| Manmadhan | |
|---|---|
 100th day theatrical run poster | |
| Directed by | A. J. Murugan |
| Written by | A. J. Murugan (uncredited) Silambarasan |
| Dialogues by | |
| Produced by | S. K. Krishnakanth |
| Starring | Silambarasan Jyothika |
| Cinematography | R. D. Rajasekhar S. Moorthy |
| Edited by | Anthony |
| Music by | Yuvan Shankar Raja |
Production company | Indian Theatre Production |
| Distributed by | Simbu Cine Arts[1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 158 minutes[2] |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
| Budget | ₹5 crore[3] |
Manmadhan (titled onscreen asMaanmathaun)[a] is a 2004 IndianTamil-languageromanticcrime thriller film directed by A. J. Murugan in his debut. The film starsSilambarasan andJyothika, withGoundamani,Sindhu Tolani,Atul Kulkarni andSanthanam playing supporting roles. It revolves around a serial killer who targets seemingly immoral women cheating in the name of love.
Manmadhan opened theatrically on 12 November 2004, coinciding withDiwali. It was received favourably and had a blockbuster run at the box office for over 150 days at the time of its release.[4] The film was remade inKannada asMadana (2006).
Madhan Kumar is anauditor by profession, who lives inChennai and also learns music part-time in a college. Mythili, a naive woman, also learns music from the same college. She gets scared upon seeing Madhan one day because she happens to witness a dream of her getting raped by him. Later on, she realises his kind nature and they both become friends.
Madhan is secretly a serial killer under the pseudonym "Manmadhan", who hunts and kills seemingly immoral girls in the city by seducing them before rendering them unconscious usingchloroform. He burns the girls' corpses and stores their ashes in bottles with their respective names. Whenever he intends to kill a girl by seducing her, he suffers anosebleed. In similar way he kills a psychiatrist, a girl in cafe, a train passenger and few other immoral girls. The media attention turns towards the case of missing girls, and Chennai's newACP Deva takes the charge to find the person behind the crimes.
One day, Mythili finds Madhan riding a bike with a girl aspillion. The next day, Mythili gets shocked to see the news that the girl whom she spotted with Madhan has gone missing. Mythili thinks that Madhan is behind the crimes in the city and informs Deva about Madhan's whereabouts. Thus, Madhan gets arrested. During interrogation, Madhan reveals that his younger twin brother Madhan Raj is responsible for the murders and narrates their past.
Madhan Raj and Madhan Kumar lived with their maternal uncle Puncture Pandiyan in Madhampatty in the outskirts ofCoimbatore district, as their parents had died years ago. While Kumar was brave, intelligent and practical, Raj was innocent and sentimental. After Kumar went to study for auditorship in Chennai, Raj moved toCoimbatore to study in an engineering college. There, he became very close and friendly with his hostel roommate Bobby, and fell in love with his classmate Vaishnavi, who also reciprocated his feelings upon seeing his good nature. However, Raj's senior friend Ravi informed him that Vaishnavi was having an illicit affair with her relative Seenu, studying in the same college. He did not believe him and instead beat up Ravi. When Raj confronted Vaishnavi, she reprimanded him for not trusting her.
Raj realised his mistake and went to Vaishnavi's house to apologise, only to witness her having sex with Seenu and enjoying the moment, realising that Ravi was correct all along. Raj also overheard Vaishnavi's conversation with Seenu that she pretended to love him and would like to marry him so that she could take advantage of his innocence and sincere love, which would help her lead life the way she wanted, and have Raj as her slave. Raj confronted Vaishnavi, who attempted to cover up the situation. Not fooled, Raj killed her and Seenu. He approached Kumar and bragged about the whole incident. Unrepentant, Raj said he would set out in search of girls cheating in the name of love to kill them and threatened to kill Kumar too if he informed the police, subsequently rebranding himself "Manmadhan".
In the present, the police investigate further about Raj and get solid evidences against him. Kumar, with the help of Pandiyan, is released from the case. Mythili apologises to Kumar and also proposes to him, which he rejects, saying that he does not love her and had treated her as friend. Mythili leaves the place saying that she will wait for Kumar, believing that he will accept her love someday.
Unknown to anyone except Kumar, Raj, after killing Vaishnavi and Seenu, did meet Kumar but did not threaten him. Instead, he said he regretted killing them and he did it only because he was triggered due to what they were doing and committed suicide out of grief. Kumar hence decided to avenge Raj's death by killing girls who cheat in the name of love, under the pseudonym Manmadhan and developed his nosebleed from then on. Kumar has concealed Raj's death, thereby using his identity as ascapegoat so that he could escape if caught.
It is shown that Kumar indeed loves Mythili for her innocence and good demeanour but cannot and will not express his feelings for her. He declares that if his brother had loved a girl like her, he would also have lived happily and he would have married Mythili and be happy. Hence, Kumar concludes that avenging his brother's death is more important by killing immoral girls, and only God can judge his actions. The film ends with a message that even if Manmadhan has escaped the clutches of the police, he would answer for his actions before the law someday.
Manmadhan is the directorial debut of A. J. Murugan. He said the script was initially pitched toAjith Kumar in 1999, and Ajith, despite showing interest, asked Murugan to wait but never returned. In 2001, Murugan narrated the script toSilambarasan, who accepted. S. K. Krishnakanth, who agreed to produce the film, later told Murugan that Silambarasan wanted credit for the story and dialogues, and Silambarasan's mother Usha told Murugan he would only be allowed to continue as director if he credited her son for the story. Unwilling to jeopardise his career, Murugan complied.[7]
Jyothika was cast as the lead actress. Questioned why they cast a woman far older than himself, Silambarasan replied that the "story ofManmadhan demands it".[8] While assistant directors wanted to castVadivelu in a comedic role, Silambarasan favouredSanthanam after watching his performance on the comedy television seriesLollu Sabha.[9] Hindi actressMandira Bedi was chosen to appear in a cameo while Czech modelYana Gupta was recruited for a dance number with both making their debut in Tamil.[10][11] The first schedule was college scenes which were shot atNIFT in Chennai with around 2000 students.[12][13] According to cinematographerR. D. Rajasekhar,Manmadhan was the first Tamil film to becolour corrected through digital technology which was done by Prasad EFX.[14][15]
Silambarasan experienced difficulties with Murugan during production, and was widely reported by the media to have "ghost-directed" the film.[16] Murugan was later critical of the actor allegedly interfering with the project.[7] Separately,Goundamani was angered that Silambarasan edited out many of his scenes as he had signed on the film with the promise that his role was major. He was also discontent with Silambarasan's choice to cast Santhanam due toLollu Sabha parodying and mocking films.[17][18]
The soundtrack was composed byYuvan Shankar Raja.[19] "En Aasai Mythiliye", sung by Silambarasan, is remixed from his fatherT. Rajendar's original song inMythili Ennai Kaathali (1986), with new lyrics written byPa. Vijay.[20][21]
| Song | Singer(s) | Lyrics | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Thathai Thathai" | Silambarasan,Clinton Cerejo,Blaaze,Vasundhara Das | Vaali,Blaaze (English lyrics) | 5:55 |
| "Manmadhane Nee" | Sadhana Sargam | Snehan | 4:34 |
| "Oh Mahire" | Anushka Manchanda | Pa. Vijay | 5:49 |
| "Vaanamunna" | Shankar Mahadevan,Palakkad Sreeram | Na. Muthukumar | 5:08 |
| "En Aasai Mythiliye" | Silambarasan,Suchitra | Pa. Vijay | 4:25 |
| "Kadhal Valarthen" | KK | Na. Muththukumar | 7:28 |
The lyrics were written by Veturi, Vennalakanti and Buvana Chandra.[22]
| Song | Singer(s) | Duration | Lyricist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Thathai Thathai" | Devi Sri Prasad,Clinton Cerejo, Kalpana,Vasundhara Das | 5:52 | Vennelakanti | |
| "Manmadhuda Nee" | K. S. Chithra | 4:30 | Veturi | |
| "Ningilanti manasu choodu" | Tippu, Murali | 5:02 | Veturi,Bhuvana Chandra | |
| "Kadanna prema" | S. P. B. Charan | 6:54 | Veturi | |
| "Andaala Menakave" | Ranjith,Suchitra | 4:19 | Bhuvana Chandra |
All music is composed byYuvan Shankar Raja.
| No. | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7. | "Sedi Sedi Onnu" | Silambarasan | 1:34 |
| 8. | "Sedi Sedi Onnu (Music)" | Instrumental | 0:35 |
| 9. | "Kannale" | Yuvan Shankar Raja | 1:12 |
| 10. | "Sedi Sedi Onnu 2" | Silambarasan | 0:49 |
| 11. | "Fight Theme" | Instrumental | 0:47 |
| 12. | "Pesamalae Mugam" | Yuvan Shankar Raja | 1:44 |
| 13. | "Sedi Sedi Onnu 3" | Silambarasan | 1:19 |
| 14. | "Thathai Thathai 2" | Silambarasan,Clinton Cerejo,Blaaze,Vasundhara Das | 5:52 |
| 15. | "Manmadhan Theme 1" | Instrumental | 2:35 |
| 16. | "Manmadhan Theme 2" | Instrumental | 1:34 |
| 17. | "Manmadhan Theme 3" | Instrumental | 0:59 |
| 18. | "Manmadhan Theme 4" | Instrumental | 1:02 |
| 19. | "Manmadhan Theme 5" | Instrumental | 1:24 |
| 20. | "Manmadhan Theme 6" | Instrumental | 0:45 |
| Total length: | 22:11 | ||
Manmadhan received anA (adults only) certificate from thecensor board with some cuts.[23] Though made on a high budget of₹5 crore,[3] it was sold at a deficit to distributors. However, the film opened with 140 prints[24] and emerged successful despite facing competition from otherDiwali releases such asAttahasam,Neranja Manasu andChatrapathy.[25]
Sify wrote, "Manmathan is a taut thriller which engrosses the viewers with an engaging [narration], presentation, and is technically top class. [Silambarasan] has taken the audience by surprise with a good performance and contrary to his loud image that he had in films so far, he is a revelation".[26] Malathi Rangarajan ofThe Hindu wrote that Silambarasan's "impressive story telling skills find the right platform" inManmadhan. She added, "The hero takes on the onus of story, screenplay and direction supervision for the first time and displays a reasonable level of maturity."[27] Malini Mannath ofChennai Online wrote, "Manmadhan is worth a watch, an engaging suspense thriller, a fare different from the routine romance-action flicks dished out to the audience."[28] Visual Dasan ofKalki wrote that, though reminiscent of many American films includingThe Bone Collector, the plot was full of unpredictable twists and turns, and impresses without knives and without blood.[29]Cinesouth wrote, "Though this movie is inspired by the filmsSigappu Rojakkal andManmadha Leelai, we can realize the efforts that had gone into the screenplay by Silambarasan to make it different. The film's richness is a tribute to the producer. The director Muruhan had used ultra modern equipments and technology in this film efficiently".[30] G. Ulaganathan ofDeccan Herald wrote, "Though the film has shades of Kamal-Bharathi Raja'sSigappu Rojakkal,Manmadhan is Simbu's show all the way. [..] The major assets to the film are gripping narrative, good music by Yuvan Shankar Raja and Rajshekar's captivating camera".[31]
According toSify, the film's collection reports from Chennai, Coimbatore and Salem distribution territories indicated that it surged ahead ofAttahasam in its second week due to "rave reviews in the media and word-of-mouth among the youth".[32]
Manmadhan was dubbed in Telugu asManmadha,[22] and remade inKannada asMadana (2006).[33] In 2018, Murugan said he heard the producers were in talks to sell theHindi remake rights.[7]
A digitally remastered version of the film was released on 19 March 2021.[4][34]
The dialogue "Apo Puriyala Ipo Puriyudhu" (transl. I didn't get it then, now I do) spoken by Silambarasan attained popularity and has since entered Tamil vernacular.[35]
