Manikkam is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by Surya Prakash (credited as K. V. Pandian) in his debut and produced by T. Siva.
The film stars Rajkiran and Vanitha Vijayakumar, while Vinu Chakravarthy and Gandhimathi play supporting roles.
[1] The story of “Manikkam” is based on the Tamil religious belief of yesteryear heroes, brave-hearts, warriors (“veerargal”) eventually becoming worshipped as sub-deities and believed to become “protectors” of villages.
On a stroll through the village in Achanampatti, Savithri encounters the Karuppasamy kovil and asks why it is locked up; Savithri's grandmother explains that 5 years ago during a festival, Anandaraj was angry that he did not get the “parivattam” (a form of honor), so he ordered Karuvayan and Vakkanoor gang to kill the attendants and to lock the temple and ever since, nobody was able to attend the temple.
This causes worry by his grandmother and siblings, knowing what happened when Anandaraj and the Vakkanoor gang killing anyone that tried to open up the temple, but Manikkam remained calm and moved forward since he received the arul vaakku.
Meanwhile, the wives of the Vakkanoor bandits approach Manikkam's mother (Srividya) and beg her to stop her son from slaughtering their husbands.
Srividya eventually finds her son in a full trance, heading to Vakkanoor to go after the bandits; knowing that she cannot stop him, she talks as if she was the goddess and tells him to stop, which prompts Manikkam to completely stop, while he stands in full fury and anger; Pazhanichamy (local villager) informs Manikkam's mother of what Vakkanoor did and how Manikkam was going to serve justice; his mother realizes her fault and then runs back to her son, but not knowing where her path was, she falls into a well.
The movie ends with a large black statue of Manikkam in that same pose with the aruvaal and velkambu, as this is believed to be many years later and he is now adopted as a kaaval deivam like Karuppasamy, as this Tamil religious tradition passes on.
[7] K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times appreciated Ravishankar's cinematography and added, "Those who liked Rajkiran's previous movies will like Manikam".