Kaaki Sattai

Kaaki Sattai (lit. 'Khaki Shirt') is a 2015 Indian Tamil language action film co-written and directed by R. S. Durai Senthilkumar and produced by Dhanush, their second collaboration after Ethir Neechal (2013). The film features Sivakarthikeyan and Sri Divya in the lead roles, while Prabhu and Vijay Raaz play supporting roles. The film's music was composed by Anirudh Ravichander. The story revolves around police constable Mathimaran who wants to prove himself as a true, powerful cop by finding ways to solve issues of corruption in the law and order system in the department of police.

For the 1985 film, see Kaakki Sattai.

Kaaki Sattai
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	R. S. Durai Senthilkumar
Produced by	Dhanush P. Madhan (Release)
Screenplay by	Pattukkottai Prabakar R. S. Durai Senthilkumar
Story by	R. S. Durai Senthilkumar
Starring	Sivakarthikeyan Sri Divya Vijay Raaz Prabhu Imman Annachi
Music by	Anirudh Ravichander
Cinematography	M. Sukumar
Edited by	Vivek Harshan
Production company	Wunderbar Films
Distributed by	Escape Artists Motion Pictures[1]
Release date	27 February 2015 (2015-02-27)
Running time	157 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

The film, which commenced filming in April 2014, released on 27 February 2015. In 2018, the film was dubbed in Hindi as Daring Policewala.

Plot

Mathimaran (Sivakarthikeyan) is a police constable who only reports to work and goes home daily without contributing anything useful to the society as his boss, Inspector Sathyamurthy (Prabhu), does not want to get on the wrong side of the upper levels of the police, who are corrupt and politically influenced, and is also unwilling to rock the present system due to past experience. Mathimaran and his fellow policemen never get any cases as a result, much to his irritation.

Mathimaran falls in love with Divya (Sri Divya), who works as a nurse in a hospital, but hides his occupation from her as her family hates police officers. With her help, he finds out about an illegal organ donation racket orchestrated by Durai Arasan (Vijay Raaz), a politician, and Dr. Devasagayam (Yog Japee), who is the chairman of the hospital where Divya works. They capture sick and injured migrant workers from North India, make them brain dead by administering them carbon monoxide instead of oxygen, and then harvest their organs, which they sell abroad for huge amounts of money. The organ donation scam gives Mathimaran his first real case, and he takes it on with enthusiasm after Sathyamurthy and Durai's estranged father Singaperumal (Nagineedu), who had threatened to expose his son's misdeeds, are killed in a bomb blast orchestrated by Durai.

Mathimaran first confronts Devasagayam, who commits suicide, but not before admitting his role in the scam and giving detailed information about it. He then decides to confront Durai and get him arrested, but problem is that there is not enough evidence against Durai except Devasagayam's word, and Devasagayam is dead. He tries to get more information about Durai's role in the scam incognito. Unfortunately, Durai soon finds out that Mathimaran is after him, and a cat-and-mouse game begins between the two. In the process, Mathimaran is suspended from duty, as the police commissioner (Jeeva Ravi) is close to Durai. Undaunted, he manages to expose the scam and Durai's involvement in it to the media, but Durai wriggles out of arrest.

Mathimaran decides to finish off Durai to end the scam once and for all. He creates a ruckus during a felicitation function for Durai. In the chaos that ensues, he shoots Durai in the leg and gives him the same treatment which had been meted out to the North Indian workers: administering him carbon monoxide and then harvesting his organs after he is declared brain dead. Durai's death is covered up as a terrorist attack. Mathimaran is eventually promoted to Inspector in reward for his efforts in thwarting the organ donation scam. He also gets accepted by Divya's family, despite being a police officer, and marries Divya.

Cast

• Sivakarthikeyan as Mathimaran Rathnavel, R5 Station Constable
• Sri Divya as Divya, a nurse working at the Devasagayam Hospital and Mathimaran’snlove interest
• Prabhu as Sathyamurthy, R5 Station Inspector
• Vijay Raaz as Durai Arasan, A businessman and organ trader
• Manobala as Jyothi Lingam, MLA and Durai's henchman
• Mayilsamy as Sankara Narayanan alias Cyber Sanki / Sankiji Swamy
• Imman Annachi as Samarasam, R5 Station Head-Constable
• E. Ramdoss as Subramanian, R5 Station Sub-Inspector
• Yog Japee as Dr. Devasagayam, the owner of Hospital Devasagayam. Helping Durai in Human Trade
• Nagineedu as Singaperumal, Founder of Man Power Agency and Durai Arasan's father
• Kalpana as Meenakshi, Mathimaran's mother
• Sujatha Sivakumar as Divya's mother
• Yuvina Parthavi as Swetha, Divya's niece
• Vidyullekha Raman as Divya's friend
• Jeeva Ravi as Commissioner
• Jangiri Madhumitha as Call Girl
• Yogi Babu as Beggar
• Besant Ravi as Ravi
• Raveendran
• Suchithra Shivaraman as Mathimaran's sister
• Rail Ravi as Divya's father
• Sampath Ram as Sampath, worker in Man Power Agency but worked for Durai
• Singapore Deepan as Cyber Sanki teammate
• Manohar
• Suryakanth
• Diwakar
• Douglas Moorthy
• Dhivya Raaven

Production

Development

Soon after the release and success of Ethir Neechal (2013), the team of that film including producer Dhanush, director Durai Senthilkumar, music composer Anirudh Ravichander and actor Sivakarthikeyan announced that they would collaborate again for another venture.[2][3][4] Pattukkottai Prabakar was selected to write the screenplay of the film.[5] The film was initially titled Taana, but was changed to Kaaki Sattai after Kamal Haasan's 1985 film. In October 2014, the producers of Kamal Haasan's Kaakki Sattai were approached to obtain the rights for the title. Senthilkumar revealed that he had written the script keeping Dhanush in the mind while working as an assistant director for Aadukalam (2011). He narrated the script to Dhanush but failed to materialise but later he changed the script to suit Siva's comedic timing.[6]

Casting

The team held talks with and briefly signed Amala Paul as heroine, before she opted out.[7][8][9] Sri Divya, seen opposite Sivakarthikeyan in Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam (2013), was consequently signed on to play the lead female role.[10] Actor Imman Annachi and Bollywood actor Vijay Raaz were roped in to play important roles.[11] In June 2014, a newbie, Vinu Damodar, was selected to play a small but significant part in the film. His role was said to be a turning point in the protagonist's life.[12] In August 2014, it was confirmed that veteran actor Prabhu Ganesan was added to the cast in April 2014.[13] Actor-director Manobala was selected to play a supporting role, which he confirmed on his Twitter page.[14] The motion poster of the film was unveiled on 29 November 2014, which portrayed Sivakarthikeyan as a happy going man into an angry cop.

Filming

Principal photography began with a puja ceremony held on 6 March 2014.[15] The first schedule of the film's shoot began in March 2014 at a temple in Pammal near Pallavaram.[16] By April 2014, the movie completed 10 days shooting in an apartment in Mugappair and 'Semmozhi Poonga' in Cathedral Road, Chennai.[17] The team continued shooting in and around Chennai.[18] By June 2014, 40% of the movie had been completed and the second schedule began in Kerala.[19] Several sequences were shot at Binny Mills.[20] In July 2014, Sivakarthikeyan confirmed that 60% of the film was completed and the team would go to Norway to can two song sequences.[21][22] When asked about whether the movie would undergo a name change, he clarified that the production unit was thinking of various possibilities and that if a suitable title did not come up, Taana would be the title used.[21] As per Sivakarthikeyan's update, the team flew to Norway to can the song sequences from 1 September 2014 to 10 September 2014, which were choreographed by Sherif.[23] The shoot returned to Chennai on 15 September 2014.[24]

Soundtrack

Kaaki Sattai
Soundtrack album by Anirudh Ravichander
Released	12 December 2014
Recorded	2014
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	19:04
Language	Tamil
Label	Wunderbar Studios Divo
Producer	Anirudh Ravichander
Anirudh Ravichander chronology
Kaththi (2014) Kaaki Sattai (2014) Maari (2015)

Anirudh Ravichander composed seven tracks for the soundtrack of the film.[11] The album was launched at Radio Mirchi 98.3 on 12 December 2014, with the team opting to release the album to coincide with actor Rajinikanth's birthday. The song title "Kadhal Kan Kattuthe" later inspired a 2017 film of the same name.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Kaaki Sattai" (Title Track)	Na. Muthukumar	Vishal Dadlani & Additional Vocals By Anirudh Ravichander	3:43
2.	"Kadhal Kan Kattudhe"	Yugabharathi	Anirudh Ravichander, Shakthisree Gopalan,	4:16
3.	"The Trooper Theme" (Instrumental)			0:55
4.	"I'm So Cool"	Arunraja Kamaraj	Anirudh Ravichander, Sivakarthikeyan	3:49
5.	"Kaaki Sattai (Theme Music)" (Anirudh Ravichander)			0:47
6.	"Kattikida"	Anthony Dassan	Anthony Dassan, M. M. Manasi, Durga, Anitha Karthikeyan	4:27
7.	"Shake That"	Arunraja Kamaraj	Anirudh Ravichander, Brodha V	3:00
Total length:				19:04

Reception

Album Rating

Review scores
Source	Rating
IndiaGlitz	[25]
Behindwoods	[26]

Indiaglitz.com rated the album 3.75/5, saying that "Anirudh plays to his potential to continue his winning streak".[27] Meanwhile, Behindwoods rated the album 2.75/5, feeling that the "expectation from Anirudh is unfortunately way higher".[28]

Release

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.[29] The film had a release on over 750 screens worldwide, making it the biggest release ever for Sivakarthikeyan's career.[30]

The film's distribution was handled by Escape Artists Motion Pictures; which was sold for ₹250 million for Tamil Nadu (combined with Dhanush's Velaiyilla Pattathari) and overseas rights (including in the United States) were sold for ₹10 million, which is very high for Sivakarthikeyan's career; by comparison, Kaaki Sattai made ₹30 crore in total. The film's overall pre-release business amounted to ₹150 million worldwide.

Critical reception

IBTimes felt that "Overall, 'Kakki Sattai' is a decent masala mass entertainer and if you enjoy this genre, you can definitely hit the theatres and enjoy your time with this entertainer", rating the film 3.5/5.[31] Indiaglitz rated Kaaki Sattai 3/5 and stated, "The 'Ethir Neechal' team has delivered one more winner here."[32] Sify called the film "time-pass entertainment".[33] Dailyindia called the film "a perfect commercial entertainer to watch this weekend for Siva and Anirudh" and rated it 3 out of 5.[34] Cinematime also rated Kaaki Sattai 3/5 and said that Siva's performance and Anirudh's music "makes your weekend awesome".[35] Deccan Chronicle rated it 2.5/5 and wrote that director "Durai Senthilkumar and actor Sivakarthikeyan have done an estimable job in making the film at least worth experiencing."[36] Behindwoods gave the film 2.5 out of 5 and opined: "Siva Karthikeyan entertains, but the story's handling could have been better."[37] Filmibeat awarded the film 2.5/5 and summarised: "Apart from Sivakarthikeyan and Anirudh's music, Kaaki Sattai doesn't provide anything extraordinary. It can be termed as old wine in a new bottle with too many fun elements for a cop story."[38] Baradwaj Rangan of the Hindu wrote "As overlong, utterly generic, badly written, indifferently made action-comedy star vehicles propelled by Anirudh’s growling guitar riffs go, Kaaki Sattai is as disposable as they come."[39]

Box office

The film collected between ₹16 crore (US$2.2 million) and ₹17 crore (US$2.4 million) in Tamil Nadu. The film collected ₹2.5 crore (US$350,000) in Kerala and ₹1 crore (US$140,000) in Karnataka.[40]

References

1. Escape Artists buys 'VIP' & 'Taana' theatrical rights!. Sify. 10 June 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
2. Second round for 'Ethir Neechal' team !. Behindwoods. 7 May 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
3. Gupta, Rinku (16 May 2013). Sivakarthikeyan finally gets to work with Lingusamy. The New Indian Express. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
4. Southern heroes who have donned the producer's hat. Business Standard. 25 May 2014. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
5. Sivakarthikeyan's film title is 'Kaakki Sattai'. Indiaglitz. 26 October 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
6. Vishal Menon (21 February 2015). "Cop with comic timing". The Hindu.
7. Sivakarthikeyan's next with 'Ethir Neechal' team will start in January. Behindwoods. 12 November 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
8. Amala Paul will be pairing up with Siva Karthikeyan in 'Taana'. Behindwoods. 15 November 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
9. Is it Amala Paul for Sivakarthikeyan in 'Taana'?. Deccan Chronicle. 17 November 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
10. Siva Karthikeyan's next film is underway. Behindwoods. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
11. An FIR on Siva Karthikeyan's 'Taana'. Behindwoods. 27 March 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
12. A turning point in Siva Karthikeyan's 'Taana'. Behindwoods. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
13. Sivakarthikeyan's 'Taana' gets a major boost. Behindwoods. 11 August 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
14. Manobala's politics with Sivakarthikeyan. Chennaivision. 12 August 2014.
15. Sivakarthikeyan's 'Taana' starts rolling. Moviecrow. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
16. Sivakarthikeyan's 'Taana' starts rolling. Sify. 6 March 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
17. Sivakarthikeyan and Sridivya in 'Semmozhi Poonga'. Indiaglitz. 25 April 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
18. Ganesan. Rajeshwari (6 May 2014). 'TAANA' LIKELY TO RELEASE IN SEPTEMBER. Silverscreen. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
19. 'Taana' team gets a new face. The Times of India. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
20. Sivakarthikeyan's 'Taana' is getting ready!. Sify. 24 July 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
21. We will stick with 'Taana'. Behindwoods. 22 July 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
22. Update on Siva Karthikeyan's next. Indiaglitz. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
23. It's Norway for Siva Karthikeyan & Sri Divya. Indiaglitz. 27 August 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
24. Can Sivakarthikeyan and team meet the K.V.Anand standard?. Behindwoods. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
25. "Kaaki Sattai (aka) Kakki Sattai Music review songs lyrics - IndiaGlitz.com". IndiaGlitz. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
26. "Kakki Sattai (aka) Kaaki Sattai songs review". www.behindwoods.com.
27. "Kaaki Sattai (aka) Kakki Sattai Music review songs lyrics - IndiaGlitz.com". IndiaGlitz. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
28. "Kakki Sattai (aka) Kaaki Sattai songs review". www.behindwoods.com.
29. "SIVAKARTHIKEYAN'S KAKKI SATTAI REVIEW". Kollywood news. 21 February 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
30. "Five Reasons Why Siva Karthikeyan's 'Kakki Sattai' Might be a Hit at Box Office". International Business Times. 26 February 2015.
31. "'Kakki Sattai' Movie Review: Mass Entertainer Starring Siva Karthikeyan". International Business Times. 27 February 2015.
32. "Kaaki Sattai Review | Kaaki Sattai Tamil Movie Review | Story | Rating – IndiaGlitz.com". IndiaGlitz.
33. "Movie Review : Kakki Sattai-Time pass entertainer". Sify.
34. "Kaaki Sattai (aka) Kakki Sattai Movie Review & Rating – Siva Karthikeyan – Daily India". DailyIndia.
35. "(Kaaki) Kakki Sattai Movie Review Rating – Sivakarthikeyan | CinemaTime". cinematime.in. 27 February 2015
36. "Movie review 'Kaaki Sattai': One is certain to be dazzled and amused". Deccan Chronicle.
37. "Kaaki Sattai (aka) Kaakki Sattai review". behindwoods.com.
38. "Kaaki Sattai Movie Review: Old Wine In New Bottle". www.filmibeat.com. 2015
39. https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/cinema-reviews/kaaki-sattai-review/article6941634.ece
40. "'Kakki Sattai' Box Office Collection: Siva Karthikeyan Starrer Exceeds Expectations; Enters Third Week". International Business Times. 15 March 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2020.

External links

• Kaaki Sattai on IMDb