"Питамхаган: Адамнан жануарға дейін"

2003 film directed by Bala

Pithamagan is a 2003 Indian Tamil language action crime drama film written and directed by Bala. The film stars Vikram, Suriya, Laila, and Sangeetha. Based on Jayakanthan's short story Nandhavanathil Oru Aandi, it revolves around a man who grew away from civilisation with minimal human contact and, as a result is animalistic. Pithamagan was released on 24 October 2003. The film became a success, and Vikram won numerous accolades for his performance, including the National Film Award for Best Actor. It was remade in Kannada as Anatharu (2007) with Mahadevan reprising his role.

An anonymous woman dies while giving birth in a graveyard. Her child, Chithan, is found and raised by the caretaker of the graveyard. Chithan grows up among corpses with minimal human contact and is seemingly autistic. He growls and runs like a beast, but seems to understand loyalty and is a social animal. He ventures into a town in search of food and gets into trouble as he does not understand the concept of money. He is rescued by Gomathi, a petty marijuana dealer. She sees his ability to be loyal and enrolls him in the service of her employer, Sekar Vasudevan, a large scale marijuana grower. Chithan is caught during a drug raid and arrested. Sakthi is a con artist. He gets into trouble when he cons a woman named Manju into losing all her personal effects in a game of dice. Sakthi gets sent to jail thanks to Manju's detective work. He meets Chithan in prison and starts protecting him out of sympathy and pity. Chithan starts to reciprocate Sakthi's kindness with blind loyalty. Sakthi serves his term and then clashes with Sekar to get Chithan released from jail. Chithan gets out but commits a crime when he obeys his master's instruction to burn the body of a murder victim. Sakthi, realising that Chithan is being used as an accessory in crimes that he cannot comprehend, prevents Chithan from going back to working in the marijuana fields. At the same time, a budding romance starts between Sakthi and Manju, and Chithan too starts to see a shared spirit in Gomathi. The police catch wind of the murder and arrest Chithan. Sakthi gets Chithan to side with the police as an informant. Sekar later attacks and kills Sakthi. He dumps his body in the middle of the road. Chithan does not understand that Sakthi is dead and zones out into outer space when everyone surrounds him. Gomathi, Manju, and the others are crying. Gomathi sees Chithan's confusion as indifference and angrily drives him away from Sakthi's body. Chithan slowly starts to understand that Sakthi is dead as he sees him on the funeral pyre. His realisation is complete when he wakes up in the morning next to the burnt remains of Sakthi's corpse. He experiences emotions that he has never experienced before: fury, agony, betrayal, and pain that he has never felt. His body bears the scars of a million bruises and his acts of violence have always been self defence and the defence of his masters. This realisation of the meaning of death and the pain of losing a loved one breaks the feral chains that had wound his psyche. Chithan retaliates by setting fire to the marijuana fields, letting Sekar experience the pain of his loss, and then sets upon destroying him physically. He drives him through the street, taking his time by breaking a few bones at a time until he is done toying with him. He then kills Sekar by biting his neck and leaves the village after.

The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The song "Piraiye Piraiye" is set in Pantuvarali raga.

Pithamagan was released on 24 October 2003, coinciding with Diwali. The film released alongside Vijay's Thirumalai, Ajith's Anjaneya and Arjun's Ottran.

The film received critical acclaim with praise for the story, direction, screenplay and performances of Vikram, Surya, Laila and Sangeetha. Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu praised Vikram as "Without any dialogue to support him he carves a niche for himself in the viewer's mind with his expressions and excellent body language" and Suriya as "Who would have thought that this young man, pitted against the serious Chithan, would prove so perfect a foil?" going on to declare the movie as " a symphony on celluloid". A reviewer at Sify noted, " it is the expert performance of the lead actors that elevate the film above the commonplace". Film critic Baradwaj Rangan remarked, "Bala's ingeniousness is evident everywhere And he gets tremendous support from his leads It all adds up to a first rate film that excoriates as much as it entertains". Malini Mannath wrote in Chennai Online, "It's an off beat, sensitive and a serious film, which may lack in commercial ingredients but which a discerning viewer will find a welcome change". Visual Dasan of Kalki praised the performances of lead actors, Bala's direction, also praising Balasubramaniam's cinematography and Ilaiyaraaja's music for working equally hard with director and concluded Pithamagan is not Vikram and Surya film, it is Bala's unique work.

Award Date of ceremony Category Nominee(s)Ref. (Reference(s))National Film Awards2 February 2005Best ActorVikramTamil Nadu State Film Awards 2006Best ActorVikramBest ActressLailaBest Character Artiste (Female)SangeethaFilmfare Awards South12 June 2004Best Film – TamilPithamaganBest Director – TamilBalaBest Actor – TamilVikramBest Actress – TamilLailaBest Supporting Actor – TamilSuriyaBest Supporting Actress – TamilSangeethaCineMAA Awards 5 November 2004South India's Best ActorVikram

Pithamagan was dubbed into Telugu and released as Siva Putrudu on 2 April 2004. The film was remade in Kannada as Anatharu (2007).