Saavi (English: Key) is 1985 Tamil Thriller - Drama film was directed and script were written by Karthik Raghunath. The film produced by J. Ravi under the banner as Maruthi Movie Arts. Music by Gangai Amaran assets to the soundtrack. It stars Sathyaraj, Saritha, Jaishankar and Nizhalgal Ravi played lead role to protagonist. The film was based on the American film Dial M for Murder by Alfred Hitchcock.^[1]

Vijaykumar(Sathyaraj), an ex - professional tennis player is married to wealthy socialite Latha(Saritha). She had an affair with an Indian Stage Playback Singer Anand(Nizhalgal Ravi). When Vijay retires in response to her. Complaint about his busy schedule, he secretly discovers the affair and decides to murder her, both for revenge and to ensure that her money will continue to finance his comfortable life style. Vijay meets an acquaintance from President Club Sathish(Amjath Kumar), who has become a small - time criminal and drug dealer. Vijay has secretly been following Sathish so he blackmail him into murdering Latha. Vijay tells sathish about Latha's affair, Six months prior, Vijay stolen her handbag, which contained a love letter from Anand and anonymously blackmailed her. After tricking Sathish into leaving his finger prints on the letter. Vijay offers to pay him Rs. 50, 000 to Kill Latha, if Sathish refuse Vijay will turn him to the police as Latha's blackmailer. When Sathish agrees, Vijay explains his plan the following evening he will take Anand to a party, leaving Latha at home and hiding her latchkey outside the front door of their house. Sathish is to sneak in when Latha is asleep and hide behind the curtains in front of the french door to the gardens. At 10'o clock 50 minutes Vijay will telephone the house from the party. Sathish must kill Latha, when she answers the phone, Open the french door, leave signs suggesting a burglary gone wrong and exit through the front door, hiding the key again. The next night, sathish enters the house while Latha is in bed and waits. At the party, Vijay discovers his watch has stopped, so he phones the house later than intended. When Latha comes to the phone. Sathish tries to strangle her with his scarf , but she manages to grab a pair of scissors and kill him. She picks up the telephone receiver and pleads for help. Vijay tells her not to do anything until he arrives home. When he returns to the home, he calls the police and sends Latha to bed. Before the police arrives, Vijay moves what he think is latha's latchkey from the Sathish's pocket in to her handbag, plants Anand's letter on Sathish and destroyed Sathish's scarf, replacing it with Latha's own stocking in an attempt to incriminate her. The following day, Vijay persuades Latha to hide the fact that he told her not call the police immediately. CID Inspector Shankar(Jaishankar) arrives and questions the Vijay and Latha makes several conflicting statements. When Shankar says Sathish must have entered through the front door, Vijay falsely claims to have seen Sathish at the time Latha's handbag was stolen and suggests that Sathish made a copy of her key. Shankar does not believe this because no key was found on Sathish body. Shankar arrests latha after concluding that she killed Sathish for blackmailing her. Latha is found guilty and sentenced to death. On the day before Latha's scheduled execution, Anand visits Vijay, saying he has devised a story for Vijay to tell the police in order to save Latha's life. The Vijay's consternation, Anand's Story is what did actually happen that Vijay bribed Sathish to murder Latha, Vijay says the story is too unrealistic. Shankar arrives and Anand hides in the bedroom. Shankar asks Vijay about large sum of cash he has been spending, tricks him in to revealing that has latchkey is in his raincoat and inquires about Vijay's attache case. Vijay claims to have lost the case, but Anand, still in the bedroom finds it on the bed, full of bank notes. Deducing that the money was Vijay's intended payoff to Sathish. Anand stops Shankar from leaving and explains his theory. Vijay fabricates another cover story by saying the cash was Latha's blackmailer payment to Sathish. Shankar appeared to accept Vijay's explanation over Anand leaves angrily. Shankar directly swaps his own raincoat with Vijay's and as soon as Vijay leaves he uses Vijay's key to re - enter the house, followed by Anand. Shankar had already discovered that the key in Latha's handbag was Sathish latchkey and deduced that Sathish had put the key back in its hiding place after unlocking the door. Now suspecting Vijay of having conspired with Sathish. Shankar has developed an elaborate ruse to confirm this. Plain clothes policeman bring Latha from prison to the house. She tries unsuccessfully to unlock the door with the key in her handbag then enters through the garden providing she is unaware of the hidden key. Shankar has latha's handbag returned to the Police station, where Vijay retries it after discovering that he has no key. The key from Latha's bag does not work, so he uses the hidden key to open the door, proving his guilty, with his escape routes blocked by Shankar and another policeman. Vijay calmly makes himself a firing gun and he died.

• Sathyaraj as Vijaykumar, an Ex-tennis player
• Saritha as Latha Vijaykumar
• Nizhalgal Ravi as Anand, A Stage Playback Singer
• Jaishankar as CID Inspector Shankar
• Amjathkumar as Sathish (or) Sumkumar, A Drug dealer
• V. Gopalakrishnan as Public Prosecuter
• Anuradha as Club dancer
• Disco Shanthi as Club Dancer
• Kallapetti Singaram as Kallapetti Singaram, A Hotel Manager
• Gandhimathi as Pachaiyamma, Singaram's Wife
• Ennatha Kannaiah as Press Reporter

Saavi was Sathyaraj's first film which featured him in a leading role even though his role had negative shades.^[2][3][4]

Music by Gangai Amaran and lyrics by Vaali