Pudhupettai - A decade old dictator

The memes you see in social media are derived mostly from this movie. The names you hear in gangster movies are derived mostly from this movie. The black comedies you see in today's movies are mostly inspired from this movie. It’s been 10 Years since the release of this movie. Still it didn’t lose any of its fame.Yes;”Puthupettai" is its name. (A Selvaraghan masterpiece which is remembered for years.) The whole social media celebrated its 10 Year Anniversary recently. It didn’t have a successful box office run.But it is having an endless run in everyone's hearts.

"Kokki Kumaru" is what Puthupettai is...His start,struggles,rise,conqueres,pain,fall is what Puthupettai deals as a whole..Kokki kumaru is not a "Velu Naayakan"..He is the lead ofourse,but Selva never shows him as a hero...The scenes infact justify his evilness more than his goodness..Thats how Selva sculpted him...

1) Kumar's friend Mani calls Kumar as a chiefguest for his sister's marriage.Unexpectedly Kumar ties marriage knot to Selvi there ...Still he never feels guilty for his behaviour and he shouts at his friend for crying...

2) He blackmails his wife in first night that he will kill her brother...

3) He warns his wife's brother smartly in court by saying his wife will die if judgement is against him...

This is Koki kumar for you-A merciless don who just does things for his pleasure-And thats why people call Selvaraghavan as a trendsetting bold director...In how many movies you see heroes doing this ??? None other than Selva can think like this..

Dhanush as a Don..Many would have laughed hearing this sentence in 2006.But Dhanush proved everyone wrong by his stellar perfomance.There's even a dialogue "Yaar da avan pencil la kodu pota maari irukaan??" to tease his physique.But more than physique its your body langauge and facial expression which makes you as a good actor.Dhanush initially was sketchted as an innocent local boy then the character started to evlove slowy then transformed into a epical 'Kokki Kumar'.

1)"'He tries to escape from his father.So he tries to unlock door's latch vigorously..But he coludnt open because of fear and he wets his pants..

2)He sweeps a car's mirror and asks for money with an innocent face.

3)He couldnt climb a wall and got stuck inbetween his try..But he tries and tries to climb..
Dhanush scores high in all of these scenes easily.More than Dhanush it was Selva who was visible in these scenes.

Apart from Kokkikumaar,there are other characters who left their marks..First its Krishnaveni played by Sneha..A big salute for her immense guts to act in this role..No often you see a heroine playing a prostitute role and no often you see a heroine getting hit in a violent manner.Sneha accepted this daring proposal and her perfomance was a jawdrop moment for everyone...Selva concieved her role with some respect which was very healthy to see as a cinema lover..And you see Sonia Agarwal as Selvi ..She too is bold like all other Selva's woman and she appears only in the later half of the movie.So has very little role to play..The other actors Singamperumal,Anbu and Kumar's friends all  did a great job under Selva's guindance.

There are directors like Mani Ratnam who does trendsetting quality movies.There are directors like Bala who does raw and violent movies.But they never did a 'Puthupettai'.Its not about the quality alone.If its quality, then they are the best.But Its about  quality along with the unconventional execution.Thats why Selva reached these heights inspite of his limited works.

Yuvan shankar Raja takes each and every scene to a great experience through his music...This was the era where background scores started to take centre stage..The whole credits must go to Yuvan for showing the importance of background scores to Tamil audience..Without him bgms wont have attained such a glorified place now..Selling the Dope,Variya-Night Life,Main theme were  brilliant instrumentations and they can be found even in movie's albums..Musicians started adding thier scores to thier albums only after that..Yuvan is the man who set this trend..His other songs 'Nerupu Vayinil' 'Enga Area' 'Pulpesum' were masterpiece works and assisted the brilliant movie in the best possible way.

Aravind Krishna as a cinematographer showed his class by varying colour tones for each and every period of the movie..Even change of colour tones became a trend after that..He used dark and pale yellow tone first to show the night scenes and then experiments by using flouroscent light for the scenes having dhanush in jail..The scenes in flouroscence light showed sheer brilliance of Dhanush's angst...Thats mainly because of Aravind's lenswork...He presented the movie raw and real as much as possible..Editing by Kola bhaskar made the story cohesive which keeps on shifts from flashback to present jail scenes.The song portions were edited well too..A special applause must be given for Balakumaran for his realistic and poetic dialogues..Even simple dialogues made you to clap in some places.

Puthupettai is not just a good story or a good life,it is a compliation of many great scenes and goose bump moments.Thats why still it is considered as best gangster movie.Scenes and incidents are those which define a character.The character's sucess is mainly due to these powerful scenes.You can't name those scenes as Puthupettai keeps on offering those throughout its running time..But the best is the scene invloving Kumar and baby in climax.Kumar tells "Romba aada kudathu pa.Aadna ithan gathi."to his son realising all of his mistakes.You think the movie ends here..But it doesnt..There comes  another scene where dhanush takes revenge.You think the movie ends here..But it doesnt..There comes another scene where dhanush is being taken by police men..You predict that Kumar will be killed and think movie will end here..But it doesnt..There comes another scene where you see Kumar back as politician..You will be waiting whats next..But now the movie ends here..Thats why Selva is not the next Maniratnam or next Bala.He is the first Selva !!

When the director,music director,cinematographer,actors all join to give their best,We get an epic movie like "Puthupettai".Even the cast and crew of Puthupettai can't beat the work they did in this movie..A milestone movie which is cherished for years...Years may pass by..But Puthupettai's Kokki Kumaru is "A decade old dictator".

Whenever you watch this movie in telivision or laptop or just as a template  meme you ask one question to yourself !! Where are Selva and Yuvan now?