Saani Kaayidham () is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language action crime film directed by Arun Matheswaran. The film stars Keerthy Suresh and director Selvaraghavan in lead roles. Siddharth Ravipati produced the film while the musical score and cinematography were handled by Sam C. S. and Yamini Yagnamurthy respectively.

Saani Kaayidham was released on Amazon Prime Video on 6 May 2022 and received positive reviews from critics.

Plot
In 1989, Ponni was a hardworking police constable without real higher-life aspirations. Ponni aims to ensure that she raises her daughter Dhanam well and that she receives a good education. Ponni's husband, Maari, a mill worker, aspires to break free from rampant caste issues and poverty in their village by getting involved in local elections. It leads to a minor conflict with one of the mill owner's relatives, and Anbu soon gets fired. When he returns the next day to apologise and get his job back, the mill owner, Perumal, and his relatives, driven by their senseless casteism and misogyny, humiliate him and make derogatory remarks about Ponni.

In retaliation, Maari attacks and humiliates them in return. They feel shamed after a lower-caste person retaliates against them, whom they consider an inferior specimen. As a result, Perumal and his relatives burn down Ponni's house while her husband and daughter sleep inside. They assault and rape Ponni after her superior officer, Deva, leads her to them on false pretences. However, they leave Ponni alive since she is a policewoman; her death might lead to legal trouble for them. When Ponni seeks justice for Maari and Dhanam's deaths in court, the culprits use their influence and receive a minor sentence. After planning a scuffle, they leave to hide and escape with the help of Advocate Rani. Ponni, reeling from the incident, swears revenge on them. She teams with her half-brother Sangayya to seek vengeance against the upper-caste landlords.

Ponni was not on good terms with Sangayya due to a past conflict between their mothers, and they grew apart. Sangayya reconciles with Ponni due to a similar incident in his past (A group of people murdered his son and wife, and the villagers beat him) and how he formed a close bond with Dhanam. She tells them that they should feel the pain they felt and that she should hack them. Firstly, the duo find Advocate Rani in an abandoned building. Ponni stabs her in the stomach and shoulder. Rani eventually reveals the locations of the men. Ponni notes it down on paper. They then set her alight. The duo managed to hunt down, torture and kill the culprits. Firstly, they torture and stab Anbu. Then Sangayya pours acid on his penis and kills him. One of them gets killed by his younger brother Giri due to an inheritance dispute (Giri was also in charge of helping the group hide in different areas). Giri's blind son, Sudalai, whom the duo knew beforehand and was Dhanam's close friend, survived. Ponni and Sangayya find the man's body. Sangayya takes Sudalai, despite Ponni's adamant insistence that Sudalai had also assaulted her on that fateful night. Sangayya burns the lodge where another one of Perumal's goons, Vasu, is staying and kidnaps him. In a van, Sangayya puts his tied body inside a van. Ponni pours acid and brutally stabs him until he dies.

Ponni uses the van to injure Giri and his henchmen after one of the goons stabs Sangayya in the back. The duo manages to find and kill Perumal and Deva at a cinema. Before killing Perumal, he hacks off Perumal's hand and then slits his throat. Perumal's men seriously wound Sangayya after he singlehandedly held them off. Upon his insistence, Ponni leaves him in the van to bring Sudalai, whom she had instructed to hide nearby. The reinforcements led by Giri arrive and chase after the vehicle, which Sangayya had anticipated. Sangayya sacrifices himself by blowing up the van after lighting up several gas cylinders, which he had stowed inside, killing the reinforcements and leaving Ponni devastated. After taking some time to recover, Ponni leaves with Sudalai. Sudalai was not involved in the assault and was innocent.

Cast
 Keerthy Suresh as Ponni
 Selvaraghavan as Sangayya, Ponni's half-brother
 Kanna Ravi as Maari
 Lizzie Antony as Advocate Rani
 Vinoth Munna as Deva
 Murugadass as Giri
 R. K. Vijay Murugan as Anbu
 Raja Rishi as Giri's brother

Production
The shooting of the film was wrapped up on 18 August 2021.

Music
The music of the film was supposed to be composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, but he was replaced by Sam CS.

Release
The film was released on Amazon Prime Video on 6 May 2022 alongside its dubbed versions in Telugu and Malayalam, with the Telugu version titled Chinni. The film's teaser was released on 22 April 2022.

Home media 
The satellite rights of the film were sold to Kalaignar TV.

Reception

Critical reception 
Saani Kaayidham received positive reviews from critics and audience, who praised the cast performances (particularly Suresh and Selvaraghavan), direction, action sequences and technical aspects but received criticism for excessive graphic violence.

M Suganth of The Times Of India rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "It is ultimately the performances of Keerthi Suresh, who is terrific as the revenge-obsessed Ponni and Selvaraghavan, who superbly turns Sangayya into the film's beating heart, that hold the film aloft and prevent it from sinking into a mindless violent movie". Ashameera Aiyappan of Firstpost rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Saani Kaayidham is a solid revenge drama that achieves its humble aspirations". Janani K of India Today rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Saani Kaayidham is a neat revenge thriller which lacks depth in writing. If only Arun added more punch to the story, the film could have been flawless". 

Bhavana Sharma of Pinkvilla rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "This film is worth watching for the performances by the lead actors, and of course, a story that needs to be told. Latha Srinivasan wrote in Moneycontrol that “Saani Kaayidam' rests firmly on the shoulders of Keerthy Suresh and Selvaraghavan, and works to a great extent only because of them.” Haricharan Pudipeddi of The Hindustan Times stated "The film pushes Keerthy Suresh out of her comfort zone while Selvaraghavan contributes in not making the film end up as a blood-soaked tale of vengeance". Bharathy Singaravel of The News Minute wrote "Filmmakers need to stop, just simply stop using sexual violence as a cinematic prop. Normally, in Tamil films, a woman’s life is “over” after she has been sexually assaulted. Saani Khaayidham tries to deviate from that, but ends up reinforcing another trope - that a woman, who is otherwise primarily the wife, daughter, or mother, needs to go through something as traumatic as a sexual assault to become “stronger”. 

Srivatsan S of The Hindu wrote "He (Arun Matheswaran) needs to direct his violence towards the audience and not be content with exploiting it for “shock” value. He needs to direct his violence towards making standout sequences". However, Dinamani gave mixture of review and noted that "The work of many people can be seen in the way Sanik Kaitham was created. But what would the film have been if all this work had been accompanied by an interesting, mind-blowing story, emotional and innovative scenes!". ABP Nadu gave 3 stars out of 5 and noted that " Apart from the shortcoming that all the pages written in Sanikakitham are in blood, Sanikkaitam is a ‛blood' bond story that travels with relationship and story!" Dinamalar critic gave a mixture of review "It takes courage to see not one but two people who ruined his life take such murderous revenge. Only such people can watch this movie. Make sure children don't watch anything at home." and gave 2.5 rating out of 5.

References

External links 
 

2020s Tamil-language films
2022 films
Amazon Prime Video original films
2022 crime drama films
Films scored by Sam C. S.