Puriyaadha Pudhir
| Puriyaadha Puthir | |
|---|---|
 Poster | |
| Directed by | K. S. Ravikumar |
| Written by | K. S. Ravikumar |
| Story by | Sunil Kumar Desai |
| Produced by | R. B. Choudary |
| Starring | Rahman Raghuvaran Sarath Kumar Anand Babu Rekha Sithara |
| Cinematography | A. Haribabu |
| Edited by | K. Thanikachalam |
| Music by | S. A. Rajkumar |
Production company | |
Release date | 7 September 1990 |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Puriyaadha Puthir (transl. Mystifying Puzzle) is a 1990 Indian thriller film directed by K. S. Ravikumar in his directorial debut. It is a remake of the 1989 Kannada film Tarka, itself based on Agatha Christie's play, The Unexpected Guest.
Plot
Rahman escapes from prison and comes to Rekha's house. He finds that her husband is murdered. Rahman asks Rekha to hide him from the police. As Rekha knows him from her college days, she believes him to be innocent.
The next day, when he asks Rekha why she murdered her husband (Raghuvaran), she tells him about her past. Raghuvaran hated beautiful women as he was harassed badly by his stepmother. Hence, he used to ill-treat Rekha. Her childhood friend Babu (Anand Babu), a disco dancer, advised Raghuvaran not to do so, but to no avail. Hence Babu was very angry with him. One day, after giving another dose of torture to Rekha, Raghuvaran went upstairs. Later, Rekha found him to be murdered. She did not know who the murderer was.
In an interesting plot twist, a police officer also gets involved. One day in the bar, where Babu was dancing, one of Raghuvaran's former aides was found murdered and the knife used to kill him was found to be in Babu's hands. At this point, everyone involved in this case have been taken into police custody, and babu was tortured by the police because of his finger prints in the knife.
The investigation continues on the murder. Meanwhile, Rekha also tries to find her husband's killer. Who is the real killer? In the end when the secret is out, the killer jumps out of the building and the crew requests the audience not to reveal the killer.
Cast
- Rahman as Raghu
- Raghuvaran as Chakravarthi
- Sarath Kumar as Inspector Sarath
- Anand Babu as Babu
- Rekha as Geetha Chakravarthi
- Sithara as Sindhu
- Sreekanth as Venkatraman
- K. R. Indira Devi as Kutti Amma
- Cheran (cameo appearance)
- K. S. Ravikumar as fellow prisoner
- Kumarimuthu as Mark
- Delhi Ganesh as ASP
Production
Puriyaadha Pudhir was the directorial debut of K. S. Ravikumar who earlier assisted Vikraman.[1] It was a remake of the Kannada film Tarka (1989), itself based on the Agatha Christie play The Unexpected Guest.[2] The film was planned to be filmed in a 30-day schedule, at the rate of ₹1 lakh (equivalent to ₹9.8 lakh or US$12,000 in 2023) per day, which would bring the entire budget to ₹30 lakh (equivalent to ₹2.9 crore or US$350,000 in 2023). Ravikumar finished the entire film in 29 days, saving the producer a lakh.[1]
Soundtrack
The music composed by S. A. Rajkumar.
| No. | Song | Singers | Lyrics |
| 1 | Do Do Ri Ri | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam | S. A. Rajkumar |
| 2 | Kaatru Vanthu | S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Uma Ramanan | Vaali |
| 3 | Kannoram Gangai | Swarnalatha | |
| 4 | Oor Iravil Kaatru | K. J. Yesudas, P. Susheela | S. A. Rajkumar |
| 5 | Vishayam Poga Poga | Mano, Anitha Suresh |
Reception
On 21 September 1990, N. Krishnaswamy of The Indian Express wrote, "Puriyaadha Pudhir is a murder thriller that is interesting, and well made from Kodambakkam standards."[3]
Due to the film's failure, Ravikumar opted against directing films under the suspense genre and went on to make action entertainers in his career.[4][5][6]
Shelved remake
This film was remade in Malayalam as Chodhyam, directed by G. S. Vijayan and produced by R. B. Chaudary himself. The film however was shelved after shoot. The film starred Rahman, Captain Raju in the lead roles with superstar Mohanlal making a guest appearance.[7]
References
- ^ a b Rangarajan, Malathi (16 October 2009). "Life sparkles". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 5 September 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
- ^ Aldridge, Mark (2016). Agatha Christie on Screen. Springer. p. 301. ISBN 978-1-349-67695-8.
- ^ Krishnaswamy, N. (21 September 1990). "Puriyaadha Pudhir". The Indian Express. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
- ^ "KS Ravikumar Birthday Feature". Silverscreen.in. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
- ^ "Above and Beyond: The KS Ravikumar Interview". Silverscreen.in. Archived from the original on 2 January 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
- ^ "Giving hits, his speciality". Thehindu.com. 30 October 2002. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
- ^ "Mohanlal big budget films that never released — MalayalamEmagazine.com". MalayalamEmagazine.com. 19 October 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2017.