Pulikkuthi Pandi

Pulikkuthi Pandi is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action drama television film produced, written and directed by M. Muthaiah. The film stars Lakshmi Menon, Vikram Prabhu and Singampuli, with Samuthrakani, R.K. Suresh, Vela Ramamoorthy and Sujatha Sivakumar in supporting roles. The music for the film is composed by N. R. Raghunanthan. It was released as a television premiere directly in Sun TV on 15 January 2021 coinciding with Pongal and Vikram Prabhu's birthday. This film marked Lakshmi Menon's comeback film after 4 years hiatus from acting.

Plot
Twenty-five years earlier, after a rowdy woman threatened to behead Sannasi Thevar, his son, Saravedi Thevar, told his father he would behead her. Saravedi Thevar goes to the market and beheads her, staining his face in blood.

Pulikuthi Pandi is a rogue with nearly 20 petty cases registered against him at a police station after getting into fights. However, there is a fair reason behind his brawls: the people he beat up did immoral things to people, especially Inspector Karungali, who instructed Pandi to break a journalist's hand who wrote wrong things. Pandi instead breaks the officer's hand. At the court, he comes along with an elder, arrested for stabbing a guy called Sarattai. He meets the man's daughter, Pechi, and falls in love with her. Pechi's father tells Pandi that he has two sons who gamble, drink, and steal Pechi's hard-earned money and eventually sign a loan in a drunken state to Sarattai. Sarattai shames Pechi and his family before prospective families, so Pechi's father stabs him. Pandi bails Pechi's father, and the police officer bails Pandi after Pandi threatens to release a recorded video. When Pechi's father leaves the court, he gets scared that Sarattai will stab him, but Pandi reveals that he stabbed Sarattai in the backside. Pandi also bails out Pechi's brothers. Pandi and his friends visit Pechi's family and ask for Pechi's hand in marriage. Pechi's sisters-in-law reveal he helped them pay a loan even though they did not know each other, so he has a good character, so you should marry him. Pechi's father narrates that he is the reason behind his parents' death.

In a flashback from nearly 20 years ago, Pandi's father, Karumbalai Pandi, is a travelling comrade singer. Pechi's father clicks a photo with his family, Karumbalai Pandi and a young Pulikuthi Pandi. After seeing Pechi's father in a field with a bull and his wife sowing the field, Karumbalai Pandi gives his two cows to sow his field. After an issue arises over Pechi's father's loan, two men accidentally kill each other. Inspector Dhananchezhiyan threatens Pechi's father to confess that Karumbalai murdered the two guys, leading to Karumbalai's wife dying in shock. The judge sentences Pandi's father to hang by capital punishment. Pechi's father tells her to marry him to solve his repentance.

Pechi tells her friends that she will always marry him. One day, she sees Pechi running from goons chasing her. Pandi fights them, and Inspector Karungali tells him he beat up the men of Sannasi Thevar, a dangerous loan shark. He has four sons. Sarattai owed money to Sannasi Thevar, so Sannasi's men took Pechi's father to Sannasi's house to settle Sarattai's loan. After Sannasi Thevar instructs Pechi that she should marry his son, Saravedi, she disagrees. After not paying the money, Sannasi Thevar's goons chase Pechi. To settle the problem, he signs off on one of his family's twin houses.

The new inspector of the village, Inspector Ramanathan, meets with Pulikuthi Pandi and Pechi at the station and forgives him. Saravedi beats up Sarattai after he complains to the police. Saravedi beats up Pandi, and Pandi beats up his men, but he does not beat up Saravedi because of Pechi's words that he should not get into fights. Eventually, Pechi and Pulikuthi Pandi get married. Sannasi Thevar and his family move in next door to Pandi's house. They cause constant problems for Pandi's family. One day, Pandi helps his wife's nephews pay their school fees. After Sannasi Thevar disagrees with leaving his house, they decide to leave for their house. When Sannasi Thevar goes to Pechi's house in a drunk state, Pechi beats him up, and Pandi beats up Sannasi's goons when they attack Pechi and tie up Sannasi. Sannasi gets arrested, and Pandi withdraws the case by mutual agreement. Sannasi asks Pandi to fall at his feet as a sign of forgiveness, but Saravedi beheads him and gets arrested.

Everyone is upset at Pandi's death. Pechi refuses to remove her thali at Pandi's funeral unless Sannasi and his sons die. Firstly, Pechi stabs and kills Sannasi at a temple festival and then eliminates his sons, with Pechi beheading Saravedi brutally.

Production
The film was announced in September 2020 and the makers began production in the same month amid COVID-19 pandemic. Sun TV Network produced the film with a limited budget. The filmmakers initially titled the film as Pechi and began the principal photography, but was later changed to Pulikkuthi Pandi. The film project marked the second collaboration between Vikram Prabhu and Lakshmi Menon after Kumki (2012). It also marked the first film project for Menon in four years after her last film Rekka (2016). Most of the portions of the film were predominantly shot in Madurai and Dindigul.

The shooting of the film completed during November 2020 at a time when Government of Tamil Nadu permitted theatres to open for public for the first time post COVID-19. The first look poster of the film was unveiled on 30 December 2020.

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack and score was composed by N. R. Raghunanthan. The album features six tracks with lyrics written by Mohan Rajan, Mani Amudhavan and Araikudi Bharathi Ganesan. It was released on 9 January 2021, six days before the film's release.

Release
The filmmakers initially planned it for Christmas release on 25 December 2020 but was postponed due delays in post-production. The filmmakers again insisted that the film would be released initially in theatres on 1 January 2021 coinciding with the New Year which also taunted to be the first Tamil film release of 2021 but the theatrical release was cancelled in the last minute due to delays in post-production of the film. The film release was later finalised as a direct television premiere via Sun TV on 15 January 2021 as a Pongal release and subsequently the film would be streamed via digital platform Sun NXT. It became the second film to directly premiere via Sun TV after Naanga Romba Busy (2020).

Critics
Avinash Ramachandran of Cinema Express rated the film 3 stars out of 5 stars and said, "proverbial climactic twist saves this generic film". The Times of India rated 2.5 out of 5 stars and said, "The action scenes in the latter half (though violent), cinematography and performances lift the film to a good extent till the climax. All the artists pull off their roles with ease – while Lakshmi Menon, Vela Ramamoorthy and RK Suresh stand out." Baradwaj Rangan wrote for Film Companion, "Muthaiah has a good head for plot, but his screenwriting – the way he fleshes out these plot points – is like what you’d find in a TV serial...there’s no flavour in the lines. There’s no life in the performances."

Ratings
The film which had a direct TV premiere on Sun TV garnered a viewership of 13.284 million impressions and a rating of 17.05 TVR becoming the most watched Tamil television program in that week.