Pulikkuthi Pandi

Pulikkuthi Pandi is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action drama television film produced, written and directed by M. Muthaiah. The film stars Vikram Prabhu, Lakshmi Menon 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 via Sun TV on 15 January 2021 coinciding with Pongal and the birthday of Vikram Prabhu.[1][2] This film received mixed to positive reviews from audience as well as critics. Lakshmi Menon received particular praise for her performance and role by the audience.

Not to be confused with Kutti Puli.

Pulikkuthi Pandi
Promotional poster
Written byM. Muthaiah
Directed byM. Muthaiah
Starring
Music byN. R. Raghunanthan
Country of originIndia
Original languageTamil
Production
ProducersKalanithi Maran
M. Muthaiah
CinematographyR. Velraj
EditorVenkat Rajen
Running time145 minutes
Production companiesM studios
Sun Entertainment
DistributorSun TV
Sun NXT
Release
Original releaseJanuary 15, 2021 (2021-01-15)

Plot

2000- Sannasi thevar starts to give short-term loans to traders in a town market. The lady who has the lease of the market feels that her loaning business is threatened, and warns Sannasi to stop coming into her territory. The next day Sannasi's youngest son Saravedi pandiyan, aged 17, murders the lady in open market. This paves way for Sannasi to develop unchecked. 2019- Pulikkuthi Pandi (Vikram Prabhu) is a young landowner who is not afraid to question authority and injustice in his village. During one of his arrests, he meets Seeni Servai who is arrested by the police for stabbing a con artist. The con artist had cheated Seeni's sons, who are both alcoholic gamblers. Pandi meets the daughter, Pechi (Lakshmi Menon) and immediately falls in love with her. Once they are released from police custody, Pandi goes to Seeni's house to ask for Pechi's hand in marriage. Pechi is initially uninterested because of Pandi's rowdy ways.

However, Seeni reveals that he is responsible for Pandi growing up as an orphan. Years ago when Pandi and Pechi were still children, Pandi's father, Karumbalai Pandi (Samuthirakani) was a renowned social activist. Pandi Sr. saved Seeni's life when the former was being threatened by a local gangster. In the ensuing fight, the gangster was stabbed to death by one of his own men. Seeing this as a chance to put an end to Pandi Sr. activism, a corrupt police inspector (G. Marimuthu) arrests him and frame him for the gangster's murder. The police force Seeni to give false testimony at the trial in court. Pandi Jr. mother (Sujatha Sivakumar) dies in shock when he husband is sentenced to death while Pandi Sr. dies by hanging. Pandi Jr. is then raised by his bumbling uncle (Singampuli). Pandi works hard to fight injustice like his activist father, but because he is short-tempered, the villagers often misunderstand his intentions.

After finding out the truth, Pechi goes to meet Pandi and tells him the only way he can marry her if he changes his rowdy ways. Pandi decides to get a proper job, but instead finds that the only job that the villagers are willing to hire him for are the ones that involve violence. Disappointed at how people see him, Pandi tells his best friend (KPY Dheena) that he vows to never take up violence again. At that very moment, he is forced to get violent when he has to save Pechi from a group of thugs.

Pandi then learns that the thugs were hired by Sannasi Thevar (Vela Ramamoorthy), an underworld crime lord in the neighbouring town of Sivagangai who had loaned Seeni a huge sum of money. Unable to repay their debt, Seeni and his family are continuously harassed by Thevar and his men. Nobody dares question Thevar because his eldest son (Aruldoss) is the local deputy superintendent of police, his middle son is a powerful public prosecutor, and his third son is the district leader of the ruling party. However, it is his youngest son, Saravedi (R. K. Suresh) whom the whole town fears as he is a skilled fighter who is ready to slaughter anyone who dares go against his family.

Pandi goes to meet Thevar and sells off one of his two adjacent ancestral mansions to the crime lord in order to pay off Seeni's debts. Now debt free, Seeni is married off Pechi to Pandi. Unknown to them, Thevar had initially planned to blackmail Seeni into marrying off Pechi to Saravedi to pay off his debts. Upset that his plan had failed, Thevar arranges for his mistress, Chittu (Meenal) to live in the rental house next to Pandi and Seeni's new home. During this time, Thevar sees one of Pechi's sister-in-laws leaving Pandi's house and becomes aroused. Knowing that Pechi's brothers have debts all around town, Chittu approaches the sister-in-law to convince her to become Thevar's second mistress. The sister-in-law and pechi humiliate Chittu publicly for her indecent proposal, and the mistress vows to take revenge.

Chittu poisons Thevar's mind into further agitating Pandi's family. Fearing backlash, Pandi and Pechu decide to move to another house in the village. However, before the move can happen, Thevar comes to visit Chittu one night drunk and enters Pechi's house by mistake and tries to misbehave with her. With Pandi's help, she beats him and kicks him out. As it so happens, a new police inspector Ramanathan(Aadukalam Naren), who is a former Serviceman, has been posted to their area and is eager to put the sannasi family behind bars to restore peace to the small town. He uses this attempted rape case as a reason to arrest Thevar.

Fearing that all their past crimes will return to haunt them, the extended Thevar family decide to broker peace with Pandi and have him revoke the case against their patriarch. They agree to return Pandi's ancestral mansion to him if he agrees to revoke the case and give half of his sugar cane field. Sannasi is then released. The following day, both the Thevar and Pandi families meet at the district registration office. Once the necessary documents are signed, Pandi apologizes to Thevar, who state he will only forgive Pandi if Pandi bows down at his feet. Pandi does as requested, in which time Saravedi beheads him. Saravedi then walks through the village with Pandi's head before surrendering at the police station.

Later that night, the extended Thevar family are at the local temple festival to celebrate his freedom while his three older sons are accompanying Saravedi at the police station. Suddenly, a bomb goes off and everyone runs for cover. During the ensuing freenzy, Pechi, her family and Pandi's friends kill Thevar and all the men that have accompanied him. Upon hearing this, Thevar's sons realize they are now all alone and his eldest son request a backup police force to capture Pechi. While traveling to the border of the village, he is cornered by Pechu and her companions who proceed to kill him. His two other brothers who come to help are also cornered and killed.

Realizing that Saravedi's life is now in danger, the inspector arranges for him to be transported to a safe house. Despite this, Pechi learns about this and ambushes the police van he is in. Saravedi manages to set himself free before he is attacked. Pechi and her family are no match for the strong and skilled Saravedi. However, he is eventually outnumbered and Pechi kills him with her own hands. She and her companions then clean up the crime scene and return home as if nothing ever happened.

Back at home, we see Pechi praying to a photo of Pandi as she permanently removes her Mangala sutra.

Cast

Production

The making regarding the film was announced in September 2020 and the production of the film held 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.[3] The filmmakers later changed the film title as Pulikkuthi Pandi.[4] The film project marked the second collaboration between Vikram Prabhu and Lakshmi Menon after Kumki (2012).[5] It also marked the first film project for actress Lakshmi Menon in four years after Rekka (2016). Most of the portions of the film were predominantly shot in Madurai and Dindigul.[6]

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 era. The first look poster of the film was unveiled on 30 December 2020.[6][7][8]

Soundtrack
Pulikkuthi Pandi
Soundtrack album by
N. R. Raghunanthan
Released2021
Recorded2021
GenreFeature film soundtrack
LanguageTamil
LabelSun
ProducerN. R. Raghunanthan
N. R. Raghunanthan chronology
Utraan
(2020)		 Pulikkuthi Pandi
(2021)		 Pirandhal Parasakthi
(2021)

Soundtrack was composed by N. R. Raghunanthan.[9]

Track list
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Gothavula"Mohan RajMahalingam 
2."Yammadiyamma"Mohan RajJagadeesh Kumar 
3."Venaam Madhu Pazhakkam"Araikudi Bharathi GanesanMahalingam 
4."Sollamathan"Mohan RajSrinisha 
5."Alangalankuruvi"Mani AmudhanVandana Srinivasan, Lijesh Kumar 
6."Alam Uzhuthupotten"Araikudi Bharathi GanesanMahalingam 
Total length:24:15

Release

The filmmakers initially planned it for Christmas release on 25 December 2020 but the release was postponed due to 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.[10] The film release was later finalised as a direct television premiere via Sun TV on 14 January 2020 as a Pongal release and subsequently the film would be streamed via digital platform Sun NXT.[11][1] It became the second film to directly premiere via Sun TV after Naanga Romba Busy (2020).[11]

Reception

Critics

Avinash Ramachandran of Cinema Express rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and said, "proverbial climactic twist saves this generic film".[12] 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."[13]

Several audience praised Lakshmi Menon for her bold performance in the climax.

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.[14]

References
  1. "பொங்கலன்று வெளியாகும் தமிழ் திரைப்படங்கள்!". Dinamani (in Tamil). 7 January 2021. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  2. "தியேட்டருக்கு பதில் டி.வி.யில் வெளியாகும் விக்ரம் பிரபு படம்" [Vikram Prabhu's film will release on TV instead of theatres]. Maalaimalar (in Tamil). 1 January 2021. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  3. "Vikram Prabhu and Lakshmi Menon's film titled Pechi". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  4. "விக்ரம் பிரபு படத்தில் திடீர் மாற்றம்". maalaimalar.com (in Tamil). 24 December 2020. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  5. "Vikram Prabhu and Lakshmi Menon to star in Muthaiah's 'Pechi'". The News Minute. 26 September 2020. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  6. 100010509524078 (31 December 2020). "மாஸ் லுக்கில் விக்ரம் பிரபு.... வைரலாகும் 'புலிக்குத்தி பாண்டி' பர்ஸ்ட் லுக்". maalaimalar.com (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. "'புலிக்குத்தி பாண்டி' ஃபர்ஸ்ட் லுக் வெளியீடு". Hindu Tamil Thisai (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  8. "விக்ரம் பிரபு - லட்சுமி மேனனின் 'புலிக்குத்தி பாண்டி' ஃபர்ஸ்ட் லுக் ரிலீஸ்". News18 Tamil. 31 December 2020. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  9. Sun TV (13 January 2021). "Pulikkuthi Pandi - Official Audio Jukebox | Vikram Prabhu | N.R.Raghunanthan | Sun Entertainment". YouTube. Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  10. "Vikram Prabhu's 'Puli Kutty Pandi' to be the first release of 2021". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  11. "Vikram Prabhu-Muthaiah film premiere on Sun NXT and Sun TV for Pongal!". Sify. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  12. Ramachandran, Avinash (17 January 2021). "Pulikuthi Pandi Movie Review: Proverbial climactic twist saves this generic film". Cinema Express. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  13. Menon, Thinkal (20 January 2021). "PULIKKUTHI PANDI REVIEW : PULIKKUTHI PANDI". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021.
  14. "டி.ஆர்.பி-யில் தெறிக்க விட்ட 'புலிக்குத்தி பாண்டி'!". CNN News18. 22 January 2021. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
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