Mafia: Chapter 1

The movie starts off with a hotel, where a gunshot was heard and immediately the police arrived. It stops there and immediately shifts to the main lead, Aryan. Aryan is a Narcotics Control Bureau Officer who works alongside his batchmates Sathya and Varun. Aryan lost his twin Brother, Dillip, to drugs, therefore he becomes a Narcotics Officer and his main aim is to eradicate all drug groups and drug lords, known as the ‘Snake’s Den’. Alongside his team are Selvam, his team supervisor and Mugilan, a social activist who is also Aryan's neighbour. Whilst Aryan arrives home after catching two culprits that were into drugs, he receives news that Selvam has died due to a gunshot at the head. Previously, Selvam had concluded the guy behind this, but did not reveal so the culprit wouldn't know about this. Aryan and Sathya investigate around the house, and Aryan concludes that there is a big drug lord behind the murder, and they must find evidence of that.

Mugilan is also targeted by the drug lord and his bodyguard and is killed. Before his death, he puts information about the drug lord in a USB stick, attached to his dog, Pogo's collar and sends Aryan a message. Aryan tracks Pogo down with the tracking chip installed in his collar and sees the information. The drug lord is apparently Diwakar Kumaran (DK) who is a big technology entrepreneur and a philanthropist. Mugilan suspects his early source of income was with links of international drug cartels. DK and his brother/bodyguard Rudra have links with politicians, so their business cannot be derailed. Knowing this Mugilan and Selvam decides to investigate a place thought to be Diwakar’s secret hideout. Through this they were both caught.

Aryan later moved on to start a shootout at the place, and finally concludes Diwakar’s role in drug dealing. DK, knowing what will happen, abducts Aryan’s family and asks Aryan to meet his doom at a warehouse. With a plan, Aryan and his team, tries foiling all of DK’s plan in one night. After an interesting cat-and-mouse chase, Aryan finally manages to catch DK, who kills himself to prevent going into custody. This is where the start of the movie comes in. Before his death, DK tells Aryan that he is not the main drug lord. Then later it is followed by a twist that his own twin brother Dilip aka Dexter is the main drug Lord, who swears revenge on Aryan, since Diwakar and Dilip escaped a police Attack and found a bounty to start their drug businesses and Dilip was thought to be dead. The story then leads to Mafia: Chapter 2.

• Arun Vijay as Aryan (the Protagonist), Narcotics Control Bureau Officer and Dilip alias of Dexter whist his code name being Cobra (the Main Antagonist)
• Prasanna as Diwakar Kumaran aka DK whist his codename being Viper
• Priya Bhavani Shankar as Sathya, Narcotic Central Bureau Officer and Aryan's teammate and love interest
• Thalaivasal Vijay as Mugilan, Aryan's neighbor and social activist
• Bharath Reddy as Inspector Naveen
• Bala Hassan as Varun, Narcotic Central Bureau Officer, and Aryan's teammate
• Aroul D. Shankar as Selvam, Narcotic Central Bureau and head of Aryan's team
• Mathew Varghese as Aryan's father
• Rekha Suresh as Aryan's mother
• Inder Kumar as Rudra, DK's brother
• Dipshi Blessy as Sowmya

Principal photography began on 6 July 2019, in Chennai.[5] Arun Vijay and Prasanna shot for some action sequences in Thailand.[6] The shooting of the film was completed in 35 days in a single stretch.[7] On 1 October 2019, Prasanna completed his dubbing.[8] On 18 November 2019, Arun Vijay completed his dubbing.[9]

The film's music is composed by Jakes Bejoy.[10]

On 8 February 2020, Mafia released its first video song, "Vedan Vendaacho".

The film received mixed reviews from audience as well as critics.[16] Giving the film a 3/5 rating, Thinkal Menon from The Times of India praised the performances and wrote "Mafia would appeal to fans of action movies, especially those which have stylish narcotics backdrop."[17] Behindwoods gave it 2.75 stars out of 5, calling it "an action flick that is majorly uplifted by the stylish treatment and a smart climax for the sequel."[18] Indiaglitz similarly gave it 2.75/5 and praised the lead actors, action sequences and technical aspects while criticizing the predictability of several scenes. Nevertheless, the reviewer felt the film was "an interesting start for an action franchise."[19]Firstpost rated 3 out of 5 stars stating "On the whole Mafia: Chapter I is stylishly cut but has very little substance. But the climax has kindled the expectation meter for Chapter II. In fact, just for the seven minute climax surprise twist we are going with a higher rating than it would have deserved."[20]The Hindu stated "Arun Vijay and Prasanna struggle hard to keep the tension alive in an adequate thriller that abuses its own substance".[21]Deccan Chronicle rated 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "The problem with 'Mafia' is that it makes plenty of noise but has little substance".[22]The Indian Express rated 2 out of 5 stars stating "The biggest problem is that Mafia: Chapter 1 is so randomly written".[23]The News Minute rated 2 out of 5 stars stating "Karthick falls back on voiceovers and an excessive use of English in the dialogues to keep up the sophisticated tone, but the writing falls flat".[24]Hindustan Times stated "Mafia may come across as slightly over stylised for a story set in Chennai and involving officers of the Narcotics Control Bureau, but once you get used to the world, you’re in for a surprise".[25]Sify rated 2.5 out of 5 stars stating "All style and no substance".[26] Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote "The single-minded pursuit of surface style kills the movie. The rhythms are flat. The scenes play like summaries that nobody bothered to shape into… a “scene”. There’s a lot of dead air."[27]

• Mafia: Chapter 1 on IMDb