Mouna Guru is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Santha Kumar and produced by M. K. Thamizharasu. The film featured Arulnidhi, Uma Riyaz Khan and Ineya in the lead roles, while John Vijay, Madhusudhan Rao, Krishnamoorthy, and Balakrishnan play supporting roles. Mouna Guru illustrates a misunderstood college youth who becomes unwittingly involved in a crime plot that spirals his life out of order. The film, which has music composed by S. Thaman, released on 16 December 2011 to highly positive reviews, subsequently becoming a sleeper hit. The film was remade in Kannada as Guru, in Telugu as Shankara and in Hindi as Akira.
Plot
Karunakaran finds it difficult to adjust with the society that he lives. As a result, he is unable to control his anger and ends up with trouble. His unpredictable behavior becomes a constant worry for his mother and brother. A series of incidents force him to leave his hometown of Madurai and end up in Chennai. Despite scoring high marks in school, he joins a local arts college in the city and stays in a hostel, where trouble begins. Medical student Aarthi is the younger sister of Karuna's sister in-law, and she has had soft corner for Karuna. Meanwhile, rogue Assistant Commissioner Marimuthu, Inspector Rajendran, Sub-Inspector Selvam, and Head Constable Perumalsamy witness a car accident in the outskirts of Chennai. When they are about to take the victim to a nearby hospital, they come across a huge stash of cash. The policemen kill the half-dead victim and flee to Chennai with the money. However, Maya, a prostitute, finds the truth by overhearing Marimuthu's telephone conversation and video records it. When Maya plans to threaten Marimuthu, she accidentally loses her camera which had the video footage. The next day, Marimuthu gets a threatening call from a guy and finds out that it was Maya who recorded his conversation. An angered Marimuthu beats up Maya and eventually kills her. A sincere police officer named Palaniammal takes up this case. In the college where Karuna studies, there is a series of thefts happening in the hostel. Marimuthu finds out that it was one of the college students who had actually stolen Maya's camera and threatened him. One day, a bag containing all the stolen items is kept in front of Karuna's hostel room, making him the prime suspect of all the threats, which leads him to get arrested. Marimuthu, along with his friends, kidnaps Karuna and Maya's friends with plans of killing them in a forest. They kill Maya's friends, but Karuna escapes from there and reaches Chennai. In the meantime, Marimuthu understands that it was not Karuna who had blackmailed him. Karuna is falsely accused of mental instability by Marimuthu and his team of policemen and is institutionalised. Karuna is kept under constant sedation with the help of a corrupt doctor. They forge a story that Karuna is suffering from a mental disorder which makes him think that he is being chased by a group of policemen for a fake encounter. Karuna escapes from the mental asylum and reaches his hostel. Karuna kidnaps Rajendran and threatens him to disclose all the truth to the public. Meanwhile, Palaniammal collects vital info and cracks the case. It is revealed that the person who stole Maya's camera was Dinesh, who happens to be the son of the college principal. Knowing this, the principal had tried to save his son by keeping all the stolen items in front of Karuna's room during vacation, so that honest Karuna will return the things and all will be done. But everything went south. When Palaniammal corners and is about to arrest the culprits in the college old auditorium, she gets a call from the commissioner that the person murdered by Marimuthu and his team of policemen was a leading politician in Bangalore which could lead to state problems and hence does not disclose this to the media. Palaniammal is helpless and leaves the place. However, Karuna gets angry and kills Marimuthu, Rajendran, Selvam, and Perumalsamy. Karuna is sentenced to psychological treatment. After getting released, he marries Aarthi and becomes a deaf-dumb school teacher.
's character Palaniammal, a sincere police officer who is pregnant in her third trimester, was a character closely resembling Marge Gunderson from Fargo portrayed by Frances McDormand. Santhakumar revealed that it took five days just to shoot the scene that comes before the intermission although it appears for just 10 minutes in the film. Similarly the climax sequences were shot over a period of 15 days.
The film turned out to be a sleeper hit. Its shows were gradually increased and accounted for 54% of the takings in Chennai box office on its fourth weekend.
Reception
The film opened on 16 December 2011 across Tamil Nadu, alongside the Prashanth-starrer Mambattiyan, to positive reviews from critics. The Hindu gave the film a positive review citing that "Mouna Guru is one of the small gems of Tamil cinema this year" and that "it marks a promising debut for Shantakumar and advances Arulnidhi's career". Rohit Ramachandran from Nowrunning.com rated the movie 3/5 and wrote that "Mouna guru is a well-intentioned thriller that keeps you glued to your seat, which is more than I can say for most Tamil movies." Sify.com described the film as "very good", claiming it "works as an intelligent, taut thriller that sustains dramatic tension throughout". The critic also went on to claim that Arulnithi "drives the film with the intensity in his eyes, body language and an underplayed performance", while describing John Vijay's performance as "riveting". Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com gave the film three and a half stars and described the film as a "must-watch", while mentioning that Uma Riyaz Khan "walks away with the honours". Behindwoods.com gave the film three stars out of five praising the director Shantakumar's execution, while also singling out John Vijay's act as "the performance of his career".
