Government) is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language political action film[7][8] directed by A. R. Murugadoss, who co-wrote the dialogues with B. Jeyamohan, and produced by Kalanithi Maran's Sun Pictures.

The film stars Vijay, Keerthy Suresh and Varalaxmi Sarathkumar in the lead roles, alongside Yogi Babu, Tulasi, Radha Ravi and Pala.

In the film, a corporate raider arrives in Tamil Nadu from the United States to cast his vote in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, only to find out that his vote has already been recorded as cast, leading to him raising awareness against electoral fraud and contesting as a non-partisan politician in the elections amidst several attempts made on his life and reputation.

M. Masilamani, the previous CM of Tamil Nadu, is re-elected, his daughter Komalavalli, and fellow politician and brother Malarvannan "Rendu" celebrate.

Meanwhile, Masilamani receives suitcases full of black money as he discovers a journalist, Muthukumar, hiding inside the luggage to record evidence of his corruption.

After many assassination attempts on him by Rendu's henchmen, Sundar decides to contest the election against Masilamani as an Independent candidate and resigns from his company to avoid any conflict of interest.

Initially unpopular among the masses due to his corporate background, Sundar delivers a speech detailing his rise from a humble fisherman upbringing to a business magnate and his struggle from poverty to riches, gaining massive support.

At this juncture, Sundar realises that the entire political system in the state and country needs reform, so he decides to contest in all constituencies in Tamil Nadu along with his supporters.

Meanwhile, Masilamani's daughter Komalavalli, based in Canada arrives in Chennai after discovering that her father and uncle have lost support due to Sundar.

Komalavalli furthers her agenda by killing her father with an overdose of diabetic tablets so that her party will gain sympathy votes.

Real-life activists such as Kalki Subramaniam, Piyush Manush and Fatima Babu made cameo appearances as themselves in the song "Oru Viral Puratchi".

[22] Keerthy Suresh was later signed to play the female lead role, marking her second collaboration with Vijay after Bairavaa (2017).

The audio release event of the film was conducted in a much peculiar way, where for the very first time, the audience were given the privilege of launching the music album online by the means of the production company's website.

The audio launch event held a live telecast aired on Sun TV, and on their exclusive paid service called SunNXT.

[39] Sarkar Infinite, an action mobile video game was released as a tie-in for the film and was developed by Arkcon Arts.

[40] The film released on Diwali, and according to the trade trackers, it earned across Rupees 30 crore in Tamil Nadu on its opening day, beating Baahubali 2.

[5][6] Sarkar received mixed reviews from critics with praise for Vijay's performance, plot, cinematography, action sequences, background score, soundtrack and social message, but criticised its screenwriting.

Jeyamohan, the writer of the film, deserves all the credit here for writing dialogues that only Vijay can pull off with that kind of impact and power.

"[47] Sanjith Sidhardhan of The Times of India gave 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "The underlying message, strong performance by Vijay and also nods to several real-life incidents and people make Sarkar a smart and yet a bit stretched out.

"[48] Gauthaman Bhaskaran of News18 gave 1.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "While Sarkar cannot be faulted in direction or mounting with some great action sequences, the plot has been written only for Vijay.

[b][54] This led to numerous protests by AIADMK party cadre at theatres, where the film was screened, and vandalism of the banners of Vijay.

AIADMK accused Sun Pictures, which is owned by Kalanithi Maran, who is the grand nephew of former Chief Minister Late Karunanidhi of DMK of targeting the government.

[58][59][60] After K. Bhagyaraj, the head of the Association, concluded that Sarkar's script was not original, the matter was taken to court, where the judge directed both the parties to come up with an agreement for the scheduled release of the film.