Pudhupettai

The story is narrated by the main character 'Kokki' Kumar in a jail cell. 'Kokki' Kumar is a high school kid who lives in the slums of Pudhupettai, Chennai. After coming home from a film, he sees his mother's dead body, killed by his father. After learning that his father will kill him too, Kumar runs away from home. Homeless and with no food, he resorts to begging until he is falsely arrested while watching police arresting goons on the street. After being released on bail, he befriends Mani and other accused, all of whom work for Anbu. Anbu works for the opposition party's leader Thamizhselvan, who is a goon and local politician. They take Kumar under their wing and give him petty jobs. During a confrontation with rival gangsters headed by the ruling party's politician Murthy, Kumar kills Murthy's brother single-handedly amidst 100 goons, earning the respect of his gang.

Anbu makes him join a gang consisting of professional killers. There Kumar learns the way of being a killer while surviving attacks from Murthy's men. The gang refuses to help Kumar avoid Murthy's men since their intervention would spark a gang war. Kumar murders several of his opponents singlehandedly, earning him respect.

Krishnaveni is a prostitute who works under Anbu. Kumar likes her and asks Anbu to release her. Anbu is shocked at Kumar's audacity and refuses his request. He thrashes Krishnaveni and orders his men to kill Kumar. Kumar approaches Anbu and begs pardon, but when Anbu refuses, Kumar kills him. Thamizhselvan allows Kumar to take over Anbu's business only if he can survive the night from Anbu's men. Kumar survives and Thamizhselvan makes good on his word.

Anbu's goons refuse to obey Kumar since he is young and inexperienced. But Kumar kills his opposition, as well as his father, and becomes a dreaded don in North Chennai. Murthy is paralysed by Kumar's men for refusing a truce. Kumar then meets Selvi, Mani's sister, and marries her forcibly on the eve of her wedding. Mani tries to kill Kumar unsuccessfully then joins Murthy's gang. Meanwhile, Krishnaveni reveals that she is pregnant with Kumar's child and Kumar marries her as well.

Mani becomes an approver and testifies to all Kumar's killings. But during the trial, Kumar threatens Selvi and her mother, and is let off. Kumar is given a post in the party by Thamizhselvan to prevent Kumar defecting. Due to his increasing crime record and fear of being killed, Kumar asks for an MLA seat but is ridiculed by everyone including Thamizhselvan. Kumar flashes his aruval in front of the party cadre, some of whom are far more dreaded dons, and is kicked out.

Murthy learns about this and plans to assassinate Kumar and his family. Fearing for their safety, Kumar sends Krishnaveni and his child away, but Murthy's men intercept them, kill her and take the child. He requests Selvi to ask her brother Mani for help, but she refuses and reveals her displeasure at how Kumar ruined her life and that she plans to return to her former fiancé. Mani is compassionate enough to return the baby safely to Kumar, who then gives the baby to a kind-hearted woman. Kumar then arrives at Murthy's house and kills Murthy's henchmen but his right hand is paralyzed. Murthy commits suicide to avoid a drawn-out death. Kumar is arrested and confined to jail where Kumar started to narrate the story.

Now in the present day, the police come to retrieve Kumar from his cell. Kumar thinks they will kill him.

During the closing credits it revealed that the incumbent Chief Minister brings Kumar out of prison and gives Kumar MLA candidacy in the election. Kumar praises Murthy and ironically announces that he would've killed the people responsible for Murthy's death if India wasn't the place where Gandhi was born. Then it is told that Kumar served three times as an MLA and two terms as the Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu, but he could not find his son.

Selvaraghavan was originally supposed to make a film titled Oru Naal Oru Kanavu for Lakshmi Movie Makers but shelved the venture and began working with the same producers and the same star cast of Dhanush, Sonia Agarwal and Sneha on the gangster film Pudhupettai. The film was launched on 6 March 2005, with Aravind Krishna as cinematographer.[2] Selva first approached Harris Jayaraj for the movie's music, but he refused as it is not his type of genre.[3] After his refusal, Selva finalised Yuvan Shankar Raja as the composer.

Selvaraghavan called the film "an experiment" and stated it had "one of the most complicated screenplays", while revealing he was more nervous about the final product than his previous ventures.[4][5]

It was also the first Tamil film to be shot in Super 35 mm instead of the Cinemascope format, as well as the first to be released in digital format.[6][7]

After the release of Pattiyal whose theme was the same as Pudupettai (dwelling on gangsters in Chennai), Selvaraghavan wanted to re-do many of the scenes to make them look fresh and new, hence the delay. The re-recording was done in Bangkok, with everyone involved working overtime.[8]

Yuvan Shankar Raja and Selvaraghavan renewed their association with this film, who had earlier teamed up to create highly successful and critically acclaimed music for the films Thulluvadho Ilamai (2001), Kaadhal Kondein (2004) and 7G Rainbow Colony (2005). All of the music, including the soundtrack and score, was composed in Thailand, where Yuvan Shankar Raja worked with the Chao Phraya Symphony Orchestra of Bangkok, which featured for the first time in a Tamil film.[9] Several Traditional Thai musical instruments, including khim and south, were used for the orchestration.[9]

The soundtrack was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja and released on 15 December 2005.[10] It features 10 tracks, of which six are songs and the remaining four are instrumental pieces which belong to the film score. The ten-track experimental album, receiving high critical acclaim, was considered Yuvan Shankar Raja's finest work till then and a "musical masterpiece".[11][12] The lyrics were written by Na Muthukumar, who had written the lyrics for Selvaraghavan's earlier film as well. However, this film remains to be the most recent collaboration of Muthukumar and Selvaraghavan as the latter had replaced Muthukumar with Vairamuthu for his future projects.

Actor Kamal Haasan sang a song, although he didn't act in the film. The film's lead actor Dhanush rendered a rap song as well.

Every track's title reflects its theme.

Yuvan Shankar Raja received rave reviews for both the songs and the film score, which is considered to be one of his best works. The songs were hailed as "brilliant", "innovative", and even "a musical milestone".[13][14][15][16] The music gained immense popularity among the masses, especially among the youth, topping the Tamil music charts in the following weeks.[17]

Dhanush made a cameo appearance in 2015 film Vai Raja Vai directed by his wife Aishwarya, reprising the role of Kokki Kumar.[26] The dialogues "Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru" (You have to work like fire, Kumar) and "Kadavul Irukaan Kumaru" (God is there, Kumar) inspired the 2013 and 2016 film of the same name, respectively.[27][28] The dialogue "Theey Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru" was also reused by Santhanam in Boss Engira Bhaskaran (2010).[27]

• Pudhupettai at IMDb