Chennai 600028 is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language sports comedy film written and directed by Venkat Prabhu in his directorial debut. It stars Jai, Shiva, Premji, Aravind Akash, Nithin Sathya and newcomers Ajay Raj, Vijay Vasanth, Prasanna, Inigo Prabakaran, Karthik and Arun in the lead along with Vijayalakshmi Feroz and Kristine Zedek, making their acting debut as well. The film was produced by S. P. B. Charan along with J. K. Saravana, a Singapore-based award-winning producer. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by Premji Amaran and Yuvan Shankar Raja and also Illayaraja respectively.
The film is based on street cricket played in India, focusing on various themes as friendship, love and rivalry in a suburban area. Following its theatrical release on 27 April 2007, it received critical acclaim and emerged a surprise sleeper hit, running successfully for more than one year in theaters, whilst going on to achieve cult status in the subsequent years. The film's title is derived from the pincode for Mandaveli, a suburb of Chennai, where the story takes place. The success of the film gained the relatively unknown actors – Jai, Shiva, Premji and Nithin Sathya, newcomers Vijayalakshmi, Vijay Vasanth and the director Venkat Prabhu popularity.
The film was also remade in Bengali as Le Chakka (2010), Sinhalese as Super Six (2012), and in Kannada as Bangalore 560023 (2015). A sequel for the film, Chennai 600028 II: Second Innings, has also since been released.
Plot
The story revolves around two local cricket league teams that compete against each other in local matches and consider each other as sworn enemies. Royapuram Rockers are on top of the chain and keep bashing the Sharks year after year. The heroes of the movie are the Sharks' team.
The story begins when Raghu's parents move from Royapuram to Visalakshi Thottam, Chennai 600 028. Raghu is a member of the Royapuram Rockers Cricket team, and a college student living with his parents. He has no choice but to move with them although he detests the area. He is not very excited at the prospect of living in the same area as his sworn enemies. Raghu is faithful to his teammates, but they ignore him because of the distance. Angered at being replaced by a new guy in the team in one of the matches, Raghu estranges himself from cricket and the Rockers.
Raghu informs of Pazhani's sister Selvi's love for Karthik to him. This incident initiates Raghu's friendship with a few Sharks team players and eventually gets induced into the team. Raghu practices with the Sharks to play against the Rockers in the upcoming Radio Mirchi trophy. Pazhani, who soon learns of his sister and Karthik's love affair is disappointed and then there is a tiff amongst the friends. The team splits up for a while, but Karthik apologizes to Pazhani and they make up. The team reunites and starts practicing for the trophy once again. Unfortunately, Karthik is stabbed by his brother's enemies and is rendered unfit to play the match. Pazhani replaces Karthik as the captain and the team heads for the match.
Under tight pressure and with a nail biting finish, the Sharks finally defeat the Rockers in the semi-finals of the tournament. In the finals they meet their enemies, a group of school kids named Bad Boys-II who practice by shirking school to play cricket on the beach. The kids are really good and the Sharks know it because they have lost badly to them once before.
The movie ends with the team really struggling to keep it up in the game.
Cast
Jai as Raghuvaran 'Raghu' Sampath
Shiva as Karthik 'Karthi'
Premji as Sreenivasan 'Cheenu'
Aravind Akash as Aravind
Nithin Sathya as Pazhani
Vijay Vasanth as Gopi
Ajay Raj as Ezhumalai '7 malai'
Prassanna as Shanmugham 'Shanu'
Ranjith as Imran
Arun as Uday
Karthik Preath as Arivazhagan 'Arivu'
Sampath Raj as Guna
Ilavarasu as Manohar
Vijayalakshmi Feroz as Selvi
Kristine Zedek as Swetha
Badava Gopi as Commentator
Sakthi Saravanan as Aravind's boss
Inigo Prabakaran as John (Rockers's captain) Mai Prakash as Rocker's team player Sundar as Jeeva Hari Prashanth as Hari, Bad Boys' captain S. N. Surendar as Sampath, Raghu's father Neelu Nasreen as Guna's wife Srilatha as Durga, Raghu's mother Shanmugasundaram as Sports minister Sam Anderson as David Mirchi Senthil as Radio Mirchi RJ (special appearance) Kalyan special appearance in "Saroja Saman Nikalo" song Karunas as himself in a fight scene