Kodi (film)

For Kodiarasu (Dhanush), politics have been part of his life ever since his birth in Pollachi. His father Murugan (Karunas), a low-rung Democratic party worker, brings him up to become a politician before self-immolating as a protest against a factory whose toxic mercury waste had ruined lives in the locality. Kodi's twin brother Anbarasu (Dhanush) is the complete opposite of him - an Engineering college professor and not political at all. Kodi grows up with the party and his friend Bhagat (Kaali Venkat). He falls in love with Rudra (Trisha) who, like Kodi, has been with politics all her life but runs for the opposing Republican party currently in power.

While fighting members of the opposition on the street one day, Kodi breaks a trolley of eggs that Malathi (Anupama Parameswaran) is trying to sell to a shopkeeper. She chases after him to no avail, before leaving for an appointment at a college cafeteria where she has an interview for a contract to sell eggs. She comes across Anbu, mistaking him for Kodi, before finding out about his twin brother. Anbu and Malathi fall in love. Later on, Malathi tells him about how the factories near her village dump all of their mercury waste where people live, impacting the lives of the villagers negatively. Anbu is worried, and tells Kodi.

Meanwhile, Rudra is frustrated about being stereotyped as lower down in her party because she is a woman. She overhears that Arivazhagan (Namo Narayana), the State Education Minister from the Coimbatore district, is actually a dropout and falsified his elections nominations. She tips this information off to the Democratic party, who file a suit against the Minister. The Minister loses the case and is disqualified from his position, and the by-elections are announced for the Pollachi constituency. Rudra befriends the ex-minister, becomes the interim District Secretary, and then kicks him off.

The Democratic party are excited for the by-elections despite the Republicans winning for the last twenty-five years. Kodi meets his Party Supremo (S. A. Chandrasekhar), who tells him that they would talk about the opposition's scandal but after the by-elections. Meanwhile, Anbu gives Kodi documents about the mercury waste, who then finds out that his ex-minister and party senior Marimuthu (G. Marimuthu), and the entire Democratic party, is responsible for what happened to the villagers affected by the factory, as they were the ruling party at the time. Feeling betrayed, he shares this with Rudra in confidence, who brings it up at her next public speech. Enraged and embarrassed, the Democratic leader plots to keep Kodi silent by announcing him as their by-election candidate - now running right against Rudra. When the Republican party finds out about Kodi and Rudra's relationship, they start pressuring her to give up her candidacy. A depressed Rudra asks Kodi to meet her in the woods to talk, and she tells him about the ex-minister standing in her way to success before she eliminated him. They get ambushed by goons that Arivazhagan sent to kill Rudra. Rudra suddenly stabs Kodi, apologises, and tells him that he was her last obstacle. Kodi is betrayed again but decides to die for her, and the by-elections are cancelled as a candidate is gone.

Rudra meets Kodi's family after the funeral and tells them that her party is willing to give Kodi's brother Anbu the MLA position. Their mother (Saranya Ponvannan) declines it angrily, but Anbu accepts it and wins the by-election unopposed. Rudra is made the official District Secretary and an MP of Rajya Sabha. Anbu comes to congratulate her, his look and body language now completely changed to match his brother's, much to Rudra's dismay. Anbu lets her know that he is very invested in his brother's murder as well as the mercury waste issue.

Kotraivel (Rajasimman), a member of the Democratic party, finds a forest camera hidden in the woods that recorded Rudra killing Kodi. He threatens Rudra with this, and tells her to fix the mercury waste issue. Rudra uses Crime Branch Inspector V. Ravichandran (Anil Murali) as a pawn to destroy the evidence and kill Kotraivel, but is still afraid of Anbu finding out about everything as he was taking the documents about the factory to court anyway. In an attempt to stop him, Rudra kidnaps his mother and Bhagat, and tells Anbu to come to the factory. Anbu and Rudra's goons fight Kotraivel and Marimuthu, resulting in Anbu winning. He came to the factory with the intention to kill Rudra, but his mother tells him that it is not worth it and to let her go. As they leave, Bhagat stabs her and tells her that she never deserved Kodi.

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.

All lyrics are written by Ramajogayya Sastry.

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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10][11] Shooting started on 5 January 2016.[12]

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.[13] It was later dubbed in Hindi as Rowdy Hero 2 in 2017.[14][15]

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?'[16] India.com wrote 'Dhanush & Trisha Krishnan's film gets the BEST political thriller label'[17] Manathi Mannath of The New Indian Express concluded 'Kodi worth a watch for its universal sensibility'.[18]

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.[19] 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.[20] 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'.[21] Bollywoodlife said 'Dhanush's double act is impressive but Trisha is the bigger surprise'.[22] Deccan Chronicle gave 3 out of 5 concluding 'Strong characterization and powerful cast makes it a winner.'[23] 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'.[24] Firstpost stated 'Kodi is a well written and packaged commercial entertainer that delivers the goods'.[25] Trisha (actress) won Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Tamil for her Performance. The Telugu version Dharmayogi also received positive reviews and became a commercial success.[26][27]

The film collected ₹15 crore (US$2.1 million) in Tamil Nadu in two days.[28] The film collected ₹15 crore (US$2.1 million) in Tamil Nadu, ₹6.5 crore (US$910,000) in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala in first weekend. The film collected ₹4.5 crore (US$630,000) in overseas, ₹42 lakh (US$59,000) in United States, ₹26 lakh (US$36,000) in the United Kingdom, ₹62 lakh (US$87,000) in UAE, ₹12 lakh (US$17,000) in France, ₹65 lakh (US$91,000) in Malaysia, ₹23 lakh (US$32,000) in Australia, international collection of ₹2.25 crore (US$320,000) and global collection of ₹26.50 crore (US$3.7 million) in first weekend.[29]

• Kodi at IMDb