Naaigal Jaakirathai

A gang has kidnapped a girl and several police officers, including Karthik (Sibiraj), who is attempting to rescue her. During a shootout, one man from the gang and a police officer named Arul Das (Raghav Umasrinivasan), who is a good friend of Karthik, are killed, while Karthik gets injured. He is put out of action and suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder.

Subramani (Idoh) is a trained military dog who has the potential to nab culprits and decipher crime scenes. After its owner, an army officer, is shot dead, Subramani is returned to the officer's father in Coimbatore, who is a neighbor of Karthik. The neighbor leaves the town and requests Karthik to provide shelter to Subramani during his absence. Karthik denies the request but provides shelter after seeing Subramani being troubled by the small kids in the neighborhood. Karthik learns about Subramani and becomes good friends with him.

Meanwhile, Karthik's wife Renuka (Arundhati) is abducted by Anbu Das (Balaji Venugopal), the head of the kidnapping ring, and is buried alive inside a coffin. A web camera is attached into the coffin, and the live stream is provided to Karthik. Karthik learns that Renuka can breathe for about six hours. Renuka speaks to Anbu, and with the help of a deaf and dumb teacher, Karthik deciphers what Renuka had conveyed. Suddenly, water trickles into the coffin, and Karthik concludes that it has to be rainwater. He, Subramani, and his cop friend travel to Ooty, the only place in Tamil Nadu where it was raining at the moment.

Anbu had kidnapped Renuka to avenge the death of his brother, who was not the man from his gang, but Arul, who worked as a mole in the police department. Karthik is then hit by a metal rod and is also buried in a coffin. Subramani sniffs out Anbu and his henchmen. While Anbu can escape to a tree house, his henchmen get bitten by Subramani, who saves Karthik by digging a pit. Anbu gets hold of a gun and shoots at Subramani, injuring him fatally, before Karthik manages to outwit and defeat Anbu in a fight. Before dying, Subramani had marked the place where Renuka is buried, and Karthik saved her, while Anbu has been buried alive in the same manner.

Subramani has gotten offspring, and Karthik is given one of the puppies. The movie ends with a scene where Karthik and his new dog, who has been named Chinnamani in Subramani's memory, are being entrusted with investigating a new case.

After Naanayam, Sibi Sathyaraj was on the lookout for a script for his next film. Since nothing interesting turned up, he took a brief hiatus, still reading scripts. Sibiraj is a dog-lover and has 3 dogs. So, he expressed his eagerness in working with animals in a film.[4] Director Shakti S. Rajan, who had earlier directed Sibiraj in Naanayam,[5] came up with a script with a dog in the lead.[6] The film is about a military-trained dog and a man, and their journey. Finally, the film was announced in July 2013.[7] The film was titled Naaigal Jaakirathai meaning 'Beware of Dogs'.

Sibiraj plays the second hero and will be sharing screen space with a military trained canine.[8][9] Apart from playing the hero, the dog would also do several action sequences and comedy tracks in the film.[10] Arundhati of Sundaattam fame was signed as the female lead.[11]

The crew was on the lookout for a trained dog,[12] preferably a German Shepherd.[13] After a search, they found a dog from Bangalore.[14] Filming began on 9 October 2013.[10] The story takes place in Coimbatore, and travels to Ooty, Palakkad and Chennai.[14]

The soundtrack album was composed by Dharan Kumar while the lyrics were written by Yugabharathi and Madhan Karky. A single track "Doggy Style" was released on 27 August 2014. The album was launched at the Radio Mirchi FM Station, Chennai on 1 September 2014, where the cast and crew were present at the event.[15][16]

Behindwoods gave 2.75 out of 5 stars to the album stating it as "a waggy and naughty album from Dharan."[17] Milliblog stated "Dharan hasn’t been in the best of forms recently and Naaigal Jaakirathai’s soundtrack is no exception."[18] Behindframes gave 3 out of 5 and stated "Cool, peppy and enjoyable tracks by Dharan."[19]

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV.[20]

After the film became a commercial success, Shakti Soundar Rajan informed that he had plans to make a sequel to Naaigal Jaakirathai. It might feature Sibiraj and the dog, as well as the lead characters from the first part, and is scheduled to commence in 2020.[3]

• Naaigal Jaakirathai at IMDb