Madharasi: 2025 Indian Tamil Action Thriller Film Trailer, Review

Movie Name: Madharasi
Directed by: AR Murugadoss
Starring: Sivakarthikeyan, Biju Menon, Vidyut Jammwal, Rukmini Vasanth, Vikranth, Shabeer Kallarakkal, Prem Kumar, Sanjay, Sachana Namidass
Genre: Action, Thriller
Release Date: 05 September, 2025
Language: Tamil
Running Time: 168 Minutes
Rating:
Production Companies: Sri Lakshmi Movies
Budget: ₹100 – 200 crore

Madharasi: Movie Overview

Madharasi is an upcoming Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by AR Murugadoss. It is produced by N. Srilakshmi Prasad under Sri Lakshmi Movies. The film stars Sivakarthikeyan, Biju Menon, Vidyut Jammwal and Rukmini Vasanth in the lead roles, alongside Vikranth, Shabeer Kallarakkal, Prem Kumar, Sanjay and Sachana Namidass.

The film was officially announced in September 2023 under the tentative titles SKxARM and SK23, as it is Sivakarthikeyan and Murugadoss’s first collaboration and the former’s 23rd film as a lead actor, and the official title was announced in February 2025. Principal photography commenced in February 2024. It was shot in locations including Chennai and Pondicherry. The film has music composed by Anirudh Ravichander, cinematography handled by Sudeep Elamon and editing by A. Sreekar Prasad.

Madharasi is scheduled to be released in 2025 in theatres.

The soundtrack is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, in his third collaboration with Murugadoss after Kaththi (2014) and Darbar (2020); eighth with Sivakarthikeyan. The audio rights were acquired by Junglee Music.

Madharasi is scheduled to be theatrically released in 2025. Apart from the original Tamil language, it is also scheduled to be released in dubbed versions in the Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi languages, with the latter being titled Dil Madharasi. The film was initially planned to be released in Diwali (31 October 2024), but was postponed due to Sivakarthikeyan’s Amaran (2024) also releasing that date and production delays.

Prathyangira Cinemas acquired the distribution rights of the film for the United States. Phars Films bought the overseas distribution rights of the film, and 4 Seasons Creations will distribute the film in Europe.

Movie Trailer:

#OfficialTrailer

Movie Review:

Sivakarthikeyan, Murugadoss deliver a smartly packaged commercial entertainer

Madharaasi Movie Synopsis:

A NIA officer recruits a young man with a rare delusional disorder to stop a crime syndicate that is plotting to introduce gun culture to Tamil Nadu.

Madharaasi Movie Review:

There’s something quite satisfying in how AR Murugadoss goes about his business in Madharaasi. The filmmaker has not been in the best of form in his last few films, and has been called “outdated” on social media. But like an out-of-touch sportsperson getting back their mojo by just trusting their instincts and playing their natural game, Murugadoss doggedly sticks to the basics – putting emotion and character at the forefront and letting them drive the story – and returns to form with a muscular action entertainer. Of course, this is far from his best work; it’s not as polished as Thuppakki or hard-hitting as Ramana, but given how many star-driven vehicles have crashed in recent times, Madharaasi is a nostalgic throwback to an old-school approach to commercial cinema… a ‘This is how they used to do it’ moment.

Like he did with Ghajini, Murugadoss goes for a protagonist with a mental disorder. Here, it’s Sivakarthikeyan, who plays Raghu Ram, who has Fregoli delusion – a disorder due to a tragedy in his past that makes him a compulsive do-gooder. When we first meet him, he is desperate to die because his girlfriend, Malathi (a graceful Rukmini Vasanth) has left him. And after a failed suicide attempt, he ends up meeting Prem (Biju Menon, reliably grounded), a NIA officer who is heading a mission to stop a syndicate from supplying guns to Tamil Nadu. Prem decides to exploit Raghu’s ‘suicide mission’ for his own, and make him infiltrate the criminal gang headed by Virat (Vidyut Jamwal).

Unlike his protagonist, Murugadoss fortunately seems to have had no delusions of making something groundbreaking; the film is every inch an old-school commercial potboiler that feels like a smartly packaged mix of the filmmaker’s Thuppakki, Ramana, and Ghajini. There’s some clever writing, like why Malathi falls in love with Raghu despite knowing his mental condition and how the issue of gun culture is also a personal one for her as well. The way the personal is tied to Prem and his team, with a superb payoff that involves Chirag (a leering Shabeer Kallarakkal), another gangster in Virat’s team, is one of the handful of truly whistle-worthy moments in the film. And the manner in which Murugadoss conveys his message through Raghu’s disorder is also effective.

The behind the scenes work is solid though not striking. Editor Sreekar Prasad never lets the pace dip; in fact, in some of the action scenes, he even speeds it up a little too much. The stunt choreography by Kevin Kumar packs a punch in places but there are times when they seem hyper-edited to make them feel kinetic. Even Anirudh, who usually delivers in energetic fashion, surprisingly, contributes with just a functional score and not-so-catchy songs.

But Sivakarthikeyan’s robust performance and Vidyut Jamwal’s swagger power Madharaasi in a big way. The former, with his beefed-up look, is a far cry from the roadside Romeos that we have seen him play in the early years of his career, and his intensity during the action sequences establishes that he’s now in the big league. As for the latter, after Thuppakki, he gets another memorable antagonist role, where he puts his brawn and screen presence to superb use.

Of course, the film uses the crutch commercial cinema’s creative licence — a hero who can take innumerable punches and not even a stray bullet, a villain who can make trained soldiers look like amateurs, exposition to spell out actions and motivations — a little too often, but there’s conviction in Murugadoss’s filmmaking, that keeps us from complaining, and take the film past the finish line. With sheer grit, he manages to snatch a win despite not bringing in his A game.