Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru
Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru, also known as D-16, is a 2016 Indian neo-noir crime thriller film written and directed by Karthick Naren, and starring Rahman. Featuring a predominantly new cast and crew, the film features music composed by Jakes Bejoy, cinematography handled by Sujith Sarang and editing done by Sreejith Sarang. Released on 29 December 2016, the film went on to gain positive reviews from film critics as well becoming a sleeper hit and blockbuster. The film was remade in Kannada as Aa Drushya. The film is going to be remade in Hindi with Varun Dhawan in the lead role.
Plot
The story begins with Deepak narrating one of the cases he worked on as a police officer in Coimbatore. Deepak narrates the story to a man who is the son of another police officer.Three young men - Fabian, Mano and Melvin - hit a man with their car on a rainy day. Afraid that they might get caught, they carry the body to their home.
Deepak continues the story from his perspective. When he comes to his office in the morning, his subordinate officer informs him about the suicide, of a person named Krish, and hands over the deceased's license. The informer, who is a paperboy, is called in to give his information. On his way out, the paperboy sees the car from the crime scene and shouts out to the police, but they ignore him.
Deepak visits the crime scene and meets the new police officer, Gautham. Gautham follows his instinct and mentions those young men. They go to investigate them. After finding nothing, they return to the office. While on their way, they get a call informing them of another incident. They go there to find that Shruti is missing and there are bloodstains in her bedroom. Her friend Vaishnavi identified this. Later, Deepak gets a call that the previous day Shruti had filed a complaint against someone called Mano. Deepak recognizes the name as that of one of the young men and interrogates them. The incident was that she unintentionally sped her car and nearly hit them. The three young men also confess that after the incident, they have not met her. On further investigation in Shruti's apartment, it is revealed that the blood group is B+, which matches with Krish's.
Gautham investigates and identifies that Shruti had told her neighbour about her fiancé. They decide that the fiancé might be Krish and decide to surveil the young men as suspects. As the day ends, Deepak decides to go home. His neighbour informs him about a young man who was waiting for him. Deepak had captured a camera from some kids. From the camera, Deepak learns that Vaishnavi has lied about arriving late to the house. He also notices the car number from the video. Both Gautham and Deepak decide to check on Vaishnavi, but they realise that she is missing from her house. She is nowhere to be found. She is then shown to be at the airport. Gautham and Deepak come to the conclusion that one among the young boys might have been the suspect and that Shruti would have given a complaint against the one whose name she would have confused with. After this conclusion, they see Mano on the road on his way to the police station.
To Deepak and Gautham, Mano narrates the incident of how they hit the man while driving the car, and later carrying the body and finally realising that the body was taken by the original killer. The paperboy explains to the police that on the day of the incident, he saw a man with a bullet wound who had apparently committed suicide and another case where the car hit a man. Gautham and Deepak hypothesise the chain of events: both Krish and Shruti are in the apartment, and then the anonymous killer breaks in and kidnaps Shruti, Krish, and Vaishnavi's assumed fiancé and threatens Vaishnavi. While trying to escape, Krish is killed. Vaishnavi's fiancé also escapes and is hit by the car and killed. They get a lead that a guy is throwing a dead body on the outskirts and go there. Finally, they see the car number and follow it. But Gautham and Deepak get in an accident. At the moment of accident, Gautham catches a glimpse before their vehicle crashes. Deepak's right foot is amputated, and he retires from the force.
After narrating this much, Deepak asks the other man to whom he was narrating the story whether he still wants to be in the police. Deepak excuses himself into the house. While he is there, he realizes that the person with whom he was conversing is not whom he thought. He becomes cautious and takes his pistol.
When Deepak meets the other man at the lawn table, the other man points his pistol at Deepak and reveals himself to be Gautham. Gautham had suffered burns from the accident due to which he had been permanently relieved from field duty. Gautham wanted to solve this case. After he recovered from his coma, he had come straight to meet Deepak to solve this case. When he reached Deepak's house, he saw the killer leaving Deepak's home. Shocked, Gautham had posed as someone else to know what is going on. Meanwhile, Deepak's staff call in the police. He asks Deepak about the killer, and Deepak reveals the killer as his own son Rajiv.
The true incident is revealed: It was Shruti's birthday. Vaishnavi and Shruti's boyfriend Rajiv come home early to surprise her. Krish, faking his name as Mano, comes inside the apartment with his friend, rapes her, and films the assault on their phone. He is the same guy against whom Shruti has filed an eve-teasing complaint. They later take Shruti with them, and Rajiv chases them. Near the park, Rajiv fights and kills Krish. While trying to run from Rajiv, Krish's accomplice is hit by the car with three young men. Rajiv asks Vaishnavi to report that Shruti is missing. Rajiv later takes Shruti and Vaishnavi back to Nashik to safeguard them. He takes the other guy's body from the men's car to take his phone where they recorded Shruti's rape.
After the accident, Vaishnavi comes to Deepak to tell him what happened. Rajiv had been trying to contact Deepak since the night of the incident, but since Deepak had left his phone in his office while on investigation, Rajiv was unable to inform Deepak of the whole occurrence. Deepak dies after being shot by Gautham, who is in turn shot and injured by police fire. Deepak says he saved his son by keeping quiet after learning the truth after, but the guilt of having indirectly been involved in destroying Gautham's life had been haunting him, but now he can die without guilt.
Cast
The name of the movie "Dhuruvangal 16" also alludes to the fact that there are 16 characters in it, and that each of the 16 indulges in extreme life events.- Rahman as Deepak, retired Inspector of Police
- Prakash Vijayaraghavan as Gautham, before he underwent facial reconstruction surgery due to the accident.
- * Ashwin Kkumar as Gautham, after he underwent facial reconstruction surgery due to the accident.
- Pradeep as Rajan
- Anjana Jayaprakash as Vaishnavi
- Yashika Aannand as Shruti
- Kunal Kaushik as Rajiv
- Sharath Ravi as Paperboy
- Santhosh Krishna as Fabian
- Praveen as Mano
- Karthikeyan as Melvin
- Vinod Varma as Krish
- Bala Hasan as Prem
- Delhi Ganesh as Sriram
- SM. Sivakumar
- Karthick Naren as Short film director
Production
Development
In September 2015, Rahman revealed that he would work on a Tamil thriller film to be directed by Karthick Naren, then only aged twenty-one years old. Rahman stated that was initially apprehensive about signing on to feature in a film to be made by newcomers and held a few hearings despite being impressed with the way the script was presented to him through a narration that was both "appealing and convincing". Debutant director Karthick revealed that Rahman was his "only choice" for the lead role, while stating the script was "the culmination of an intensive probe into the world of crime" and that his father would back the film as the producer.Cast and crew
Sujith Sarang, Sreejith Sarang and Jakes Bejoy, who had previously worked together in Thakka Thakka, collaborated again to work as the cinematographer, editor and music composer for the project. Sachin Sudhakaran and Hariharan worked on the sound engineering for the film, with Rajakrishnan assisting as the mixing engineer.Apart from Rahman, the only other notable actor cast in the film was Delhi Ganesh, with most of the remaining actors being newcomers. Ashwin Kkumar, who previously appeared in a supporting role in Jacobinte Swargarajyam, was also picked to play a role, with his identity kept secret during the promotions. Rookie actress Yaashika Aanand appeared in the role of Shruti, her second film appearance following a brief role in Kavalai Vendam. Anjana Jayaprakash, who portrayed the role of Vaishnavi, was a college senior of the director and was signed after the pair had a mutual interest for working on short films.