''Chithiram Pesuthadi'' () is a 2006 Indian
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
-language
romantic action drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...
written and directed by
Mysskin
Shanmugha Raja, known professionally as Mysskin, is an Tamil film director, screenwriter, actor, singer, and producer.
He made his directorial debut in 2006 with ''Chithiram Pesuthadi''. His subsequent films ''Anjathe'' (2008), ''Nandalala'' ( ...
in his directorial debut. The film stars
Narain
Narayana (Also rendered Narayane, Narayanan, Narain, Narayankar or Narine) (from Sanskrit नारायण, ''nārāyaṇá'', literally "eternal man") is an Indian name. It is identical in form to the name of the deity Narayana, another name ...
and
Bhavana
''Bhāvanā'' (Pali;Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 503, entry for "Bhāvanā," retrieved 9 December 2008 from "U. Chicago" a Sanskrit: भावना, also ''bhāvanā''Monier-Williams (1899), p. 755, see "Bhāvana" and "Bhāvanā", retriev ...
, both making their debuts in Tamil cinema,. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by
Sundar C Babu Sundar (Devanagari: सुन्दर) is an adjective signifying attractive, beautiful, good, handsome or nice. It has its origin in Sanskrit language. The word is also used as names of people by speakers of languages branching off of Indo-Aryan l ...
with cinematography by
Mahesh Muthuswami
Mahesh Muthuswami is an Indian cinematographer working in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films.
Filmography
Career
Upon his graduation from Film and Television Institute of India , Pune, he started working with legendary cinematographer P. C. S ...
and editing by M. Kasi Viswanathan. Produced by Dreambridge Productions on a budget of 1.20 crores, the film faced publicity issues but later released in Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu. The movie became a massive hit of that year.
The film was later remade to
Telugu
Telugu may refer to:
* Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India
*Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India
* Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language
** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode
S ...
as ''
Raju Bhai
''Raju Bhai'' is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language drama film directed by Surya Kiran, starring Manoj Manchu and Sheela Kaur, with Dhandapani, Tanikella Bharani and Brahmanandam in supporting roles. The film, a remake of the successful 2006 Tamil f ...
'', in Kannada as ''
Kichha Huchha'' and in Oriya as ''Abhimanyu''.
Plot
Thirunavukarasu, aka Thiru (
Narain
Narayana (Also rendered Narayane, Narayanan, Narain, Narayankar or Narine) (from Sanskrit नारायण, ''nārāyaṇá'', literally "eternal man") is an Indian name. It is identical in form to the name of the deity Narayana, another name ...
), a fearless karate fighter, saves the son of a local don from being killed by members of a rival gang. In return, the don Annachi (
Dhandapani
Kadhal Dhandapani (17 April 1943 – 20 July 2014) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. He rose to fame portraying the antagonist in Balaji Sakthivel's ''Kaadhal'' (2004), and is credited with the film's name as ...
) hires Thiru as his henchman. Thiru's mother (
Sathyapriya
Sathyapriya is an Indian actress. She has acted in over 350 films, and played the heroine in a few of them. She made her debut in ''Manjal Mugame Varuga'' opposite Vijayakumar in Tamil. Her notable films include ''Besuge'', ''Dharmasere'', ''H ...
) and younger sister dislike his association with the gang but have to live with his decision.
One day, Thiru stumbles upon Charumathi, aka Charu (
Bhavana
''Bhāvanā'' (Pali;Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 503, entry for "Bhāvanā," retrieved 9 December 2008 from "U. Chicago" a Sanskrit: भावना, also ''bhāvanā''Monier-Williams (1899), p. 755, see "Bhāvana" and "Bhāvanā", retriev ...
), a worker at an NGO who fights injustice. A quarrel ensues between them, and they grow to dislike each other. Nobody has spoken up to Thiru before, and he admires Charu's courage. Whenever they bump into one another, Charu berates Thiru for being a gangster. Ashamed, Thiru and a few of the gangsters try to turn over a new leaf by selling toys at a sidewalk.
Charu is impressed by Thiru's changed personality and decides to marry him. Her father (Raviprakash) gives her his blessings, though her uncle (
Mahadevan) does not approve. However, her hopes are shattered after she witnessed a naked Thiru being clumped away in a police truck from a brothel after a raid. She gives up her plans of being with him and blames her father for not raising her well enough to make the right decision. Later that day, her father commits suicide. Charu blames Thiru for ruining her life and causing her father's death. Thiru and his friends return to Annachi.
Charu's uncle arranges for her to be married to his own relative. However, Annachi's son sees Charu during her engagement and falls in love with her. Annachi threatens Charu's uncle to surrender his niece to him. After learning that Thiru is part of Annachi's gang, Charu goes to confront him. Thiru's friends reveal that he was only at the brothel that day to save his friend's family, who lives there. Instead, he sees Charu's father there, who was in the company of prostitutes. In order to give time for Charu's father to flee the area, Thiru creates a distraction by attacking the police officers. They beat him up and tear him off his clothes while trying to arrest him. Charu realizes her mistake and asks Thiru's friends to take her to him.
Meanwhile, Thiru has devised his own plans in an attempt to thwart Annachi's plans and save Charu. He has arranged for his friends to bring Charu and her fiancé separately to the registrar's office to get them married. However, Annachi shows up and orders his men to attack Thiru. When Charu arrives at the scene, she is overwhelmed to see that Thiru has been stabbed and is fighting for his life. Only then does Annachi realize that she and Thiru are in love. He stops the attack and lets Thiru's friends rush him to the hospital. Thiru is saved, and Annachi agrees to let him go. He marries Charu, and they live happily ever after.
Cast
*
Narain
Narayana (Also rendered Narayane, Narayanan, Narain, Narayankar or Narine) (from Sanskrit नारायण, ''nārāyaṇá'', literally "eternal man") is an Indian name. It is identical in form to the name of the deity Narayana, another name ...
as Thirunavukarasu
*
Bhavana
''Bhāvanā'' (Pali;Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 503, entry for "Bhāvanā," retrieved 9 December 2008 from "U. Chicago" a Sanskrit: भावना, also ''bhāvanā''Monier-Williams (1899), p. 755, see "Bhāvana" and "Bhāvanā", retriev ...
as Charumathi
*
Dhandapani
Kadhal Dhandapani (17 April 1943 – 20 July 2014) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. He rose to fame portraying the antagonist in Balaji Sakthivel's ''Kaadhal'' (2004), and is credited with the film's name as ...
as Annachi
*
Delhi Ganesh
Delhi Ganesh is an Indian actor who mostly acts in supporting roles in Tamil cinema and serials. He has acted in more than 400 films from 1976 to present. Before films, he was a member of the Delhi-based theatre troupe, ''Dakshina Bharata Natak ...
as Prakash
* Raviprakash as Charu's father
*
Mahadevan as Charu's uncle
*
Sathyapriya
Sathyapriya is an Indian actress. She has acted in over 350 films, and played the heroine in a few of them. She made her debut in ''Manjal Mugame Varuga'' opposite Vijayakumar in Tamil. Her notable films include ''Besuge'', ''Dharmasere'', ''H ...
as Thiru's mother
* Vasantha Narayan
* Gana Ulaganathan
*
Malavika in a special appearance
Inspiration
Mysskin
Shanmugha Raja, known professionally as Mysskin, is an Tamil film director, screenwriter, actor, singer, and producer.
He made his directorial debut in 2006 with ''Chithiram Pesuthadi''. His subsequent films ''Anjathe'' (2008), ''Nandalala'' ( ...
expressed at a book release that he himself got to realize that this movie is an accidental inspiration of ''
Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...
'' while the shooting was progressing. He questioned the critics why they failed to criticize about this accidental inspiration, whereas they criticized ''
Nandalala
''Nandalala'' is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language independent drama film written and directed by Mysskin. He himself plays the lead role, alongside newcomer Ashwath Ram and Snigdha Akolkar. The film, which is produced by Ayngaran International and fe ...
'', his other movie to be a copy of ''
Kikujiro
''Kikujiro'' () is a 1999 Japanese road drama film starring, written, and directed by Takeshi Kitano. Its score was composed by Joe Hisaishi. The film was entered into the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.
''Kikujiro'' tells the story of a young boy sea ...
''. He expressed this was irrelevant to the book release.
Soundtrack
The film's score and soundtrack were composed by
Sundar C Babu Sundar (Devanagari: सुन्दर) is an adjective signifying attractive, beautiful, good, handsome or nice. It has its origin in Sanskrit language. The word is also used as names of people by speakers of languages branching off of Indo-Aryan l ...
, who made his debut in film scoring through this film. The album features 12 tracks overall, including four instrumental tracks. The lyrics were penned by Kabilan and director Mysskin himself, while Gana Ulaganathan had written and sung the song "Vazha Meenu", which is considered as having contributed immensely to the film's success.
Release
Released by Dreambride Productions on 10 February 2006, the film initially failed to attract an audience due to a low-profile release and a lack of publicity.
It was removed from almost all theaters within two weeks after its release. SUN Networks helped promote the song ''Vaazha Meenu'' by repeated airings on its channels, making the song a cult hit. In the meantime, the movie generated a word of mouth publicity combined with excellent press reviews. Taking the cue, Dreambridge initiated the process to re-release in the Chennai area first. The re-release witnessed a tremendous opening which invoked the interest of Aascar Ravichandran, who distributed the film to the rest of Tamil Nadu. The re-release of the film was well received by the audience, which resulted in a stupendous hit.
Accolades
Sequel
A standalone sequel named ''
Chithiram Pesuthadi 2'' was released in 2019 by the same production company.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
2006 films
Tamil films remade in other languages
Films directed by Mysskin
2000s Tamil-language films
Indian action drama films
Films scored by Sundar C. Babu
2006 directorial debut films
2006 action drama films
2006 romantic drama films