# Iraivi

Iraivi (transl. Goddess) is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language neo-noir crime drama film written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj and produced by C. V. Kumar, K. E. Gnanavel Raja and Abinesh Elangovan under their banners Thirukumaran Entertainment, Studio Green and Abi & Abi Pictures, respectively. The film features an ensemble cast including S. J. Suryah, Vijay Sethupathi, Bobby Simha, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Anjali, and Pooja Devariya. It revolves around three financially struggling men trying to overcome their problems by involving in criminal activities, not realising the impact their efforts are having on the women in their lives.
Karthik drafted the script during the production works of Jigarthanda in September 2013 and took more than a year for its completion. The film was formally announced in February 2015, with principal photography beginning that May and ending that September. The film features music composed by Santhosh Narayanan with cinematography handled by Sivakumar Vijayan and edited by Vivek Harshan.
Iraivi was released on 3 June 2016 and received positive reviews from critics but did not perform well at the box office. In 2017, Anjali was nominated for the Best Actress award at the 2nd IIFA Utsavam awards, and Pooja received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress award at the 6th South Indian International Movie Awards.

## Plot

The film centres around three men and the women in their life: a struggling and alcoholic film director Arul and his wife Yazhini; Arul's best friend Michael and his wife Ponni; and Arul's younger brother Jagan.
Arul was a renowned film director until he fell out with the producer of his latest directorial film, because of which the film never released. To overcome his sorrow, he became a chronic alcoholic and started harassing Yazhini. Though Yazhini often threatens to divorce Arul for his behaviour, she changes her mind each time due to her love for him.
Michael, an artefact dealer, is forced to marry Ponni, despite being in love with a widow named Malar. However, Malar has no love for Michael, merely considering their relationship as friends with benefits. Michael openly reveals to Ponni that he is not interested in being her husband and ignores her.
Yazhini tries to convince Arul to seek the producer's forgiveness and get his film released so that they both could return to a normal life. When Arul refuses, the producer himself steps in and asks Arul to pay him ₹4,00,00,000 to get his film released. Michael and Jagan, with the help of their friend Ramesh, steal a temple idol and sell it for ₹40,000,000 so that Arul's film can be released. Unfortunately, the producer has already decided to remake Arul's film with an entirely new cast and with his own brother as the director. Arul confronts the producer, who tries to kill him. In a fit of rage, Michael bludgeons the producer to death and is soon sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for his crime. An angry Ponni starts ignoring her husband, never visits him in jail, gives birth to their daughter, and eventually returns to her village. Meanwhile, Yazhini returns to her parents' house and files for a divorce against Arul, fed up of his alcoholism.
Arul is sent to rehab to overcome his alcoholism and is released two years later. Now sober, Arul tries to convince Yazhini to return to him, to no avail. Meanwhile, Arul and Jagan bail out Michael, who leaves for Ponni's village in an attempt to restart his married life with her. Ponni agrees to come back with him on the condition that he breaks his friendship with Arul. The deceased producer's widow and brother meet with Arul and decide to sell the production rights of his film to him for ₹2,000,000. To get the money, Michael and Jagan again team up with Ramesh to steal an idol from a Kerala temple and sell it. However, Ramesh drugs Michael and runs away with the idol. Michael is arrested the following morning, but he manages to escape from the police and return to Chennai.
On confronting Ramesh, he finds out that Jagan was responsible for getting him arrested at Kerala. Jagan was also in love with Ponni and was disgusted at the way Michael treated her. When Michael was in jail, Jagan declared his love for Ponni, who reciprocated but was forced to return to her village the next day as she was unable to decide between Michael and Jagan. Jagan then decided to get Michael arrested so that Ponni could leave Michael for good and start a new life with him. After confronting Ponni over her love for Jagan, both Michael and she decide to forget everything that happened and plan to leave Chennai to start a new life.
Arul, who has successfully acquired the production rights for his film, decides to once again convince Yazhini to return to him. Yazhini, who is getting engaged to another person, Vasanth, forgives him and agrees to return to him as long as Vasanth agrees. Meanwhile, Michael picks up a fight with a drunk Jagan over Ponni. During the fight, he accidentally kills Jagan, forcing him and Ponni to go into hiding, but he does not tell her that he killed Jagan. When the train that Michael and Ponni are travelling in stops at Palur, Arul, who has found out that Michael had killed his brother, notices him and shoots him in revenge. As Arul is taken to prison, he contacts Yazhini and pretends that he has once again returned to his drunken habits as he does not want her to suffer with the stigma of being a criminal's wife, effectively ending their relationship.
In the end, with their respective husbands out of the way, Ponni and Yazhini relish their newly found freedom by enjoying the rain. Yazhini only watches the rain, leaving the viewers to introspect on how she is not ready to venture out into the world alone yet, while Ponni allows herself to get drenched, finally letting go.

## Cast

* S. J. Suryah as Arul Dass
* Vijay Sethupathi as Michael
* Anjali as Ponni
* Bobby Simha as Jagan
* Kamalinee Mukherjee as Yazhini (Yazhu)
* Pooja Devariya as Malarvizhi
* Karunakaran as Ramesh
* Radha Ravi as Dass
* Vadivukkarasi as Meenakshi
* Cheenu Mohan as John
* Gajaraj as Ramalingam
* Bagavathi Perumal as Varun
* Kaali Venkat as Bhagyam
* Rajashree as Kala
* Ramachandran Durairaj as Mahesh
* R. K. Vijay Murugan as Murugesan
* Vivek Prasanna as Director
* Senthil Kumaran as Senthil
* Agavamma as John's wife
* Settai Sethu as Bala
* Rameez Raja as Rakesh
* Kasthuri Patti as Sagayam
* Vaibhav as Vasanth (cameo appearance)
* Santhosh Narayanan (special appearance in the song "Kadhal Kappal")

## Production
### Development

While working on Jigarthanda, Karthik Subbaraj began writing for his untitled third project in September 2013. A year later, in September 2014, it was reported that the film would be titled Iraivi and produced by C. V. Kumar via Thirukumaran Entertainment, collaborating with Karthik for the second time after Pizza (2012). The producers then officially confirmed the project in February 2015, with cinematographer Gavemic U. Ary, editor Vivek Harshan, composer Santhosh Narayanan, art director R. K. Vijay Murugan and sound designer duo Vishnu Govind and Sree Sankar forming the technical crew. Ary was later replaced by Sivakumar Vijayan.
Karthik stated that the story is based on a Christian family and the relationship between two brothers, adding that the film would focus on how women influence men in modern society. Speaking to Vishal Menon of The Hindu, he stated that the films of directors K. Balachander, Balu Mahendra and Mahendran, who often made women-centric films, inspired him to do the film.
   Iraivi is about women, men and their priorities. It talks about women's freedom, how men look at it and how women use it. It's neither preachy nor is it about women's empowerment. The film is based on the women we see around us and how certain things are no different, no matter what class or background they belong to.

### Casting

In February 2015, Karthik released a press statement confirming the casting of Bobby Simha, Vijay Sethupathi and S. J. Suryah as the lead actors, with Karunakaran in a major role. Karthik described Iraivi as a performance-driven film, where "good actors can make a huge difference to a scene that might sound or read flat". Speaking of Suryah's casting, Karthik stated he had liked Suryah's acting and directorial prowess, though did not want to repeat the actor's performances in New (2004) and Anbe Aaruyire (2005).
In May 2015, Anjali was announced as playing one of the lead actresses; Pooja Kumar had reportedly been considered for the role. Kamalinee Mukherjee was confirmed the following month, marking a return to Tamil films after Kadhalna Summa Illai (2009). Pooja Devariya had auditioned twice for the film, but shifted to Mumbai for her theatre career after receiving no response from the makers of Iraivi; however, Karthik's management contacted her a few days after, and she joined the film.

### Filming

Karthik stated that the film would begin production from April 2015. However, principal photography eventually began on 20 May 2015. Scenes featuring Simha and Suryah were first shot during this schedule. By early-September, filming was mostly complete, having taken place primarily in Wayanad and Chennai. Anjali completed shooting her portions in mid-September 2015. Filming wrapped by 30 September, after which post-production works commenced. Dubbing works began in November 2015. On June 2020, five years since the film's release, the makers released a raw footage of the climax sequence performed by Suryah and Cheenu Mohan.

## Soundtrack

The soundtrack album is composed by Santhosh Narayanan and featured six songs written by Vivek, Muthamil and Mani Amudhavan. The album was released on 15 April 2016 under the Sony Music India label.

## Marketing

In early January 2016, the first look poster was released, and the caption "Sila woMENkalin kadhai" (Story of few woMEN) was highlighted by commentators for the way it capitalised the word "men". As a part of the promotional campaign, the making of the film premiered a four-episode series, documenting the film's making, starting from 22 May 2016. The producers also collaborated with The Sight Media to launch an in-auto rickshaw LED branding, with the clips and video promos of the film being available for customers travelling in Chennai auto rickshaws through the LED panels installed there.

## Release
### Theatrical

Iraivi was initially scheduled for release on 20 May 2016. Due to the release of Idhu Namma Aalu and Marudhu during the month, the team pushed the release to 3 June. In Tamil Nadu, the film was distributed by KR Films in association with Skylark Entertainment and Area 78.

### Home media

The film had its television premiere on 5 September 2016 via Jaya TV.

## Critical reception

Iraivi received positive response from critics. M. Suganth of The Times of India gave 3.5 out of 5 and stated, "Karthik's writing is novelistic, with each character having their own well-sketched arcs." In his review for The Hindu, Baradwaj Rangan wrote, " Iraivi is an unusual feminist film, in the sense that it's seen entirely through the prism of sympathetic male characters. This is bound to happen when there are so many people, so many strands, when we don't follow one person's simplistic "you go, girl" journey. But when the parts are so well-crafted, we don't complain as much about their sum not adding up to a satisfying whole." Gauthaman Baskaran of Hindustan Times wrote, "Iraivi in the end seems like a story gone astray, the lives of several people destroyed by male egoistic rage that seeks solution in blood and gore. There is very little to cheer in the 160-minute work, which, though has some interesting performances by Simha, Surya and Anjali." Kirubakar Purushothaman of India Today gave 3 out of 5 and stated, "The story of Iraivi is about the victimisation of the females in the film by the malevolent arrogance of their respective not-so-better halves." J Hurtado of ScreenAnarchy wrote, "Not straight enough to be a great drama, and not out-there enough to be another quirky winner, Iraivi falls flat".
S. Saraswathi of Rediff.com gave 3.5 out of 5 to the film, stating, "The beautifully etched out characters, the performances, the exceptional music and the thought-provoking message makes Karthik Subbaraj's Iraivi a must watch." Giving 3 out of 5 stars, Anupama Subramanian of Deccan Chronicle wrote, "The movie has a feminist theme and the bold characters have semblance to one we used to see in K. Balachander's films." Vikram Venkateshwaran of The Quint wrote, "Iraivi disturbingly tells you that gender is not based on one's plumbing. All of the characters, including the women who are victimised, only seek happiness for themselves. And that's what makes it so real and relatable." Sowmya Rajendran of The News Minute wrote that the director "does suggest that women ought to stop depending on men for their happiness but sadly, even then, none of his female characters MAKE that choice actively. The men do it on their behalf. The women are like characters from Waiting for Godot, hoping that someday, things will get better without taking charge of their own lives. This is a very simplistic depiction and does injustice to both genders. It is also unreal though we may be tricked into believing that it is completely realistic."

## Controversies

Iraivi features an egoistic film producer played by Vijay Murugan who is shown as a ruthless, money-minded person who does not care about the feelings of a struggling director, played by Suryah. Post-release, some members of the Tamil Film Producers Council including P. L. Thenappan criticised Karthik for allegedly portraying the producer's character in poor light and also threatened to issue a "red card" against the director. K. E. Gnanavel Raja, who co-produced and distributed the film also expressed his disappointment against the issue. He noted that Karthik had differences of opinion with C. V. Kumar because the former overshot the budget. Some reports claimed that Karthik's fallout with film producer Kathiresan during the production of Jigarthanda is why he portrayed the Iraivi character as such. After Karthik issued a letter to the Tamil Film Directors Union explaining his position, the problem was amicably resolved.

## Impact

Inspired by the film, a clothes showroom named Iraivi was organised by Vijay Sethupathi's sister in Chennai.