Vettaiyan
Ruthless criminal activity is met with force from a maverick police officer with a disregard for the rules as he confronts an outbreak of lawlessness. Vettaiyan is yet another blockbuster for the SuperStar with highly performing co-stars. A strong messaging highlighting the evolution of irregular coaching centres that's minting money using the demands of education system in the nation. It highlights how partial our system is with privileged sector vs unprivileged sectors and sends a strong message on how people from slums are stereotyped by this Society. A TJ Gnanavel plot having SuperStar to voice out Director's conviction without compromising on the commercial elements is amazing. SP Athiyan an encounter specialist is known to eliminate criminals and believes it could set example for other criminals.He comes under radar of Judge Sathyadev who feels encounter is not the only solution and many fake encounters have killed innocent people. Saranya a Kanyakumari based school teacher exposes a drug racket with Athiyan and gets promoted to a school in Chennai but within few months she is found raped and murdered on school terrace. Athiyan tries to get involved in her case but isn't allowed until the Chennai police are left helpless.Athiyan is then handed over the case who commits to solve it within two days.Athiyan lives to his word and kills the accused Guna in an encounter within no time and wins over many hearts.After this encounter Sathyadev starts his inquiry and gives evidences to Athiyan that Guna was innocent and was framed in case of Saranya. Athiyan (Rajinikanth), a Superintendent of Police in the Kanyakumari district, is a renowned encounter specialist known as "Vettaiyan" for taking down criminals with the help of his team and "Battery" Patrick (Fahadh Faasil), a thief-turned-police informer who is also a tech genius. Due to his encounters, he is called the Hunter. Athiyan's wife Thara runs a social media podcast giving recommendations on kitchen utensils and other groceries. Meanwhile public sector schools of the country are under pressure as their students are found to be engaging in lewd acts inside school premises and also have low rates of success in the various competitive exams after 12th class. To address this, the Government starts a pilot program in Tamilnadu to make private coaching services available to Government school children. As a result, the Smart Student scheme is launched with much fanfare by the education minister of the state. Athiyan receives a complaint from Saranya (Dushara Vijayan), a middle-school teacher, from Pechipaarai about marijuana being stored in classrooms, leading to student drug abuse and disrupted classes. Following the tip, Athiyan and his team arrest Kumaresan (Sabumon Abdusamad), the man behind the drug production, and kill him in an encounter (he was arrested and then killed in the middle of nowhere during his prison transport), earning public approval but drawing the scrutiny of the human rights commission. Justice Sathyadev Bramhadutt Pande (Amitabh Bachchan) visits the encounter case hearing for observation while the court rules the encounter justified. Saranya gets closer to Athiyan's family and is soon transferred to Chennai. Sathyadev believes that even though the British ruled India brutally, but they also brought a common education policy in 1813 and a common law in 1834. He laments that even after 75 years of independence, not every citizen gets the same benefits from education or from the law. He teaches budding IPS officers to ensure human rights through the application of law. Sathyadev does not support Athiyan and his methods of using extra-judicial methods to deliver justice. Saranya is transferred to Chennai where she starts teaching Computer Science as she desired. Saranya is brutally sexually assaulted and murdered on the terrace of her new school, with her body discovered in the water tank. Saranya's larynx was crushed before the assault, so she could not scream, and no semen was found as her body was dumped in the water tank. Athiya is not allowed to investigate the Chennai case as he is stationed in Kanyakumari. SP Harish Kumar (Kishore) and ASP Roopa Kiran (Ritika Singh) lead the investigation, uncovering Guna (Asal Kolaar), a software engineer and sibling of Saranya's school student Chitra (Thanmaya), as the perpetrator due to his alleged addiction to pornography. Guna was found in possession of Saranya's phone and the phone had a video of her being sexually assaulted. On a public CCTV camera Guna was seen harassing Saranya. The murder weapon was also found in Guna's shanty. Teachers protest statewide, demanding Guna's arrest and justice for Saranya. Guna escapes custody from the hospital, prompting authorities to deploy Athiyan, and is eventually tracked down (Guna's friend who worked at the hospital had helped him escape and he agrees to help Athiyan when confronted) and killed by Athiyan in an encounter at sea. While the public praises this, Sathyadev reveals that Guna was in Hyderabad during the crime, proving his innocence. Athiyan finds that in the Whatsapp groups Guna addressed Saranya as his sister, and she posted bail for him when he was arrested in a harassment case. The CCTV footage was found to Devastated by his mistake, Athiyan reopens the case with Patrick, Roopa, and Harish, uncovering gaps in the original investigation. Their efforts lead them to Hanu Reddy (Supreeth), a contract killer hired to murder Saranya. Hanu is arrested and admits to killing Saranya, and claims that he got his orders on an internet phone, without knowing the identity of his client. He was the one who planted the murder weapon and Saranya's phone in Ganu's home. However, Hanu is killed before they can discover who hired him. They find that the public CCTV footage of Saranya being harassed by Guna came from a camera installed at the NAT academy office. Investigations with Swetha (Abhirami), a Nat Academy employee, revealed their Chairman Natraj Shanmugam's (Rana Daggubati) scam of luring parents and students with promises of 100% pass rates in competitive exams through online courses. Many families took loans (Chitra's mother paid Rs 6 Lakhs) to join, but Nat Academy refused refunds when they discontinued (In Chitra's case she struggled with the workload and could not keep pace with the classes) or could not pay, and those who complained faced threats and violence. Saranya became aware of the scam when she found Chitra about to commit suicide due to the pressure of studies. With Patrick's technical expertise, the team uncovers Harish's corruption. He had tipped off Hanu about the police's pursuit. Harish admits that he was in touch with Natraj who paid him Rs 10 Lakhs to close the Saranya case quickly, while admitting that Natraj got Saranya killed to save his business. Patrick records this confession, and Athiyan confronts Swetha with it. Swetha reveals that Natraj wanted to get NAT academy into every household in the country through online coaching. He took an investment of $2 Billion with a target to get 1 Crore students. For this his sales team started selling their scheme aggressively. But the online was not very effective, and soon students started struggling. Students started dropping out and many parents could not pay their EMIs. To hide the scam, Natraj partnered with the Government under the "Smart Student Scheme" to provide free entrance exam coaching classes to government schools (for Rs 25,000 Crores) to deceive people by disparaging the standards of government schools by bribing social media Influencers. NAT academy had provided tablets to Government schools under the scheme and Saranya had found that the tablets were defective, and NAT academy refused to repair or replace them. Saranya and Guna, whose sister was also a subscriber to Nat Academy's online course, had uncovered evidence of the scam (Guna found evidence of the payments made by NAT academy to Influencers) before Saranya's demise. Saranya was meanwhile collecting details of students who were dropping out of classes or trying to commit suicide after attending classes with Nat academy. Athiyan attempts to arrest Natraj but is transferred to the Economic Offences Wing in retaliation. Subsequently, Athiyan collaborates with DSP Nazeema (Rohini) to investigate Natraj under the provisions of the BUDS Act, 2019. Athiyan argues that there are only 10,000 seats in state colleges and yet NAT promises a 100% success rate to all students, which is fraudulent by definition. To gather evidence, Athiyan with the assistance of his wife, Thara (Manju Warrier), a social media Influencer collects complaints from parents across the state who claimed to have been defrauded by Nat Academy's online courses. Natraj sends goons simultaneously to intimidate Athiyan, Thara, and Roopa, but these attempts are unsuccessful. Athiyan learns that a hard disk drive had already been sent by Saranya and upon recovering finds proof of Natraj's scams, but Natraj's henchmen kill Patrick during the investigation. Swetha bribes the public prosecutor, allowing Natraj to evade a court case. Athiyan, lacking concrete evidence linking Natraj to Saranya's murder, with his nephew's help, shares Saranya's final video, revealing Natraj's purported scam and attempted murder, on social media. Then, he convenes a press meeting to share findings regarding Natraj's scam, exposes Harish's role in falsely implicating Guna, and declares Guna's innocence. The government annuls all MoUs with Nat Academy, leading to its ban. During transportation from Puzhal prison to the court, Natraj escapes custody, taking Roopa hostage. Athiyan confronts Natraj, and subdues him and his henchmen, securing Natraj's arrest. Six months later, Natraj is sentenced to life in prison, and Athiyan steps back from his encounter-driven methods, choosing to let justice take its course.
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