Thalaivaa

Thalaivaa (transl. The Leader) is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by A. L. Vijay (credited as Vijay) and produced by Vendhar Movies. The film stars Vijay in the titular role, alongside Amala Paul, Sathyaraj, Ragini Nandwani, Santhanam, Abhimanyu Singh, Nassar and Rajeev Pillai. In the film, a dancer in Australia takes over his father's duty as a crime boss in Mumbai after his death.

The film, which commenced production in November 2012 in Mumbai, was released on 8 August 2013 on the occasion of Eid-ul Fitr. The film received mostly positive reviews from the critics. The film upon its early release was successful at the overseas box office, and also successful in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Karnataka box office. Due to opposition from the ruling AIADMK as insisted by the then Chief minister J Jayalalithaa, the film had a delayed release in Tamil Nadu on 20 August 2013 and its performance was affected at the Tamil Nadu box office. The film went on to be remade in Punjabi as Sardar Saab in 2017. It was also screened in Japan in 2020.

1988: A riot occurs in Bombay where a group attacks Ratnam and his son, Logu. However, Ramadurai arrives and saves them. After the riot, Ratnam decides to leave for Madras and start a new life somewhere abroad. Ramadurai asks him to stay, but Ratnam tells Ramadurai that he should move away. Suddenly, that night, Ramadurai's house gets attacked by his opposite gang, run by a politician named Bhadra. While trying to save him, Ramadurai's wife, Ganga, gets shot and dies suddenly. Enraged, Ramadurai goes to Bhadra's house, beats up Bhadra's goons and kills Bhadra. Ramadurai takes his son Vishwa to Ratnam, who is on a train and asks him to take Vishwa with him because he doesn't want his actions to waste Vishwa's life and sends him away with Ratnam to Australia.

2013: Vishwa is a dancer who lives in Sydney and manages a water distribution business in the name of his mother Ganga with his childhood friend Logu and his dance team members. Ramadurai is a crime boss who fights for the rights of migrated Tamils and also keeps in contact with Vishwa as he grows up and lies to him about his profession. Vishwa falls in love with Meera, the daughter of a restaurateur, who is one of his customers. Meera reciprocates Vishwa's feelings and joins his dance team, helping them win a dance competition. She soon proposes to Vishwa, who agrees. Meera's father accepts the marriage but wants to discuss the matter formally with Ramadurai.

They leave for Mumbai, where Vishwa finds out about Ramadurai's true profession and that he is hiding due to several false cases registered against him by his arch-enemy Bhima, Bhadra's son. Vishwa also finds out that Meera and her father are Crime Branch officers who lured him to Mumbai so that they could arrest Ramadurai. Ramadurai gets arrested, but just after he enters the police van, a bomb planted by Bhima in the vehicle explodes, killing him. Distraught over his father's death, Vishwa decides to stay back in Mumbai and take over his father's syndicate. He dons the title of Thalaivaa and provides his brand of justice for the helpless and downtrodden.

Meanwhile, Bhima initiates a riot in Mumbai, which leads to the deaths and injuries of several people. Vishwa arrives at the scene and saves several others, including a Bhojpuri woman named Gowri, whose marriage became nullified due to the riots. Although there is seemingly inadequate evidence that Bhima is responsible, a video recorded by a cameraman, Kumar, highlighting Bhima's involvement in the riots, is stolen by a Bhojpuri-speaking pickpocketer. Vishwa and his gang manage to reclaim the tape from the pickpocketer and make it public, leading to Bhima's arrest. Vishwa also kills the corrupt CM of Maharashtra, who had given Bhima and his gang free rein and blames it on Bhima.

However, Bhima soon escapes from prison and kills most of Vishwa's henchmen on the night of Maha Shivaratri, including Gowri. When Vishwa enters a fort after hearing his uncle Rangaa and his second-in-command is being "held hostage" there by Bhima, Ranga stabs him. it gets revealed that Ranga helped Bhima to kill Gowri and Vishwa's henchmen. Taking his son, who is also the driver and cousin of Vishwa, he leaves the fort. He immediately informs the police that Vishwa is "dead". Ranga also reveals to have aided Bhima in killing Ramadurai to replace him as the leader. When Ranga's son hears about his father's betrayal, he becomes enraged and drives the car into a petroleum tanker, killing them both.

Though injured, Vishwa fights with Bhima's goons and kills them individually. After a bitter fight, he kills Bhima by stabbing his throat. Meera soon arrives at the fort and realises that Vishwa killed Bhima, but she acts quickly and shoots the corpses of Bhima and his goons to imply that she killed them, thus saving Vishwa from prison. Meera eventually quits her job after realising her love for Vishwa, and the two get married. With Bhima and his gang out of the way, Vishwa is now the unchallenged crime boss in Mumbai.