The film was released on 1 May 2013. Soodhu Kavvum received positive reviews from critics and became a big blockbuster.[4] The film was remade in Telugu as Gaddam Gang and in Urdu as the Pakistani film Chupan Chupai. A sequel titled Soodhu Kavvum 2 was released in 2024.
Plot
Friends Kesavan, Sekar, and Pagalavan meet Das, a middle-aged man who does low-profile kidnappings for a living with his imaginary girlfriend Shalu. Since they are broke, the trio decides to become his assistants. Das follows five rules of kidnapping, the first of which is to avoid abducting people with political background.
One day, the gang kidnaps a boy and successfully extorts ransom from his father, Nambikkai Kannan. Nambikkai's contractor brother has been arrested for attempted bribery by State Minister Gnanodayam, an honest politician. Impressed with Das's kidnapping skills, Nambikkai asks him to kidnap Gnanodayam's son, Arumai Pragasam, as revenge and offers to pay Das up to ₹20 million (equivalent to ₹34 million or US$400,000 in 2023). Das initially hesitates, but eventually agrees after being convinced by Kesavan, Sekar, and Pagalavan.
The next day, the gang sets out to kidnap Arumai but is astonished to see him get kidnapped by another group. They kidnap Arumai from the other kidnappers and discover that the first kidnapping was staged by Arumai himself to extort money from his father. Arumai manages to convince Das and his men to collude with him to obtain ransom money from his father. The group demands ₹20 million from the minister and receives the money.
An argument over splitting the cash arises between Arumai and the rest, during which their van loses control and falls from a bridge. Arumai runs away with all the money. The minister seeks the assistance of encounter specialist Bramma, a ruthless policeman, to hunt down the kidnappers. Arumai returns to home and hides the money in his room. Das devises a plan to kidnap Arumai again to retrieve the money. They accidentally meet Arumai and kidnap him again. Das lets Arumai go free, after making him promise that he should not tell anything about them to the police. Arumai also promises to return their share of the money. Bramma learns that Arumai staged his own kidnapping and uses this information to threaten Arumai into testifying against the Das gang.
Arumai perjures that the Das gang did not kidnap him, leading to their acquittal. Enraged, Bramma takes the gang to a remote location, and brutally beats them in a dark room with the aid of night-vision goggles. Instead of shooting them with the officially issued gun, he goes out and retrieves from his police jeep an illegal homemade gun that he had seized from a crook. When he tucks it behind his back in his trousers, the rusty gun misfires into Bramma's buttocks, allowing the Das gang to escape. Arumai's father breaks in and takes the money bag to the chief minister, who provided the ransom money. When he opens the bag, the minister is shocked to find it filled with newspapers instead. Arumai transferred the cash to another bag and gave the Das gang their share.
The chief minister calls Arumai to his office and asks him to stand as a candidate in the upcoming general elections in lieu of his father, who never brought much income to the party due to his refusal to be corrupt. The chief minister praises Arumai's shrewdness and believes that he can rake in a substantial income of ₹3 billion (equivalent to ₹5.1 billion or US$60 million in 2023) in five years for the party, as a young minister. Arumai wins the elections, becomes MLA, immediately gets a ministerial post, and appoints Sekar and Kesavan as his personal advisers, while Pagalavan becomes an actor. Das continues his kidnapping business with a new band of young men. They kidnap a woman who looks exactly like Shalu, belatedly realising that she is Shalini Gupta, a minister's daughter. Thus, Das has broken his first rule of kidnapping again.
Top10 Cinema gave a favourable review, stating that "On the whole, the album introduces some new genre of music and Santhosh Narayanan deserves a special pat for this. Much alike his previous album Pizza, the visuals would add more beautifications to his music" and gave a verdict "Buy it for Come Na Come & Sudden Delight".[9]Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote, "With Soodhu Kavvum, Santhosh proves that his unconventional style is here to stay".[10]
Baradwaj Rangan stated, "Nalan Kumarasamy's Soodhu Kavvum is a demonstration of what's possible when films are made for the sheer joy of making films. There isn't a single calculated moment, something cynically aimed to satisfy this segment of the audience or that one. Everything is organic, the events rooted in a nutty story and sprouting through a brilliant screenplay".[13] S. Saraswathi from Rediff.com gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote "Soodhu Kavvum is an engaging film, with ingenious characters and entertaining situations" and called it a "must-watch".[14] N Venkateswaran from The Times of India gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "Nalan Kumarasamy establishes himself as a director to watch out for in this laugh riot of a debut film. Carrying off a dark comedy is no mean task, but Nalan hits the target right in his first attempt. His writing is crisp, the lines are down to earth and funny, the characters well-etched and the screenplay has no dull moments".[15]
Sify wrote, "Soodhu Kavvum works big time due to smart writing and perfect characterisation. Final verdict on Soodhu Kavvum is that it is a gutsy great film. It is one of the best films to have emerged out of Kollywood in a long, long time".[16] Malini Mannath from The New Indian Express wrote "Engaging screenplay, deft narration, well-etched characters and twists and humour generated at unexpected moments, make Soodhu Kavvum a wacky jolly fun ride".[17] Vivek Ramz from In.com rated the film 3.5 out of 5 and wrote "The film is technically rich even with the budget constraints. Except the poor graphics in the pre-interval scene [...] the film looked neat with some fine shots by Cinematographer Dinesh Krishnan". He also appreciated the writing, cast performances, editing and music.[18]
Box office
Soodhu Kavvum grossed ₹11.5 lakh (US$13,000) in Chennai theatres on its first weekend.[19] In its opening weekend it grossed ₹15.7 lakh (US$18,000) in the US which was a disappointing result.[20] The film had collected ₹5.2 crore (US$610,000) in two weeks in Tamil Nadu, according to IANS.[21] In June 2013, IANS reported that it had earned ₹12 crore (US$1.4 million) against a budget of under ₹5 crore (US$590,000).[1]
Legacy
Sudhish Kamath picked Soodhu Kavvum as one of five films that have redefined Tamil cinema in 2013, writing, "This film is a joy to watch, full of laughs and unpredictable situations with great wit, dark humour and satire. Writer-director Nalan Kumarasamy, the winner of the first season of Nalaya Iyakkunar, is one of the most exciting filmmakers of our times with his ability to turn a cliché on the head".[22]Soodhu Kavvum was featured in Indo-Asian News Service's 10 best southern films of 2013, who called it "unarguably the funniest film of the year".[23]Sify and Rediff listed it in the year-end top Tamil films lists, too.[24][25]
