IMDb RATING
7.2/10
6.9K
YOUR RATING
A bloody power struggle erupts between three brothers who are vying to take over the family business following the death of their father.A bloody power struggle erupts between three brothers who are vying to take over the family business following the death of their father.A bloody power struggle erupts between three brothers who are vying to take over the family business following the death of their father.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 9 nominations
Arvind Swamy
- Varadharajan 'Varadhan' Senapathi
- (as Arvind Swami)
Silambarasan Rajendar
- Ethirajan 'Ethi' Senapathi
- (as T.R. Silambarasan)
Jyotika
- Chitra Varadarajan
- (as Jyothika)
T.M. Karthik Srinivasan
- Ranjith
- (as T.M. Karthik)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Trivia2nd consecutive collaboration of Director ManiRatnam and Actress Aditi Rao Hydari.
- GoofsIts not easy to believe that Prakash Raj's character would be traveling without his own weapon in the beginning of the film. Also he would have been the first target to be shot rather than the car driver.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven (2019)
Featured review
Deftly Woven Revenge Drama
Expectations keep soaring whenever his name appears in the title card of a film! The filmmaker who penned the cult classic Nayakan, poignant Anjali, iconic Roja, romantic Alaipayutheyand many more....yes, Mani Ratnam is the master brain behind Chekka Chivantha Vaanam aka CCV.
The story unrolls by narrating the illegal activities of two local goons in Chennai namely Senapathy (Prakash Raj) and Chinnappadas (Thyagarajan). Things turn upward down when Senapathy and his wife gets attacked by a specific group in the disguise of policemen, but both of them narrowly escape from the assassination with serious injuries. Who did it? For whom?? and Why??? The answers are kept intact until climax which is a pleasant surprise.
Varadan (Arvind Swamy) is the elder son and righthand of Senapathy who looks after his father's proceedings in Chennai. Following the terrific incident in their family, Varadan's younger siblings Thyagu (Arun Vijay) and Ethi (Silambarasan) enter the scene. Thyagu is dealing with his own business in Dubai whereas Ethi is involved in the arms and weapons deal in Serbia. Accordingly, Varadan recalls his childhood friend Rasool for help in the crisis situation. Vijay Sethupathy as the stubborn cop Rasool did a commendable job with his subtle acting and shared equal screen space with Arvind Swamy throughout the film. The confessions of Varadan in front of Chitra towards the second half was emotionally brilliant and showed the class of Arvind Swamy as an actor. The biggest strength of the film is that the screenplay is compact and well balanced thereby succeeded in portraying all the main lead actors convincingly. However, unlike Mani Ratnam's previous outings, the female characters had no prominence in CCV. Being a multi-star movie, it is acceptable that heroines have fewer roles to play; but here the loosely bound female lads erupt the narration abruptly and pulls back the storyline slightly backward. For instance, in the scene where Varadan's wife Chitra (Jyothika) caught him red-handed along with secret lover, her reaction on Varadan seemed odd. Instead of blasting him for betrayal like any traditional wife and mother of three kids, Chitra just reminds him of the threats on his life and advice to be extra cautious about the same. Apart from this, Senapathy's wife and in-laws keep mum even when the rage between three brothers piles up constantly which make the female parts irrelevant in the screenplay.
Being a Mani Ratnam film, it is assured that the technical side is always on the high with A.R. Rahman's soulful music, crisp editing by Sreekar Prasad followed by the magical lens of Santhosh Sivan. It is a hard task for any filmmaker to chop off Rahman's songs which add much-needed flavor to the movie regardless of its content and here the veteran director did a tremendous job by adding the shortened version of all songs without feeling any lag in the narration. The wide-angle mountain shot in the climax where Rasool sits on top of the rock was stunning and marks the signature style of cinematographer Santhosh Sivan. Undoubtedly we can say that vintage Mani Ratnam is back after a string of flops with an engaging plot which has its heart in the right place.
The story unrolls by narrating the illegal activities of two local goons in Chennai namely Senapathy (Prakash Raj) and Chinnappadas (Thyagarajan). Things turn upward down when Senapathy and his wife gets attacked by a specific group in the disguise of policemen, but both of them narrowly escape from the assassination with serious injuries. Who did it? For whom?? and Why??? The answers are kept intact until climax which is a pleasant surprise.
Varadan (Arvind Swamy) is the elder son and righthand of Senapathy who looks after his father's proceedings in Chennai. Following the terrific incident in their family, Varadan's younger siblings Thyagu (Arun Vijay) and Ethi (Silambarasan) enter the scene. Thyagu is dealing with his own business in Dubai whereas Ethi is involved in the arms and weapons deal in Serbia. Accordingly, Varadan recalls his childhood friend Rasool for help in the crisis situation. Vijay Sethupathy as the stubborn cop Rasool did a commendable job with his subtle acting and shared equal screen space with Arvind Swamy throughout the film. The confessions of Varadan in front of Chitra towards the second half was emotionally brilliant and showed the class of Arvind Swamy as an actor. The biggest strength of the film is that the screenplay is compact and well balanced thereby succeeded in portraying all the main lead actors convincingly. However, unlike Mani Ratnam's previous outings, the female characters had no prominence in CCV. Being a multi-star movie, it is acceptable that heroines have fewer roles to play; but here the loosely bound female lads erupt the narration abruptly and pulls back the storyline slightly backward. For instance, in the scene where Varadan's wife Chitra (Jyothika) caught him red-handed along with secret lover, her reaction on Varadan seemed odd. Instead of blasting him for betrayal like any traditional wife and mother of three kids, Chitra just reminds him of the threats on his life and advice to be extra cautious about the same. Apart from this, Senapathy's wife and in-laws keep mum even when the rage between three brothers piles up constantly which make the female parts irrelevant in the screenplay.
Being a Mani Ratnam film, it is assured that the technical side is always on the high with A.R. Rahman's soulful music, crisp editing by Sreekar Prasad followed by the magical lens of Santhosh Sivan. It is a hard task for any filmmaker to chop off Rahman's songs which add much-needed flavor to the movie regardless of its content and here the veteran director did a tremendous job by adding the shortened version of all songs without feeling any lag in the narration. The wide-angle mountain shot in the climax where Rasool sits on top of the rock was stunning and marks the signature style of cinematographer Santhosh Sivan. Undoubtedly we can say that vintage Mani Ratnam is back after a string of flops with an engaging plot which has its heart in the right place.
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- Dec 20, 2018
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Details
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $801,810
- Runtime2 hours 26 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (2018) officially released in Canada in English?
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