Maari 2

Maariyappan aka Maari is a fun-loving gangster whose sidekicks are Sanikkizhamai and Robert aka Adithangi (punching bag). Maari is chased around by Araathu Aanandi, a "loosu ponnu" (crazy girl) auto rickshaw 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(calling himself as Tanatos-God of Death) is shown to have escaped from jail, after killing two police officers, with the cell walls scrawled with the words "Kill Maari". He is out for revenge, as his brother, who was a defence 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 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 unknowingly 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 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, 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 (as a request) 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.

Yuvan Shankar Raja 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 (2008). 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.

"Rowdy Baby", sung by Dhanush and Dhee, was released as the first single on 25 October 2018. The video song which was released on YouTube in January 2019, received positive reviews for the choreography as well as its picturisation. On 16 November 2020, it became the first south Indian song to reach 1 billion views on YouTube.[21] 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.

Maari 2 was released on 21 December 2018.[22]

• Maari 2 at IMDb