Pachaikili Muthucharam

Pachaikili Muthucharam
Promotional poster
Directed by	Gautham Menon
Produced by	Venu Ravichandran
Written by	Gautham Menon
Starring	Sarath Kumar Jyothika Andrea Jeremiah Milind Soman
Music by	Harris Jayaraj
Cinematography	Aravind Krishna Nirav Shah
Editing by	Anthony
Distributed by	Oscar Films
Release dates	February 16, 2007 (2007-02-16)
Running time	147 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Pachaikili Muthucharam is a 2007 Tamil romantic thriller directed by Gautham Menon. The film stars Sarath Kumar, Jyothika, Andrea Jeremiah and Milind Soman. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by Harris Jayaraj. The soundtrack was released on 20 January 2007 to positive reviews. The film was released on 16 February 2007. This film was also dubbed into Telugu as Drohi.

The story is about Venkatesh (Sarath Kumar) who is married to Kalyani (Andrea), but starts an affair with Geetha (Jyothika). He is later blackmailed by Lawrence (Milind Soman) who finds out about his affair. The rest of the story is about how Venkatesh tries to make up for his mistakes. Jyothika plays a negative role as Lawrence's girlfriend, trying to con Venkatesh into giving away the money that he had saved for his son's medical expenses.

The film was inspired by the novel Derailed. Gautham Menon credited the novel in the end titles.

Plot

Venkat (Sarath Kumar), a medical representative, is a happily married person with a son. His wife Kalyani (Andrea Jeremiah) is very loving and both of them along with their son have a perfect life. That is, until their son falls sick and things between the husband and wife cool down a bit. Kalyani begins to spend more time with their son and starts to ignore her husband involuntarily. Venkat feeling a bit lonely and neglected walks in and out of his monotonous life without complaining much. He tries to understand his wife's feelings.

One morning while riding the train to work, Venkat notices Geetha (Jyothika) and spends a few extra seconds admiring her. The following day again he happens to stand next to her. And Geetha opens up the conversation with Venkat. Both married with kids, they feel they have a lot of common things between them and start a friendship together. At first it is platonic and they meet only in the train but slowly they start meeting at restaurants and coffee shops.

Geetha begins to get a little physically close to Venkat and she suggests that they both spend a day together watching movies or something alone. Venkat agrees and they take a taxi and drive to Mayajaal on East Coast Road. But at the last minute Geetha changes her mind and directs the taxi driver to go to a resort along the same road. Venkat books a room on Geetha's insistence and his desires give way.

A knock on the door prompts Venkat to open the door. A goon barges in and beats Venkat up. He robs the couple and also ties Venkat up before raping Geetha. Venkat is grief-stricken and they both part ways.

The goon who calls himself Lawrence (Milind Soman) starts calling Venkat and Geetha to harass them for money. Venkat takes the full financial responsibility and starts paying off the money that he had been saving for his son's medical expenses. With no choice left, Venkat confesses to Kalyani. Angry and disappointed, Kalyani leaves him. She returns the next day and forgives Venkat.

The rest of the story focuses on how Venkat tries to put his life back together. How does Venkat pull himself from the abysmal low in his life? How does he resolve the situation with Lawrence? What happens to Geetha? Does Venkat ever get to lead a normal life again? The twist in the tale sets things in perspective and resolves all these questions.

Cast

• Sarath Kumar as Venkatesh
• Jyothika as Smitha (Geetha)
• Andrea as Kalyani Venkatesh
• Milind Soman as Lawrence
• VTV Ganesh as Sundar

Production

It was previously titled as Vilai Uyirendraalum (Even If the Price Is Life Itself), Parundhu (Eagle) and Silandhi (Spider). Earlier for the lead female protagonist role several actresses was considered with Tabu, Kamalinee Mukherjee and Shobana as the frontrunners. Finally the latter was roped in to play the role whom as described by Gautham as "finest actor in the country".^[1] However Shobana was replaced by newcomer Andrea Jeremiah, who previously collaborated with Gautham Menon in Kaakha Kaakha as a playback singer.^[2] Sarath Kumar's character was originally slated for Madhavan and Cheran. Andrea also accepted to do some bold scenes for the film including a bedroom scene.

Trivia

Gautham Menon can be seen in a shot of the song "Kadhal Konjam" as a bus passenger sitting behind the lead couple(at around 1min 10sec into the song).

Soundtrack

The film has 5 chartbuster classic songs composed by Harris Jayaraj. The song lyrics were penned by Thamarai (exceptions are noted).

Reception

The film was an average grosser at the box office, especially because it was a typical A center movie. It performed badly at B and C centers due to its storyline. In regard to the average run, Menon went on to claim that Sarath Kumar was "wrong for the film" and that he tweaked the story to fit his image; he also claimed that his father's ailing health and consequent death a week before the release had left him mentally affected.^[3][4]

References

External links

• Pachaikili Muthucharam at the Internet Movie Database