Comali is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language comedy-drama film produced by Vels Film International and written and directed by Pradeep Ranganathan in his directorial debut. Also known by its working title during production, JR24, the film stars Jayam Ravi, Kajal Aggarwal and Yogi Babu. The film marks the first collaboration between Ravi and Aggarwal, and it marks the second collaboration between Ravi and Hiphop Tamizha, after the 2015 film Thani Oruvan. The film was released on 15 August 2019. Comali follows Ravi, a coma patient who has missed 16 years of his life and struggles to adapt to the new improved world.
Plot
Ravi is a school student whose father brought him up with many morals, like treating everyone fairly. He loves his classmate Nikitha and has tried proposing to her, but without success. After gathering courage, he decides to propose to her. On 31 December 1999, he declares his love, however at that precise moment, a goon Dharmaraj breaks into the scene and takes Nikitha as a human shield while escaping after killing a rival gangster, Gaaja. Ravi gets hit by a truck as well as hits his head on the grill of a car while trying to save her and ends up comatose. 16 years later, Ravi awakens. He finds that things have changed significantly in the past years, including the fact that his father died, and his sister married his best friend Mani. Thiyagesh, the doctor who treated Ravi, tells Mani to fulfil any of Ravi's wishes since he has missed 16 years of his life and so otherwise has every chance to fall into depression and he could try to kill himself or someone around. Fulfilling Ravi's first wish, Mani takes Ravi to Nikitha's house, only to realise she is married and her husband is Thiyagesh. Nikitha, not wanting to embarrass her husband, lies that she did not like Ravi and would have rejected his proposal that day. Mani tries to cheer up Ravi by helping him find a girl via a matrimony website. Ravi takes an instant liking to Rithika, whom he saw in the website and also during his niece's birthday party. She happens to be a friend of Ravi's sister too. After some talking over phone, Rithika takes a liking to Ravi too, and agrees to meet him for a date. Still an innocent teenager at heart, Ravi mistakes Rithika's pout while taking a selfie as her consent to kiss and kisses her. Rithika, not expecting this, slaps him in the middle of the road. This gets blown out of proportion by the public and media. Ravi's sister berates him for causing them more problems in addition to their debt problem. Unable to obtain a well-paying job since he never graduated, Ravi becomes a security guard at the museum where Rithika works. She tells him that she has forgiven him after knowing his innocence. After thwarting a robbery at the museum, Ravi sees a statue at the museum that he modified to gift Nikitha and realises that it belongs to his family which is revealed to be a royal one. However, it is revealed that the goon Dharmaraj, who has now become an MLA, currently owns the statue; he lies that he is the last royal heir, using the statue as proof. Meanwhile, Ravi also tries to familiarise himself with society and uses YouTube to comically question what happened to society during his 16-year coma. As his fan following increases, Ravi devises a plan to prove that the statue is his own, not Dharmaraj's. With help from Rithika and Mani, he gets a button camera to livestream his conversation with Dharmaraj. Ravi's plan goes well, until a sweat droplet short circuits the electronic circuit, spoiling the whole plan. Left with no other means to prove his ownership of the statue, Ravi suddenly gets reminded of a group-photo taken by Nikitha during his school days and tries to retrieve it from Nikitha. However, Thiyagesh accidentally destroys the photo negative, erasing any proof. Disappointed but determined, Ravi thinks of another plan. Ravi, with the help of Nikitha, Thiyagesh, Rithika and Mani has decided to defeat Dharmaraj without using technology, instead using human emotions, after Ravi explains that people are over-dependent of technology and are getting addicted to it. He says that they are losing their reality by living in the virtual world. Ravi plans to get inside Dharmaraj's house posing as a distant relative while using Thiyagesh as a scout. Ravi, Mani, and Nikitha go to Dharmaraj's house and distract Dharmaraj's pregnant wife, while Ravi then tries to steal the statue and replace it with a duplicate. However, he is caught red-handed by Dharmaraj's wife, who attempts to inform her husband. But before she could communicate the matter to Dharmaraj, she slips and falls down and goes into labour and Ravi, out of humanitarian consideration, helps her to get to the hospital. En route, Ravi's auto gets stuck in flood due to heavy downpour, so he carries Dharmaraj's wife to the hospital with people on the street helping them. Ravi realises that humanity still exists despite all the changes in society. Meanwhile, Dharmaraj hears about his wife and rushes to the hospital. After learning that Ravi helped his wife and that their child is born safely, he thanks Ravi, seemingly okay with him retaining the statue. During the credits, Ravi realises his emotional outburst at Nikitha's house was filmed by Rithika and has gone viral across social media, earning him money, which helped him pay Mani's debts and that he has become a YouTube celebrity. So he does not sell the statue but retains it as a family heirloom and focuses on YouTube videos on social issues to earn money. In the end, all debts have been repaid, and Rithika and Ravi are together.
Jayam Ravi lost for the film, which was shot in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on a specially erected school set. Bollywood and Kannada actress Kavita Radheshyam was brought in to play a role. Hiphop Tamizha agreed to compose the film's music, while Richard M. Nathan and Pradeep E. Ragav were selected as cinematographer and editor respectively. Halfway through the production of Ishari K. Ganesh's venture Puppy, Varun was signed to play a supporting role in this film. The movie trailer was released on 3 August 2019.
Plagiarism allegations
Aspiring film director Krishnamoorthy accused the film producers of plagiarising his script, 25+25=25, which, too, was about a man who wakes up from a coma. Krishnamoorthy had registered his script with the South IndianFilm Writers Association in 2014 and pitched the script to several sources, including script agents, whom he speculated might have caused its leak. SIFWA compared Krishnamoorthy's script with Comali and determined that it was the same story. Krishnamoorthy said, "A twelve-member body in the Writers' Union, headed by a renowned director like Bhagyaraj, would not have decided in my favour if they thought only the premise of both stories were the same." To settle the matter, Comali producers agreed to add a card before the film that would credit Krishnamoorthy as the source of the story. However, Comali director Ranganathan denied plagiarising the script, saying, "The story of a man waking up from coma after years has been used time and again...". He also included a succeeding card mocking the previous card. "We both could have come up with the same idea. The script of Comali is something I had conceptualised even during my short film days."
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack is composed by Hiphop Tamizha, marking their second collaboration with Jayam Ravi after Thani Oruvan. Lyrics are written by Hiphop Tamizha, Kabilan Vairamuthu, Pradeep Ranganathan, Gana Kavi, and Mobin. Rahul Nambiar and Jayam Ravi, recorded one song for this film.
Marketing
The official trailer of the film was launched by Sony Music India on 3 August 2019.
The critics praised Ravi's acting who distinctly portrayed the role of a 16-year-old school student and a 32-year-old comatose survivor. They praised the comical duo of the lead and Yogi Babu in the first half but criticised the melodrama in the second half of the film. The Times of India rated 2.5/5, stating that "An entertaining first half didn't have an equally engaging latter half because of some melodramatic scenes." Behindwoods rated 3/5,stating that "Jayam Ravi and Yogi Babu's chemistry bolsters Comali, an entertaining film with a good mix of fun and emotions." Sify rated 3/5,stating that "The first half of Comali is super engaging, the second half goes in various directions and moves away from the core theme. The climax looks forced although the message on humanity stays relevant." Firstpost rated 3/5, stating that "Comali is packaged as a jolly-feel-good entertainer, laced with emotions and nostalgia." Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote " It’s hard to classify the severely underwhelming Comali because the director himself isn’t sure what he’s making".
Remake
has announced a remake of the film starring Arjun Kapoor in Hindi. Bayview Projects, his production company has acquired the remake rights of the film for all the languages including Hindi.
