Pudhupettai

Pudhupettai (transl. New Hood) is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language crime action film written and directed by Selvaraghavan starring his brother Dhanush in the lead role, while Sonia Agarwal and Sneha play supporting roles. It follows the story of a slum-dwelling student from Pudhupettai who rises to become a dreaded gangster in North Chennai as a means of survival.

The music was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja with cinematography by Arvind Krishna and editing by Kola Bhaskar. The film released on 26 May 2006. Initially upon release, it had an average opening at the box office. However, it attained cult status in subsequent years.

Plot
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 request. 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, as well as his father, 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 witness intimidation. 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 Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) seat but is ridiculed by everyone, including Thamizhselvan, and ultimately removed after he threatens to kill the other members with an aruval. 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 arrest.

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 Gandhi.

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 mental asylum.

Production
Selvaraghavan originally intended to make a film titled Oru Naal Oru Kanavu for Lakshmi Movie Makers, but shelved the venture and continued working with the same producers and cast as the scrapped film, consisting of Dhanush, Sonia Agarwal and Sneha. R. K. Suresh 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 Aravind Krishna as its cinematographer. Selva first approached Harris Jayaraj for the movie's music, but he refused as it is not his type of genre. After his refusal, Selva finalised Yuvan Shankar Raja 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 Pizza.

After the release of Pattiyal whose theme was the same as Pudhupettai, 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.

Music
Yuvan Shankar Raja and Selvaraghavan renewed their association with this film, who had earlier teamed up to create music for the films Thulluvadho Ilamai (2001), Kaadhal Kondein (2004) and 7G Rainbow Colony (2005). Both the soundtrack and score were composed in Thailand, where Yuvan Shankar Raja worked with the Chao Phraya Symphony Orchestra of Bangkok.

The soundtrack was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja and released on 15 December 2005. The lyrics were written by Na. Muthukumar, who had previously written the lyrics for Selvaraghavan's earlier films.

Critical reception
The film received mixed to positive reviews, although critics pointed out the film's slow pace. A reviewer from Sify 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 The Hindu wrote, "Selvaraghavan dishes out a protracted bloodbath and somehow you feel he has let you down", while the critic at Rediff.com stated that "coming from a director like Selvaraghavan, Puthupettai is unbelievable. He loses grip over the plot and the narration goes haywire". Lajjavathi of Kalki 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.

Box office
Pudhupettai took the best ever opening for a Selvaraghavan film at the time, netting nearly inr 2755000 from five Chennai screens in three days, including inr 980000.0000000001 from Sathyam Cinemas. It went on to have an average run at the box office despite taking a grand opening, with Behindwoods suggesting that excessively violent scenes might have kept family audiences away.

Legacy
Despite its average performance during its initial theatrical release, Pudhupettai attained cult status in subsequent years. 10 years after its release, critic Baradwaj Rangan 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 Vai Raja Vai directed by his then wife Aishwarya, reprising his role of Kokki Kumar. The dialogues "Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru" (You have to work like fire, Kumar) and "Kadavul Irukaan Kumaru" (God is there, Kumar) inspired the 2013 and 2016 films of the same names, respectively. The dialogue "Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru" was also reused by Santhanam in Boss Engira Bhaskaran (2010). In 2024, Selvaraghavan announced a sequel. The song Oru Naalil was re-used by Yuvan Shankar Raja in Star (2024).