Rudhran was released theatrically on 14 April 2023 where it received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and became a box office bomb.
Plot
Shankar, a goon, tells industrialists at a harbour that he plans to kill Bhoominathan, a dreaded gangster. However, Bhoomi swiftly kills Shankar and threatens the industrialists. At a container depot, Sasi, one of Bhoomi's men, tries to kill a lab technician. However, Rudhran arrives, kills all of Sasi's henchmen, and brutally murders Sasi. The police arrive and see Sasi hanging dead from a crane. Bhoomi goes to Sasi's funeral and tells his gang to kill Sasi's murderer in 24 hours. Four guys living with Rudhran enquire about Rudhran and why he drinks. The police inspector reveals Rudhran's life and what led him to this point.
Past: Rudhran is an IT professional living happily with his parents, Devaraj, a transport agency owner, and Indhira and his best friend, Shakthi, in Chennai. He falls in love with Ananya, a lab technician, who reciprocates his love at Shakthi's wedding reception. Devaraj helps his friend Das get a loan of six lakhs from a moneylender, Ethiraj. However, their happiness fades when Devaraj dies after finding that Das cheated him by absconding with the loan. Before Rudhran leaves for London to settle the financial issues, he marries Ananya. Ananya tells Rudhran she is pregnant and gives birth to their daughter, Anya. Ananya and their daughter spend time with him in London. Rudhran tells her to see his mother, and Ananya flies to India. One day, he hears about Indhira's sudden death and Ananya's disappearance.
Rudhran learns about Varadha's involvement with his friend Bhoominathan, a gangster who runs a syndicate network; targeting working people abroad in exchange for their property and money. Bhoomi and Varadha were actually responsible for Indira's death. Ananya was also killed on the day of Indira's death when she reached home and tried to save her. With a help of a cop, Rudhran sets on a violent crusade and targets Bhoomi's men where he takes them down, and later has a confrontation with Bhoomi. Rudhran finally finishes Bhoomi, thus avenging his families' death. Later, Rudhran runs a charitable trust under his mother's name and also continues his vigilante activities. He travels to Chennai and carries out his mother's funeral rites. After investigating and seeing a motorbike gang murdering a cab driver, Rudhran captures the motorcycle gang's leader. He then takes him to the hideout at a factory, where, to his shock, he sees Varadha, whom he met at Indira's funeral and is also the leader of a gang behind him. He then tortures Varadha to reveal the truth.
Past: In 2007, Varadha and Bhoomi were recidivists in Pollachi. Pandian bailed them out and informed them of a criminally ingenious idea. A group took fingerprints of parents whose children had gone abroad and usurped their properties and land. Bhoomi worked with a wealthy landlord called Subbiah, whose son is in America. Eventually, Pandian, Varadha and Bhoomi injected Subbiah, leading to his death from a heart attack. Pandian then strangled Subbiah's son, killing him, and then Pandian usurped his property and got crores of money. One night, as Pandian, Bhoomi and Varadha celebrated, Bhoomi murdered Pandian because he wanted Subbiah's property for his sake. Bhoomi then bribed the inspector who investigated their murders and developed his syndicate network. Bhoomi's gang targeted and injected older parents whose children travelled abroad and killed them.
After a 100-crore business deal, he targeted Rudhran's mother. After Shakthi and his wife Deepika left, Varadha and his gang entered Indhira's house. Eventually, Varadha and the men secretly killed her.
Present: Rudhran is furious after hearing the story of his mother's death and beats Varadha. Despite pleas from his friend, he impales Varadha's neck, and Varadha dies. Bhoomi's men arrive and beat Sakthi and Rudhran. Guna, Bhoomi's man, hangs Shakthi to death and stabs Rudhran. Bhoomi reveals that he told Varadha and his gang to murder a pregnant Ananya after she arrived at Indhira's house. Bhoomi burns the factory, but the police inspector saves Rudhran. Distraught over his family's death, Rudhran begins his violent crusade, killing Sasi and Guna. Bhoomi realises Rudhran is coming after him, and Ganga tells Maari to kill Rudhran and Anya in Tirukalukundram, but Rudhran kills Maari and his men. After the police inspector reveals Rudhran's story to the boys and Sketch, they respect Rudhran and motivate him to end Bhoomi. Rudhran kills Bhoomi's men at a Kala Bairavaa temple and strangles Ganga, like how he murdered Ananya. After an intense fight between Bhoomi and Rudhran, he injects the same needle used to kill all the older people into Bhoomi's neck. Bhoomi eventually dies of a heart attack, avenging his family's death.
A few years later, Rudhran runs a charitable trust under his mother's name. He helps abandoned senior citizens, acting as a son for them. He also fights Das in Madurai to avenge Devaraj's death and continues his vigilante activities, leaving a hint of a sequel.
Rudhran marks the directorial debut for producer S. Kathiresan and the second collaboration between Raghava Lawrence and R. Sarathkumar after their first venture Kanchana.[4] The first look poster for the film was released on 23 June 2022.[5][6] A promotional glimpse of the film was released on 29 October 2022.[7] Shooting of the film was wrapped up on 5 March 2023.[8][9] The trailer for the film was released on 5 April 2023.[10]
Music
The songs of the film were composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, while the remix version of the song "Paadatha Pattellam"[11][12][13] from Veera Thirumagan was recreated by Dharan Kumar, who also collaborated with singers Sathyaprakash and Nithyashree Venkataramanan previously for Carvaan Lounge Tamil segment.[14] The song "Jorthaale" which was composed by OfRo and featuring lyrics from singer Asal Kolaar back in 2021, was re-used for this film and it was released to digital streaming platforms as fourth single of the film's album. Sam C. S. composed the background score for the film.
The film was earlier schedule to release on 23 December 2022, but was postponed due to a delay in the VFX works.[15][16] The film was released on 14 April 2023, coinciding with Puthandu.[17]
Home media
The post-theatrical streaming rights of the film were bought by Sun NXT, while the satellite rights of the film is sold to Sun TV.[18]
Reception
Rudhran received mixed to negative reviews from critics.
Critical response
ABP Nadu gave 3/5 stars and gave a mixed review.[19] Logesh Balachandran of The Times of India gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Rudhran is just another rehash of many action entertainers in Tamil cinema."[20]123Telugu gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Raghava Lawrence starrer Rudhran is just a mediocre action drama that works in parts. The movie may not appeal to all sections of audiences, but given its nature, it will end up just an okay watch for the mass audience this weekend."[21]
Thinkal Menon of OTTplay gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Raghava Lawrence's enthusiasm and Sarath Kumar's menacing antagonist's role come across as huge relief in this below average potboiler that offers nothing new".[22] Shameena Parveen of Samayam gave 2/5 stars and criticized its length.[23]
Janani. K of India Today gave 1/5 stars and wrote "The story deals with a conflict that has the potential to be developed into a full-fledged crime story, but the filmmaker decided to do away with that and delve into melodrama instead. The final result is a film that hardly has anything new and interesting to offer."[24] Bharathy Singaravel of The News Minute gave 1/5 stars and wrote "With a stereotypically tragic backstory, extreme violence, and an utterly unconvincing hero, the film would have perhaps worked better if marketed as a parody."[25]
Ananda Vikatan noted it as a "time pass film".[26] Kalyani Pandiyan. S of Hindustan Times wrote "The film has all the features of a commercial film. Everything has worked out well except the action."[27] Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu wrote "Rudhran is an excruciating watch that brings nothing new to the table and tries to capitalise on the tropes that had worked for ages, only to fail because of the same reason."[28]
