Retro (taglined Love-Laughter-War) is a 2025 Indian Tamil-language romantic gangster drama film written and directed by Karthik Subbaraj. Produced by Stone Bench Creations and 2D Entertainment, the film stars Suriya and Pooja Hegde in the lead roles. In the film, Paarivel Kannan, an orphan raised by a gangster, faces betrayal and a violent cult as he searches for his true origins, fulfils a prophecy, and tries to reunite with his lost love, Rukmini.
The film was announced in March 2024 under the tentative title Suriya 44, along with the tagline Love, Laughter, War. The title was revealed in December 2024. Principal photography commenced in June 2024 and wrapped by early October. Filming locations included the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ooty, Kerala and Chennai. The film has music composed by Santhosh Narayanan, cinematography handled by Shreyaas Krishna and editing by Shafique Mohamed Ali.
Retro was released on 1 May 2025 in standard and EPIQ formats. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of Suriya and Pooja Hegde, first half and technical aspects, but some noted issues with the pacing and overstuffed plot. It emerged as a significant commercial success, grossing 80–250 crore worldwide against a budget of 60–65 crore, becoming one of the highest-grossing Tamil films of 2025.
Plot
In 1960s Thoothukudi, Sandhya adopts an orphaned infant with a spear-shaped scar on his stomach. She names him Paarivel "Paari" Kannan, raising him lovingly, while her gangster husband, Thilagan, refuses to acknowledge the boy. After Sandhya's death, a teenage Paari meets Rukmini at their mothers’ funeral rites in Varanasi. On their train back to Thoothukudi, when Thilagan is ambushed, Paari saves him, earning Thilagan's reluctant respect.
By 1989, Thilagan remarries and has a biological son. Paari remains loyal to him and his criminal empire, though his new wife sees him only as a henchman. Reuniting with Rukmini, now a veterinarian, Paari falls deeply in love. After four years of courtship, in 1993, they plan to get married. At their wedding, Paari announces that he is leaving the life of crime. However, Thilagan accuses him of sabotaging a high-stakes arms deal—code-named “Gold Fish”—involving weapons smuggled for a prime ministerial candidate, Dharman. Paari admits guilt but withholds the location of the cache. Enraged, Thilagan tries to kill Rukmini, but Paari retaliates, severing Thilagan's hand in the process. Paari is immediately arrested and imprisoned. Heartbroken by his return to violence, Rukmini leaves him and moves to an undisclosed location.
Five years later, in 1998, Paari is promised early release if he fights for a secretive cult. Learning Rukmini is in the Andaman Islands, he escapes custody and heads there. To win her back, he kidnaps Chaplin Laali, a comedic therapist, and impersonates him. The real Laali, under duress, plays along. On the island, Paari performs as Laali and reunites with Rukmini, who is unaware of his disguise. The island is ruled by the tyrannical Lord Milton and his son, Freddie, who abuses animals and harasses Rukmini. When Freddie goes too far, Paari violently attacks him. A humiliated Freddie hires a cult leader to capture Paari. Recognizing him, the cult leader informs his boss, Michael, and alerts Thilagan.
Michael runs the deadly "Rubber Cult", with gladiator-style games between the island's rich and the enslaved poor. The matches are rigged, and the losers are fed to crocodiles by Michael's father Rajavel. Michael exposes Paari's true identity during a comedy show, shocking Rukmini, who walks away in disbelief. Paari accepts her decision and joins the cult. In his first match, Paari's brutal skill leaves the audience stunned. Michael sees Paari as a star and throws a party to celebrate. There, a drunk Paari lets slip the secret location of the Gold Fish cache. Later, when attacked by enslaved locals, they spot his scar and realize he is the prophesied child from a local legend—one destined to return a sacred spear of Jada Muni and kill Rajavel.
They reveal Paari's true identity: he was born to Pasupathy and Lakshmi, islanders who had twins—Paari, who was actually named Jada Muni by his biological parents, and a sister. Fearing Rajavel's wrath, they smuggled Paari to India. Sandhya adopted him after his protector was killed. Now aware of his roots, Paari meets his real father, Pasupathy. The next day, Paari returns to the arena, fighting for the poor. After winning, he names Michael and Rajavel the weakest, condemning them to death. Paari defeats Michael in a brutal duel but spares his life, humiliating him instead. Paari then storms Rajavel's estate. Rajavel feels insulted at being killed by his slaves, so he shoots himself, and Paari reclaims the sacred spear.
At Jada Muni's temple, Paari returns the spear to the astrologer and reunites with Pallavi and his twin sister. Rukmini, finally understanding the full truth, reconciles with Paari. He promises her that he has found his dhammam—his true path—and renounced violence. However, the peace is brief, as Thilagan, Michael, and Freddie arrive at the temple to kill them. They are shocked to find Paari's family and the islanders aiming bazookas at them—revealed to be the long-lost Gold Fish weapons. Thilagan realizes that Paari outwitted them all. Paari calmly tells his mother to fire. Lakshmi, now empowered, fires a warning shot, forcing their surrender. The next day, the islanders rejoice in their newfound freedom as Paari and Rukmini finally marry, fulfilling both prophecy and love.
Cast
Production
Development
While working on Mahaan in mid 2021, director Karthik Subbaraj had narrated a script to Suriya which impressed the actor. However, since the script required extensive pre-production and filming time, they decided to proceed with another script that also impressed him. Although they had finalised to collaborate back then, both of their respective prior commitments delayed the collaboration.
Two-and-a-half years later, on 28 March 2024, Subbaraj announced through his social media accounts that he would join hands with Suriya for his next directorial venture after Jigarthanda DoubleX (2023). The project would be jointly funded by Subbaraj's Stone Bench Creations and Suriya's 2D Entertainment banner. Suriya and Jyothika would be credited as producers, while Stone Bench's main producer Kaarthikeyan Santhanam would be credited as co-producer along with Rajsekar Pandian, the head of 2D Entertainment.
The project was kept confidential by the makers until its announcement. The film was made on a budget of crore. Tentatively titled Suriya 44 with the tagline Love, Laughter and War, production was set to begin after the actor completed his film with Sudha Kongara which was then known as Suriya 43. However, a few days later, it was reported that, since the start of Kongara's film would take a few more months, they were planning to complete the shooting of the project in the meantime. The film was touted to be as a gangster action drama film. But Subbaraj later clarified that the film, set in the 1990s, is a romance film which also involves major action sequences. The film's official title was revealed as Retro on the occasion of Christmas (25 December 2024).
Pre-production
Subbaraj had met Suriya prior to the shooting of Jigarthanda DoubleX and narrated a one-liner, which the latter requested to develop. It took him several months for the writing and pre-production. Charukesh Sekar and Sritharan Someetharan collaborated with Subbaraj on the script discussion. After the release of Jigarthanda DoubleX, Subbaraj narrated the entire script to the actor. The dialogues for the Telugu and Hindi-dubbed versions were written by Hanumaan Choudary and Mohan Nair. A casting call was announced by the makers in late April 2024.
On the occasion of his birthday (15 May), Santhosh Narayanan was announced as the film's composer by the production house, in his eighth collaboration with the director. Two weeks later, the team announced that Shreyaas Krishna would handle the cinematography, in his third collaboration with Subbaraj after Jagame Thandhiram (2021) and Mahaan (2022). In addition to Shreyaas Krishna, the technical crew of art directors Jacki and Mayapandi, editor Shafique Mohamed Ali, stunt choreographer Kecha Khamphakdee and costume designer Praveen Raja were announced the same day.
In May 2024, the team shot the promotional video for the film for nearly three days. Prior to the commencement of the first schedule, the team had constructed a set at Port Blair located in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, for filming an action sequence.
Casting
Suriya would sport two different looks in the film. One with a Fu Manchu moustache and mullet hair, and another with a trimmed beard, mustache, and a shorter hairdo. In mid-May, Pooja Hegde was reported to play the female lead opposite Suriya, marking her first film with both Suriya and Subbaraj. Her inclusion was confirmed on 1 June by the production house. The film would be her third Tamil film after Mugamoodi (2012) and Beast (2022). Hegde reportedly received a remuneration between and . Subbaraj revealed to Ananda Vikatan that he cast her after being impressed with her performance in Radhe Shyam (2022). Following a look test, she began learning Tamil for her role. Aavni, daughter of actress Anjali Nair, plays the younger version of Hegde's character.
After initially being reported as part of the cast, Jayaram and Nassar were confirmed during the film's preliminary shooting, with both playing important roles. The former's son, Kalidas Jayaram, was also reported to be part of the cast after being spotted during the shooting, thus reportedly marking his second on-screen collaboration with his father, following Ente Veedu Appuvinteyum (2003), after 12 years. However, Rajsekar Pandian denied Kalidas Jayaram's inclusion in the film, stating, "Kalidas came on the last day shoot of Jayaram sir when the team cut a cake that has been misinterpreted." Prakash Raj would also play a role in the film, marking his fourth collaboration with Suriya after Nerukku Ner (1997), Singam (2010) and Jai Bhim (2021). Vidhu, who portrayed the role of Shettani in Subbaraj's DoubleX, would play the role of an antagonist in Retro.
Avinash Raghudevan, Karunakaran, Joju George, Singampuli, Sujith Shankar, Thamizh, Ramachandran Durairaj, Prem Kumar, Sandeep Raj and Remya Suresh were cast in prominent roles. While Karunakaran and George would make their respective fourth and second collaboration with Subbaraj after Pizza (2012), Jigarthanda (2014), Iraivi (2016) and Jagame Thandiram respectively, Singampuli would make his fourth collaboration with Suriya after Pithamagan (2003), Perazhagan (2004) and Maayavi (2005). Nandita Das would return to Tamil cinema after a gap of twelve years with this film. Although Kannada actor Dhananjaya was approached for a prominent role, he could not sign it due to scheduling conflicts. Shriya Saran joined the production in August 2024, and shot for the item number "Love Detox".
Filming
Principal photography began with the first schedule on 2 June 2024 at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Suriya, Hegde and Jayaram arrived at the location the previous day. Firstly, the team shot action sequences, choreographed by Kecha Khamphakdee, at a specially erected set. A song shoot featuring Suriya and Hegde was also held in early June 2024. Sujith Shankar joined the first schedule on 22 June 2024, while filming happening at Cellular Jail. A dance number featuring Suriya and Hegde, choreographed by Sherif Master was completed in late-June 2024. On 28 June, Joju George shared a video of himself on a boat in Andaman Island, revealing he joined the sets. The first schedule ended on 4 July 2024 at Andaman.