Irumbu Thirai (2018 film)

Major R. Kathiravan is working on anger management issues under chief psychiatrist Rathi Devi in order to return to his job. Soon they both fall in love. She counsels him to go to his village to spend time with his father Rangaswamy and sister. Kathiravan hates his father due to his habit of borrowing money, and he reluctantly does this. Kathiravan finds that his sister's fiancé Kesavan's family demands them to bear the marriage expenses. He realizes his mistake of abandoning his family and promises to fulfill his sister's wish.

Kathiravan returns to Chennai to apply for a loan, only to get it rejected everywhere. With the advice of his uncle, he takes his father to Chennai along with him and tries to get a loan in his father's name and is rejected everywhere due to financial security. They are approached by a man who claims to be a loan agent and tells them to forge documents to get a loan for a commission. Kathiravan initially refuses, but he reluctantly agrees to the man's offer and submits all the original documents to him. The man helps them to obtain a loan of 6 Lakhs INR.

Initially, Kathiravan is overjoyed and starts the marriage preparation. Later on, when his father was unable to withdraw money due to insufficient balance, he informs Kathiravan, who in turn is surprised by the missing fund. Kathiravan futilely enquires the bank staff. He becomes frustrated and scolds his father. Unable to bear the words, his father attempts suicide. In the hospital, Kathiravan learns that his father took debts to extend Kathiravan's sick mother's life. He feels remorseful after hearing this and starts loving his father. On Rathi Devi's advice and with the help of his friends in the military, he decides to the track down the person responsible.

Kathiravan manages to apprehend and chase a loan agent similar to his loan agent in order to extradite information. He gets a phone call from a private number which tells Kathiravan to release him as he tells him that he knows all the details about Kathiravan and even threatens to release the private audio and video of his sister's phone on the Internet. This shocks Kathiravan, and he decides to leave the agent, who is fatally hit by a van. The mysterious person is later revealed to be Sathyamoorthy, aka The White Devil who became the kingpin of the Dark Net by the use of the Y2k Problem. He runs an educational trust as a front for his cybercrime network.

Kathiravan tracks and confronts Sathyamoorthy. The latter reveals his knowledge of the former following him and tells him that he attacked his sister. Sathyamoorthy also tells Kathiravan that he put Rs. 10 Lakhs to his account from a flagged account for which he is court-martialed. Still, with the help of Rathi Devi, he tracks Sathyamoorthy's henchmen. At the server farm, the two finally engage in a fistfight. Sathyamoorthy defeats Kathiravan and burns the money due to his god-complex. All the people who were conned by Sathyamoorthy learns about Sathyamoorthy from Kathiravan, and they reach the dock. Kathiravan gets up and gets the better of Sathyamoorthy, and the people get their money transferred back to their respective accounts. Sathyamoorthy is arrested by the police but creates a new username named "Dark Angel", implying that he will return.

Vishal decided to fund and act in a venture directed by newcomer P. S. Mithran in August 2016, and subsequently signed on actress Samantha to play the leading female role in the film.[4][5][6] The team signed Arya to play the antagonist in October 2016, with the actor accepting terms without hearing the film's entire script.[7] Subsequently, music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematographer George C. Williams and editor Ruben were added to the project. Designers NJ Sathya and Neeraja Kona also were revealed to be in charge of the costumes of the lead actors for the film.[8]

The film began production following a launch event in October 2016, with Vishal and Samantha shooting scenes alongside actors Robo Shankar and Delhi Ganesh for the first schedule.[9] Arya later opted out of the film citing that he was not ready to play an antagonist in Tamil cinema, and subsequently the team brought in Arjun.[10][11][12][13][14] Before getting Arjun on board, Mithran was in talks to get S. J. Surya and Fahadh Faasil the role, but Surya chose Mersal and Fahadh chose Velaikkaran.[15]

The soundtrack and background score features music by Yuvan Shankar Raja. The songs were performed by relatively new singers. The album received positive reviews. IndiaGlitz, in its review, noted, "The album is a definite marker of Yuvan’s expertise with Athiradi, Yaar Ivan and Azhage. Playlist worthy"[16] Behindwoods in its review said "Irumbu Thirai album is mix of melodies and theme based songs that will work better with visuals"[17]

The film was dubbed and released into Hindi as The Return of Abhimanyu.[18] [19]The satellite rights of the film were sold to Zee Tamil. It also has a Malayalam dubbed version under the same title, and satellite rights were sold to Mazhavil Manorama. The Tamil version is available on Zee5 and Telugu dubbed and Malayalam dubbed versions are available on Sun NXT and ManoramaMax respectively.[20]

Tamil Nadu theatrical rights of the film were sold for ₹24.5 crore.[21] The film grossed ₹61 crore (US$8.0 million) at the worldwide box office and became a commercial success.[22]

• Irumbu Thirai at IMDb