Kaala (also marketed as Kaala Karikalan; ) is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed and co-written by Pa. Ranjith and produced by Dhanush and Subaskaran Allirajah under the banners of Wunderbar Films and Lyca Productions. The film stars Rajinikanth in the titular role, alongside Nana Patekar, Eswari Rao, Huma Qureshi (in her Tamil debut), Samuthirakani, Pankaj Tripathi, Anjali Patil, K. Manikandan, Dileepan, Nitish Veera, Sampath Raj and Ravi Kale. The film follows Karikalan "Kaala", the leader of Dharavi, who tries to save his land from getting seized and his people from being evicted by Haridev, a ruthless minister.
The film was officially announced in June 2016 under the tentative title Thalaivar 164, as it is Rajinikanth's 164th film as the lead actor, and the official title was announced in May 2017. Principal photography commenced the same month. It was predominantly shot in Mumbai; however, due to a few difficulties, the team had to shoot at Chennai a few times, and wrapped by mid-October. The film has music composed by Santhosh Narayanan, cinematography handled by Murali G. and editing by A. Sreekar Prasad.
Kaala was scheduled to release on 27 April 2018 in theatres but was postponed due to the conflict between Nadigar Sangam and Digital Service Providers. The film premiered on 6 June 2018 in Malaysia, with the worldwide release on the following day, coinciding the week of Eid al-Fitr, to mixed reviews from critics who praised the cast performances (especially Rajini), action sequences and soundtrack, but the screenwriting and pace received criticism. The film grossed and was average at the box office. In 2024, Kaala was listed in the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine's '25 Films of the 21st century,' making it the only Indian film to be included.
Plot In Mumbai, the people who had migrated from southern Tamil Nadu are living as a poor people in the slum of Dharavi. However, a ruthless minister named Haridev "Hari Dada" Abhayankar repeatedly tries to evict the people of Dharavi and seize their land. Over the years, Hari, a former gangster, becomes an MP and later Union Minister. By 2015, Dharavi becomes the central spot of downtown Mumbai. Hari plans to clear the area to construct posh buildings using his construction company in the form of government schemes with the help of his party supporter Vishnu Bhai.
Karikaalan alias "Kaala" is the godfather of the Dharavi residents who oppose Hari's plans as he wants to protect the area and his people. Kaala's ex-love interest, Zareena, returns to her native Dharavi as a representative NGO that hopes to improve the living standards in Dharavi, where she is unaware of Hari's intentions. Despite many attempts by Hari's men, Kaala does not permit evacuation of the slum. Vishnu Bhai's men try to kill Kaala after Kaala visits Zareena. Vishnu Bhai kills the son of a Dharavi resident after the boy throws a stone at a poster of Hari. Kaala eventually kills Vishnu Bhai. The police arrest Kaala after his wedding anniversary party, where he is assaulted at the police station in front of Hari and State Minister and is released the next day. While returning home, Hari makes an assassination attempt on Kaala to take control of the area. However, the attempt goes awry, and Kaala's wife, Selvi, and his second son, Selvam, get killed. Kaala then decides to take revenge on Hari.
Hari threatens the people in Dharavi by creating problems, but Kaala encourages the people to protest against the government to give up the scheme. Kaala and his people campaign through social media, and within two weeks, the State government cancels Hari's "Clean Mumbai Initiative." Humiliated, Hari creates a curfew in Dharavi with the aid of SP Pankaj Patil. Along with some cops and Hari's right-hand man, Inspector Sunil, they raid the area. Kaala and his younger son, Lenin, daughter-in-law, Puyal, and his brother-in-law, Vaaliyappan, fight alongside him against Hari's henchmen and the police. The police believe Kaala is dead after henchmen set his chawl ablaze.
Pankaj gets arrested after a video taken by a reporter named Praveen during the curfew provides evidence that Hari brought the henchmen into Dharavi to create problems with the police's support. They inform the media, but the people of Dharavi deny the news of Kaala's death. Hari again enters Dharavi at a function for constructing a new building, where he begins to hallucinate Kaala's appearance among the crowd and behaves erratically. The people of Dharavi murders Hari in a riot, and the government again cancels the scheme. With Dharavi's success, many slums start to follow Kaala's way of protest to protect their neighbourhood irrespective of their illegal occupation of lands.
Cast The cast of the film has been listed below: Rajinikanth as Karikaalan "Kaala" Vengaiyan, from Tirunelveli, the head of the Tamil people of Dharavi who wants to protect the area and his people. Nana Patekar as Haridev Abhayankar alias "Hari Dada", a ruthless minister who killed Kaala's father Vengaiyan. Eswari Rao as Selvi Karikaalan, Kaala's wife, who gets killed in a car accident orchestrated by Hari Dada. Huma Qureshi as Zareena, Kaala's ex-girlfriend and a slum clearance builder from Africa who returns to Dharavi. Samuthirakani as Vaaliyappan, Selvi's brother. Anjali Patil as Charumathi (Puyal), Lenin's girlfriend and a member of the 'Vizhithiru' group. Manikandan as Lenin, Kaala's youngest son and the founder of the 'Vizhithiru' group, who does not believe in his father's violent methods. Dileepan as Selvam, Kaala's second son and a main thug of Kaala, but Hari Dada's men assassinate him. Nitish Veera as Kathiravan, Kaala's eldest son, who acts as a strong man for his father's gang. Vikram as Kaala's third son Aruldoss as Mani, the MLA of Dharavi. Aravind Akash as Sivaji Rao Gaekwad, a police constable. Sayaji Shinde as Maharashtra Minister Sampath Raj as Vishnu Bhai, a local MLA and Hari Dada's silent thug, who is later killed by Kaala Ravi Kale as Inspector Sunil, Hari Dada's henchman. Pankaj Tripathi as SI Pankaj Patil, a corrupt police official on Hari Dada's payroll. Arundhati as Kaala's daughter-in-law. Sakshi Agarwal as Kaala's daughter-in-law. Suganya as Kaala's daughter-in-law. Ramesh Thilak as Praveen, a TV reporter who supports Kaala and was responsible for carrying out Pankaj's arrest. Bikramjeet Kanwarpal as Manu Constructions Builder Dopeadelicz as a Dharavi resident Kanna as Beemji, a Dharavi resident "Nakkalites" Chella, a Dharavi resident Suryakanth as MLA Candidate Vishalini as Devi Supergood Subramani Shan as Shan Ashwanth Thilak as a background dancer in the song "Thanga Sela"
Production
Pre-production Following the commercial success of Rajinikanth-starrer Kabali (2016), Rajinikanth was reportedly signed for his next project backed by Dhanush's Wunderbar Films, collaborating with the actor for the first time. Vetrimaaran narrated a script to Dhanush, who set up a meeting for Vetrimaaran to discuss the script with Rajinikanth. The actor liked the script, but later turned down the offer as he felt the script was too political. Later, Rajinikanth approached Pa. Ranjith to work on a script for the former. After the actor and the producer were impressed with Ranjith's script, the latter was hired to helm the project.
Development Dhanush announced that he had signed Rajinikanth and Ranjith to work on a new film for his production house, Wunderbar Films during late August 2016. Refuting reports that the film would be a sequel to Kabali, Dhanush announced that production would begin during mid-2017 following the completion of Rajinikanth's work for Shankar's science fiction film 2.0 (2018). In early May 2017, the producers received an open letter from Sundar Shekar Mishra, the foster son of gangster Haji Mastan, threatening that the makers should not depict his father in negative light and if they did, they would face consequences. In reply, Ranjith denied the film was a biopic of Haji Mastan and clarified that the film was based on fictional events, while revealing that Rajinikanth would play a man from Tirunelveli who escapes to Mumbai as a child and goes on to become a powerful don living in Dharavi slums. The title of the film, Kaala was announced in late May 2017, with promotional posters carrying the film's first look released.
Casting Following the announcement of the film, Wunderbar Films sought to cast Vidya Balan in a leading role, but the actress turned down the offer. Actress Huma Qureshi was later added to the cast in early May 2017 to feature in a role opposite Rajinikanth. Marathi actress Anjali Patil also announced that she would be playing an important role in the film through a post on her official Twitter account. Several members of the technical crew of Kabali were retained for Kaala, with A. Sreekar Prasad replacing Praveen K. L. as the film's editor during its pre-production stage. Bollywood actor Nana Patekar has been signed to play a politician who is the antagonist. For the role of Kaala's wife, Kasthuri was considered before Easwari Rao was confirmed. Dileepan of Vathikuchi fame is playing as one of the sons of Rajnikanth and Huma Qureshi is playing Zareena, Rajnikanth's ex-girlfriend. It was rumoured that Mammootty was signed in to play the role of Ambedkar in the film, but was proved to be untrue. Dopeadelicz, a rap team from Dharavi, joined the film.
Filming Shooting of this film started on 28 May 2017 at Mumbai and the lead actor Rajinikanth participated in this first schedule. It was known that the film was shot at real locations in Mumbai, including Dharavi, CTS and Grant Road. Due to heavy rains in Mumbai, Karthikraja, a student from Dharavi residing in Ganesh Mandir helped a lot in exploring Dharavi in all the fields and also made available all permissions that was a great help to the Production and Direction team from a student. The team had taken a break and erected a set at Chennai with Mumbai as its backdrop.
Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of Mahindra Group, was interested in the jeep which was used in the first look poster of this movie. He tweeted that he would love to acquire that jeep for his company's auto museum. The Mumbai schedule of the film, was completed on 29 June 2017. It was also known that the second schedule of the film has been affected due to a strike organised by Film Employees Federation of South India, which has been completed.
Dubbing On 27 December 2017, Pa. Ranjith initiated the dubbing process with a formal pooja at Knack Studios in Chennai. Initially scheduled for December 2017, Rajinikanth's dubbing was postponed due to a six-day-long fan meet held from 26 to 31 December. Eventually, Rajinikanth commenced dubbing on 19 January 2018. Patekar delivered his dialogues in Hindi, subsequently dubbed into Tamil. He explained, "Although dubbing is possible, the language isn't native, thus the expressions may not fully convey." Patekar concluded his dubbing on 6 March 2018 in Mumbai.
Music
The soundtrack was composed by Santhosh Narayanan in his second collaboration with actor Rajinikanth after Kabali and his fourth collaboration with director Pa. Ranjith after Attakathi, Madras and Kabali. The soundtrack album consists of nine songs written by Kabilan, Umadevi, Arunraja Kamaraj, Arivu, Dopeadelicz, Logan and Roshan Jamrock. The audio launch event of Kaala took place on 9 May 2018, at YMCA College of Physical Education, Chennai and the songs were simultaneously released on all streaming platforms.
Release