Maari 2


Maari 2 is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film directed by Balaji Mohan. It is a sequel to his 2015 film Maari. Dhanush, besides producing the film under his company Wunderbar Films, also stars as the title character, reprising his role from the first film. Krishna, Tovino Thomas, Sai Pallavi, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, and Vidya Pradeep play other important roles, among others. The music was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja with cinematography by Om Prakash and editing by Prasanna GK. The film released on 21 December 2018 to mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

Picking up from the prequel, the film starts off with Maariyappan aka Maari as the fun-loving gangster with his sidekicks Sanikkizhamai aka Sani and Robert aka Adithangi . Maari is chased around by Araathu Aanandi, a "loosu ponnu" auto driver who is head over heels in love with him. However, try as she might, Maari does not give her a second glance and constantly shows his annoyance to her.
In a parallel storyline, Gangadhar Beeja is shown to have escaped from jail with the cell walls scrawled with the words "Kill Maari". He is out for revenge, as his brother, who was a lawyer, promised to get Beeja released from jail. Unfortunately, his brother is killed at the hands of Maari as the former tried to molest Aanandi's elder sister. This is also the reason why Aanandi loves Maari.
Maari gets his 100th murder attempt on his life by his rival Singayya, and to celebrate, Kalai, Sani, and Adithangi throw Maari a party. While coming back, Maari gets attacked, and Aanandi takes him to the hospital and takes care of him.
Kalai's brother Vallavan is shown to be a hand-in-glove with Singayya, who has formed an alliance with Beeja to overthrow Maari. As per Beeja's plan, Vallavan asks Sani to send Aanandi for a job, which turns out to be drug smuggling, a job which Maari hates. Aanandi goes to do the job and gets caught by Kalai. On confronting Aanandi, she tells him that Maari asked her to do it. This sparks a doubt in Kalai's mind. Vallavan is caught by Maari carrying the drugs, and when Maari confronts Kalai, a fight erupts. Maari and his sidekicks set fire to all the drugs, and Beeja kills Vallavan to make it look as if Maari killed him. Kalai gets enraged and orders his men to kill Maari. Maari is injured in the battle, and Beeja reveals himself as the perpetrator. Beeja then shoots Maari, but Maari is saved by Aanandi, who took the bullet for him, which ended up in her lower spinal cord, paralysing her legs for life.
The new collector, Vijaya Chamundeshwari IAS, comes out to restore order and stop all gang violence. Maari goes into hiding with Aanandi, whose legs are paralysed. Eight years pass, and Beeja and Kalai have grown to become rich dons, but when Kalai has clear chance to become the MLA candidate of the ruling party, Beeja usurps that chance by threatening Kalai and his family. Vijaya, now the Deputy-Home secretary, in an effort to find Maari, posts his picture along with Aanandi's on newspapers. Maari sees this and meets Vijaya, requesting her to remove the photos. Maari then reveals that he was living in Tenkasi with an elderly couple. Aanandi got pregnant, and a healthy baby boy was born. However, due to complications by the paralysis, Aanandi dies minutes after childbirth. Maari then raises the boy, called Kaali with help from the old couple and Sani. Kaali is shown to have inherited his father's behaviour and keeps picking fights in school. Maari then requests Vijaya to stop coming after him and says that he changed his ways. When Kaali sees some students in the older grade teasing a teacher, he complains to the principal. In retribution, the boys chase him and try to teach him a lesson, only to get beaten black and blue by Kaali. The area member of council, one of the boys' father, calls Kaali to hit him, but Maari goes and begs for forgiveness.
Meanwhile, the city police commissioner mentions to the media that there is an informer within Beeja's gang. Using his moles in the police department, Beeja tries to figure out who the mole is but fails. It is then revealed that there was not any mole and that the whole story was fabricated to identify the corrupt policemen in the department, including the commissioner. Also, Beeja has been in ties with the commissioner and was the mole himself. He had been leaking info about his men so that he may come out clear to become an MLA candidate. It is also revealed that despite begging for forgiveness, the counsellor insisted on his son beating up Kaali, and so, Maari beats up the counsellor and his henchmen. In a final encounter, the police turns against Beeja. Maari fights Beeja and paralyses his legs for revenge for Aanandi and reveals to him that Maari killed his brother because Beeja could be killed by his own brother for property. Soon Beeja gets sentenced for life term prison. Maari is then shown with his sidekicks continuing his old life.

Cast

Development

Following the release of Maari, director Balaji Mohan announced the sequel of the film on November 2015, with Dhanush in the lead, and also hinted that the film will kickstart shooting from January 2016. In an interaction with the media, the director stated that the film will have more depth to Dhanush's character. The film's shoot was expected to take place in early 2017, and the film's script was finalized in December 2016. However, the film's first schedule was expected to take place on August 2017, because of Dhanush's commitments with other projects.

Casting

On 24 September 2017, it was announced that Tovino Thomas, joined the film's cast, portraying the antagonist role. A few days later, Sai Pallavi was finalized as the heroine. Later actor Krishna, joined the cast on 7 October 2017, as the film's second lead. Varalaxmi Sarathkumar joined the film's cast on December 2017, assigning an important role.
Anirudh Ravichander who composed for the film's first part was expected to join its successor. However, he was replaced by Yuvan Shankar Raja in December 2017. Om Prakash and Prasanna GK are retained as the cinematographer and editor respectively, following their work in the film's predecessor before. A. Amaran was signed as the art director respectively, replacing R. K. Vijaimurugan, who earlier handled art direction for the previous film.

Filming

The film's puja ceremony took place on 2 January 2018, and principal photography began on 22 January 2018. The first schedule of the film took place in Tenkasi on the same date. Varalaxmi Sarathkumar began shooting for her portions on 15 February 2018. The makers completed 40% of the film's shoot before the strike announced by Tamil Film Producers Council on 16 March 2018, and resumed shooting after the strike called off. The song sequence for "Rowdy Baby" was filmed on 2 August 2018, under the supervision of choreographer Prabhu Deva. After the song sequence filmed, the makers wrapped principal photography on 11 August 2018.

Music

composed the soundtrack album and background score for Maari 2, collaborating with Dhanush once again after a 10-year hiatus, since their last film Yaaradi Nee Mohini. It also marks the composer's first collaboration with Balaji Mohan. The audio rights of the film are secured by the production house's subsidiary audio label Wunderbar Studios, with Divo as their digital partner. The album features three tracks written by Dhanush and Yuvan Shankar Raja himself, and was released on 5 November 2018, except one track which was released as a single.
The disco song, "Rowdy Baby" by Dhanush and Dhee, was released as the first single on 25 October 2018. The video song which was released on YouTube on January 2019, received positive reviews for the choreography as well as its picturisation. As of February 2020, the song and has gained over 856 million views. The other two songs "Maari Gethu" sung by Dhanush, Chinnaponnu, V. M. Mahalingam and Yuvan Shankar Raja, with lyrics penned by the latter and "Maari's Anandhi", written by Dhanush, and sung by Ilaiyaraaja and M. M. Manasi, was released as a part of the soundtrack album.

Release

Maari 2 was released on 21 December 2018.