Unnaipol Oruvan (2009 film)

Raghavan Maarar (Eashwar Prasad in Telugu version), the recently dismissed DGP of Chennai (Hyderabad in Telugu version), describes in a voice-over about his sudden termination by police, due to a common man who walked into his life. An unnamed man is shown strategically placing a travel bag on a train at the Chennai Central railway station and in a shopping mall. He then proceeds to place another bag, under the pretence of lodging an FIR, in the toilet of a police station in Anna Salai, Chennai (Lakdi-ka-pool, Hyderabad in Telugu version), and then arrives on the rooftop of an under-construction building and sets up his base of operations, equipped with gadgets and instruments.

The caller calls up Maraar and informs him that five bombs have been planted in locations throughout Chennai, which are programmed to explode simultaneously within 4 hours. The caller demands that he would like to negotiate with a senior government official, who has the full authority. Maraar seeks the services of the chief secretary to act as the negotiator. Maraar also alerts his team involved in intelligence research and surveillance, tapping all the available resources in gathering preliminary information and tracing the location of the caller, who later tips off news reporter Natasha Rajkumar, telling her to reach Anna Salai police station immediately. Maraar initially suspects the caller to be bluffing, but his doubts are dispelled as the caller, to prove his seriousness and the police force's helplessness, reveals that a bomb has been planted in the Anna Salai police station.

When the bomb disposal squad find the bomb, there is only three minutes left. They manage to deactivate the bomb after following the caller's instructions. Natasha reaches the scene on the caller's instructions and reports about the situation. An intense debate ensues between Maraar and the chief secretary on who would act as the negotiator with the caller. The chief secretary appoints Maraar as the State's negotiator with unrestricted power for one day. The caller sequentially calls and taunts Maarar, probing him for his views on religion and philosophy, and finally asks Maarar to release three terrorists and one convicted arms seller, all who were arrested by him years ago. Maraar's men realise that the caller is using advanced software to automatically switch the numbers and locations of his mobile phone SIM card every minute, rendering their manpower and the obsolete equipment useless and prompting them to employ the services of a young hacker, an IIT drop-out.

In the meantime, Maraar is able to obtain a facial composite of the caller with help of the police officer to whom the caller had approached to lodge the fake FIR, but much of the time passes without any concrete results on the identity or the location of the caller. Ultimately, Maraar agrees with the caller's demand and puts two of his best men, Arif Khan and Sethuraman (Gautham Reddy in Telugu version), in charge of handing over the four terrorists at the Sholavaram airstrip. Once there, the caller confirms the identity of the four men via a conference call with Arif and Maraar. He then asks Arif and Sethu to unlock their handcuffs and leave them alone at a particular spot. Sethu orders his men to do as told but, at the last moment, Arif decides not to hand over terrorist Abdullah, to ensure all the information regarding the locations of the bombs can be forced out from the caller.

Sethu argues with Arif and demands he do as ordered, but Arif forcefully grabs Abdullah and starts walking away. The other three enter a car which explodes soon after, killing them, but the caller knows that Abdullah is alive, and threatens to blow up the remaining bombs across the city unless Arif and Sethu kill Abdullah. The Chief Secretary tells Maraar that the CM has to know about the current situation but Maraar disagrees and tells her that he will face the consequences, and orders Arif to kill the terrorist. Arif kills Abdullah and Sethu shoots Arif in the hand to make it look like an attack for self-defense. The caller confirms it via the news and reveals that he was bluffing and there are no more bombs anywhere in Chennai. He tells that as terrorism is instant, justice and safety must be so. Then Maarar questions the IIT hacker to trace the caller, but he refuses.

Maraar looks in the hacker's computer, discovers the location, and leaves abruptly towards the site. The caller, meanwhile destroys all of his gadgets with a mini-bomb inside a drum. As he leaves his hideout with all his camouflage, Maarar catches up to him. Both shake hands; in a voiceover, Maraar says the caller told him his real name, but does not reveal it as it does not have any significance. He adds that the higher most officials saved themselves by framing him as a recluse and the CM fired him. Maraar admits that they all knew the caller was disturbed because of the insecure environment and the incompetence of the governing authorities but he never imagined him to go to such lengths and have the guts to do something like that. He also repeats that the facts of this incident cannot be found in any written records but only in the memories of those who actually witnessed it. Maarar acknowledges that although the incident has ambiguous moral significance, he personally feels that whatever happened, happened for the best.

According to Kamal, Unnaipol Oruvan portrays the "common man's anger, angst and suffering".[7] Describing the film as an action drama and a thriller, the British Board of Film Classification gave the Tamil version a 15 rating, and noted the film had a vigilante theme, as a character placed lives under threat and murdered convicts because of a lack of faith in the justice system.[8]

Unnai Pol Oruvan / Eenadu
Soundtrack album by Shruti Haasan
Released	6 September 2009
Recorded	2009
Genre	Soundtrack
Length	21:26
Language	Tamil Telugu
Label	Sony Music Aditya Music
External audio Official Audio Jukebox (Telugu) on YouTube

The music was composed by Shruti Haasan, daughter of Kamal Haasan. The album contains four songs and a remix. The songs are featured throughout the film. Kamal Haasan, singer Blaaze, and Manyusha Puthran contributed the lyrics. The audio launch was held on 6 September 2009 at Sathyam Cinemas.[9]

Tamil Track List

Telugu Track List

Unnaipol Oruvan was initially set to release on 12 August 2009, since the date coincided with the release of Kamal Haasan's first film Kalathur Kannamma. However, owing to technical and administrative difficulties, the release was postponed to 18 September.[10] The film was given a U/A (Parental Guidance) rating from the Central Board of Film Certification, mainly because of its theme – terrorism.[11] In 2015, Telugu version Eeenadu was screened at the Habitat Film Festival.[12]

Unnaipol Oruvan was released on Blu-ray on 12 February 2010.[13] Eenadu was released on Blu-ray on 23 February 2010.[14]

Eenadu is available to stream via ZEE5.[15]

• Unnai Pol Oruvan at IMDb
• Eenadu at IMDb