Naane Varuvean () is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language horror thriller film directed by Selvaraghavan. The film stars his brother Dhanush who appears in a dual role for the third time after Kodi and Pattas. Naane Varuvean marks Dhanush’s reunion with Selvaraghavan after Mayakkam Enna. The film's music is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, while the cinematography is handled by Om Prakash and editing is done by Bhuvan Srinivasan.
The film was released theatrically on 29 September 2022, and received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Prabhu and Kathir are identical twins, while Prabhu is an innocent guy, Kathir has always been a troublemaker, earning the wrath of their father, who is tired of constantly disciplining him. When Kathir beats up the neighbor kid, their father ties Kathir up in the backyard to a tree. Kathir goes missing overnight, apparently kidnapped by an unnamed psychotic person, where the person is revealed to be a serial killer preying on his targets in the jungle. Kathir kills him and returns home, where he continues his erratic behavior. Kathir locks Prabhu inside a wooden box and stabs his father multiple times, killing him. Kathir's mother does not turn him in to the cops, but instead, seeks the help of a local saint. The saint tells her that the twins cannot co-exist and have to be separated to save one of them. Frustrated, their mother abandons Kathir in a temple and flees with Prabhu, despite his request to not leave him there.
Years later, Prabhu is a well settled family man with a loving wife, Bhuvana, and a daughter, Sathya, with whom he is extremely attached to. At the age of 12, Sathya starts developing symptoms of schizophrenia, which starts disrupting the peace of Prabhu's family. She starts talking to some unknown person, and often loses sleep. After repeatedly hearing his daughter talk to herself in the middle of the night, Prabhu plants a baby monitor in her room and records her communication with the unknown. She breaks the monitor and throws it out of the room, revealing that the unknown person asked her to break the monitor or he will kill Prabhu. Worried by the recent happenings, Prabhu takes his daughter to a psychiatrist, who tries to extract information from Sathya about the unknown person in her room. Sathya reveals that the unknown person is Sonu, a small kid who talks to her often.
Despite Prabhu and the psychiatrist rejecting Sathya's claim that Sonu exists, Sathya is still adamant that he is real. Based on his own research, Prabhu hires a group of young ghostbusters, whom he came across on YouTube. The technical team plants high end technical equipment to monitor the paranormal activity inside Sathya's room. At the middle of the night, the team finds footprints, using UV lighting, only to find Sathya missing from her room. The footprints lead back to Sathya's room, hinting she made a quick trip back to her room. The door is locked, where they start hearing Sathya's voice again. Terrified and fearing for Sathya's life, Prabhu tries to open the door, but the door unlocks itself and Sathya begins to talk in Marathi. The crew helps Prabhu understand and translate Sathya's communication. Possessed by Sonu's voice, Sathya reveals that Prabhu has to deal with Kathir and put an end to his atrocities that caused Sonu's death.
Realizing the impact of the possession, the psychiatrist suggests to Prabhu to fulfill the requests of Sonu's spirit. It is revealed that Kathir, who was abandoned by his mother and Prabhu, struggled to find livelihood, where he was abused by the people, who tried to take advantage of him. Unable to control his thirst for killing, Kathir ended up killing all of them. Eventually, Kathir found the love of his life, Madhuri, a mute woman. They get married and settled in a remote cabin in the forest with twins Sonu and Manu. One day, Sonu hid himself in his father's jeep and followed him to document and vlog the hunting of wild animals by Kathir, but witness his father killing a bunch of tourists, who disrespected him in front of his kids, over a petty issue of marijuana.