Theri (film)
Theri ( Spark) is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Atlee Kumar and produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu under the banner V Creations. It is inspired from Mani Ratnam's film Chatriyan. The film stars Vijay, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Amy Jackson. The film's music is composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, with cinematography handled by George C. Williams and editing done by Ruben. In the film, a former police officer is on a mission to protect his daughter from his past enemies. The film marked Kumar's second directorial after Raja Rani (2013), whose success impressed Vijay to work with the director. Atlee came up with the script, which was an "emotional action thriller film" and a formal announcement was made in September 2014. After post-production works and a formal launch ceremony in June 2015, the film began production in Chennai during early July. The film was halted twice due to the Film Employees Federation of South India's strike and the heavy flooding in Chennai. In addition, poor climatic conditions in China meant that the team had to abandon their idea of filming sequences there and instead opted to shoot in Bangkok. Despite the difficulties, the film was completed within January 2016. Theri was released on 14 April 2016 and received positive reviews from critics and audiences. The film grossed  against a budget of  and emerged as the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2016. It further won three SIIMA Awards, three IIFA Utsavam awards, two Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards and nine nominations at the 64th Filmfare Awards South. The film was adapted into Assamese as Ratnakar (2019). It is currently considered as one among the most-popular films in Vijay's career, due to the commercial elements in the film and its multiple re-runs in television channels which have attributed to more popularity. Plot 

Joseph Kuruvilla is a non-violent person, who runs a bakery and leads a peaceful life with his five-year-old daughter Niveditha "Nivi”. Joseph soon befriends Nivi's teacher Annie, who starts developing a crush on him. Joseph gets into a scuffle with some goons who try to kill Nivi, during which Annie learns that Joseph is actually DCP Vijay Kumar, an honest cop in Chennai. The movie then rolls into a flashback. Past: Vijay is shown to be upright and no nonsense when dealing with criminals. He meets Mithra, a doctor and they fall in love. One night, Vijay meets an old man who comes up with a complaint to find his missing daughter Raji, an IT worker. He finds that she was sexually assaulted to death. Further investigation leads him to Ashwin, the son of Labour minister Vanamaamalai. Vijay heads to Vanamaamalai's house to arrest Ashwin, but Vanamaamalai and commissioner Sibi Chakravarthy inform him that Ashwin had been missing for three days. Vijay is tasked with finding Ashwin. Vijay finds and kills Ashwin and reveals this to Vanamaamalai, who swears to seek vengeance on him. While Vijay meets Mithra’s family, Vanamaamalai’s brother Ratnam sends goons to finish him off. The incident scars Mithra and she asks Vijay to leave his police job. He convinces her that he can balance his work and personal life together and they get married. They both then have Nivi and lead a happy life. Unfortunately on the night of Deepavali, Vanamaamalai, Ratnam and their henchman Karikalan, barge into Vijay's house, and kill Vijay's mother and Mithra, shoot Vijay and also attempt to drown Nivi. An injured and dying Mithra saves Nivi and asks Vijay to vow that he would quit the police force. Vijay accepts Mithra's vow, escapes and fakes his death in order to protect Nivi. Present: As Nivi takes off for a school excursion, Vanamaamalai, having learnt both Vijay and Nivi are alive, orchestrates an accident of the bus she was in. With the help of Annie and the local people, Vijay manages to rescue Nivi and the other children. On learning that Vanamaamalai is behind the accident, he decides to seek vengeance. Vijay returns to Chennai and kills Karikalan first. A police officer witnesses this and spreads the word that Vijay has re-appeared as a ghost. Vanamaamalai tries to warn Ratnam about the truth but Ratnam, having severed ties with his brother, thinks he was the one who killed Karikalan. Vijay kills Ratnam by pushing him from the 13th floor of a building. Vijay gets himself captured by Vanamaamalai's henchmen to reach to him. Vanamaamalai reveals the past to Nivi, who asks Vijay to finish him off. Vijay kills Vanamaamalai and his henchmen. The killings continue to be a mystery from the public, but Sibi Chakravarthy is revealed to be secretly aware that Vijay is alive and re-employs him into the police force. A few years later, Vijay, an older Nivi and Annie are in Ladakh. Vijay, who has changed his identity to Dharmeshwar, continues to work for the CBI incognito. 