Madras Cafe 2013

In Jaffna, a bus packed with passengers is halted by armed men, and the ensuing massacre opens the film with a stark, violent event that sets a tense, ongoing stage for what follows.

The narrative then shifts to Kasauli, where a bearded Vikram Singh [John Abraham] watches news on television about the Sri Lankan president’s death in a suicide bombing. He heads to a nearby church, where a priest probes his supposed “conspiracy” as Vikram whispers, “Our Prime Minister could have been saved from the conspiracy.” The priest’s question lingers as Vikram begins telling his own story.

Five years earlier, the island’s turmoil has escalated into brutal fighting between the Sri Lankan military and Tamil militant groups. The Tamil youth take up arms under the Liberation Tamil Front led by Anna Bhaskaran [Ajay Rathnam], a figure drawn from real-life LTTE leadership. On the Indian side, a peace accord is proposed by the Indian Prime Minister, but Anna refuses and the Indian Peacekeeping Forces withdraw. The RAW chief, Robin Dutt, known as RD [Siddhartha Basu], calls on his best man, Maj. Vikram Singh, to intervene. After briefing RD and his deputy Swaroop [Avijit Dutt], Vikram travels to Sri Lanka, where he meets a war correspondent, Jaya Sahni [Nargis Fakhri], and searches for a way to blunt the rebels’ momentum. Vikram eyes Shri, the lone man believed capable of standing against Anna, with Balakrishnan [Prakash Belawadi] guiding the strategy from behind the scenes. An informant named Narayanan leads Vikram to Shri.

Vikram promises Shri armed support to help him challenge Anna, and a weapons deal is scheduled for July 6. The plan backfires when the LTF ambushes and wipes out the weapons consignment, killing one of Vikram’s associates. Balakrishnan urges Vikram to retreat to the Colombo Safehouse, as the situation grows more perilous. Back in Delhi, RD learns that Vikram has been kidnapped by the LTF; India deploys forces to recover him, leaving Vikram badly injured. Balakrishnan orders him to leave Sri Lanka, suspecting him of being a target from multiple sides. Vikram grows wary of Balakrishnan, and he has SP monitor Balakrishnan’s movements. Posing as a war correspondent, Vikram reaches Mallayya, the LTF’s effective second-in-command, and convinces him to meet RD in Colombo. RD argues that only a political solution can win the war, and Vikram presses Mallayya to position himself as the rebels’ champion, fracturing the LTF.

Following this pivot, Vikram and Indian forces mount a major strike on the LTF base, forcing Anna’s forces into disarray. Anna survives the assault but loses Mallayya and Shri in the chaos. The conflict between the two sides intensifies, prompting the Indian Prime Minister to resign. Weeks later, SP uncovers phone intercepts hinting at Anna’s plans, but Balakrishnan dismisses the suspicions, prompting SP to believe he is a mole. Balakrishnan destroys the remaining papers and later hints to a confidant that Vikram and SP are in Kochi.

Vikram’s personal life fractures when Ruby, his wife, is murdered. Kush, Vikram’s ally in Kochi, captures Vasu and discovers that Balakrishnan has been leaking information with a man named Reed from Singapore. Vikram reaches out to Jaya, who uses her sources to verify the leak. In Bangkok, Jaya’s contact reveals that Balakrishnan was honeytrapped, forcing him to disclose their movements. Balakrishnan then commits suicide. In Delhi, RAW decodes the intercepts and confirms Balakrishnan’s fake passports and hidden accounts. RD concludes they’re facing a Code Red scenario aimed at assassinating the ex-Prime Minister, and orders a coastline lockdown as a massive manhunt ensues. In Madras, Vijayan Joseph’s bomb-making conversation reaches Rishi [Tarun Bali], who relays it to Vikram, and further reveals that Kannan Kanan, an associate of Anna’s, is in Madurai Jail and might be usable for intelligence. After a pivotal meeting with Jaya, Vikram deduces from X on a clock at the airport that the LTF plans to strike the ex-PM at a designated hour (X PM, i.e., 10 PM). RD urges the ex-PM to cancel his rally, but the ex-PM declines.

Vikram races to the venue, arriving just as a suicide bomber places a wreath—decisive but devastating. The attack kills the ex-PM and many others, and Vikram staggers away, overwhelmed by the sense that the mission failed. He files his report with the investigation committee, which accepts his account, and RD resigns in the wake of the catastrophe. After choosing voluntary retirement, Vikram returns to Kasauli.

The film then loops back to the present, where the priest asks who won the battle. Vikram’s sober answer is that the contestants lost more than one figure could ever recover: the Indians lost their Prime Minister, and the Sri Lankans lost their future. He leaves the church carrying the weight of the hard truths, reciting the line “Where the mind is without fear.” He sends another report to Jaya in London, who continues her work, while Vikram moves away from the home in Kasauli.

The epilogue casts a long shadow: the Sri Lankan civil war rages on for 26 more years, claiming tens of thousands of lives and displacing countless Tamils. By 2009, Sri Lankan forces finally crush the rebels and their leadership, ending a brutal chapter in the island’s history. The film closes on a somber note, underscoring the human cost of war and the ambiguous legacy of those who tried to stop it.