Madras Cafe is an upcoming Indian political espionage thriller film directed by Shoojit Sircar[4][5][6] and starring John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri and Rashi Khanna in lead roles. The film is set in the late 80s and early 1990s, during the time of Sri Lankan civil war and the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The film was earlier titled Jaffna after the northern Sri Lankan city.
It is set to release on August 23. The trailer was released on July 12, 2013.
Title
The political thriller is set against the backdrop of the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The film has been titledMadras Cafe, as the plot to kill Gandhi was hatched at the cafe. The original location of the cafe is not specified in the film.
Synopsis
As per John Abraham, "Madras Cafe brings us closer to what changed the political history of India."
The film, set in India and Sri Lanka, is a political spy thriller set against backdrop of the Sri Lankan civil war, Vikram Singh (John Abraham) is an Indian Army special officer who is appointed by the intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing to conduct covert operations in Sri Lanka shortly after Indian Peace Keeping Force was forced to withdraw.
As he journeys to Sri Lanka, with the intention of disrupting a rebel group, he discovers the larger issue. There he meets a British journalist (Jaya) who wants to reveal the truth about the civil war, and in the process he uncovers a conspiracy.
Cast
- John Abraham - Vikram Singh (Indian army officer appointed by the Research and Analysis Wing to carry out operations in Jaffna). Singh is fictitious, Sircar said he had “used real references, portrayed rebel groups, revolutionary freedom fighters, Indian Peace Keeping Forces (and) shown how India got involved and the chaos”. "I didn’t want to make glitzy thriller like Ek Tha Tiger orAgent Vinod, which seem inspired by the Bond template. I want to show that intelligence officers are ordinary people who live amongst us. It is only that they have to solve issues where national security is at stake,” says Sircar. Sircar says he needed an actor who can easily get lost in the crowd but with John it seems next to impossible. “The role also requires a certain level of physicality and John Abraham has worked for the role. I agree this is a new territory for him but I think he has pitched it right. Let’s see how the audiences take him.”
- Nargis Fakhri - Jaya (a British war correspondent in Sri Lanka) (inspired by many war correspondents, including Anita Pratap) As for Nargis, Sircar says her voice hasn’t been dubbed. “Nargis Fakhri is playing foreign war correspondent. I needed a girl who looks Indian journalist but has an accent so there is no chance that audience will remember her Rockstar performance while watching Madras Café. She will converse in English and she is familiar with the language,” says Sircar.
- Rashi Khanna - Ruby Singh- wife of Singh
- Leena Maria- a Tamil rebel
- Tinu Menachery - a Tamil rebel
- Siddharth Basu - Robin Dutt, a key bureaucrat in Research and Analysis Wing.
- Agnello Dias - a Sri Lankan minister
- Piyush Pandey - a cabinet secretary of India
- Dibang
| Directed by | Shoojit Sircar |
|---|---|
| Produced by | John Abraham Ronnie Lahiri Viacom 18 Motion Pictures |
| Screenplay by | Somnath Dey Shubendu Bhattacharya |
| Starring | John Abraham Nargis Fakhri Rashi Khanna |
| Music by | Shantanu Moitra |
| Cinematography | Kamaljeet Negi |
| Editing by | Shekhar Prajapati |
| Distributed by | Viacom 18 Motion Pictures |
| Release date(s) |
|
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget |  350 million(US$5.9 million) |
Production
John Abraham said that director Shoojit Sircar narrated the script of, Madras Cafe, to him in 2006 but could not get around to beginning it. "After our last film together, we decided to get back to doing where we started off from. That's the story behind Madras Cafe," he said.
Casting
John Abraham, the lead actor and one of the producers of the films, plays Vikram Singh, a military officer who is sent to Jaffna on a covert operation. "I had to lose a lot of muscle because these officers look like regular people. When they are in a crowd, they are completely inconspicuous," says John. Pakistani-Czech model-turned-actor Nargis Fakhriwas cast to play Jaya, a British journalist in Jaffna. For the role of foreign war correspondent,
Nargis Fakhri was chosen because the director required "a girl [women] who looked Indian but had an [British] accent." Thus this was the first film where her voice wasn't dubbed. Shoojit Sircar contacted model Sheetal Mallar for the film, but as things did not work out, newcomer Rashi Khanna was signed for the role, who makes her debut. Leena Maria said that she plays a female Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam member.
Madras Cafe was shot in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, London and India. The Sri Lankan scenes of the film were shot in India, where the city of Jaffna and large parts of inner Sri Lanka were recreated. "We knew we couldn't shoot this in Sri Lanka, so we shot most of it in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and converted it into a war zone. The second part of the film is based in India, which is the politics part.", said Sircar The first schedule of the film was shot extensively in south India. The second schedule was shot in Mumbai, outside India and again in few parts of south India.
Several civil war scenes were shot in Bangkok as firings by Light Machine Guns were not permitted in India. Real AK-47s, 9mm Berettas and M60s were used, for which special permission was obtained from the local authorities.
Depiction of Tamil rebels
The film's alleged depiction of rebels in the Sri Lankan civil war raised concerns. Tamil outfit Naam Tamilar asked for a ban on the movie citing that it reflects the members ofLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as terrorists. A still of actor Ajay Ratnam bearing close resemblance to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Prabhakaran also provoked controversies.
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