Nenjam Marappathillai

<p>Mariam is a selfless orphan raised in a Christian orphanage by nuns. She gets an offer to look after a child in an affluent household in a small village and accepts the offer, so that she can contribute her share of money to the orphanage’s betterment. She reaches the household and finds a little boy, Rishi, and his wealthy parents, Ramsay and Swetha. Ramsay, formerly Ramasamy, was an orphan who started working in the cotton mill of his current father-in-law. He had risen step by step, often through nefarious means, and finally made Swetha, the only heir of the millionaire, fall in love with him using drugs. He married Swetha and currently manages the new cotton mill, albeit his father-in-law still having strict control of the business. Rishi takes an instant liking to Mariam, and her tenderness with the boy contrasts with the coldness she receives from Ramsay and his wife. Along with them live four male servants, including a security guard and the personal assistant/cook. Though uncomfortable in the beginning, Mariam learns to live there due to her financial commitments to the orphanage. Ramsay is smitten by Mariam’s beauty and lusts after her. He tries to misbehave with her on multiple occasions, and Mariam’s attempts to complain to Swetha but it goes in vain. One night, Ramsay cleverly plots a scheme, and sends Swetha out of town for a board meeting, and sexually assaults Mariam along with the male servants. He asks them to kill Mariam and dispose of her body. Soon, Mariam realises that she has come back to the household as a ghost and starts haunting them. Rishi is able to see her, and numerous paranormal activities start happening in the household simultaneously. Out of fear, one of the male servants accidentally blurts out the truth about the murder to Swetha, who is filled with rage. She asks everyone to dispose of the evidences, burn Mariam’s buried body, and keep the incident a secret. As they proceed to do so, each of the servants is killed, one after the other, by Mariam. Left with no option, Swetha herself exhumes and successfully burns Mariam’s body. Mariam’s spirit is destroyed and reaches God. The possesses Swetha instead and kills the cook, who was the last of the servants left, and proceeds towards Ramsay, who puts up a fight. “Swetha” submerges Ramsay and leaves. Seemingly unaffected, Ramsay returns to the house to see “Swetha” and Rishi happily reunited. He runs into “Swetha,” only to realise that he is dead and has become a ghost. In December 2015, reported that would be collaborating with to produce a under his production house Ondraga Entertainment. Composer was signed on, marking his maiden collaboration with Selvaraghavan. Selvaraghavan’s regular collaborator joined as the cinematographer, while editor and art director Vijay Adhinathan were also included. Santhosh was eventually replaced by in April 2016, thus collaborating after a long time with Selvaraghavan. In a 2016 interview with the magazine , in response to speculation that the film was either a ” “, a “straight horror film” or a ” -comedy”, Selvaraghavan refused to confirm or deny what the genre was, but said he sought to invent a new one. However, in a 2021 interview with , he said he had neither seen a horror film nor read a horror novel in his life, but his brother was a fan of the genre; so Selvaraghavan decided to make a horror film without having seen any, laying the foundation for the film that would later be titled . Another motive for making the film was to experiment with a genre he had not tried before. In December 2015, was announced as the lead actor. A month later, and were announced as the lead actresses. According to Selvaraghavan, all three actors were his first choices for their respective roles. He said he cast Suryah to compensate for a project he cast him in but swiftly dropped. During the auditions, Selvaraghavan spoke to Suryah for five minutes, Regina for five minutes and Nandita for two minutes. The film was launched after a simple ceremony held at Menon’s office in , in January 2016, with the title of the film announced as . It was also reported that the film was not a remake of the , but an original script. Selvaraghavan said he did not title the film after the 1963 film, but because he believed he would never forget Yuvan. The film was initially planned to be shot within a single schedule, which was to be completed in March 2016; however principal photography on 30 June 2016. Yuvan Shankar Raja decided to reunite with Selvaraghavan for a film titled , but as the project was eventually shelved, Selvaraghavan decided to choose Yuvan to score the soundtrack for . The film marks Selvaraghavan’s reunion with Yuvan after a hiatus of 8 years since they worked together on their last project (2008). The soundtrack album was released on 24 November 2016. The album features four songs with lyrics written by Selvaraghavan himself. The song “En Pondati Oorukku Poita” is titled after a line spoken by ‘s character in (1988). K. Siddharth of gave 3 out of 5 to the album stating it as a “Powerhouse Soundtrack from Yuvan-Selva!” from noted it was “a wonderfully quirky soundtrack”. In March 2025, an extended OST for the film was released, featuring background scores and additional songs from the film. was initially scheduled to release on 30 June 2017, but was postponed indefinitely due to the introduction of by the Central Government. Also Tamil Nadu state government had not clarified on the application of . While co-producer Siddharth Rao blamed Gautham Menon for the delay in the film’s release, Menon released a press statement in March 2018 saying that he was in no way involved with the film “but for listening to the idea and pointing out the script and the film to escape artiste Madan. I’m not producer, neither am I a shareholder. Madan wanted my name on the posters and the film but I’m not on it anymore. It was my initiative, that’s all it was and that didn’t deserve a name on the poster.” More than a year later, in December 2019, Yuvan Shankar Raja said the film would be releasing soon and unveiled a new poster, although no release date was announced. In December 2020, the makers prompted for a digital release, with the makers held discussions with leading to distribute the film, the following month. On 8 February 2021, it was announced by the makers that the film will release in theatres on 5 March 2021, with Rockfort Entertainment distributing the film. On 2 March, the issued an injunction prohibiting the film’s release until 15 March 2021, saying Escape Artists owed a sum of (US$150,000). Two days later, Suryah announced that the legal issue had been resolved, and the film released as scheduled. It began streaming on from 14 May 2021 onwards. wrote for , ” is far from perfect, but scene for scene, it’s a thrilling portal into the mind of Selvaraghavan.” He concluded, ” —propelled by a grand Yuvan Shankar Raja score that matches the director’s intensity and eccentricity—is the best thing Selvaraghavan has made in ages. Maybe breathing fresh life into stale genre premises is really his thing.” Haricharan Pudipeddi of wrote, “What’s refreshing about is that it is devoid of all the usual stereotypes one could associate with horror movies. We don’t get the usual creaking doors and close up of the ghost on a character’s face. We still get some predictable moments but the way Selva treats them make for an engaging watch.” praised the performances of the lead cast, but criticised the film’s second half and visual effects near the climax. M. Suganth of rated the film 3 out of 5 and called it “a minor return to form for Selvaraghavan, who smartly uses his loud filmmaking style to give us a film that is over the top in a good way.” Manoj Kumar R of also rated it 3 stars out of 5, saying, ” is what a director might find when he goes to the shooting with a vow to not follow the script. Instead, he rolls up his sleeves, and goes to work with his crew, determined to create something more wonderful, and tangible than what his mind imagined in the writer’s room.” While promoting the film in an interview with Baradwaj Rangan, Selvaraghavan was asked whether the character of Ramasamy was an allusion to , whose real name was E. V. Ramasamy. After a long pause, he replied “Yes”. This caused controversy among followers of Periyar as they felt Selvaraghavan was defaming their idol. Selvaraghavan later apologised, saying he acted without properly comprehending the question asked.</p>