Pudhupettai

<p>A man is shown, inside a jail cell, shouting, that he’s scared and that nobody’s there. He introduces himself as Kokki Kumar. Kumar continues to tell his story as he’s shown talking alone inside the cell. Kumar is a secondary school student living in the slums of Pudhupettai. After coming home from the cinema theatre one day, he sees his mother’s dead body. She was killed by his father, following an argument. After overhearing a conversation between his father and his friend that they plan on killing him too, as he is a witness, Kumar flees from home. Homeless, he resorts to begging, and is arrested under false charges. After being released on bail, he befriends Mani, who works for a gangster named Anbu, who in turn works for the opposition party’s leader Thamizhselvan, who is also a criminal. They take Kumar under their wing and give him petty jobs. During a confrontation with rival gangsters led by the ruling party’s politician Murthy, Kumar kills Murthy’s brother single-handedly amidst 100 goons, earning the respect of his gang. Anbu makes him join a gang consisting of professional killers. There, Kumar learns the way of being a killer while surviving attacks from Murthy’s men. The gang refuses to help Kumar avoid Murthy’s men since their intervention would spark a gang war. Kumar murders several of his opponents singlehandedly, earning respect from the others. Krishnaveni is a prostitute who works under Anbu. Kumar likes her and asks Anbu to release her. Anbu is shocked at Kumar’s audacity and refuses his requ- He thrashes Krishnaveni and orders his men to kill Kumar. Kumar approaches Anbu and begs to be pardoned, but when Anbu refuses, Kumar kills him. Thamizhselvan allows Kumar to take over Anbu’s business only if he can survive the night from Anbu’s men, which he does. After killing his opposition, he lures his father into an emotional trap, by telling him that he will give him money and shelter. Kumar’s father agrees and they take him to a place where there is an empty grave dug out for him on Kumar’s orders. Kumar enacts revenge on his father by burying him alive using his men, for killing his mother brutally. Kumar becomes a feared don in North Chennai. Murthy is paralyzed by Kumar’s men for refusing a truce. Kumar then meets Mani’s sister Selvi and marries her forcibly on the eve of her wedding. Mani tries to kill Kumar unsuccessfully then joins Murthy’s gang. Meanwhile, Krishnaveni reveals that she is pregnant with Kumar’s child, and Kumar marries her as well. Mani becomes an informant and testifies in court over Kumar’s killings; Kumar threatens Selvi and her mother and thus avoids charges through . Kumar is then given a post in the party by Thamizhselvan to prevent him from defecting. Due to his increasing crime record and fear of being killed, Kumar asks for (MLA) seat but is ridiculed by everyone, including Thamizhselvan, and ultimately removed after he threatens to kill the other members. Murthy learns about this and plans to assassinate Kumar and his family. Fearing for their safety, Kumar sends Krishnaveni and their newborn son away, but Murthy’s men intercept them, kill her, and take the baby. He requests Selvi to ask Mani for help, but she refuses and reveals her displeasure at how Kumar ruined her life and that she plans to return to her former fiancé. Mani is compassionate enough to return the baby safely to Kumar, and is hung to death by Murthy in return. Kumar then gives the baby to a kindhearted woman without revealing himself as the father of the child. The woman is married with two children and earns her living by working as a housemaid. Kumar decides to exact revenge and kills Murthy’s henchmen in his residence, but his right hand is crippled during a fight. Murthy ultimately commits suicide, which is then followed by Kumar’s arr- In the present day, the police and prison warden come to retrieve Kumar from his cell, with Kumar under the impression that he is to be hanged. However, during the epilogue, it is revealed that the incumbent Chief Minister arranged Kumar’s release and named him as an MLA candidate in the following election. Kumar praises Murthy and ironically states that he would have killed the people responsible for Murthy’s death had India not been the birthplace of . In the epilogue, it is revealed that Kumar served three times as an MLA and twice as the Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu. Despite his political growth, he still could not find his son. Thamizhselvan retired from politics and has settled abroad with his daughter and grandchildren. Selvi had married her former fiance, who went missing two months later, and then she had been committed to a . Selvaraghavan originally intended to make a film titled for Lakshmi Movie Makers, but shelved the venture and continued working with the same producers and cast as the scrapped film, consisting of , and . was cast in a minor role as a criminal, but his father made him back out of the film. The film was launched on 6 March 2005, with as its cinematographer. Selva first approached for the movie’s music, but he refused as it is not his type of genre. After his refusal, Selva finalised as the composer. Selvaraghavan called the film “an experiment” and stated it had “one of the most complicated screenplays”, while revealing he was more nervous about the final product than his previous ventures. It was also the first Tamil film to be shot in Super 35 mm instead of the Cinemascope format, as well as the first to be released in digital format. This film marked the first major appearance of actor Vijay Sethupathi, prior to his role in . After the release of whose theme was the same as , Selvaraghavan wanted to redo many of the scenes to avoid unintended comparisons, resulting in the film’s release being delayed. The re-recording was done in Bangkok, with everyone involved working overtime. and renewed their association with this film, who had earlier teamed up to create music for the films (2001), (2004) and (2005). Both the soundtrack and score were composed in , where Yuvan Shankar Raja worked with the Chao Phraya Symphony Orchestra of . The soundtrack was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja and released on 15 December 2005. The lyrics were written by , who had previously written the lyrics for Selvaraghavan’s earlier films.The album received critical acclaim towards listeners. The film received mixed reviews, although critics pointed out the film’s slow pace. A reviewer from said it was “heartbreakingly disappointing and is nowhere in the league of his earlier films”, and that it “doesn’t unfold quickly and moves at snail pace (sic), puffs and pants with too many characters, subplots and (is) quite long for a gangster genre film”. A reviewer from wrote, “Selvaraghavan dishes out a protracted bloodbath and somehow you feel he has let you down”, while the critic at stated that “coming from a director like Selvaraghavan, Puthupettai is unbelievable. He loses grip over the plot and the narration goes haywire”. Lajjavathi of praised Balakumaran’s short dialogues, Kola Bhaskar’s sharp editing, Aravind Krishna’s cinematography adding new dimension to the film while also praising Yuvan’s music as new experience but felt his score resembled western cinema which was minus and felt Dhanush’s physique was unsuitable for gangster’s role and called scenes of Sonia Agarwal as forced and concluded saying it is true that Selvaraghavan wants to move Tamil cinema to foreign films but for that, ‘making’ alone is not enough. took the best ever opening for a Selvaraghavan film at the time, netting nearly (US$33,000) from five Chennai screens in three days, including (US$12,000) from . It went on to have an average run at the box office despite taking a grand opening, with suggesting that excessively violent scenes might have kept family audiences away. Despite its average performance during its initial theatrical release, attained cult status in subsequent years. 10 years after its release, critic retrospectively praised the film, stating that “Ten years on, we still haven’t seen another film so unapologetic about the truth that crime does pay.” Dhanush made a cameo appearance in the 2015 film directed by his then wife , reprising his role of Kokki Kumar. The dialogue “Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru” was also reused by in (2010). The dialogues “Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru” (You have to work like fire, Kumar) and “Kadavul Irukaan Kumaru” (God is there, Kumar) inspired the and of the same names, respectively. In 2024, Selvaraghavan announced a sequel. The song “Oru Naalil” was re-used by Yuvan in (2024).</p>