Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2006 film)

Rani (Bidushi Dash Barde),[7] the daughter of former Tirunelveli Superintendant Arokiya Raj IPS (Prakash Raj), tells her father over the phone that she will be back home in Madurai in three hours. As Rani leaves the telephone booth, she is approached by someone she knows, and she does not come home. The following morning, Arokiya Raj finds Rani's finger hanging at his door.

Arokiya Raj calls the DCP in Chennai Crime Branch, Raghavan IPS (Kamal Haasan), his ex-colleague and friend from Chennai, to help in the investigation of Rani's disappearance. Raghavan finds Rani's body within 12 hours, buried in the outskirts of the city. The coroner's report states that the killer bisected Rani's body with a surgical knife, proving that the murderer has a strong medical background, and that he also savagely raped her before killing her. Without any solid clues, the case is left open. Six months following the trauma of losing their only daughter, Arokiya Raj and his wife Chithra (Rajashree) move to New York City to get away from the pain of losing Rani, and Rani's wish was to do her MS there.

Three months later, Raghavan learns that both Arokiya Raj and Chithra have been brutally murdered in New York. Collaborating with the New York City Police Department (NYPD), Raghavan leaves for New York to represent the Indian police (IPS). On the flight, he reminisces about his late wife Kayalvizhi (Kamalinee Mukherjee), who was murdered by a local gang in an attempt to get to him.

Once in New York, he begins his investigation with NYPD detective Anderson (Lev Gorn). Raghavan stays at a hotel in downtown New York, where he constantly keeps his superiors in Chennai updated on the investigation. At the hotel, he meets his neighbour Aradhana (Jyothika), an NRI. He immediately notices that she is going through a rough patch in her life and one night, worried about her safety, he breaks into her room, only to find her attempting suicide by asphyxiation. He saves her life and the two strike a friendship. Aradhana reveals that her violent husband Arun (Yog Japee) is filing for divorce after cheating on her.

Meanwhile, Raghavan and Anderson find a connection between Rani's murder in Madurai and a two-year-old unsolved murder of an Indian American girl named Chandana, whose finger was also found hanging in her boyfriend's car. Raghavan's instinct leads them to Chandana's body in a restricted area in the suburbs, found along with three other American girls, raped and murdered in a similar manner. After narrowing down their suspects using flight records, their suspicion falls onto two Indian doctors who studied in New York: Amudhan Sukumaran (Daniel Balaji) and Ilamaaran Aanandhan (Salim Baig). Amudhan and Ilamaaran are secretly in a homosexual relationship.

Raghavan and Anderson visit Amudhan and Ilamaaran's apartment to question them, only to find it unoccupied. Raghavan and Anderson break into the apartment and find pictures of the victims and the murder weapons. Before they can call for backup, Amudan and Ilamaaran arrive, and a violent fight ensues, leaving Anderson shot dead, Raghavan gravely injured, and Ilamaaran unconscious. In order to buy time, Raghavan asks Amudhan why such intelligent young men like them would succumb to such psychopathic acts.

Amudhan explains that they had developed a habit of killing from childhood itself, starting with pushing a classmate from a train at age 10, to raping and murdering their high school teacher at age 17. He says that he and Amudhan stopped this activity once they joined MBBS in Rani's university. He claims that he managed to keep his violent urges under control for three years, but when he saw Rani, he tried to rape her. Rani escaped, and two days later Arokiyaraj assaulted the duo. He and Ilamaaran were locked up in a local station for one night. The inspector on duty had them set up with a eunuch who severely molested them. Despite being thirsty for revenge, both of them left for New York to pursue their higher studies in Surgery and went on to abduct, rape and kill many local young women. On their trip to India, they met, raped and killed Rani and returned to the States. After finding out that Arokiya Raj had moved to New York, they studied his residence, killed him and raped his wife before killing her too. Thinking that Raghavan will be dead in minutes due to his lung injuries, they set their apartment on fire and take the next flight to Mumbai, to escape the NYPD.

Raghavan makes it out alive by jumping out the window and is hospitalized with severe injuries. Aradhana takes care of him, and their bond grows stronger. 4 weeks later, Raghavan and Aradhana return to Chennai together. During their flight, Aradhana explains that she has a daughter who is living with her parents in Chennai, and she feels guilty for being selfish and wanting to commit suicide. She says that she will be taking her daughter and mom back to New York in 2 weeks to start her job. As they wait in line for customs, Raghavan proposes to Aradhana, but she refuses, saying that she is not ready for another relationship, having just finalized her divorce, and wishes to focus on being a good mother to her daughter.

Amudhan and Illamaran, evade the Mumbai police at Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport and finally reach Chennai, leaving a trail of bodies in their path. After seeing Aradhana with Raghavan, Amudhan kidnaps her for Ilamaran's lust, while Ilamaaran tries to get into Raghavan's house to kill him. When the cops arrive, Ilamaaran attempts to flee but is caught by Raghavan after a chase and fight. He comes to realize that Amudhan and Ilamaaran are in an intimate relationship. Trying to negotiate Ilamaaran's freedom for Aradhana's, Raghavan agrees to meet with Amudhan. The final altercation results in Raghavan killing both Amudhan and Ilamaaran and rescuing Aradhana. The film ends with the marriage between Raghavan and Aradhana.

In 2005, Gautham Menon planned to make a film in Malayalam (which eventually became Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu) and approached Mohanlal after finishing the script, but nothing materialised.[8] Kamal Haasan had agreed to make a film for producer Kaja Mohideen of Roja Combines, and the pair discussed signing Menon to be the film's director, after they were impressed with his work in Kaakha Kaakha (2003). Menon first discussed the script of Pachaikili Muthucharam (2007) with Kamal Haasan, and the actor asked him to develop it into a script within forty days. However he later had second thoughts and asked Menon for a different script to collaborate on. Menon was keen to make a trilogy of cop films, much like Ram Gopal Varma's trilogy of gangster films, and subsequently planned Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu as the second in the series after Kaakha Kaakha. The film narrated another episode from a police officer's life, that of an Indian cop who moves to America to investigate the case of psychotic serial killers before returning to pursue the chase in India.[9] As per Menon's usual method for picking a title, he asked his associates for suggestions, which included the title of Thadayaara Thaaka, which was later used for another film.[10]

The film began production in August 2005 in Chennai, with Ravi Varman signed as the cinematographer.[11] Towards the start of the shoot, producer Kaja Mohideen ran into financial troubles and subsequently attempted suicide. As a result, Kamal Haasan wanted to quit the project but Menon convinced him to stay on as they had taken advance payments.[12] Ravichandran of Oscar Films stepped in and spent 90 lakhs on the film, before also suddenly withdrawing from the project within fifteen days. In order not to waste dates, Menon personally funded a schedule in Mumbai featuring Kamal Haasan and Jyothika and spent 80 lakhs. Menon revealed that unlike Kamal Haasan's other films, the actor did not want to take control of the script or production. Angered by the delays of the film, he kept to himself and made minimal suggestions barring to change some dialogues on location.[9] The film however had gone through changes from the original script, with less emphasis on the antagonists than Menon had hoped, and he also revealed that scenes for songs were forced and shot without him.[13]

For the American schedule, Manickam Narayanan took over as a producer and made the film on a "first-copy" basis. Subsequently, fifty percent of the film was shot in New York City, where shooting lasted for a month. Menon had planned to shoot more scenes in the city, including a car chase sequence, but the change of producer delayed the schedule and cold weather elongated the team's stay and increased costs.[9][14][15] Actresses Rohini and Andrea Jeremiah dubbed for the voices of female leads Jyothika and Kamalinee Mukherjee respectively.[16][17] Menon worked on the post-production of the film in May 2006, while he was simultaneously filming Pachaikili Muthucharam (2007).[9]

Like in Kaakha Kaakha, Menon wanted the script to feature sequences where that the cop's personal life gets involved and affected in the course of the investigation.[9]

Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu
Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Released	21 June 2006 (21 June 2006)
Recorded	2006
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	26:57
Language	Tamil
Label	Ayngaran Music An Ak Audio Hit Musics
Producer	Harris Jayaraj
Harris Jayaraj chronology
Ghajini (2005) Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2006) Sainikudu (2006)
External audio Audio Jukebox (Tamil) on YouTube

The soundtrack of the film consists of five songs composed by Harris Jayaraj. It marks Jayaraj's first and only collaboration with Kamal Haasan.

All tracks are written by Thamarai.

Raghavan
Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj
Released	14 July 2006 (14 July 2006)
Recorded	2006
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	26:40
Language	Telugu
Label	Aditya Music
Producer	Harris Jayaraj
External audio Audio Jukebox (Telugu) on YouTube

All tracks are written by Veturi Sundararama Murthy.

• Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu at IMDb