Leo (2023 Indian film)

Leo (also marketed as Leo: Bloody Sweet) is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj. Produced by Seven Screen Studio, it is the third instalment in the Lokesh Cinematic Universe. Partially inspired by the David Cronenberg film A History of Violence, Leo stars Vijay in the titular role, alongside Sanjay Dutt, Arjun, Trisha, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Mysskin, Madonna Sebastian, George Maryan, Mansoor Ali Khan, Priya Anand and Mathew Thomas. In the film, Parthi, an outwardly humble man, draws the attention of gangsters Antony and Harold Das who insist he is Antony's son Leo, previously presumed dead.

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 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, 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 outwardly humble wildlife rescuer and café proprietor living with his wife Sathya, son Siddharth "Siddhu" and daughter Mathi "Chintu" in Theog, Himachal Pradesh. One day, his forest ranger friend Joshy Andrews seeks his help in taming a spotted hyena creating chaos; Parthi tames the hyena with the help of Siddhu and adopts it subsequently, but chooses to avoid media coverage. Meanwhile, a group of merciless burglars headed by Shanmugham threaten the townsfolk and intrude Parthi's café at its closing time. When they intimidate Parthi with the lives of Chintu and his employee Shruthi, he shoots them dead. Parthi is arrested, but acquitted after the killings are concluded to be in self-defense.

After surviving an assassination attempt by Shanmugham's brother-in-law, Parthi appeals for a Tamil-speaking police officer to protect him and his family. Napoleon, who has been promoted due to his heroics in Tiruchirappalli, is assigned that position. Meanwhile, owing to the incident, Parthi's photographs appear in newspapers nationwide and draw the attention of Telangana-based drug baron brothers Harold and Antony Das. Antony promptly leaves for Theog, having recognised Parthi to be his thought-to-be-dead son Leo; Parthi, nevertheless, fiercely denies his claims. Disbelieving Parthi, Antony meets Sathya and tells her that Parthi is his son Leo, an infamous criminal. Suspicious, Sathya and Joshy separately investigate Parthi's past. While Sathya meets Parthi's childhood friend, Joshy meets Leo's friend Hridayaraj D'Souza, a soon-to-be-executed convict, who narrates Leo's alleged past.

In 1999, after Harold returns to India upon completing his education in Canada, he begins manufacturing and selling a stimulant drug named Datura, using Antony's failing tobacco factory Das & Co as a front organization. Antony's twin children Leo and Elisa assist the brothers in their activities. Antony is also a staunch believer of occult practices and engages in human sacrifices to succour their business. During a celebration, Antony is told by an occult priest that sacrificing one of his children will grant him enormous success; he chooses Elisa and urges Leo to cooperate but he strongly resists and fights Antony and Harold. In the process, he sets the drugs on fire but fails to protect Elisa from getting killed by Harold. She pleads with him to abandon the business and lead a peaceful life, before dying. Leo is shot by Antony and presumed dead.

Joshy and Sathya are convinced that Leo and Parthi are not the same. Parthi discerns that Sathya is suspecting his identity and confronts her but they eventually reconcile. Antony informs Parthi that he has kidnapped Siddhu and that he is going to be sacrificed. Parthi and Napoleon give chase to Antony and his men; Parthi successfully subdues them and kills Antony but does not find Siddhu, who is revealed to have been held captive by Harold at Das & Co.

After Harold agrees to return Siddhu in exchange for Antony's corpse, Parthi takes the latter alone to Das & Co, but realises that Harold has double-crossed him by sending henchmen to murder Sathya and Chintu. While Joshy, Napoleon and the hyena protect Sathya and Chintu by killing the henchmen, Parthi fights Harold and subsequently holds him at gunpoint. Harold finally agrees that Parthi is not Leo and assures no harm to him and his family. Parthi laughs loudly and confirms he is Leo before shooting Harold dead and rescuing Siddhu. While torching Das & Co, Parthi asserts that he has done nothing good to be remembered as Leo and that anyone who knows his identity must die or already be dead, recalling that he admitted the truth to Antony before killing him.

While back in Theog, Parthi receives a phone call. The anonymous caller tells him that he knows his true identity and contends that destroying his family's factory will not make society drug-free, imploring him to join his mission and correctly surmises that Parthi might have recognised him by now, following which he sighs in exasperation.

Cast

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). Reports of a potential collaboration between Lokesh and Vijay continued through February 2022. The following March, Lokesh confirmed there were discussions for him to direct Vijay's 67th film. That May, he confirmed the project, tentatively titled Thalapathy 67. The project was funded by S. S. Lalit Kumar's Seven Screen Studio, which had distributed and co-produced Master. Vijay's manager, Jagadish Palanisamy, served as a co-producer. The company made a public announcement on 30 January 2023, confirming the project, and the film's official title Leo was revealed on 3 February 2023. Lokesh revealed that Leo was inspired by the 2005 film A History of Violence by David Cronenberg. According to Lokesh, "It inspired me to write Leo. A History of Violence left its mark on me and from that this movie was born. Leo is my tribute".

The film was made on a budget of ₹250–300 crore, and Vijay was reported to receive ₹120 crore (US$14 million) as his remuneration. 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$5.9 million) as an advance, and a chunk of the profits would be received as the actor's remuneration. 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. 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. The film's status in the LCU was not confirmed until its release.

Pre-production

It took Lokesh nearly six months for the writing and pre-production. Lokesh co-wrote the film's script along with Rathna Kumar, in his third consecutive collaboration with the director, and Deeraj Vaidy, director of Jil Jung Juk (2016). Both of them joined the writing team in mid-August 2022. Lokesh said the film would be completely made in his style, unlike Master which he considered a 50% Vijay film and 50% his film. A muhurat puja was held on 5 December 2022 at AVM Studios in Chennai with the film's cast and crew. On 7 December, the team shot the promotional video for the film for nearly three days.

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). Anirudh Ravichander would score the music, in his third consecutive film with the director. Lokesh further retained most of his norm technicians including editor Philomin Raj, stunt choreography duo Anbariv, dance choreographer Dinesh and art director N. Sathees Kumar. Praveen Raja would style the costumes for Vijay, along with his regular costume designers Pallavi Singh and Eka Lakhani. Ramkumar Balasubramanian was appointed as executive producer of the film by the production house.