Eeram

The plot opens with water overflowing from an apartment at around 2:00 AM in Block E, which is seen by the apartment watchman. When he goes to stop the water, he witnesses a young woman Ramya (Sindhu Menon) dead and drowning in the water due to asphyxiation. Eventually the investigation of the death takes place which is done by Assistant Commissioner of Police Vasudevan (Aadhi), who is an honest and upright police officer and also Ramya's former lover. Although circumstantial evidence claims it as a suicide, Vasu doubts that it isn't, and starts to investigate it in another angle.

Investigation reveals that Ramya was known to be in an extramarital affair with an unknown person, and his frequent visit to her flat is confirmed by the neighbors in the apartment. However, Vasu is not convinced. He is sure that there is someone behind Ramya’s death and names him Mr. X. He also remembers his love life with Ramya during their college time. Vasu is denied marriage with Ramya by her father Shriraman (Rajashekar), as he is not willing to get his daughter married a police officer. When Vasu asks her to marry him without the consent of her father, she does not accept and both part ways. Later Ramya marries a rich groom named Balakrishnan (Nandha), a businessman. From then on the relationship is entirely cut between Vasu and Ramya. Vasu then becomes a police officer.

Meanwhile, strange mishaps begin to take place in the apartment where Ramya died. Kalyani Subramanyam (Lakshmi Ramakrishnan), who resides in the flat opposite to Ramya’s, dies by electric shock. An ex-army veteran, Thiyagarajan (Boys Rajan), on his travel to Pondicherry, dies by an umbrella tip piercing his neck. The apartment watchman also dies a mysterious death. Vasu is able to relate the deaths with Ramya but does not know how exactly, but finds that water has been the common element in all the deaths. He appoints a few assistants to live in various flats of the apartment and inform him if there is any suspicious activity. The assistants point out a young man (Krishna) coming there to meet his girlfriend Deepa. Vasu identifies him as Mr. X and follows him to a theatre, but before he tries to catch him, he sees "Mr. X" banging himself in the restroom mirror. Vasu tries to stop him, but an eerie spirit stops him from saving Mr. X. Vasu then sees human footprints walking on water and understands that it is the work of a supernatural entity.

Subtle symbols keep appearing to Vasu, and he begins to receive premonitions of the killings that are about to take place. The color red and water keep appearing together as premonitions and signals to Vasu that a murder is about to take place. Vasu is unable to convince his superiors that the deaths are not accidental. He investigates in the angle of life after death, and finds that a life can contact this world in any medium after the death. It may be also through water. Vasu now understands that Ramya's spirit kills everyone. One night, when Divya (Saranya Mohan), Ramya's sister, visits Vasu in his house to console him for Ramya's death, the latter's spirit possesses her body and reveals the truth of her life after their separation from Vasu.

Ramya married Bala and lived happily with him just for a short time. Bala was a person who disliked anything secondhand in his life. He could not digest his wife’s past relation with her lover Vasu, and hence started to torture her. Ramya’s maidservant complained of Thiyagarajan in another flat, who was sexually harassing her. Ramya warned the master if he would have repeated this, she would inform it to his wife. Ramya advised a girl to stop having a boyfriend as it would spoil her life, and this earned her the dislike of that girl. Ramya’s opposite apartment woman Kalyani wanted the flat where Ramya lived, for her daughter. The boyfriend created an impression that he had came to visit Ramya to the woman in the opposite flat. She had spun a false story against Ramya, and the master also confirmed it to Bala for taking revenge on her. Therefore, Bala killed Ramya and drowned her in the water to make it look like a suicide. Hence the beginning of the movie's plot with confusions among Vasu and other police officers for her death.

Hence Ramya's soul killed Kalyani by electric shock; Thiyagarajan by the umbrella tip; the watchman who supported the false statement against Ramya; Mr. X by dashing him in the mirror; and now, she horrifies Mr. X's lover and makes her mentally unstable, yet the girl survives. Vasu warns Bala that he will soon catch him with evidence for mercilessly killing Ramya. Bala’s friend Vignesh alias Vicky (Srinath) misguides him right from the beginning of the film about the women tendency of varieties and also against Ramya. Vicky later gets killed by Bala himself as he threatened to reveal the truth about the murder. Bala is confident that he can be caught only if he himself admits the crime. One midnight, Bala kidnaps Divya and keeps her in his own car showroom. Vasu comes to save Divya but involves himself into a face-to-face combat with Bala. At the fight, Bala initially gains the upper hand, hits Vasu mercilessly with an iron rod on his head, and then stabs Vasu in his stomach with his own machete. Vasu then loses his power and consciousness, hence Ramya's blood-thirsty spirit possesses Vasu and gives him the upper hand to knock out Bala. Vasu succeeds in saving Divya, and then Ramya's spirit leaves him. The very next day, Bala suddenly confesses about the murder of his wife. Hence Vasu gets a chance to prove him as the murderer. Actually, Ramya's spirit had possessed him and made him speak the truth. After the press conference, while Bala is being taken to court, the sky's color begins to appear bizarre, it begins to rain, and the petrol is shown to be leaking from the police jeep, in which Bala is being taken to court, and Vasu sees a red umbrella with water dripping from it. Then the screen fades to black and a jeep crashing sound can be heard, stating that Ramya did not spare Bala.

• Aadhi as ACP Vasudevan IPS (Vasu), an honest police officer and Ramya's ex-lover
• Nandha as Balakrishnan (Bala), Ramya's husband and the one who killed her
• Sindhu Menon as Ramya Balakrishnan (the water ghost), a woman who gets murdered by her husband Bala
• Saranya Mohan as Divya Shriraman, Ramya's sister
• Srinath as Vignesh (Vicky), Bala's friend
• Krishna as Mr. X, a name that Vasu gives to the person behind Ramya's death
• Lakshmi Ramakrishnan as Kalyani Subramanyam, an apartment resident
• Boys Rajan as Col. Thiyagarajan, an ex-army as well as the pervert master
• Rajashekar as Shriraman, Divya and Ramya's father

The filming began in mid-2007, after Shankar had completed the shooting of his previous film Shivaji, which starred Rajinikanth in the main lead. The shooting happened since January 2008, while the recording of the songs took place from December 2007 to March 2008. Filming finally ended in June 2009 and was prepared for a September 2009 release. Aadhi of Mirugam fame was roped as the protagonist, while Nandha of Mounam Pesiyadhe and Urchagam fame was selected as the main antagonist. While Simran to make her comeback as heroine through this film, though actress's demand led Shankar to cast a new face. Soon, Sindhu Menon, who starred Youth and Kadal Pookkal, signed for the role.

The film released in 120 screens worldwide and was a blockbuster at the box office.[5]

The music was composed by debutant S. Thaman. The audio rights was bagged by Think Music and Sony Music India. The songs were released in 2009, although the recording took place in 2007-2008. The audio event was attended by M. Sasikumar, Rajinikanth, Allu Arjun, Nandha, and Aadhi Pinisetty. All lyrics were penned by Viveka.[6]

Rediff wrote "Debutant director Arivazhagan, who has written and directed the film, has turned out a horror/suspense film that strives to score points on logic, novelty and raciness. The best part is that he actually makes you cling to the edge of the seat most of the time. No mean feat, considering the limitations on mainstream Tamil cinema."[7] Behindwoods wrote " Although paranormal subjects are not something new, the narrative style, technical wizardry and the brilliant camera work give Eeram, the real eerie experience."[8] The Hindu wrote "Arivazhagan must have polished his screenplay over and over again to come up with such a lucid narrative that strongly impacts the viewer. Only wish the attempt doesn’t prove to be a flash in the pan. Because Eeram shows that this young director is worth looking out for."[9]

• List of ghost films
• List of horror films of 2009
• Gothic film – Notable films

• Eeram at IMDb