An innocent man turned to crime because of inevitable circumstances; gangster fights; gangster ego clashes; some primitive form of love that no character seems to be able to understand; gangsters in politics - Pudhupettai has all the tropes of a gangster movie, but then it turns into an unrecognisable monster, just like the main character.
It is really rare to see a negative character as a lead in Kollywood. Mostly the heroes will have a good reason for killing or being a gangster, ironically. Pudhupettai is a rare exception.
Pudhupettai was released in 2006 and was not well received by the audience at that time (typical Selvaraghavan), starring Dhanush in the lead role. This movie “made” Dhanush, keeping up with the gangster lingo.
Movie is about a guy named Kumar, - Kokki Kumaru. We really can't say that the movie had a story, but it is about the character development of Kokki Kumaru at different stages of his life, as he experiences different things. Great movies and books are not about stories, but about the characters. The movie starts with Kokki Kumaru in prison as he starts to narrate his own story, in a psychotic way, like a rant from a mental breakdown. This opening sequence clearly sets the scene for a psychological drama, more than a gangster action movie.
Kokki Kumaru turns out to be one of the best written characters of all time. As mentioned earlier it is really rare to see a lead role of a movie to be a negative character but Selvaraghavan delivered a masterpiece with not just a negative character, but a very disturbing and complex character as the lead. Pudhupettai is a prime example of why the lead role doesn’t have to be a saint to make a good movie.
As the opening sequence hinted, Pudhupettai feels more like a psychological gangster film than a normal generic gangster movie. Kokki Kumaru starts out as an innocent schoolboy. Thanks to Dhanush’s impeccable performance we can clearly feel how Kokki Kumar slowly falls into the dark side. At first the audience can almost sympathize with him, as all he wants is to feel more powerful than the schoolboy who couldn’t save his mother. But when we see humanity slowly leave him, as he starts to enjoy that power, he becomes a completely evil character to watch.
The main reason we see the lack of morality in Kokki Kumar’s character is because he doesn’t love anyone. Because he never experienced love in his childhood and simply does not know what it is or how it feels. He doesn’t love his friends, or his wives - spoiler alert, there are two. The first time he feels something close to love is with his son, and even then, he is immediately scared by that love and the vulnerability that love always brings with it.
Kokki Kumaru is a villain who doesn’t know what love is, when he starts loving someone and almost lost that person, he understands that life is not about money, sex, power. He realizes life is much more than that and he failed in that aspect. But then does he change and become a good and loving guy? No. He lets go of that vulnerability and keeps being a bad guy because that is what he wants and that’s the only way he knows how to live at this point. That is where Selvaragavan really goes off the trope.
Selvaraghavan made us love a character so much who is almost purely evil and a despicable character.
Sonia Agarwal as Selvi, Sneha as Veni, Azhagam Perumal as Tamilselvan, Bala Singh as Anbu, Prudhuvi raj as Moorthy - all did their parts really great but Dhanush’s performance - which might be his career best - overshadows them all. In the final scene when he talks to a woman who picks up a kid from a dumpster, we can really see and almost feel what Kokki Kumaru is going through. Throughout the movie we see Dhanush’s character having mental breakdowns, having to make hard decisions, having to be cruel without choice and learning to enjoy it, doing things that no decent human being would do. But that last scene drives it through the heart.
Yuvan. He did a wonderful job in this movie, with every single song hitting the mark. Yuvan added so much to this movie. He is one of the big reasons this movie is a masterpiece. Along with Na. Muthukumar’s lyrics, they made one of the best songs in the Tamil film music industry. This melancholic but oddly motivating song is a true spirit of what we learn from Pudhupettai - how not to be Kokki Kumaru.
"போர் களத்தில் பிறந்து விட்டோம் வந்தவை போனவை வருத்தம் இல்லை
காட்டினிலே வாழ்கின்றோம் முட்களின் வலி ஒன்றும் மரணம் இல்லை"
These lyrics perfectly capture the story, the setting, the characters, and most importantly, what the audience feels while watching this movie.
Cinematography is unique and great as always for Selvaraghavan’s movies. There is not really much to say about Selvaraghavan’s direction other than he delivered a masterpiece.
And it really is a masterpiece. But the truth is, Pudhupettai is not a movie for everyone. If you wanna grab some popcorn and sit for a Saturday movie night with family, this is not the movie for you. If you want to have a movie date with your partner, this is probably not for you. But in the off chance that you want your mind torn with feelings of ethics and sympathy, if you want to be disturbed, if you want something to poke at your heart, if you want to spend sleepless nights fearing not monsters but people, then very few movies will satisfy you the way Pudhupettai will.
Hariesh and Mozhi
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