Sarkar

An Indian corporate executive working in America returns home to vote. At the polling station he learns that his vote has already been cast by someone else. He discovers there is a provision against this and goes to court. The case grows until the entire election is at stake. The subject is not heroism but what a single clause can do. The provision the film rests on allows a voter whose vote has been stolen to object, and the narrative is built on that detail, walking through how the electoral system works. The form is large-scale mainstream Tamil cinema: crowded entrance scenes, songs, long courtroom sections. After release the production turned into a political crisis. The ruling party treated some scenes as an insult to the late chief minister Jayalalithaa and protests broke out across the state. The scene in which free kitchen appliances are thrown into a fire was cut, and part of the antagonist's name along with certain lines were muted. The director A. R. Murugadoss had to go to court over the prospect of arrest. Vijay leads, with Keerthy Suresh and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar in the cast. Who it is for: viewers who like political Tamil cinema and stories built on the electoral system. Who it is not for: anyone wanting measured politics; the film sets its hero up as a man who repairs the system nearly single-handed.