Kaalai

Jeeva shares his name with two other people: one villain and one police officer Jeevanandham who becomes a villain. The confusion arising from this is a significant part of the plot.

At the age of nine, Jeeva’s grandmother Karuppayi Aatha slays five men because they scorned her father’s advice and illegally distilled alcohol in the village. After her return from prison, the villagers both fear and revere her, and consider her the head of the village.

Jeevanandham comes to the village ruled by Karuppayi Aatha to try to find illicit activity. When he cannot find anything, he is thrashed by the villagers. He returns to take vengeance, and in the course of the hostilities burns Karuppayi Aatha alive.

Jeeva the criminal is meanwhile wooing Jeevanandham’s daughter Brindha. But Brindha loves Jeeva, Karuppayi's grandson, and he wants to take revenge on his namesake for the death of his grandmother. He abducts Brindha as a hostage to lure her father to his death.

In pre-production work, Tarun Gopi originally offered the lead role to Madhavan, then to Telugu actor Prabhas. Neither was able to take up the role, so Silambarasan was recruited instead. The original choice for the lead female role was Trisha, who was replaced by Vedhika. Prakash Raj was originally selected for the role of the police officer Jeeva, but he was replaced by Malayalam actor Lal.^[8]

Most of the film was shot in the villages around Theni. Australia was originally planned to be the location for filming songs, but due to visa problems these scenes were shifted to Malaysia.^[9] A fast beat song sequence was shot at the Golden Beach, Chennai with Simbu and Vedhika.^[10] For much of the filming the heroine was not finalized, so large sections of the movie were shot without the female lead. The shoots appeared disorganized, with few actors recruited ahead of time.^[8] Silambarasan did some editing work with Anthony, who is said to have been impressed by his work and presented him with ₹25,000 (equivalent to ₹75,000 or US$900 in 2023).^[11]

The soundtrack consists of six songs composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar. Actress Mamta Mohandas sang the song "Kaala Kaala".^[12] The soundtrack had a soft launch.^[13] Karthik Srinivasan of Milliblog wrote, "Three neat tracks from GV Prakashkumar, but the nonchalance towards the language and pronunciation is appalling".^[14]

Kaalai was released on 14 January 2008 at the Pongal festival alongside Bheemaa, Pidichirukku, Pirivom Santhippom, Pazhani and Vaazhthugal.^[15]

Indiaglitz wrote: "The narrative is too loud and it lacks finesse. Silambarasan handles the 'omnipotent hero' character with confidence. Vedhika announces her arrival as the potential glam girl of 2008. This one with a beautiful and innocent face has just the right figure to take up glamour roles".^[16] Nowrunning wrote: "Silambarasan's more than life image is unrealistic if not out of place. Vedhika exudes glamour and performs well in duet songs".^[17] Sify wrote: "When Silambarasan and director Tarun Gopi came together in Kaalai we expected a racy masala entertainer. Sadly it is a watered down version of earlier films and ends up as an over-the-top ham enterprise, Kaalai is like a bull in a china shop and makes you groan".^[18] Rediff wrote the film looked like an "unplanned assembly of chases, police encounters, hip-gyrations (you can't call them dances), cacophony and choreographed fights using a set of actors sans any purpose".^[19] Madhumitha of Kalki felt whether Tarun Gopi started well and stumbled or did he stumbled for not getting right output and also felt the film's screenplay had pace but lacked wisdom and the influence of Thimiru is too much.^[20] Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "No doubt the director after the initial confusing scenario, has cleverly knotted up all the seemingly loose ends, and put back the pieces of the puzzle into a coherent whole. But the complicated earlier part, and the attempt to decipher it do exhaust the viewer. He could have adopted a more simplistic narrative style to this vendetta story".^[21]

• Kaalai at IMDb