Kaakha Kaakha

Kaakha Kaakha (transl. To Protect; titled The Police in the UK)^[1] is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written & directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon and produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu. It stars Suriya and Jyothika, alongside Jeevan, Daniel Balaji, Devadarshini, Yog Japee, Vivek Anand and Sethu Rajan. The music was composed by Harris Jayaraj, while cinematography and editing were handled by R. D. Rajasekhar and Anthony.

Kaakha Kaakha
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gautham Vasudev Menon
Written by	Gautham Vasudev Menon
Produced by	Kalaipuli S. Thanu
Starring	Suriya Jyothika Jeevan
Narrated by	Sathyaraj
Cinematography	R. D. Rajasekhar
Edited by	Anthony
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Production company	V. Creations
Release date	1 August 2003 (2003-08-01)
Running time	153 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Kaakha Kaakha released on 1 August 2003 to highly positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success at the box office. It was considered as a breakthrough film for both Suriya and Menon.^[2]

Anbuselvan, an orphan and an honest stone-hearted IPS officer in the Chennai City Police, works as the ACP in the Crime Branch. Anbuselvan and his IPS friends Shrikanth, Arul and Ilamaran are recruited as a part of a special unit of police officers, who are battling organised crime in Chennai. Anbuselvan is violent and laconic in his duties and finds little patience for his personal life. The unit is ruthless in its confrontation with criminals, going as far as assassinating gang members. The unit is finally disbanded by human rights authorities when they assassinate five gangsters in three months, believing that killing them is more beneficial than arresting them and dealing with the legal system, and so Anbuselvan is posted to duties in the control room.

One day, Maya, a school teacher, rebuffs Anbuselvan's routine questions regarding safety, not knowing about his profession. Anbuselvan meets Maya again when she and her friend are questioned for driving without a license. However, Anbuselvan lets them off with a warning. When one of Maya's students has a problem with local kids, she asks Anbuselvan for help. Anbuselvan resolves this problem and a mutual respect develops between them, where they begin to see each other everyday. When Maya gets into a road accident, Anbuselvan helps her recover and they fall in love with each other. Shrikanth and his wife Swathi become good friends with Maya.

Meanwhile, Agaram Sethu, a gangster who escaped from encounter operations, meets his estranged brother Pandiya, who returns to Chennai after 14 years of crime life in Maharashtra. Pandiya has a peculiar tactic: he kills a family member of his opponent, but leaves the opponent alive to rot in depression over the loss of his family member. Sethu's gang, aided by Pandiya's planning, commits major kidnappings in the city and becomes powerful in 6 months. The special unit is reassembled by the commissioner with all four back in the crime branch. The unit tracks down and kills Sethu in a railyard, while the others escape.

Pandiya takes over the gang, promising to exact revenge against the special unit for Sethu's death. Pandiya and his gang members target the families of the special unit, but the police close in, and a badly injured Pandiya escapes Anbuselvan. Pandiya and his men brutally kill Ilamaran the same night. The entire department is mobilised and all family members of the remaining three are sent into hiding. Maya and Anbuselvan get married in a hurry and leave for Pondicherry, but Pandiya and his thugs track down the couple at their cottage. Pandiya and his thugs kidnap Maya and seemingly kill Anbuselvan, who later survives and is admitted to the hospital by Shrikanth and Arul.

Shrikanth reveals that Swathi was kidnapped earlier at the airport and confesses that he was the one who gave away Anbuselvan's location to Pandiya for Swathi's safe return. Shrikanth feels extreme remorse over the brutal events that happened to Anbuselvan and Maya. While in the hospital, they receive a message from Pandiya to meet him at a particular location in Andhra Pradesh. When they go there, they find two packages, one containing Swathi's severed head and the other containing Maya's arm flesh. Shrikanth and Anbuselvan are distraught, with the former being hysterical upon seeing Swathi's head.

In an agony of grief and guilt at being responsible, Shrikanth shoots himself dead. Anbuselvan and Arul track down Pandiya before he can escape from Tamil Nadu and fights with the gang. Anbuselvan aims to shoot Pandiya, but Pandiya shoots Maya while using her as a shield and she dies in Anbuselvan's arms. An enraged Anbuselvan tracks down Pandiya and brutally finishes him off, avenging Maya and his friends' deaths. In the aftermath, Anbuselvan continues his job as an IPS officer, while still reminiscing about his moments with Maya.

The film was initially titled as Paathi (Half) and then as Kalam, before the team opted to change the title to Kaakha Kaakha.^[4] Gautham Vasudev Menon revealed that he was inspired to make the film after reading of articles on how encounter specialists shoot gangsters and how their families get threatening calls in return, and initially approached Madhavan, Ajith Kumar and Vikram for the role without success.^[5][6][7] The lead actress Jyothika asked Menon to consider Suriya for the role, and he was subsequently selected after Menon saw his portrayal in Nandha.^[8] Many producers refused to do this film as they could not make a film on the budget fixed by Menon that too with Suriya; it was Thanu who finally agreed to produce the film.^[9] Jeevan portrayed the antagonist and his voice was dubbed by Menon.^[10]

Menon did a rehearsal of the script with the actors, a costume trial with Jyothika and then enrolled Suriya in a commando training school before beginning production, which he described as a "very planned shoot".^[8] To prepare for the role, Suriya met real-life police officers Vijayakumar and Shailendra Babu and discussed about their encounter experiences.^[9] An outhouse set was built at Nuwera Eliya at Sri Lanka which cost ₹5 lakh (equivalent to ₹18 lakh or US$22,000 in 2023).^[9] To build the set on 24 feet of water, art director Rajeevan hired thirteen carpenters, two painters and the set was built within 15 days and the green-grass roof of the house had to be watered every day to prevent the grass from drying up.^[11] The scene where Suriya falls from the outhouse, he performed it without a stunt double.^[9]

The film's music was composed by Harris Jayaraj marking his second collaboration with Menon after Minnale. The song "Ondra Renda" is based on "Dil Ko Tumse Pyar Hua" from the 2001 Hindi film Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein in which Harris himself was the music director.^[12]

Kaakha Kaakha was released on 1 August 2003.^[13] The film had an alternate ending which showed Jyothika's character surviving; it was released only on DVD and Menon explains why this was not shown on cinema release.^[14][15]

Guru Subramaniam of Rediff.com labelled Kaakha Kaakha a "career high film" and wrote "Though the director is a tad biased while describing the police, one must salute his positive attitude."^[16] Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu described it as for "action lovers who believe in logical storylines and deft treatment."^[17] Cinesouth wrote "Goutham has made an action film without getting caught in the masala trap. Appreciated!".^[18]

The film was a major breakthrough for Menon and Suriya.^[19][20][21]

Gautham Vasudev Menon remade the film in Telugu as Gharshana (2004) for producer Venkata Raj and it went on to be highly successful in Telugu theatres. In July 2004, Menon agreed terms to direct and produce another version of Kaakha Kaakha in Hindi with Sunny Deol in the lead role and revealed that the script was written five years ago with Deol in mind, but the film eventually failed to take off.^[22] Producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah approached him to direct the Hindi version of the film in 2010 as Force and Menon initially agreed before pulling out again.^[23] The film was also remade in Kannada in 2011 as Dandam Dashagunam. Menon and the original producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu also floated an idea of an English version with a Chechnyan backdrop, though talks with a potential collaboration with Ashok Amritraj collapsed.^[8]

In addition to the following list of awards and nominations, Kaakha Kaakha was named one of the 10 best Tamil films of 2003 by Rediff, Sify and Behindwoods ^{[citation needed]}

• Kaakha Kaakha at IMDb