Kodi (film)


Kodi is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language political action thriller film written and directed by R. S. Durai Senthilkumar and produced by Vetrimaaran under his banner Grass Root Film Company. The film stars Dhanush, Trisha and Anupama Parameswaran in the lead roles, while S. A. Chandrasekhar, Saranya Ponvannan, Kaali Venkat, Namo Narayana, and G. Marimuthu play other key roles. Dhanush and Trisha pair up for the first time. Kodi, marks the Tamil debut of Anupama Parameshwaran. Dhanush played dual roles for the first time in his career.
Dhanush, who produced R. S. Durai Senthilkumar's previous two films, Ethir Neechal and Kakki Sattai, which stars Sivakarthikeyan in the lead role, played the male lead actor in this film. The film's music and background score were composed by Santhosh Narayanan, the cinematography is performed by Venkatesh S. The film was simultaneously dubbed in Telugu as Dharmayogi, which released one day after the Tamil version. Upon release the film opened to positive reviews from critics praising Dhanush's performance. The film was remade in Kannada as Dhwaja in 2018.

Plot

For Kodi, politics has been a part of his life ever since his birth. His father Murugan, a low-rung party worker, brings him up to become a politician before setting himself on fire, protesting against a factory whose toxic mercury waste has ruined lives in the locality. Kodi's identical twin Anbu is a contrast to his rough-and-tough brother. He is a college lecturer and pacifist.
Kodi moves with his adopted assistant Bhagat Singh. His girlfriend Rudhra belongs to the ruling party and has been in politics since childhood like him. Here enters egg seller Malathi, whose eggs are broken by Kodi. When she chases him, she comes across Anbu and mistakes him as Kodi. Anbu falls in love with Malathi. Malathi tells him her village pathetic condition due to the factory's mercury waste, which Anbu then tells Kodi.
Kodi meets Thalaivar, who tells that they would take up this matter. Meanwhile, Kodi comes in possession of documents relating to the factory, from which he comes to know that his party member Marimuthu and the whole party is responsible for what has happened to the villagers. Depressed, he shares this information with Rudhra, who speaks up this matter in public, causing great embarrassment to Kodi's party. To keep him silent, his party leadership announces him as their candidate. Problems soon arise as Rudhra's party members come to know about the Kodi-Rudhra affair and start pressuring her to give up her candidacy. A depressed Rudhra meets Kodi in the woods. When they meet together, the goons sent by former MLA Arivazhagan attack them. Kodi is then stabbed by Rudhra, who tells him that if he died, then there is no obstacle for her. Kodi dies for her sake.
Rudhra meets Kodi's family after the funeral and tells them that her party is willing to give Anbu the MLA post. Kodi's mother denies, but Anbu accepts it and wins the by-election. Soon, Anbu takes the matter to find his brother's murderer and also solve the issue of the factory. Kotraivel a member of Kodi's party, finds out a camera in which the video showing Rudhra killing Kodi is recorded. He threatens Rudhra to stop the factory issue. Rudhra uses Crime Branch Inspector V. Ravichandran as a pawn to destroy the evidence and also get him killed by Kotraivel. Rudhra begins to feel that Anbu will find out the truth and moreover, the documents related to the factory were being taken to the court by Anbu. In order to stop him, Rudhra kidnaps his mother and Bhagat and tells him to come to the factory. In the end, a fight between Anbu and Rudhra's goons along with Kotraivel and Marimuthu takes place which results in Anbu emerging victorious. When he is about to kill Rudhra, his mother tells him to leave her. Soon, Bhagat kills her saying she did not deserve to live and go away with Kodi.

Cast

The soundtrack album for Kodi is composed by Santhosh Narayanan. The lyrics of four songs were penned by Vivek while Dhanush & Arunraja Kamaraj wrote and sung the song Kodi Parakkudha. The audio rights of the film was acquired by Sony Music India. The complete album was released on 5 October 2016 at Prasad Labs, Chennai. The album consists of five tracks.

Reception

Sify gave a rating of 3 stars out of 5 and stated "The ear-pleasing numbers make this a solid album". Behindwoods gave 2.75 stars out of 5 and stated "Kodi seems to be an apt composition for the film's subject"

Production

The project was first announced during August 2015, when Dhanush revealed that he would act in Durai Senthilkumar's next film, after he finished his ongoing commitments. Dhanush revealed that the film would be a political thriller and that he would appear in dual roles as two brothers. Shriya Saran was first selected as the heroine by Dhanush but she couldn't allot dates for the film. Vidya Balan was then approached for the negative role in the film, but was not willing to do a Tamil film due to date issues. Trisha was signed as the female lead of the film. After unsuccessful negotiations with Lakshmi Menon and Rakul Preet Singh, who could not allot the dates, Shamili was signed on to portray the second leading female role. Shamili however became unwell during the shoot of the film and as a result of Dhanush's tight schedule, the makers chose to replace her. Madonna Sebastian was initially reported to have signed the film, before Anupama Parameswaran was confirmed as the second lead actress.
Initially scheduled to start shoot in early December 2015, plans were delayed as a result of the 2015 South Indian floods and the schedule was delayed by two weeks. Subsequently, the team held an official launch on 11 December 2015. Shooting started on 5 January 2016.

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV. It was later dubbed in Hindi as Rowdy Hero 2 in 2017.

Critical reception

Srinivas Ramujan of The Hindu wrote 'Director Durai Senthilkumar deserves credit for an engaging plot that includes a pre-interval block that jolts you. After all, when was the last time a commercial political film worked to a large extent without the existence of a dominating male villain?' India.com wrote 'Dhanush & Trisha Krishnan's film gets the BEST political thriller label' Manathi Mannath of The New Indian Express concluded 'Kodi worth a watch for its universal sensibility'.
M Suganth of Times Of India gave Kodi 4 stars out of 5 and stated 'Kodi shows how a good actor can make a film rise above its genre. Dhanush's performance here, subtly delineating the two roles, is a delight to watch. He shines in the mass hero moments as well as the dramatic ones. Sify stated 'Kodi is deliciously dramatic, and packed with sinister twists and turns with superb performances and solid writing' and rated 4 out of 5.
Press KS called it 'a political mass entertainer with excellent performance by Dhanush and Trisha. Dhanush shines out and out with his dual role play. Commercial dialogues score high' giving 3.5/5. Latha Srinivasan of IB Times said 'Director Durai Senthilkumar and Dhanush have given a total commercial film for the audience this Diwali. Watch the film for Dhanush's strong performance as Anbu and especially Kodi. This Diwali, this Kodi is set to fly high'. Bollywoodlife said 'Dhanush's double act is impressive but Trisha is the bigger surprise'. Deccan Chronicle gave 3 out of 5 concluding 'Strong characterization and powerful cast makes it a winner.' Manoj Kumar R of The Indian Express gave 3 stars stating 'Kodi, which released on Diwali, seems to be everything the Tamil audience wants for this festive season'. Firstpost stated 'Kodi is a well written and packaged commercial entertainer that delivers the goods'.
Trisha won Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Tamil for her Performance. The Telugu version Dharmayogi'' also received positive reviews and became a commercial success.

Box office

The film collected in Tamil Nadu in two days. The film collected in Tamil Nadu, in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala in first weekend. The film collected in overseas, in United States, in the United Kingdom, in UAE, in France, in Malaysia, in Australia, international collection of and global collection of in first weekend.