Maanaadu

Year: 2021

Actors: S.J. Suryah

Duration: 147 min

Abdul Khaliq is an NRI, who is on his way via a flight to Coimbatore from Delhi, to reach Ooty. He is going to help his friend Eswaramoorthy elope with his lover Zarina Begum on the day of her marriage with the help of his other friend Syed Basha. He gets his co-passenger Seethalakshmi to join him after it is revealed that she is actually the groom's friend at Zarina's wedding. The next afternoon, They elope and escape from the bride's family in pursuit of them. On the way to the registrar's office, an unknown man suddenly falls into their car.The man is revealed to have been pursued by the cops headed by Inspector John. They are subsequently interned extrajudicially on the orders of corrupt DCP Dhanushkodi. Khaliq is forced by Dhanushkodi and John to attend a scheduled political gathering with CM Arivazhagan present and is instructed to shoot Arivazhagan with a pistol or else his friends would die, Khaliq reluctantly shoots Arivazhagan. John shoots Khaliq dead in the enduring chaos, despite his protests against his actions. Khaliq awakens only to find himself in the mid-flight where he was at the start of that day and proceeds to relive all the distinct incidents of that morning.After attempting to help Eswaramoorthy elope again, he finds himself in the same spot where the police had previously accosted him. Khaliq is shocked to find the unknown man named Rafiq from his previous experience. Rafiq enters his car attempting to flee the police. The police catch up to them and Khaliq is shot dead by Dhanushkodi this time. Khaliq finds himself mid-flight once again, failing to realise he is looping in time. He attempts to take a different path and prevent interacting with the police, but he eventually dies at the hands of Zarina's brother Mansoor. He wakes up mid-flight once again and finally realises that he is trapped in a time loop.Khaliq explains the matter to his friends and Seethalakshmi who tells him about the stories of time looping and Ujjain's Kaal-Bhairav, the Hindu lord of time. Khaliq realises how he, having been born in Ujjain in Kaal-Bhairav's temple, might be behind the time loop (Khaliq looping at the same spot is the result of the aircraft flying over Ujjain at that moment) and that he has to reach a set objective to escape the loop. Khaliq begins investigating the political gathering once again and sees a cameraman shoot at Arivazhagan with a disguised sniper rifle. Using the time loop to his advantage, Khaliq locates the hitman and restrains him to prevent the assassination.However, Arivazhagan is killed in an IED bombing while leaving the gathering. Frustrated, Khaliq confronts Dhanushkodi and laments that Arivazhagan's assassination would lead to a dangerous religious riot and cause further societal conflict. It is revealed that Dhanushkodi has also been stuck in a time loop when his blood was accidentally transfused into Khaliq as he was wounded in one of the previous loops. The two must struggle against each other to achieve their conflicting goals. Khaliq needs to stop the political gathering which would prevent Arivazhagan's public assassination and foil any possibility of a religious riot while Dhanushkodi needs to prevent Khaliq from doing so.Dhanushkodi is revealed to be working for Paranthaman, a veteran aide of Arivazhagan, who is unhappy with the nepotism inside his party. Paranthaman wants to get to power by assassinating Arivazhagan and Dhanushkodi expects to benefit from such a transfer of power by orchestrating the assassination. Khaliq is given a final warning by Dhanushkodi to stay away from his assassination and resets the loop. Khaliq attempts to warn Arivazhagan's son Mugilan of the impending assassination. On failing to do so, Khaliq eventually figures out Tamizhvanan, a local Hindu figurehead already knew of Paranthaman's plans to assassinate Arivazhagan. Tamizhvanan was murdered earlier that day.On knowing Arivazhagan and Tamizhvanan are close, Khaliq realizes that he needs to save Tamizhvanan and get him to warn Arivazhagan to prevent the gathering. After many futile attempts and loops, Khaliq successfully kidnaps Tamizhvanan and avoids Tamizhvanan himself to get murdered. He convinces Tamizhanan about Arivazhagan's impending assassination. Tamizhvanan helps Khaliq get to Arivazhagan but is captured by the police during a police chase. Khaliq smuggles himself into the memorial service of Kalaiselvanar (Arivazhagan's predecessor and former CM) which Arivazhagan, Mugilan, and Paranthaman attend the following afternoon. Khaliq convinces Arivazghan that an assassination was being planned by showing a video where Tamizhanan explains Arivazhagan to trust Khaliq.Arivazhagan confronts Paranthaman by acting like he is suffering from sudden palpitation. He is convinced that Khaliq is telling the truth after Paranthaman pleas for him to attend the conference. A fight ensues between Khaliq and Dhanushkodi. Mugilan is shot, but successfully warns his guards, who come straight into the action, Paranthaman attempts to suffocate Arivazhagan but is killed by Khaliq. Dhanushkodi tries to kill Arivazhagan but Khaliq takes the bullet and saves him. Dhanushkodi is killed by the guards. Mugilan and Khaliq recover and Arivazghan thanks Khaliq for saving his life. Khaliq seemingly ends his time loop. Paranthaman's death is chalked up to cardiac arrest for political reasons. When Mansoor arrives, Khaliq stands to face him.In the post-credits scene, Khaliq awakens to find the time loop has still not ended.

Genre: Action   Adventure   Sci-Fi   Thriller