Once Upon a Time in Madras

Story:

Prasadh Murugan is the writer and director of the 2024 Tamil-language thriller Once Upon a Time in Madras. Bharath, Abhirami, Shaan, Anjali Nair, and Pavithra Lakshmi are among the ensemble cast members who play significant roles in the movie. Haroon, Bala, and PGS co-produce the movie, which is produced by Captain MP Anand under Friday Film Factory. Editor San Lokesh, cinematographers K. S. Kalidoss and R. Kannan, and music composer Jose Franklin are among the technical team members of the movie.

A little boy named Sudharshan is shot by retired army officer Rangaraj as he tries to pick mangoes from a nearby tree. When the investigation revealed that the bullet had missed Sudharshan’s body, Rangaraj disposed of the gun in the Coovum canal to avoid responsibility; an unidentified person later recovered it.

As a single mother and sanitary worker, Savitri hopes to provide her transgender daughter Karthi “Aarthi” a medical education. Moorthy, a loan shark, has demanded that Savitri return the ₹80,000 she borrowed plus interest within a day. Concerned for her daughter’s safety, Savitri calls the police station but gets no help. In a state of desperation, Savitri finds a gun and gives it to her friend Jothi, who used to work for Moorthy. Jothi and Savitri try to get ₹30,000 for the rifle from a pawnbroker. But before Savitri can complete the transaction, the pawnbroker is taken into custody. In the meantime, Moorthy rapes Aarthi. Witnessing her daughter’s suffering, Savitri confronts Moorthy and fatally shoots him. Jothi intervenes, fighting off Moorthy’s men and ensuring Savitri’s safety.

Anitha’s father opposes her relationship with a colleague from a different community. Anitha’s father, a staunch casteist, discovers a gun in his car and rushes to the registrar’s office upon learning that Anitha is getting married. En route, he accidentally hits a biker and offers the injured rider, Kathir, a ride. During their conversation, Anitha’s father learns that Kathir is, in fact, his daughter’s lover, on his way to marry Anitha at the registrar’s office. Kathir, a social worker and communist thinker, reveals to Anitha’s father that her fiance is pregnant, prompting Anitha’s father to shoot and kill him with the gun. At the registrar office, Anitha’s father discovers Anitha marrying someone else, revealing that Kathir was not her lover. Anitha’s father is overcome with guilt upon seeing another girl waiting for Kathir and realizing that he killed an innocent man.

Raja is looking for money so that his wife, Rachel, can get a kidney transplant. Raja refuses to seek his affluent in-laws for assistance, claiming self-respect, because they had previously turned him down for their daughter, even though the hospital wants payment by the next day. Raja, unable to make arrangements, goes to Rachel’s parents, but they decline to assist. Desperate to get the money, Raja decides to work for his old master, killing Kowsi, a communist thinker and social worker. A disagreement over money follows the murder, and Raja’s boss murders his associate. After killing his boss, Raja burns the body and makes off with the money.

After the murder, a dispute arises over the money, and Raja’s boss kills his associate. Raja then kills his boss, burns the body, and escapes with the money. At the hospital, Raja is devastated to learn that the kidney donor is none other than Kowsi, whom he had killed earlier that morning. Rachel passes away, leaving Raja consumed by guilt for killing the donor who could have saved his wife. The police track Raja down through his car and shoot him to death.

A newlywed named Madhi learns that her spouse Aravind and their housekeeper, Sampath, are gay. Aravind admits the truth when Madhi confronts him, and she finds out that her father-in-law is to blame for her pregnancy. Madhi seeks medical help to abort the child but, Madhi’s in-laws discover her plan and beat her for bringing disrespect to their family and for attempting to abort their heir. Madhi discovers a gun in her bag and shoots her father-in-law for raping her and her mother-in-law for sedating her to facilitate the rape.

The gun’s journey is finally disclosed. Savitri killed Moorthy with the gun she had first found in the Coovum canal. After disposing of the body, Moorthy’s goon put the gun in Anitha’s father’s vehicle. Because he thought Kathir was Anitha’s boyfriend, Anitha’s father had killed him with the gun. Anitha’s father paid Raja’s boss to kill Kowsi, and the boss’s assistant covertly conceals the gun he uses to bargain with his boss. However, Raja, using that gun killed his boss after a dispute over money, and visited the hospital to pay for Rachel’s surgery. Fearing the police, Raja placed the gun in Madhi’s bag. Madhi, who now possesses the gun, used it to kill her father-in-law and mother-in-law.