Thangalaan () is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language action adventure film directed by Pa. Ranjith, who co-wrote the script with Tamil Prabha and Azhagiya Periyavan. It is produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja under Studio Green. The film stars Vikram in five roles, along with Pasupathy, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Malavika Mohanan and Daniel Caltagirone. During the British Raj era, a fierce tribal leader sets out to stop an apparent sorceress, after earning her wrath when assisting a British general in tracing gold in their village.
The film was officially announced in December 2021 under the tentative title Chiyaan 61, as it is Vikram's 61st film as a lead actor, and the official title was announced in October 2022. Principal photography commenced the same month and wrapped by early-July 2023. Filming locations included Chennai, Andhra Pradesh, Madurai and Karnataka. The film has music composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, cinematography handled by A. Kishor Kumar, and editing by Selva RK.
Thangalaan was released worldwide on 15 August 2024 in standard, 3D and EPIQ formats, coinciding with India's Independence Day. The film received mixed reviews from critics who praised Vikram's performance, Prakash Kumar's music, the storyline and action, but criticized the historical inaccuracies, visual effects, pacing and writing.
Plot
In 1850, in the village of Veppur, North Arcot, Thangalaan resides with his wife, Gengamma, and their children. As the village chief and a landowner, he is highly respected, unlike most of his fellow villagers who are bonded labourers on the zamindar's land. Thangalaan often regales his children with bedtime stories, and one night, he narrates a chilling tale about Aarathi, a woman from the Nagar tribe, believed to be a sorceress and protector of the land in the deep forests.
Thangalaan's great-grandfather, Kaadaiyan, belonged to a tribe skilled in extracting gold from the Ponnar river sand. When a king, passing through the area, discovered the mountain's gold veins, he sought Kaadaiyan's expertise to retrieve the gold. However, Aarathi had set up obstacles, including snakes, to safeguard the territory. Kaadaiyan initially refused to help the king but was promised the land his forefathers had lost to the king's ancestors, which had been gifted to the Brahmanas. Kaadaiyan eventually agreed, but the king found the retrieved gold rocks fake, attributing it to Aarathi's sorcery. The enraged king beheaded a Buddha statue after being urged by a Brahmin priest, who cited Buddha as a sorcerer. A fierce battle ensued between Aarathi and Kaadaiyan's men, resulting in Kaadaiyan slitting Aarathi's abdomen, unleashing a torrent of blood that flowed over the land, transforming the sand into gold.
Gengamma interrupts Thangalaan's storytelling as their children have already fallen asleep. In an attempt to seize Thangalaan's land, the zamindar's men set fire to the farm produce, rendering Thangalaan unable to pay the taxes. Consequently, his land is transferred to the zamindar, and Thangalaan and his family are forced into debt bondage. Meanwhile, British officer Lord Clement arrives in Veppur, seeking gold, and is aware of the villagers' ancestral expertise in tracing it. The villagers fear Aarathi, but Thangalaan, his son, Asokan, fellow villagers Varadhan, Gengupattar, and others embark on a journey northwest. Thangalaan begins hallucinating Aarathi's presence, warning him away from the forest, but he presses on, overcoming challenges like a river, a black panther, a sandstorm, and snakes.
Upon reaching a trench created by a lightning strike, Asokan discovers the beheaded Buddha statue, and Aarathi frightens him from underwater. Undeterred, they find the remaining remnants of the statue with gold traces at the bottom. However, during the gold extraction, lightning strikes Clement's son. Clement vows to find the gold ore at any cost, thanking Thangalaan for leading them to the site and gifting him his son's clothes. Clement also provides daily wages, while Thangalaan returns to the village, boasting of better pay and respect. He gifts the village women blouses, tempting them to join the gold mining effort. The entire village, including the women, set off to the barren forest, only to meet their fellow villagers lamenting for being exploited by British and Indian middlemen, who had deprived them of necessities, as they had only found a few iron and silver ores. Thangalaan remains resolute in his gold pursuit at the same site despite Asokan getting possessed with Aarathi and warning the group to abandon the mining work and return to their village. Thangalaan, however, recalls his dream and finds a small rock matching the one in his dream, insisting on digging the lode deposits nearby.
But, snakes attack him, one of which fatally bites his younger daughter. Aarathi's intervention prevents Thangalaan from saving her. Despite the lack of food, wages, and amenities, Clement, with Thangalaan's help, continues the work, and they discover a deep, abandoned mine. As they enter it, Thangalaan recognizes a place similar to his dream and finds streaks of gold. In the chaos that follows, the British claim the gold as their own, leading to a fight in which Arasani is shot. However, the gold stones were just clay, courtesy of Aarathi's sorcery. Their settlements are destroyed in a fire, but they are given hope to continue mining. The starving population spots a buffalo, which Thangalaan reminisces of Aarathi and kills the buffalo, after which they all consume. Later, he motivates the group to dig deeper, where Aarathi, in her present birth, appears with her men, attacking them ruthlessly. Aarathi subdues Thangalaan, using her sorcery to reveal his past lives. Thangalaan recalls being Arasan "Aaran", a tribal king, and his wife, Aarathi, in the 5th century, protecting the land's resources, mainly gold. Aarathi safeguarded the land while Aaran set off to fight trespassers but was defeated and, in his subsequent births as Adhi Muni, Kaadaiyan, and Naga Muni, he became a slave to dominant communities, facing discrimination and ostracism.
Their oppressors forced him and his men to labour and extract gold. Thangalaan pleads with Aarathi, acknowledging their duty to protect the land and prioritising the community's welfare, which was neglected. The dying Aarathi grants permission for Thangalaan to fetch the gold, but only for his community's benefit. Enraged by Clement's attack on Aarathi, which fatally slit her abdomen, Thangalaan kills him and the other officers, declaring that the land and its resources are hereby their own, not to be exploited by foreigners. With newfound determination, Thangalaan single-handedly ventures deep into the mine and finally discovers an abundance of native gold, bringing joy to his community. At the end of the film, when another group of British and Indian troops arrived, Thangalaan and the villagers were defending the place.
Cast
Production Development While working on Madras (2014), Pa. Ranjith had narrated a script to Vikram and planned to team up for the film but was delayed, due to their commitments on multiple films. The project then materialized in September 2021 with K. E. Gnanavel Raja's production house Studio Green funding it, with Ranjith's banner Neelam Productions. An official announcement regarding the project was made by the production house on 2 December, with the film being tentatively titled as Chiyaan 61, referring to Vikram's 61st film as a lead actor. In a media interaction in May 2022, Ranjith stated that the film will be set in the backdrop of the Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka, and that being a historical drama about working-class miners who discovered gold in the 19th century. The official title Thangalaan was announced on the eve of Diwali, 23 October.
Pre-production
Ranjith drafted the script after the release of Kaala (2018), describing it as his dream project. However, he halted working on the script after watching a trailer for the Kannada film KGF: Chapter 1 and sought to rewrite it to avoid similarities. He then gave the first draft of the script to Tamizh Prabha in early 2022, who admitted the metaphorical elements in the storytelling. Prabha then acquainted various resources to familiarize on the script, which included the documentary novel Living Dangerously by Fanny Emily Penny, and numerous fictional books on Tamil folklore. Besides that, he also visited the Kolar Gold Fields to understand the landscape and the people, where he gathered information from the remaining descendants of those who worked in the gold fields. Azhagiya Periyavan also co-wrote the screenplay with Prabha and Ranjith, as well as writing the dialogues.
G. V. Prakash Kumar was assigned as the film's music composer, dismissing initial reports stated that Anirudh Ravichander would score music for the film. A. Kishor Kumar handled the cinematography, after previously working with Ranjith on Natchathiram Nagargiradhu (2022) and planned to shoot the film in 3D formats, instead of traditional 2D to 3D conversion. Editor Selva R. K., production designer S. S. Moorthy, stunt choreographer Sunner Sam and costume designers Aegan Ekambaram and Anitha Sundaresan were recruited as a part of the technical crew. Sivakumar and Sanjay Rupesh were appointed as the production controller and executive producer, respectively.
Casting In July 2022, Radhika Apte and Rashmika Mandanna were signed in to play the female lead roles, but was replaced by Parvathy Thiruvothu and Malavika Mohanan respectively, due to scheduling conflicts. Malavika described her character Aarathi as one of her intense and physically challenging roles; to prepare for the character, she learned Silambam as well as following a stringent diet plan. As a part of her preparations for the character, Ranjith made Malavika watch the American films The Woman King (2022) "to observe the physicality, power and the effortlessness within the power, of the women in the film". Ranjith took the character's inspiration from a local deity, who was considered to be the protector of the Kolar Gold Fields, which Malavika added "The story that whoever has gone there hasn't come back because of this witch-like figure was probably meant to scare greedy people off the gold mines."
In October 2022, Pasupathy was cast in a supporting role collaborating with Vikram after Dhool (2003), Arul (2004), Majaa (2005) and 10 Endrathukulla (2015) and Ranjith after Sarpatta Parambarai (2021). English actor Daniel Caltagirone was cast as Clement, ex-army officer who visits the gold fields to discover gold. Caltagirone further attributed that his character would be different from other white characters which were portrayed in a stereotypical manner. He added "I spoke to Ranjith, and he explained how these stories are India-centric and the idea was to bring in an English actor to portray a British colonialist. There might have been some great performances by British actors in earlier such films, but what Ranjith has done with my role is something quite different."
Filming Principal photography commenced for the film on 12 October 2022 in Chennai, with test shoots being conducted and preliminary portions being shot there for three days. The team then moved to Kadapa for a minor schedule which went on for a week. In late-October, the team moved to Madurai, where an action sequence with Malavika and Vikram being shot. After a month-long filming, the team then moved to Hogenakkal Falls in early December for shooting few portions. The same month, Ranjith shoot few sequences at Maldives with Malavika participating. A week later, Vikram and Ranjith began commencing few portions at the Kolar Gold Fields where he interacted with his fans; a video of the same surfaced on social media.