Mankatha

Story:

Mankatha is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Venkat Prabhu, and produced by Dayanidhi Azhagiri under Cloud Nine Movies. The film stars Ajith Kumar, in his 50th credited film, leading an ensemble cast which includes Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Lakshmi Rai, Anjali, Andrea Jeremiah, Ashwin Kakumanu, Vaibhav, Premji Amaren, Mahat Raghavendra, Jayaprakash, Aravind Akash and Subbu Panchu. Yuvan Shankar Raja composed the musical score and soundtrack, with Sakthi Saravanan working as the cinematographer and the duo Praveen K. L. and N. B. Srikanth as editors. Set in Mumbai, the film revolves around a heist of cricket betting money, carried out by a gang of four thieves, who are joined by a fifth unknown man, and its aftermath.

PLOT

ACP Vinayak Mahadevan is a corrupted Maharashtra police officer, who is suspended for having saved a smuggler named Faizal from encounter killing. Later, a police officer named Kamal Ekambaram commits suicide because of the leakage of his IPL gambling plans. ACP Prithviraj takes charge to end the betting scandals in IPL cricket in Mumbai. Prithvi then reveals that Kamal faked his death in a secret mission to draw attention to the betting scandals and returned under the name Praveen Kumar. Arumuga Chettiyar, an influential illegal business dealer and Faizal’s boss, owns “Golden Theatres” in Mumbai, which has been converted into a gambling den and forms the front for all his illegal businesses. Chettiyar uses his links with dons in Mumbai and tries to route through his old theatre, a cash of over ₹5 billion (US$63 million) to be used in betting.

Vinayak is introduced to Chettiyar through his girlfriend, Sanjana. Sanjana is in love with Vinayak, but he pretends to love her. Sumanth, a goon working for Chettiyar, hatches a conspiracy to rob the money in the company of his friends: Ganesh, a local sub-inspector; Mahat, who owns a bar in Mumbai; and Mahat’s friend Prem, an IIT graduate. Vinayak befriends the boys at Sumanth’s marriage with Suchithra. One late evening, Vinayak meets Prem, who becomes inebriated by him and reveals their heist plan. Vinayak starts spying on them and confronts them on the day of the planned heist, stepping in. The four take him in, promising him a fifth of the share. Vinayak has other plans. He wants to kill his accomplices and take the entire amount. He promises to help them and divide it between them. After looting the money, they leave the money in an abandoned godown.

Later, all of them celebrate the turn of events at Mahat’s bar, but Sumanth is identified at the party by Faizal and is later caught by him. Sumanth is cornered by Chettiyar, who orders Faizal to kill him for his treachery, but is rescued in time by Ganesh and Vinayak, and the trio escape from the hideout, taking Chettiyar hostage. While driving back to the godown, Vinayak finds Sanjana on the way and brutally shoves Chettiyar out of the vehicle in front of her. Sanjana is engulfed in grief when she learns of Vinayak’s true intentions. Upon reaching the godown, they discover that Mahat and Prem had escaped with the cash and are accompanied by Sona. The three are then confronted by Faizal and Chettiyar’s men, but manage to evade them and get on the run. Sumanth later turns against Vinayak when he discovers that his wife had been kidnapped by Chettiyar.

After a brief scuffle, Sumanth runs into Prithvi, who takes him into custody and rescues his wife on the condition that he turns approver and divulges everything. He is killed when Prithvi’s wife, Sabitha, is kidnapped and threatened by Vinayak. Vinayak learns of Mahat and Prem’s whereabouts through Ganesh, and along with him, starts pursuing them. Prithvi and the others follow suit, and all of them are holed up in a highway resort with the money. A sequence of events leads to the murders of the gang members one by one — Mahat is killed by Sona, who gets killed by Vinayak and Prem gets killed by Prithvi — with Ganesh and Vinayak remaining alive. A final fight ensues between Vinayak and Prithvi. At the final moment of the fight, Praveen throws a gun at Prithvi, who shoots Vinayak, and a huge explosion rocks the shack, seemingly ending the fight.

After several days, the police get information that Ganesh is living in Thailand. Praveen arrives there but comes across Vinayak. Praveen confronts him and calls up Prithvi to inform him of Vinayak’s presence, but it is revealed that Prithvi and Vinayak have been best friends since their college days and took police training together. They had come to know about the betting money scheme by Chettiyar and operated the plan together (including Vinayak’s faked death). Ganesh had also been killed by Vinayak as a part of the plan, and Prithvi and Vinayak escaped the explosion with the ₹500 crore (US$63 million), each taking ₹250 crore (US$31 million) as their share. Prithvi informs Vinayak that their money is safe in the Bank of England and asks him to deal with Praveen. Vinayak snatches Praveen’s gun and holds him at gunpoint saying, “Game over.”