Jagame Thandhiram

Jagame Thandhiram (transl. The Universe is a ruse) is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj and produced by YNOT Studios and Reliance Entertainment. The film stars Dhanush, James Cosmo, Joju George, Aishwarya Lekshmi and Kalaiyarasan. It marks the Indian film debut of James Cosmo and the Tamil debut of Joju George. In the film, Suruli, a carefree gangster in Madurai, is recruited to help an overseas crime lord Peter Sprott take down a rival Shivadoss, but later gets caught off guard by the moral dilemmas that follow.

The project was initially announced in April 2016 with Thenandal Studio Limited bagging the project, but eventually got shelved due to the financial problems surrounding over the production house. It was revived once again in February 2018, with YNOT Studios acquiring the rights for film production. After an official launch in July 2019, the film began production in September 2019, with shooting taking place across London, Madurai, Rameshwaram and Jaipur and wrapped by December 2019. The songs and background score was composed by Santhosh Narayanan, while cinematography handled by Shreyas Krishna and editing done by Vivek Harshan.

Jagame Thandhiram was scheduled for a theatrical release on 1 May 2020, but was delayed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the makers initially planned on releasing the film only in theatres, this decision was dropped in February 2021 in favour of a worldwide digital release through Netflix on 18 June 2021. It was dubbed and released in 17 languages, across 190 countries. The film received mixed reviews from critics who praised its cast performances (particularly Dhanush, James Cosmo and Joju George), cinematography, technical aspects, soundtrack and musical score, but criticised its pace and screenwriting.