Kollywood superstar Dhanush’s 50th movie as an actor and second directorial venture, Raayan, is a hardcore action masala movie involving family ties, revenge, and gang war shenanigans—the entire shtick with which the ace performer built the first phase of his career. While the plot itself isn’t as intriguing as the premise tries to sell it as, Dhanush’s intense performance as the stoic family man/one-man army covers up all the major drawbacks with ease.
Fight choreography, set design, cinematography, and A. R. Rehman’s soundtrack turned out top-notch, which in turn enhances the entertainment factor quite a bit, acting as a major support to elevate the saga of violence. However, with all that being said, fans who have adored Dhanush’s recent mainstream works, which tend to have a much more palpable emotional and socio-political undertone, might find Raayan a bit generic as it simply aims to be a crowd-pleaser. Except Dhanush as the titular lead, none of the characters turn out to be remotely memorable, which highlights the weakness of the script as well.Â
Spoilers Ahead
Raayan and His Wolf Pack
Family ties are a mainstay theme in the majority of Indian masala movies, and Raayan movie begins with an emphasis on that as the movie opens with a village family welcoming their youngest member, a baby girl, who is named Durga by her eldest brother, Raayan. Not long after that, Raayan, his brothers Muthu and Manickam, and their youngest sibling Durga find themselves alone all of a sudden as their parents decide to abandon them. With an infant sister and two young brothers looking up to him, Raayan needs to grow up all of a sudden—and he decides to seek help from the village priest. However, the village priest turns out to be a scoundrel as he seeks to sell the kids for profit, which Raayan overhears—and he stands guard as a guardian of his siblings. The priest’s attempt to capture the kids results in a young Raayan brutally killing him with a machete, and the gruesome incident is witnessed by Muthu. Even though Raayan acted out of his protective instinct, this one momentous decision will haunt him and his family for the rest of their lives.Â
With the village no longer safe for them, Raayan somehow arrives in Chennai, taking his siblings along with him, where he gets help from a local fixer named Sekhar to find odd jobs, and gradually settles down with his siblings. The burdens of family strengthen Raayan’s shoulders as he raises his siblings on his own. Years later, Manickam is now a college-going student who is challenging the local MLA’s son in the college election; Muthu is a short-fused alcoholic, basically good for nothing; and Durga spends the majority of her time taking care of their home. Raayan manages a food truck, which allows him to make a decent enough profit to take care of the family. Struggles have pushed Raayan’s life through a thorny path, and with childhood youth already lost to the cruel whims of fate, he no longer has any consideration for his own. A stoic, reserved Raayan toils day and night to provide for his family and worries for Durga’s marriage. His dear sister is the only person who can make him smile at the end of a tiring day.
Police Instigates A War
The majority of North Chennai is turf shared by two local rival gangsters. Sethu and Durai, both pretty notorious for orchestrating every illegal organized crime-related activity under the sun. Since the last few years, both gangsters have decided to put their enmity aside and maintain peace. This flimsy concord is about to be broken, as newly transferred police commissioner, R. Sargunam, has decided to make the turf his new chessboard. Sargunam had lost his father, also a former police official, to gang-related violence, and wants to avenge his death by tearing down both rival factions. The fact that the locality will be safer afterwards is just an added bonus. As planned, Sargunam sends goons to attack Sethu and his right-hand man, Guru, under the pretense of them being sent by Durai—to renew the animosity between the rival gangs. The commissioner’s plan turns out to be successful, as in the aftermath of the attack, Sethu plans to take revenge on Durai.
Muthu’s drunken idiocy gets him into trouble with one of Durai’s men, but due to Sekhar and Raayan having a good relationship with Durai, he gets let off on this occasion with a warning. Moping in his sadness, Muthu decides to rekindle his relationship with his girlfriend, Meghalai. On the other hand, Manickam gets mildly roughed up by the police, who order him to withdraw his candidacy from the college election. In hopes of getting a sharp reaction from his brother, Manickam shares the incident with his family. To his disappointment, Raayan asks him to withdraw from the elections as well, as he fears it will lead to a series of political and underworld-related troubles later on. At the same time, Raayan and Sekhar find a prospective groom for Durga; to meet the groom family’s hefty dowry demand and other ensuing expenses for marriage, Raayan decides to sell the food truck and empty out his entire savings. This decision doesn’t sit well with Muthu, the jobless bum, which leads to a quarrel among him, Durga, and Manickam. Raayan dissuades them, mentioning that he will find a way to provide anyway.
After learning about Durga’s upcoming marriage, Meghalai’s father starts getting on Muthu’s nerves by asking him to leave his daughter. Muthu has been a liability to his brother and doesn’t even have a reputation as a decent person; understandably, Meghalai’s father cannot entrust him with the security of his daughter’s livelihood. But the truth bomb proves too much for Muthu to handle as he insults and beats Meghalai’s father. Later at night, as Muthu sulks in the bar, an aggrieved Meghalai lashes out at him before storming off. On the same night, Sethu had sent his thugs to assassinate Durai’s son, who was present at the bar, but the situation took a dramatic turn. Durai’s son and a few goons who were present at the scene make fun of Muthu, which leads to a violent clash, resulting in the death of Durai’s son.
A Horrifying Betrayal
Sargunam and his operatives, who were anticipating Sethu’s men at the scene to kill Durai’s son, kill the surviving goons, and snap a picture of an unconscious Muthu, mistaking him to be Sethu’s thug. Manickam finds Muthu and brings him back home, where he recuperates. While everyone else considers Sethu’s men to be responsible for the death of Durai’s son, Durai himself learns about the truth from the bar’s owner—and to seek vengeance, he calls Raayan to order him to hand Muthu over to him within the night. This proves to be a grave mistake on his part; he didn’t have the faintest idea about Raayan’s fierceness as a guardian figure. Raayan takes his brothers to launch a vicious preemptive attack on Durai and his men, leaving a horrifying bloodbath in their wake.
As the news of the attack breaks out, everyone considers Sethu to be responsible for the annihilation for Durai’s gang, whereas a clueless Sethu keeps wondering who was responsible for taking care of his rival gang in the first place. Raayan fears for his family, and seeing the root of all the problems, Muthu, still slacking off like nothing happened, he gets infuriated and calls him on for his callousness for the first time. In anguish, Muthu joins Sethu’s gang, and later on convinces Manickam to do the same as well.
Sethu eventually learns about Raayan’s actions and, estimating his potential, offers him a place in the gang in exchange for money and security. Raayan refuses having a part in anything related to gang wars and rejects Sethu’s proposal, which prompts the gangster to threaten him. In response, Raayan slyly mentions he can do the same to Sethu, whatever he did to Durai. Sethu realizes that, if not as an ally, he cannot afford to have Raayan as an enemy—and puts a hit on him, which miserably fails anyway. It becomes quite clear to Raayan that he and his family won’t be free from this trouble as long as Sethu lives, and he decides to kill him a day before Durga’s marriage. However, Sethu’s men capture Durga and ambush Raayan, who eventually manages to beat them all—but Sethu plays a masterstroke by sending Raayan’s own brothers, Manickam and Muthu, to kill him. Raayan is obviously put off-guard at the sight of his brothers as adversaries, and even though the brother duo previously didn’t know the details about their target, their pent-up emotions get the better of them as they nearly kill Raayan by stabbing him. Sethu’s right-hand man, Guru, rapes Durga, who somehow manages to break free at the end, and with the help of Sekhar, admits Raayan to a hidden clinic. Sethu lies to Manickam and Muthu about unknowingly sending them to kill their own brother and lulls them with amenities. Meghalai and Muthu welcome their child as the brother duo tries to forget whatever happened in the past.
Was Raayan Able to Protect His Family?
The next day, Durga’s marriage gets called off, and following Sekhar’s movements, Sethu’s men attack at the hidden clinic. However, Durga and Sekhar manage to defend a still recuperating Raayan, and they retreat to the village for the time being. Gradually healing back to their former selves, Raayan and Durga no longer feel sympathy for their brothers and plan to enact terrible vengeance upon them. Raayan abducts Sethu’s second wife and commands him to send Guru to him in exchange for her life. Sethu has no choice except to accept his condition, and Durga takes her revenge by brutalizing Guru to death.
Under Sethu’s orders, Manickam and Muthu approach Sekhar to propose a truce with Raayan, but the cunning Sethu ends up killing Raayan’s father figure. As Raayan and Durga return to Chennai only to witness Sekhar’s terrible fate, Sargunam identifies Raayan as Muthu’s brother and takes him into custody. The commissioner was observing everything unfold for so long and now decides to use Raayan as his ace. He promises Raayan a new identity for him and Durga and enough money to start a new life far from all this carnage—in exchange for bringing down Sethu once and for all, and Raayan agrees to the proposal.
Under Sargunam’s intervention, Raayan and Sethu agree on a compromise and seemingly let go of their animosity as they celebrate the festival of Pongal together. However, Durga plunges a dagger in Manickam’s heart; the truce was a mere veil to get close to the enemies—and Raayan kills both Sethu and Muthu after a bloody clash. Raayan didn’t spare his brothers for their indifference to what happened with Durga, and Durga couldn’t forgive them for what they did to their sole guardian. After all is said and done, Sargunam prepares to eliminate the loose ends and waits for Raayan and Durga to arrive to take the money and IDs he had promised. However, Raayan has already anticipated a foul play on the part of the commissioner, and he decides to go back to his village instead with his sister to start a new life. Meghalai hands them over her child, as she is unwilling to have any connection with Muthu’s family, and mirroring their arrival in Chennai, Raayan leaves the city with his sister and Muthu’s child—as if completing a dreadful cycle.
Raayan as Ravana
Throughout the Pongal celebration part, visual clues tried to equate Raayan with the fierce Asura king, Ravana—the prime antagonist of the Indian epic “Ramayana.” In many ways, Raayan’s life characteristics indeed match with the wise king of Asura—the way he had protected his family time and time again, and doted on his sister, feels similar to Ravana’s bond with his sister. Surpanakha, and the insult to her dignity resulted in Ravana waging the fierce war of Ramayana. Just like Ravana was betrayed by his own brother, Bibhisana, Raayan was stabbed in the back by his own blood as well. At the end, the violence propagated by both Ravana and Raayan culminated in the end of their family. Raayan’s brothers are dead, and Durga is forever transformed into a furious, murderous persona—a polar opposite to her true self.
