Maragadha Naanayam 2017

Senguttuvan and Elango are two small-time crooks who work under the local jewel smuggler known as “Nochukuppam” Ramdoss. They dream bigger than their routine schemes, especially Senguttuvan, who is smitten with a shy young woman named Chanakaya at the bus stop. He never quite musters the courage to speak to her, and when Chanakaya marries, the new husband’s public abuse only compounds the feeling that luck and opportunity are passing him by.

A shadowy prospect arrives from abroad: a Chinese businessman wants to acquire an antique emerald medallion named “Maragatha Naanayam,” linked to an ancient king named Irumporai and whispered to be cursed. The price is staggering—₹10,00,00,000—but no one dares touch the stone due to the deadly rumors. The hunter for this prize is a crafty contractor named John, who has underworld ties and can mobilize gang networks. Senguttuvan sees this as the break he’s been waiting for, while Elango worries about the danger and superstition surrounding the relic. The pair seek protection from a local priest, who performs a ritual involving a lemon. The revelation is spine-tingling: the curse has already claimed 132 lives, and to pursue the stone, they will need the help of one of the ghosts bound to those deaths.

Back home, a ritual goes awry in the best possible way: the lemon slips from Senguttuvan’s pocket during Ramdoss’s burial, and the priest’s ceremony backfires, waking the spirit of Chidambaram. The next morning, Chidambaram’s ghost possesses Ramdoss’s body, turning an ordinary burial into a doorway to the supernatural. With new purpose, Chidambaram decides to assist Senguttuvan and Elango by inhabiting three recently dead bodies and the bodies of others who died by the curse. The team now includes the essence of Selvaraj, an old beggar; a man killed in a freak decapitation; and Chanakaya herself, who is trapped in a new form. One of the possessed bodies—a Tamil teacher—has trouble staying anchored and keeps slipping in and out, injecting a sense of fragility into their ghost-powered mission.

Now equipped with borrowed bodies, the trio and the three resident ghosts press on to locate the emerald. Their first act of infiltration sees them interrogating Pandurangan while posing as henchmen of the formidable local gang leader, Twinkle Ramanathan. This leads them to a recovered emerald medallion that turns out to be a fake. Ramanathan, who initially dismissed the hunt, begins to pay closer attention as their methods draw attention. The trail points to the man who forged the fake medallion, now on his deathbed, who ultimately dies and leaves behind clues about who ordered the counterfeit. The trail then narrows to Krishnan, a doctor who is one of the men killed by the curse. They locate Krishnan’s son and kidnap him in hopes of pulling the truth from him, but Ramanathan’s henchmen catch them and haul them into a torture chamber. A daring escape follows, and they eventually unearth the original medallion.

But the curse is not done with them. Despite Chidambaram’s warning, Senguttuvan and Elango touch the stone and become cursed themselves. They arrange a meeting with John and the Chinese businessman to finalize the exchange, but a driverless, mysterious lorry stalks them—perhaps the very vehicle connected to the curse that has haunted the tale all along. John and the Chinese businessman are killed when the vehicle crashes into them; Senguttuvan manages to flee with the money in hand. The Tamil teacher, now in Selvaraj’s body, delivers a crucial clue: return the stone to the King’s grave to lift the curse. The journey toward the graves is a tense chase, pursued by Ramanathan’s gang and the ominous lorry, but the group reaches the burial site just as a deal is struck. Senguttuvan agrees to place the stone in the grave, allowing Ramanathan to take it afterward, and the plan works—the curse is temporarily broken, and the four ghosts release their hold on the living bodies.

With the curse lifted, the four souls bid farewell and return to rest. Chanakaya’s ghost grants Senguttuvan a final, emotional moment of connection by letting him hear her voice and hear her declare love, a bittersweet closure to their improbable alliance. As the credits roll, Senguttuvan and Elango part ways, only to encounter Ramanathan once more—now on the run. A pilgrim who has encountered the chase returns the stone, reigniting the curse for both Ramanathan and the pilgrim and leaving the future of the relic’s danger unresolved, even as our two protagonists walk away with a hard-won understanding of luck, risk, and the price of ambition.