// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Maayavan a good robot? Yes, it has a screw loose.

Maayavan
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	C. V. Kumar
Screenplay by	Nalan Kumarasamy
Story by	C. V. Kumar
Produced by	C. V. Kumar
Starring	Sundeep Kishan Lavanya Tripathi
Cinematography	Gopi Amarnath
Edited by	Leo John Paul
Music by	Ghibran
Production company	Thirukumaran Entertainment
Distributed by	Studio Green Abi & Abi Pictures
Release date	14 December 2017 (2017-12-14)
Running time	121 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Maayavan (transl. The Wizard) is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language science fiction thriller film co written, produced and directed by C. V. Kumar. The film stars Sundeep Kishan and Lavanya Tripathi while Jackie Shroff, Daniel Balaji, Mime Gopi, R. Amarendran, Bagavathi Perumal, and Jayaprakash play supporting roles. The film features music composed by Ghibran, cinematography by Gopi Amarnath, and editing by Leo John Paul. The film was launched in February 2016 and released on 14 December 2017. It was dubbed in Telugu as Project Z.

Plot

Police inspector Kumaran (Sundeep Kishan) witnesses a brutal murder and chases the killer Dheena (Sai Dheena). Dheena then traps and attacks him. Just before Dheena can kill him, however, Kumaran overpowers and kills him in self-defense. The near-death experience leaves Kumaran with severe PTSD, forcing him to take medical leave. Four months later, Kumaran rejoins the police force. The first case Kumaran investigates after returning is the murder of actress Vishma (Akshara Gowda), which bears striking similarities to the one committed by Dheena. The prime suspect, her makeup artist Gopi (Mime Gopi), is on the run.

Kumaran's team eventually locates Gopi and moves in to arrest him. As he is cornered by the police, Gopi makes several cryptic statements, claiming that Vishma was his second victim, that the first murder was the one witnessed by Kumaran, and that he himself died during that murder. He also remarks that his current body is "useless" and that he will simply die again before committing suicide. Seeking to understand Gopi's words, Kumaran visits the families of both Dheena and Gopi. Both families reveal that shortly before their deaths, the two men underwent sudden personality changes. They failed to recognize their loved ones and developed identical new habits and abilities, behaving as though they were possessed.

Another murder soon occurs, with the victim being Narayanan, one of the country's leading neurologists. The murder closely resembles those committed by Dheena and Gopi. The investigation suggests that Narayanan might be acquainted with the famous writer Rudhran. Kumaran questions Rudhran and notices that he is displaying many of the same unusual habits previously exhibited by Dheena and Gopi. Rudhran's assistants confirm that these behavioral changes appeared only recently. Fearing that Rudhran may become the next killer and victim, Kumaran asks him to remain under police protection for a few days. Rudhran refuses. Kumaran then deliberately provokes him into assaulting a police officer, allowing the police to arrest him and place him in custody.

While signing paperwork in custody, Rudhran accidentally signs the name "Pramodh" before correcting it to "Rudhran". Believing the name to be connected to the mysterious cases, Kumaran investigates further. Narayanan's family reveals that he once had a colleague named Pramodh, who died a year earlier. Kumaran then visits Narayanan's research institute and questions its staff. After hearing about the string of murders, Velayudham, a colleague of both Narayanan and Pramodh, offers a possible explanation. Pramodh had been researching memory transplantation. Although the technology had been successfully tested on mice, Narayanan, the institute's director, had forbidden Pramodh from conducting human trials. Velayudham theorizes that Pramodh secretly continued his research on humans and eventually succeeded. He believes that Pramodh committed suicide only after transplanting his memories into Dheena's brain and later into Gopi's, allowing Pramodh to continue living through their bodies. According to the theory, Rudhran's body is now also occupied by Pramodh's memories.

During interrogation, Rudhran confirms Velayudham's theory. Revealing himself to be Pramodh, he explains that he backed up his memories onto a hard drive before committing suicide. The hard drive is continuously updated remotely with his latest memories. He injects a chosen target with a special gel, and when his current body dies, his stored memories are automatically activated within the target's brain, allowing him to take over the person's life. The police also discover that Pramodh's next target is Major Sathya (Jackie Shroff). Rudhran commits suicide, causing Pramodh's memories to transfer into Sathya.

Because of Major Sathya's influence and the lack of evidence proving the extraordinary circumstances, the police decide not to confront him directly despite knowing that he is now effectively Pramodh. They instead locate Pramodh's secret laboratory, where the memory-transplant equipment, including the hard drive containing his memories, is kept. To save his hard drive, Sathya (Pramodh) kidnaps the family of police officer Karna (Bagavathi Perumal) and forces him to steal the hard drive and hand it over to him. Karna complies, but after obtaining it, Sathya kidnaps Velayudham and forces him to return to the institute's laboratory so that he can continue his work using the facility to make himself immortal. Kumaran arrives and fights Sathya, eventually overpowering him and preparing to kill him. Sathya then reveals that he has injected Aadhirai (Lavanya Tripathi), Kumaran's girlfriend, with the special gel. If Sathya dies, Pramodh's memories will transfer into Aadhirai, leaving Kumaran trapped in an impossible dilemma.

Twenty years later, Kumaran and Aadhirai are shown to be married with a child. Kumaran has kept Sathya imprisoned in his house, regularly administering nutrient injections to keep him alive, ensuring that Pramodh's memories can never transfer to Aadhirai.

Cast

• Sundeep Kishan as Inspector Kumaran
• Lavanya Tripathi as Dr. Aadhirai (Voice dubbed by Chinmayi)
• Jackie Shroff as Major Sathyan
• Daniel Balaji as Ruthran
• Mime Gopi as Gopi
• R. Amarendran as Pramodh
• Bagavathi Perumal as Sub-Inspector Karna
• Jayaprakash as Velayudham
• Akshara Gowda as Vishma
• K. S. Ravikumar as Minister
• K. S. G. Venkatesh as Kumaran's father
• Karpagam as Kumaran's mother
• Sai Dheena as Dheena
• Jeeva Ravi as DIG Ravikumar
• Kathi Ravi as Narayanan
• Navin Kumar as Constable Moorthy
• Yamuna Chinnadurai as Subha
• Rajie Vijay Sarathy as Mrs. Pramodh
• Supergood Subramani as Constable Muthukumar
• Tamil Selvi as Velayudham's wife
• Manimegalai as Dheena's mother

Production

Film producer C. V. Kumar began his first directorial project in June 2014 and signed on Naveen Chandra to play the lead role. The film began production during the same month and was titled Mayavan, with K. S. G. Venkatesh also signed on to play a pivotal role. Santhosh Narayanan was revealed to be the film's music composer and the launch event was attended by a few of the producer's close friends. The film was later delayed and subsequently shelved.

C. V. Kumar began working on the film again during September 2015, when it was announced that Sundeep Kishan would replace Naveen in the lead role, while Kumar would produce the film alongside the studio, Studio Green. Kumar revealed that he had also approached Vijay Sethupathi to play the lead role, but his unavailability prompted him to sign on Sundeep. The team initially tried to sign actress Lavanya Tripathi to play the lead female role, but her busy schedule meant that the team went on to hold unsuccessful negotiations with actresses Keerthy Suresh and Amyra Dastur for the role. Taapsee Pannu then signed on to appear in the leading female role, while Kumar worked on the script alongside Nalan Kumarasamy, who wrote the venture's dialogues and screenplay. However, the film became delayed further and evaded its starting date in October.

Tripathi later became available and signed on to play the leading female role after Pannu became busy with her commitments in Hindi films during February 2016. The film was officially launched in mid February 2016, with Ghibran announced as the film's composer and Gopi Amarnath as the cinematographer. Daniel Balaji, Jayaprakash, Bagavathi Perumal, and Mime Gopi were also added to the cast, as the film began production in Chennai.

Soundtrack

The music is composed by Ghibran.

Maayavan
Soundtrack album by Ghibran
Released	2017
Recorded	2017
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	13:06
Language	Tamil
Producer	Ghibran
Ghibran chronology
Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru (2017) Maayavan (2017) Chennai 2 Singapore (2017)

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Mella Mella Sollava"	Soundararajan K	Shweta Subram, Abby V	4:51
2.	"Maya Masthava"	Sikkander	Marana Gaana Viji	3:15
3.	"Bodhai Poo"	Vivek	Ghibran, Sharanya Gopinath	5:00
Total length:				13:06

Release

The film was released on 14 December 2017.

Critical reception

M. Suganth of The Times of India gave 3.5 stars out of 5 stating, "One of the best things about Maayavan is how it manages to keep us guessing until it reveals the killer". Baradwaj Rangan wrote for Film Companion, "CV Kumar has terrific instincts as a producer — he single-handedly created a parallel economy from sensible, stylish, low-budget cinema. But as a filmmaker, he's functional at best."

Sequel

In May 2024, a sequel was announced titled MaayaOne, with C. V. Kumar and Sundeep Kishan reprising their roles as director and lead.

External links

• Maayavan at IMDb 
• Maayavan at Rotten Tomatoes