The Legend is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by J. D.–Jerry and produced by Legend Saravanan, who makes his debut in the titular role, alongside Urvashi Rautela, Geethika Tiwary (in their Tamil film debut), Prabhu, Vivek, Suman, Yogi Babu and Nassar in the supporting roles. The film follows Saravanan, a scientist who returns to India after studying overseas, who tries to find a cure to diabetes after his friend dies from it. The film was officially announced in December 2019 under the tentative title Production No. 1, as it is the production house's first venture, and the official title was revealed in March 2022. Principal photography commenced the same month. It was shot in several locations including Chennai, Pollachi and the Himalayas. The film has music composed by Harris Jayaraj, cinematography handled by R. Velraj and editing by Ruben. The Legend was released worldwide on 28 July 2022 in theatres to negative reviews from critics.
Plot Dr. Saravanan is a world-famous scientist and a pan-world dancer who returns to India permanently to serve the people in his village and takes up the position of principal in his family's educational institution and also teaches students to dance. Saravanan decides to invent a permanent cure for diabetes after witnessing the death of his childhood friend Tirupathi due to diabetic complications, as well as noticing that Tirupathi's entire family, including his new-born son are diabetics from birth, but later faces obstacles, primarily from the Pharmaceutical industry led by VJ, the chairman of Ojo Pharmaceuticals who aims to sell medicines for the sake of profit. VJ has a personal grudge on Saravanan as the latter's invention of antibiotic diagnostic test had caused considerable loss for his company, leading to his older brother's (then-chairman) suicide. VJ sends goons led by his henchman Munna to sabotage Saravanan's research, but Saravanan manages to fight them off. Saravanan meets Thulasi who works as a lecturer in his college. After a few incidents, the duo fall for each other and eventually get married. Thulasi seemingly dies in a car explosion orchestrated by Munna with the intention of killing Saravanan. Accompanied by his uncle Thangam, Saravanan leaves for Manali, where Munna is rumoured to be hiding. Saravanan and Thangam manage to catch Munna, but before they can receive information from him, Munna is killed by a mysterious masked person, who later escapes. Meanwhile, Dr. Madhumitha "Madhu" is also a scientist, who meets Saravanan in Manali and offers to assist him on his research, where Saravanan agrees. Over the next couple of years, the duo and their team, including Saravanan's mentor Dr. Desikan, work extensively on the diabetes cure, named as "Formula J", and soon the cure is ready for human testing. Vasantha Perumal, a rich man who is a diabetic, offers to volunteer for the 15-day human trial. While Perumal initially shows improvement in his diabetes, he soon falls into a coma for which the blame is laid on Formula J. During a hearing, Saravanan manages to convince the scientists as well as VJ that he will do the trial on another person and if it doesn't work Formula J can be banned. Saravanan tests Formula J on Tirupathi's widow, who has offered to volunteer, where she gets completely cured Saravana investigates the cause of Perumal's coma, where he finds out that his team member Dr. Venu Paapu had sabotaged the human trial in exchange for money from Perumal's brother-in-law, who wants to kill Perumal and take over his business empire. With the help of his elder brother Dr. Pugazhenthi, Saravanan starts working on a cure for Perumal. Tirupathi's widow is completely cured of her diabetes, thus ensuring that Formula J has had a successful human trial. VJ offers a huge amount of money to Saravanan for Formula J, but Saravanan refuses, as he wants it to be free-of-cost so that poor can benefit as well. VJ and Desikan (who reveals that he is working for VJ), kidnaps Saravanan and take him to VJ's private prison, where several men, women and children are imprisoned as test subjects for illegally testing medicines developed by Ojo by the company's scientist Dr. Gopi. Among the inmates is none other than Thulasi, who is not dead as presumed. Thulasi was not in the car, but was knocked out as she was still close to the car when the explosion happened. Once she was knocked out, Munna imprisoned her in VJ's prison. Saravanan reunites with Thulasi as well as their son Velan who was born in the prison. VJ, Desikan, Gopi, and Madhu asks Saravanan to give his research to Ojo so that they can develop and sell Formula J for huge amounts of money, failing which they will kill Velan. Madhu turns out to be VJ's niece and the heiress to the Ojo empire who joined with Saravanan to develop Formula J in revenge for her father's death. Madhu is also revealed to be the "mysterious masked person" who had killed Munna earlier in Manali. Saravanan refuses to give his research and fights with them as well as their henchmen, subduing them, as well as releasing all the prison inmates. Madhu tries to kill Saravanan, but she is later killed by the escaping inmates in a stampede. Saravanan, Thulasi and Velan leave the prison and return home. Ojo Pharmaceuticals is shut down for illegally testing medicines on humans, while Formula J is approved by the WHO, making its sale and use legal. Perumal comes out of his coma and is cured. Saravanan is honoured by the Government of India for his success. Then, VJ is revealed to not be dead in a post-credits scene, where a lead to the second part is cleverly put into place.
Cast
Production
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