Moodu Pani

Moodu Pani
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Balu Mahendra
Produced by	Raja Cine Arts
Based on	Idhuvum Oru Viduthalai Thaan  by Rajendra Kumar
Starring	Shobha Prathap Pothan N. Viswanathan Bhanu Chander
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	Balu Mahendra
Editing by	D. Vasu
Release dates	6 November 1980
Running time	131 minutes[1]
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Moodu Pani (English: The Mist) is a 1980 Indian Tamil psychological thriller film directed by Balu Mahendra and produced under the banner Raja Cine Arts.^[1] The film stars Shobha and Prathap Pothan in the lead roles, while N. Viswanathan, Bhanu Chander and Mohan (in his Tamil debut) appear in supporting roles. It is inspired from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 thriller film Psycho.^[2] The film's music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, while director Balu Mahendra handled the cinematography as well.

Moodu Pani tells the story of a man who has a strong hatred towards prostitutes, and would kill any such woman who he encounters. The film was critically acclaimed and commercially successful upon release, with Prathap Pothan receiving wide praise for his performance. Although no print of the film is in existence currently,^[3] it is still sold on DVD's, but rare on stock.^[4]

Plot

Chandru (Prathap Pothan), the managing director of an exports company in Bangalore, hates prostitutes since childhood, as he was the victim of a prostitute who ruined his family by taking his father away from his mother. Raghunath (N. Viswanathan) is an inspector who knows Chandru and his mother. Raghunath's son Ravi (Bhanu Chander) is engaged to Rekha (Shobha).

Haunted by memories of the same prostitute, Chandru lures two prostitutes to lonely places and murders them as he sees that woman in each of them. Rekha's friend Pallavi comes to Bangalore to meet her, and contacts her for the address. This is overheard by the Madam of a brothel (Gandhimathi) and she misleads Pallavi. On the pretext of taking her to Rekha's house, Pallavi is taken to the brothel and is forced into prostitution. Rekha and Raghunath search for Pallavi. Chandru comes to the same brothel and takes Pallavi in his car, but kills her. Rekha learns of Pallavi's murder through Raghunath, neither are aware that Chandru is the murderer.

Still photographer Bhaskar (Mohan) takes pictures of his lover with a bike in the backdrop. Chandru, who had come on that bike, had parked it there and killed a woman (Vijaychandrika) who enticed him near the same location, then rode away. Reading about the murder in a newspaper, Bhaskar shows Raghunath the pictures with the murderer's bike in the background. Raghunath investigates about the vehicle and learns that the owner has lent the vehicle to his friend.

Worried about his constant anger, Chandru meets a psychiatrist, who advises him to marry soon so that he will no longer be lonely, saying the loneliness is leading him to continuously think about his past and indulge in extreme acts. Chandru meets Rekha at a theatre and then at a book stall. He proposes to Rekha and even pleads with her to marry him. Surprised at his extreme pleading, Rekha politely informs him that she loves Ravi, and their marriage is already fixed. Raghunath is startled when Rekha tells him about Chandru's marriage proposal.

Chandru keeps following Rekha; one day when she goes to visit her friend, he makes her unconscious and takes her away to a bungalow in Ooty. When she regains consciousness, he tells her that he had purchased this house in Ooty only for her, and requests her to marry him. When Rekha refuses and pleads to be freed, he requests her to stay back for at least a month, so that she can understand him better, and then reduces it to a week. He makes all arrangements to ensure that she cannot escape. One day, Rekha slams Chandru on the back of his head with a spade and finally runs away. He however catches her and traps her in the garage of his house, but gets hospitalised for his injury.

Meanwhile, Raghunath visits Chandru’s office for an enquiry and learns that he has gone to Ooty. He also meets Chandru’s psychiatrist and learns about his hatred for prostitutes. He immediately correlates this with the prostitutes murdered in the city; he visits Chandru’s house; hidden in the garage, he finds the same bike photographed by Bhaskar. With his suspicions growing stronger, he arrives in Ooty to meet Chandru and visits the police station, where he finds Chandru’s car. The Area Inspector informs Raghunath that an unknown person came in the car to the hospital and got admitted. The car was brought to the police station for safety. Raghunath visits the hospital, but Chandru had left by then. Raghunath is joined by Ravi, and both rush to Chandru’s house.

Meanwhile, Rekha escapes from the garage and enters the room where Chandru claimed his mother stayed. However, she finds only a skeleton and is cornered by Chandru. Ravi and Raghunath hear Rekha screaming and rush to the room. Seeing them, Chandru collapses and reveals that the skeleton is his mother’s. Raghunath understands Chandru’s love for his mother and the problems he faced during his childhood, which made him develop hatred for women with loose morals. Chandru is arrested, while Rekha and Ravi unite.

Cast

• Shobha as Rekha
• Prathap Pothan as Chandru
• N. Viswanathan as Raghunath
• Bhanu Chander as Ravi
• Mohan as Bhaskar
• Shanthi Williams as Pallavi
• Gandhimathi as the Madam of the brothel

Production

Moodu Pani was based on a novel of Rajendra Kumar titled Idhuvum Oru Viduthalai Thaan. The film was shot in 30 days in Bangalore with 36,000 feet of negative film. Mohan, who later became a leading actor in Tamil cinema, made his debut in Tamil with this film. In addition to directing the film, Balu Mahendra also handled the cinematography, and had dubbed the voice for lead actor Prathap Pothan. D. Vasu was recruited as the film's editor. Moodu Pani is also noted for being one of the last films of lead actress Shoba, who died after the shooting of the film was complete.^[1]

Soundtrack

Moodu Pani
1981 Re-edition
Soundtrack album by Ilaiyaraaja
Released	1980
Genre	Film soundtrack
Label	EMI Records

The film's soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja^[5] in his 100th film. It is also his first film with Balu Mahendra.^[6] The soundtrack cover shows a scene from the song Yen Eniya Pon Nilave involving Chandru (Prathap Pothan) and Rekha (Shoba). The scene shows his dream of being together with her, even though she actually dislikes him because he has kidnapped her and taken her to Ooty, and she seeks to escape.

Yen Eniya Pon Nilave was the song that had the longest prelude and interlude using a guitar. The songs were praised for their superior quality over other Tamil songs.^[1] Ilaiyaraaja had composed a song Ilaya Nila which was first supposed to feature in this film, but Balu Mahendra rejected it, and chose Yen Iniya Pon Nilave instead.^[7] However, Ilaya Nila was subsequently used in Payanangal Mudivathillai in 1982.^[8] Yen Iniya Pon Nilave is also featured on artist M. Rafi's remix album Aasaiyae Alaipolae,^[9] and unofficially in Vaaranam Aayiram (2008).^[10]

Due to the popularity of its music, Moodu Pani became the first Tamil film for which a cutout was made for Ilaiyaraaja and displayed in theatres.^[1] The first soundtrack edition did not feature the song Aasai Raja, sung by Uma Ramanan;^[11] it was however included in the 1981 re-edition.^[12]

Tracklisting^[12]

Reception

Moodu Pani was released on 6 November 1980 to generally positive reviews, and ran for 250 days in theatres. Ananda Vikatan (30.11.1981) said, "Half the dialogues in the film were spoken by the camera... Balu Mahendra's camera challenges and asks when I am there, where is the need for screenplay and dialogues..."^[1] Behindwoods called the film as "one of Tamil cinemas best in the film noir genre",^[13] and rated Prathap Pothan's "psycho lover" performance as "among the finest performances in Tamil cinema history", calling him "clearly unhinged".^[14]

Bhama Devi Ravi of The Times of India said, "With his easygoing manners, Pothan was brilliant as a serial killer, and the last few minutes of the film were rivetting."^[15] IndiaGlitz said, "in eighties there were very few romantic thrillers - Bharathiraja's 'Sigappu Rojakkal' and Balu Mahendra's 'Moodu Pani' - among others which are best till date in this genre."^[16] In his 2011 book The Best of Tamil Cinema: 1977 to 2010, G. Dhananjayan called the film "A sleek thriller", appreciating it for its "quality of making and camera work".^[1]

References

External links

• Moodu Pani at the Internet Movie Database