Leo (also marketed as Leo: Bloody Sweet) is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film[8] directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj and produced by Seven Screen Studio. The film stars Vijay in the titular role, alongside Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Sarja, Trisha, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Mysskin, Madonna Sebastian, George Maryan, Mansoor Ali Khan, Priya Anand and Mathew Thomas. It is the third instalment in the Lokesh Cinematic Universe and is inspired by A History of Violence. The film follows Parthi, a café owner and animal rescuer in Theog, who is pursued by gangsters Antony and Harold Das who suspect him to be Antony's estranged son, Leo.
The film was officially announced in January 2023 under the tentative title Thalapathy 67, as it is Vijay's 67th film as a lead actor, and the official title was announced a few days later. Principal photography commenced the same month in Chennai along with a sporadic schedule in Kashmir, which was again followed by another schedule held at the former location, and wrapped by mid-July. The film has music composed by Anirudh Ravichander, cinematography handled by Manoj Paramahamsa and editing by Philomin Raj.
Leo was released worldwide on 19 October 2023 in standard and IMAX formats to mixed reviews from critics, with praise for Vijay's performance, technical aspects and the action sequences while the writing received criticism. It set several box office records for a Tamil film, emerging as the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2023,[6][9][10][11] the seventh highest-grossing Indian film of 2023, third highest-grossing Tamil film of all time, the highest-grossing Tamil film overseas and the highest-grossing film in Tamil Nadu.
Plot
Parthiban "Parthi" is an animal rescuer and café owner in Theog, Himachal Pradesh, living with his wife Sathya, son Siddharth "Siddhu" and daughter Mathi "Chintu". One day, Parthi's friend, Joshy Andrews, a forest ranger, calls him to help tame a spotted hyena threatening the townsfolk. With Siddhu's help, Parthi manages to tranquilise the hyena. He purposely avoids public attention over this incident and adopts the hyena after it calms down.
One night, Parthi and Chintu are at the café when Shanmugham, a robber, and his men arrive to rob it. Parthi tries to appease them by giving them money, but one of the gang members makes a move on his employee Shruthi. Enraged, Parthi beats up all of them. When one of them attempts to kill Chintu, Parthi guns all of them down without hesitation, but later has an emotional breakdown. Initially arrested, Parthi is released for having committed the murders in self-defense, but his photograph appears in newspapers all over India. One such image is seen by notorious gangster Harold Das in Telangana, who informs his elder brother, Antony Das about him. Antony immediately leaves with his men for Theog.
Meanwhile, Shanmugham's relatives attempt to kill Parthi and his family, prompting him to request a high-ranking, armed police officer from Tamil Nadu to be sent to his house for protection. Parthi's request is granted as Napoleon, having been promoted following his heroics in Tiruchirappalli,[a] is assigned to protect his family. On meeting Parthi, Antony insists that Parthi is his son, Leo Das, who was presumed to be dead, but Parthi vehemently denies this. Antony threatens him to accept his identity and surrender or face the consequences. Antony meets Sathya and tells her that Leo is a mass murderer, prompting her to dig into Parthi's past. At the same time, Joshy starts digging into Leo's past and learns about his friend, Hridayaraj D'Souza, who was arrested and is to be hanged in three days. On meeting with Hridayaraj, Joshy learns about Leo's alleged past.[b]
In 1999, Antony established a tobacco factory called Das & Co. Harold returned to India from Canada and started manufacturing and smuggling datura, a drug significantly more lethal than cocaine, using the factory as a front as their tobacco products did not take off. Antony's twin children, Leo and Elisa Das, did the dirty work for them to run the business smoothly. Being a strong believer in the occult, Antony tried to sacrifice Elisa based on his astrologer's advice, as this would have allowed their tobacco products to take off. Enraged, Leo sets fire to all of Harold's drugs, but Harold manages to kill Elisa and Antony shoots Leo, who was since presumed to be dead.
On hearing this, Joshy is convinced that Parthi is not Leo, while Sathya also gets definitive proof of the same. Meanwhile, Antony kidnaps Siddhu and tells him that he will sacrifice Siddhu as he could not sacrifice Elisa with his own hands. Parthi and Napoleon give chase to Antony and his men, and Parthi eventually catches up with them. He finishes off Antony and his men but does not find Siddhu. Harold learns about Antony's death and calls Parthi to bring Antony's body in return for Siddhu. As Parthi goes to Harold's lair, Harold reveals that he has sent men to kill Sathya and Chintu. However, Napoleon, Joshy, and the hyena finish off all the men. Harold's men attack Parthi at their lair, but he manages to fend them off. As Harold and Parthi engage in a fistfight, Parthi grabs a gun and holds Harold at gunpoint.
At this point, Harold gets convinced that Parthi is not Leo and states that he and his family can walk away freely. However, Parthi laughs maniacally and finally admits that he is Leo and was just pretending that he's not him before gunning down Harold, rescuing Siddhu and torching the entire Das & Co. factory. Leo states that he has done nothing good in his past and anyone who insists on knowing his story must either die or already be dead, thus revealing that he had told Antony the truth about his identity before killing him.
In an epilogue, as peace returns to Parthi's life, he gets a phone call. The caller reveals that he knows Parthi is Leo and tells him that destroying only his family's datura factory was not enough to make the society drug-free as drugs are rampant all over India. The caller also says that he knows Parthi recognises his identity,[c] as Parthi sighs in exasperation.
Cast
- Vijay as Parthiban "Parthi" / Leo Das
- Sanjay Dutt as Antony Das
- Arjun Sarja as Harold Das
- Trisha as Sathya Parthiban (Voice dubbed by Chinmayi)
- Gautham Vasudev Menon as Joshy Andrews
- George Maryan as Napoleon
- Mysskin as Shanmugam
- Madonna Sebastian as Elisa Das
- Mansoor Ali Khan as Hridayaraj D'Souza
- Sandy as a robber in Shanmugam's gang
- Priya Anand as Priya Joshy Andrews
- Mathew Thomas as Siddharth Parthiban "Siddhu"
- Babu Antony as Shekhar, Antony's henchman
- Janany Kunaseelan as Shruthi, a waitress at Parthiban's cafe
- Iyal as Mathi Parthiban "Chintu"
- Mukhtar Khan as Bhawar Jetha, a police officer
- Ramakrishnan as Gabby
- Denzil Smith as a Judge
- Dinesh Master as Dinesh
- Madhusudhan Rao as Shanmugam's brother-in-law
- Vaiyapuri as an astrologer
- Maya S. Krishnan as Vikram's aide
- Punya Elizabeth as Sathya's friend
- Thavasi as Harold's henchman
- Jawahar as Veterinary Doctor
- Maneksha as Jailer
- Sachin Mani as Shruthi's husband
- Shanthi as Shanmugam's wife
- Santhi Mayadevi as Parthiban's advocate
- Muthu Krishnan as Press Cameraman
- Pooja Fiya as Press Reporter
- Leela Samson as a public prosecutor
- Dinesh Lamba as the Divisional Forest Officer
- Anurag Kashyap as Daniel (cameo appearance)
- Kamal Haasan as Vikram (voice only)
Production
Development
After the success of Master in early 2021, it was reported that Lokesh Kanagaraj visited Vijay at his residence and narrated a script which impressed him. The project was supposed to be the actor's 66th film as a leading actor; however, that position instead went to Varisu (2023).[13] Reports of a potential collaboration between Lokesh and Vijay continued through February 2022.[14][15] The following March, Lokesh confirmed there were discussions for him to direct Vijay's 67th film.[16] That May, he confirmed the project, tentatively titled Thalapathy 67.[17] The project was funded by S. S. Lalit Kumar's Seven Screen Studio, which had distributed and co-produced Master.[18] Vijay's manager, Jagadish Palanisamy, served as a co-producer. The company made a public announcement on 30 January 2023, confirming the project,[19] and the film's official title Leo was revealed on 3 February 2023.[20]
The film was made on a budget of ₹250–350 crore, and Vijay was reported to receive ₹120 crore (US$15 million) as his remuneration.[4][5] However, he reportedly decided to take the revenue sharing model, to benefit the film's production; as per the basis, he would receive ₹50 crore (US$6.3 million) as an advance, and a chunk of the profits would be received as the actor's remuneration.[21] Vijay was not in favour of making Leo a pan-Indian film, as he wanted to focus on satisfying the Tamil audience. The actor, however, changed his mind after Lalit and Jagadish convinced him. Some changes were also made to the original story to help the film cater to a wider audience.[22][23] In August 2023, the film was reported to be a part of the Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU), as the makers had signed a no objection certificate with Dream Warrior Pictures and Raaj Kamal Films International, the producers of the LCU's previous instalments Kaithi (2019) and Vikram (2022) respectively.[24] The film's status in the LCU was not confirmed until after its release.[25]
Pre-production
It took Lokesh nearly six months for the writing and pre-production.[26] Lokesh co-wrote the film's script along with Rathna Kumar, in his third consecutive collaboration with the director,[27] and Deeraj Vaidy, director of Jil Jung Juk (2016). Both of them joined the writing team in mid August 2022.[28] Lokesh said the film would be completely made in his style, unlike Master which he considered a 50% Vijay film and 50% his film.[26] A muhurat puja was held on 5 December 2022 at AVM Studios in Chennai with the film's cast and crew.[29] On 7 December, the team shot the promotional video for the film for nearly three days.[30]
In mid-January 2023, Manoj Paramahamsa was announced as cinematographer, marking his first collaboration with Lokesh and third with Vijay after Nanban (2012) and Beast (2022).[31] Anirudh Ravichander would score the music, in his third consecutive film with the director.[32] Lokesh further retained most of his norm technicians including editor Philomin Raj, stunt choreography duo Anbariv, dance choreographer Dinesh Kumar and art director N. Sathees Kumar.[33] Praveen Raja would style the costumes for Vijay, along with his regular costume designers Pallavi Singh and Eka Lakhani.[34][35] Ramkumar Balasubramanian was appointed as executive producer of the film by the production house.[36]
Casting
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Vijay would sport a grey-shaded hairstyle for his character, which was finalised after 30 different looks.[37][38] Trisha was cast as the female lead,[39] pairing opposite Vijay for the fifth time after Ghilli (2004), Thirupaachi (2005), Aathi (2006) and Kuruvi (2008).[40][41] Sanjay Dutt was confirmed to play one of the main antagonists, in his Tamil film debut as well as his second South Indian film after KGF: Chapter 2 (2022).[42] Dutt agreed to be a part of the project, after being impressed by the one-line narrated for the film.[43] Priya Anand also joined the film in an important role,[44] whilst Arjun was also cast in an important role.[45] He called it a "different" and "fresh" one that would justify his title "Action King".[46]
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