tries to rally the support of all dominant castes against Maamannan. Rathnavel even kills a caste association head to create sympathy wave in favor of his candidate. All his plans succeed to some extent, but the youth of the constituency rebel against Rathnavel dictating whom each street should vote for. In the ensuing elections, Maamannan wins by a big margin and Rathnavel is left humbled and failed. The SSMK is reelected to power, and Maamannan is made the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. Veera and Leela continue to be engaged in their grassroot level social welfare activities.

In July 2021, Udhayanidhi Stalin was reported to do a film with Mari Selvaraj, and the film would be his last before leaving the film industry.^[6] In September, reports were claiming that Fahadh Faasil was going to be seen in a crucial role in the film.^[7] In November, Vadivelu was also reported to act in the film, making it a 5-years comeback for him to the film industry.^[8] In January 2022, A. R. Rahman was reported to compose the music for the film, in his maiden collaboration with Mari.^[9] The same month, Keerthy Suresh was reported to join the film and play the lead female role.^[10] Fahadh's commitments to the film was confirmed in the following March.^[11] The same month, Red Giant Movies announced their next film Maamannan, which confirmed the reported starrer, direction by Mari Selvaraj and music by A. R. Rahman.^[12][13] In May 2022, Udhayanidhi said Maamannan would be his final film as an actor, after which he intended to concentrate on his political career.^[14]

The first schedule of film shooting was wrapped up in the same month as the film announcement.^[15] Vadivelu joined the team later with a grand welcome after ban from the cinema industry, which was lifted after 5-years.^[16] The second schedule commenced in May 2022, with Fahadh joining the team.^[17] Some parts were filmed at Jarugumalai, a small hill station at the southern part of Salem District.^[18]

In June 2022, Udhayanidhi, via Twitter, announced that the second schedule wrapped up with a cake-cutting celebration.^[19] In August 2022, Udhayanidhi resumed shooting for the final schedule. He also shared a photo with himself and Selvaraj on Twitter.^[20] In September 2022, Keerthy Suresh had completed shooting her part's of the film.^[21] Later the same month, the film's shooting had wrapped up with a mini-celebration.^[22]

In March 2023, Vadivelu started dubbing for his portions.^[23] An audio launch was held at Nehru Stadium in Chennai on June 1 with the Maamannan team and many chief guests, including Kamal Haasan and Sivakarthikeyan.^[24]

The music is composed by A. R. Rahman, in his first collaboration with Mari Selvaraj and Udhayanidhi Stalin.^[25] First single 'Raasa Kannu' sung by Vadivelu was released on 19 May 2023.^[26] The audio launch event of Maamannan was held in Chennai, on June 1, 2023. Along with the Maamannan team, Pa. Ranjith, A. R. Murugadoss, Mysskin, Pandiraj, H. Vinoth, Vijay Antony, Kavin, Kamal Hassan, Sivakarthikeyan, Vetrimaaran, S. J. Suryah, Pradeep Ranganathan, Soori, Vignesh Shivan and Boney Kapoor attended the event.^[27][28]

Maamannan released theatrically on 29 June 2023.^[29] As Udhayanidhi announced Maamannan would be his final film as an actor, producer Rama Saravanan attempted to block the film's release via the Madras High Court unless Udhayanidhi cooperate with him to complete K. S. Adhiyaman's Angel, a film that was nearly complete but had been in stagnation for years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[30] However, the court rejected his plea.^[31]

The post theatrical streaming rights of the film has been bagged by Netflix and the satellite rights were acquired by Kalaignar TV.^[32] The film was also shared to Star Vijay.^[33] The film began streaming on Netflix from 27 July 2023.^[34]

Maamannan received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics.^[4][5]

Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu said "Maamannan certainly has its heart in the right place and touches upon several important topics. But it's still an underwhelming political drama that's saved by its lead cast's brilliant performances."^[35] Bharathy Singaravel of The News Minute gave the film 4 out of 5 and said "After 'Pariyerum Perumal' and 'Karnan', director Mari Selvaraj is back with yet another film that will redefine how Kollywood talks about caste."^[36] Manigandan KR of The South First gave 3.5 out of 5 stars and said "Vadivelu and Fahadh Faasil put up an exceptional show; barring some minor issues, the movie leaves a mark on audiences."^[37] M Suganth of The Times of India gave the film 3 out of 5 and said "An okayish, but hardly potent sociopolitical drama."^[38] Kirubhakar Purushothaman of The Indian Express gave the film 2.5 out of 5 and said "Maamannan is, perhaps, the weakest film of Mari Selvaraj despite the director being unabashedly open about his political affiliations."^[39] Janaki K of India Today gave the film 2.5 out of 5 and said "Director Mari Selvaraj's Maamannan, starring Vadivelu, Udhayanidhi Stalin, Fahadh Faasil and Keerthy Suresh, is a film that exposes the social injustice in society. While the film has some solid performances, the story does not have enough meat."^[40] Ananda Vikatan rated the film 46 out of 100.^[41] In an article of Samakalika Malayalam stated that the film can be seen as proof of the growing strength of films that reflect the socio-political and cultural realities of Tamil Nadu.^[42]

Maamannan grossed ₹6 crore worldwide on its opening day. The film collected a total of ₹52 crore at the end of its theatrical run.^[5]

• Maamannan at IMDb