# Kavan (film)

Kavan (/kəvən/ transl. Catapult) is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language political thriller film directed by K. V. Anand and produced by AGS Entertainment. The film stars Vijay Sethupathi, Madonna Sebastian, T. Rajendar, Vikranth and Darshana Rajendran. Pandiarajan, Akashdeep Saigal, Bose Venkat, Jagan and others appear in supporting roles. The film, which has a soundtrack and score composed by Hiphop Tamizha, began its production in July 2016. The film was released on 31 March 2017. The film received positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success.

## Plot

Thilak is a news anchor who works for Zen One TV, which is run by Kalyan, a corrupt and unethical media baron who uses blatant sensationalism to gain TRP and is closely associated with Dheeran Maniarasu, a corrupt and powerful politician. Kalyan ensures that his channel does not report anything negatively about Dheeran and receives kickbacks in return. Also working for Zen One is Malar, Thilak's ex-girlfriend. Though Malar avoids Thilak initially, she soon realises her feelings for him, and they get back together.
One day, Malar gets the news that her friend Kalpana, who is a social activist, has been assaulted and her boyfriend Abdul Kader has been blamed. Thilak, creative head Ashok, and Malar manage to smuggle out Kalpana from the hospital and convince her to tell her story. Kalpana had been assaulted by Dheeran's goons in retribution for protesting against Dheeran's pesticide factory, which had ruined a once-prosperous village due to the effluents coming out of the factory, and the blame was put on Abdul instead. This confession is telecasted live, and Kalpana gains massive support from the public. However, Kalyan telecasts another video that depicts Kalpana as "mentally ill" and had tried to malign Dheeran due to her "mental state". Enraged, Thilak attempts to expose Dheeran during a talk show, despite being bound by the Zen One management to ask questions framed by them to Dheeran. A brawl eventually ensues between Thilak and Dheeran, and Thilak brutally assaults Ashok, who is responsible for the video which had defamed Kalpana. Thilak then confronts Kalyan for his cronyism and lack of journalism ethics and is fired and blacklisted from all major media networks in response. Malar, executive producer Jagan, and two other colleagues, Nishandhini and Aarthi also walk out with Thilak in a show of solidarity, and they too are blacklisted.
With nowhere else to go, Thilak, Malar, Jagan, Nishandhini and Aarthi take up jobs with Muthamizh TV, a struggling local news channel run by Mayilvaganan. Thilak goes to the village and reports on how the villagers are affected as a result of the pesticide factory and telecasts it on Muthamizh. He also makes Abdul and Kalpana reveal their side of the story and also gets that telecasted along with a video showing Dheeran assaulting him at the Zen One studio. With Zen One as well as Dheeran now exposed, Kalyan decides to take revenge on Thilak by orchestrating a bomb blast with the help of Dheeran at the DC's office and putting the blame on Abdul, who was present at the Collector's Office minutes before the bomb exploded, thereby sensationalising it as a "terrorist attack". He also frames Thilak, Malar, and Muthamizh as co-conspirators, leading to Muthamizh being blacked out by the Central Government.
On the run, Thilak manages to capture a video of Abdul revealing that he was not involved in any terrorist attack and was framed by Dheeran and Zen One. Thilak also records a video showing Ashok and the police orchestrating a fake encounter to kill Abdul. He manages to get both videos telecasted on Zen One itself with the help of Jagan, Aarthi and Nishandhini, who have rejoined Zen One TV as part of Thilak's plan to expose Kalyan and Dheeran, as well as his former boss Pillai, the chief editor at Zen One who had suffered in silence against the atrocities committed by the Zen One management. Having been exposed completely, Kalyan and Dheeran, who are at the Muthamizh studio, boldly admit their crimes to Thilak and defend themselves, but unfortunately for them, their confession is recorded by the Police Commissioner, who was working undercover in Muthamizh. Kalyan and Dheeran are arrested. Thilak, Mayilvaganan, Malar, Jagan, Pillai, Nisha and Aishwarya celebrate their victory.

## Cast

* Vijay Sethupathi as Thilak, former newsreader and cameraman of ZenOne Channel and current TV cameraman newsreader of Muthamizh TV
* T. Rajendar as Mayilvaganan, founder and owner of Muthamizh TV
* Vikranth as Abdul Kader, social activist
* Madonna Sebastian as Malar, Muthamizh tv employee & Thilak's girlfriend
* Darshana Rajendran as Kalpana, Social activist .Abdul's lover
* Pandiarajan as Pillai, senior news editor of ZenOne Channel
* Akashdeep Saigal as Kalyan, managing director of ZenOne Channel
* Bose Venkat as Dheeran Maniarasu (Theechatti Mannaru), politician and Dragon Factory owner
* Jagan as Jagan, executive producer of ZenOne Channel
* R. N. R. Manohar as Thilak's father
* Five Star Krishna as Ashok, creative head of ZenOne Channel
* Priyadarshini Rajkumar as Bavana, general manager of ZenOne Channel
* S. S. Stanley as Omar
* Chandini Tamilarasan as Nimmi
* D. R. K. Kiran as Inspector Bala
* Vijay Menon as Santhanam
* Vikram Chakkravarthy as Raghavan
* Bhawana Aneja as Lakshmi
* Aishwarya as Nisha
* Shwetha as Shwetha
* Rekha Suresh as Nurse
* Nassar as Police Commissioner (guest appearance)
* Powerstar Srinivasan as himself (guest appearance)
* Anthony as a person in the bar (cameo appearance)
* K. V. Anand as himself (voice acting) and additionally in a brief cameo as tea-seller.

## Production
### Development

After the release of Anegan director K. V. Anand expressed his desire to commence his next film, which is said to be on the lines of the directors own Ko. The project was confirmed on 22 March 2016. This marked the third collaboration of K. V. Anand with AGS Entertainment producing.

### Casting

The film stars filmmaker-actor T. Rajendar, who returned as an actor after a gap of ten years since he acted in a full-fledged role. He considered the role to reflect his "real" self of soft-spoken, contrary to his reputation for speaking powerfully. Madonna Sebastian is the lead actress and Hiphop Tamizha have been roped in to compose music. Also actor Akashdeep Saigal who was last seen in Anand's Ayan (2009) was signed on to play a key role in the film he joined the filming from August 2016.

### Filming

The first schedule commenced on 11 July 2016. It is also revealed that, the script is co-written by Kabilan Vairamuthu along with Anand's favourite duo, Suresh and Balakrishnan. As of 29 August 2016, it is said to be 40% complete from around 30 days of shoot. The second schedule has started recently in Chennai and the team has been canning a few scenes in T. Nagar, Chennai which involves Vijay Sethupathi and T. Rajendar. Madonna Sebastian will also be a part of this schedule and she's expected to join the sets very soon after these. This schedule is likely to go on for another 2 weeks and the makers are planning to complete the entire shoot portion by the month of October but since they need to complete over 50% of the film, the possibility of wrapping the shoot portion before October is less, adds source. The title Kavan was revealed in late October 2016. Regarding the decision to choose this title, Anand said, "We chose 'Kavan', which means 'catapult', because it perfectly suits the story line, which involves a hero aiming for his target, and also sounded good."

## Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was composed by Hiphop Tamizha, making their first collaboration with director K. V. Anand and replacing his norm composer Harris Jayaraj. One of the songs in the album, "Happy New Year", was released on YouTube as a single on 30 December 2016. The audio rights are also secured by the production house itself, alongside Divo. The whole album was launched at Suryan FM 93.5 on 12 February 2017. Reviewing the album, The Times of India wrote, "With KV Anand moving away from Harris Jayaraj, the album has songs that have the feel of the songs of his films, albeit with a twist".
| Song Title | Singers | Lyrics |
| "Happy New Year" | T. Rajendar, Hiphop Tamizha, Madonna Sebastian | Arunraja Kamaraj |
| "Oxygen" | Hiphop Tamizha, Sudarshan Ashok | Kabilan Vairamuthu |
| "Mathuraangalam" | Kaber Vasuki and Kids Chorus | Kabilan Vairamuthu |
| "Theeratha Vilayattu Pillai" | Hiphop Tamizha, Padmalatha, Anthony Daasan, Georgina Mathew | Mahakavi Subramania Bharati |
| "Boomerang" | Hiphop Tamizha, Nikhita Gandhi, Velmurugan | Kabilan Vairamuthu |
| "Vetri Meethu Vetri Vandhu – Reprised" | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam | Vaali |

## Release

Kavan was released worldwide on 31 March 2017 alongside Dora. It had its world premiere in Dubai the day before. Kavan would release in a total of 624 screens, where 324 of the screens were in Tamil Nadu, 44 in Karnataka and 37 in Kerala. In the overseas area, the film released in more than 170 screens. The official trailer of the film was released on 11 March 2017 on YouTube, reaching 1 million views within a day.

### Critical reception

The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. India Today gave it a 3/5 and said that "Vijay Sethupathi shines in this media-bashing, media-glorifying film". The Indian Express rated it 3/5 and said that it was "fun to watch". Sreedhar Pillai writing for Firstpost rated it a 3/5 and called it a "commercial entertainer, which keeps you hooked". Sify praised the film by calling it "a well-made commercial film that delivers a solid kick". M. Suganth from The Times of India gave it a 3/5 and said that it "keeps us engaged with its crowd-pleasing quality". In contrast, Gautaman Bhaskaran from Hindustan Times rated it 2/5 and called it "a film without focus, but Vijay Sethupathi shines, as usual". Baradwaj Rangan rated it 1/5 and called it "a 'satire' on the television industry", which "is overlong and laughably overblown".

### Box office

The film had an excellent opening at the box office collecting ₹101 million (US$1.2 million) on its opening weekend in Tamil Nadu alone, where ₹31.0 million (US$350,000) was its opening day collection, increasing to a number of ₹42.0 million (US$480,000) on its second day, with the help of positive word of mouth. In its second week, the film grossed ₹200 million (US$2.3 million) in Tamil Nadu alone within 10 days of its release, despite Kaatru Veliyidai releasing, it still held strong at the box office.