Dhanush and Vetri Maaran Reunite for Thamizh Murugan

For days the only clue was a cryptic DxV, and the safe money said Vada Chennai 2. What Dhanush actually unveiled on Friday was something else: Thamizh Murugan, his fifth film with Vetri Maaran and their first reunion since Asuran, seven years ago.

The first-look promo makes its pitch in a single image. A commander rides an elephant across a scorched plain, a vel raised in one hand, a battle-ready army fanned out behind him and a low sun burning the horizon. Dhanush captioned it “The Eternal Protector, warrior, THE KING and LEADER of the Thamizh people and lands,” and signed off with #SonOfKottravai, invoking the ancient Tamil goddess of war. He appears to play Murugan himself.

It is being built as a period film, written by Arivumathi and drawn from his book of the same name, which sets out to retrace Murugan’s history as recorded in Sangam literature. Sai Abhyankkar composes, his second outing with Dhanush after Om, and Dhanush produces under his Wunderbar Films banner alongside Production Miles To Go.

The title is doing a lot of the talking. It arrives while a separate Murugan project, Trivikram’s film with Jr NTR, faces opposition in Tamil Nadu over depicting the god as born in the north. Putting Thamizh in front of Murugan, and reaching back to Sangam-era Kottravai, reads as a deliberate counter-claim from two filmmakers whose work has always been planted in Tamil soil.

They have never missed together. Polladhavan launched Vetri Maaran as a director in 2007, Aadukalam swept six National Awards including Best Actor for Dhanush and Best Direction, Vada Chennai built a sprawling crime saga, and Asuran won Dhanush a second National Award for acting. The sequel they announced to Vada Chennai, Anbuvin Ezhuchi, still has not rolled, which is part of what made this swerve land.

Both men are stretched across full slates. Vetri Maaran is shooting Arasan with Silambarasan TR, set in the same Vada Chennai world, while Dhanush follows Kara with Om on October 15, opposite Mammootty, Naseeruddin Shah, Sai Pallavi and Sreeleela. Plot, cast and a shoot start for Thamizh Murugan are all still under wraps. For now there is a title, a first look, and one word carrying most of the weight: Thamizh.