Чандramукхи: Тайна старинного поместья

2005 film by P. Vasu

Chandramukhi is a 2005 Indian Tamil language psychological comedy horror film written and directed by P. Vasu. It is a remake of Vasu's Kannada film Apthamitra (2004) which itself is based on the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993). The film stars Rajinikanth, Prabhu and Jyothika (who played the title role) along with an ensemble supporting cast, including Vadivelu, Nayanthara, Nassar and Sheela. It revolves around a woman who suffers from dissociative identity disorder that affects a family, and a psychiatrist who intends to solve the case while risking his life. Chandramukhi was produced by Prabhu and his brother Ramkumar Ganesan through their company Sivaji Productions, and is the company's 50th film. The soundtrack album and background score were composed by Vidyasagar. Cinematography was handled by Sekhar V. Joseph and editing was done by Suresh Urs. Principal photography began on 24 October 2004 and was completed in March 2005. Chandramukhi was released on 14 April 2005 on the eve of the Tamil New Year. The film became a major box office success, with a theatrical run of 890 days at Shanti Theatre. The film won five Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, four Film Fans' Association Awards and two Filmfare Awards. Jyothika and Vadivelu were each awarded a Kalaimamani Award for their work on the film. A sequel Chandramukhi 2 was released in 2023.

Saravanan, a renowned psychiatrist from the United States, comes to visit his best friend Senthilnathan and his wife Ganga while on holiday. Senthil's mother Kasthuri wanted Senthil to marry Priya, the daughter of his father's cousin Kandaswamy, to reunite the two branches of the family after 30 years of separation because Senthil's father chose to marry Kasthuri instead of Kandaswamy's sister, Akhilandeshwari, who is also his cousin. Saravanan learns that Senthil had bought the Vettaiyapuram mansion, despite attempts by the local village elders to dissuade them, and moves in with them. Akhilandeshwari is jealous of Saravanan and plots to get rid of him with the help of her assistant Oomaiyan. When the family visits their ancestral temple, the chief priest reveals the reason everyone fears the mansion. Around 150 years ago, a king named Vettaiyan travelled to Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh, where he met and lusted after a dancer named Chandramukhi. However, she did not reciprocate his feelings as she was already in love with another dancer named Gunasekaran. As a result, Vettaiyan took her back to his palace by force. Unbeknownst to him, Chandramukhi made arrangements for Gunasekaran to stay in a house opposite the mansion and met him secretly. When Vettaiyan discovered this, he beheaded Gunasekaran on Durgashtami and burnt Chandramukhi alive. As a result, Chandramukhi's spirit wants to take revenge on Vettaiyan, who with the help of various priests and sorcerers from all over the country, tamed the spirit by locking it in an urn, keeping it on a shelf in a room located in the palace's south west corner and guarded by a king cobra. Vettaiyan too died after a few years. Back at home, Priya is in love with Vishwanathan, a dance professor who reciprocates her feelings. Their love is supported by Saravanan, who requests Kandaswamy to arrange their marriage. After hearing Chandramukhi's story, Ganga, who thinks that the story was fabricated to keep thieves from stealing treasures in the room, wishes to go there. Saravanan receives an email to attend a patient and assures Senthil to call him if anything happens before leaving. Ganga works with the gardener's granddaughter Durga to forge a duplicate key to Chandramukhi's room and successfully opens the door and frees Chandramukhi's spirit but subsequently, strange things begin to happen in the household: a ghost frightens the people in the house, things inexplicably break, and Ganga's sari catches fire. Suspicion turns towards Durga as she spends the most time with Ganga. Senthil immediately calls Saravanan to solve the case and as soon as Saravanan returns, a mysterious being tries to kill Priya. Saravanan also investigates other incidents such as the attempts to kill Senthil made by poisoning his coffee and pushing a glass fish tank off of a balcony to fall onto his head. Meanwhile, every night, Saravanan can hear the sound of someone singing and dancing from upstairs in Chandramukhi's room. Priya's father and family approves of her and Vishwanathan's wedding, and they make grand arrangements for it by order of Akhilandeshwari. Ganga mysteriously disappears during their engagement party. Saravanan notices her absence and searches for her, but is attacked by Oomaiyanwho has been sent by Akhilandeshwari. Saravanan subdues Oomaiyan and with Senthil's help finds Ganga, who is supposedly being sexually harassed by Viswanathan. Finally, Saravanan reveals to Senthil and Viswanathan that Ganga suffers from split personality disorder following the traumatic death of her parents. He also reveals that she heard legends from her grandmother and imagined herself in the positions of the main characters, only worsening her disorder. Ganga's mischief and inquisitiveness made her enter Chandramukhi's room, and started imagining herself as Chandramukhi. She sees glimpse of her lover Gunasekaran in Vishwanathan while Priya and Senthil being obstacles getting in between them, for which she tried to kill Senthil and Priya and framed Viswanathan for sexual harassment to stop his wedding to Priya. Saravanan explains that the only way to completely eliminate Chandramukhi is to make her believe that she killed Vettaiyan on Durgashtami, letting them know that he would have to sacrifice himself on Durgashtami, since Saravanan impersonated Vettaiyan and disrupted one of the pujas conducted by the exorcist Ramachandra Acharya by conversing with Chandramukhi to know its wish. Akhilandeshwari overhears Saravanan's idea of self sacrifice and apologises to him. On Durgashtami, before carrying out his plan, Saravanan asks Senthil to trigger Ganga and see for himself whether she turns into Chandramukhi or not. When Senthil does so, she turns into Chandramukhi, which shocks him. A worried Senthil shouts at Ganga, stunning her back to normal. She falls unconscious and Senthil lets her rest, but once left alone, Saravanan, Senthil and Vishwanathan can hear the sound of Bharatanatyam anklets coming from the mansion's dance hall. They bring the family there for Ramachandra Acharya's rituals, where he allows Ganga, to burn Saravanan alive. Ramachandra Acharya then blows smoke and ash on Ganga's face when she is given a torch to burn Saravanan, distracting her momentarily. Senthil then opens a trapdoor to let Saravanan escape, and an effigy of Vettaiyan gets burnt instead. Convinced that Vettaiyan is dead, Ganga stops imagining herself as Chandramukhi, curing her. The two families are reunited after 30 years, and Saravanan lets them know that him and Durga have been in love for a long time. Durga leaves happily with Saravanan, and the couple Swarna and Murugesan become parents after eight years of marriage.

Director P. Vasu, producer Ramkumar Ganesan and Rajinikanth's friend Raj Bahaddur make guest appearances in the song "Devuda Devuda".

During the success meet of Mannan (1992), Rajinikanth announced that he would act in Sivaji Productions' 50th film, which would eventually become Chandramukhi. In September 2004, Rajinikanth congratulated P. Vasu on the success of his Kannada film Apthamitra (2004) and was impressed with the film's screenplay. Vasu then requested to remake the film in Tamil with Rajinikanth, who in turn, called Ramkumar Ganesan and asked him to produce it under Ramkumar's banner, Sivaji Productions. Vasu reworked the script he wrote for Apthamitra to suit Rajinikanth's style of acting. Thota Tharani was the film's art director, Regarding the designing of the Vettaiyapuram palace, he watched both Apthamitra and its source Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993) to get the basic idea of the film's plot. Vasu wanted Tharani to make the sets more colourful and grand and did not want the realistic look of the original film. Tharani designed Chandramukhi's room and placed a corridor in it, which was noticeably different from the original and its Kannada remake. The corridor resembled those commonly seen in palaces in Kerala.

Rajinikanth played the roles of Dr. Saravanan and King Vettaiyan. He sported a wig for his role. Both Rajinikanth and P. Vasu discussed every scene featuring the former and added necessary inputs before they were shot. Rajinikanth appears in the beginning of the film unlike Manichitrathazhu, where the same character, played by Mohanlal, appears in the middle of the film. Rajinikanth requested Vasu to change the dancer's name from Nagavalli, which was the name of the danseuse in Apthamitra, to Chandramukhi since the latter sounded more royal. While Vishnuvardhan uttered "Haula Haula" in the original, Rajinikanth used "Lakka Lakka", which was based on the mannerisms of a villain in a Marathi play Rajinikanth watched in his childhood days. Ramkumar's brother Prabhu played Senthilnathan, a civil engineer and owner of the fictional Ganesh Constructions. Prabhu co produced the film with Ramkumar. For the roles of Ganga and Chandramukhi, Soundarya was initially selected to reprise her role from Apthamitra, but her death led the director to choose Simran and he shaped the character to suit her. In November 2004, Simran refused to do the project, as her role required a lot of dancing and cited her pregnancy at that time as another reason for her refusal. Aishwarya Rai was offered the role but she declined the offer due to scheduling conflicts. Sadha, and Reema Sen were also as replacements. The role finally went to Jyothika, who allotted 50 days of her schedule. Vasu wanted her to perform her scenes in a manner different from that of Shobana in Manichitrathazhu, enacting the scenes himself before they were shot featuring Jyothika. Nayanthara was selected to portray the role of Durga after Vasu was impressed with her performance in the Malayalam film Manassinakkare (2003). Sheela played Akhilandeswari, the intimidating older sister of Kandaswamy (Nassar) and Murugesan. When Sheela was signed on for the role, she was requested by the producers not to divulge details about her role to the media. Avinash reprised his role of the exorcist Ramachandra Acharya who talks with the spirit Chandramukhi from Apthamitra.

Principal photography commenced on 24 October 2004 with a puja ceremony for the muhurat shot at Annai Illam, the residence of Sivaji Ganesan. Ramkumar Ganesan said the filming would be finished by 15 February 2005, giving the crew two months to complete the post production work, including visual effects. The first shooting schedule began two days later with a fight scene choreographed by Thalapathy Dinesh and filmed at Ramavaram in Chennai. More than 25 Toyota Qualis and 30 stunt artists were involved in the fight sequence that featured Rajinikanth. The Vettaiyapuram mansion was erected in Hyderabad. The picturisation of the song "Devuda Devuda" focused on a variety of professions, especially janitors, sewage cleaners, farmers and washer folk. According to Ramji, who helped the production unit look for locations for the song "Konjam Neram", Ramkumar Ganesan and Vasu chose Turkey, making Chandramukhi the first Tamil film to be shot there. The production unit flew to Istanbul from Chennai via Dubai on 25 February 2005. "Raa Raa" was choreographed by Kala and took four days to be completed instead of the planned seven days.

Vidyasagar composed the soundtrack album and the background score of Chandramukhi. The soundtrack album consists of six tracks. Vaali, Yugabharathi, Pa. Vijay, Na. Muthukumar and Bhuvana Chandra wrote the lyrics. The track "Raa Raa" was based on the Surya raaga, which is also known as the Sallabham raaga, and the chorus portion was based on the song of the same name from Apthamitra. The audio rights for the film were sold to Sanjay Wadhwa of AnAK audio, later known as AP International for 11 million. Tata Indicom and Sunfeast Biscuits were the sponsors for the audio launch and marketing. The album was released on 5 March 2005 at the Taj Connemara hotel in Chennai. An overseas audio launch took place the next day in Malaysia. The cassettes were priced at 45 each and CD's at 99 each. The film's background score was released as a separate album. The album received positive reviews from critics. Siddhu Warrier of Rediff said that "Devuda Devuda" "finds S. P. Balasubramanian in top form". He called "Konjam Neram" "melodious in a forgettable kind of way", "Athinthom" a "soft, melodious song", "Kokku Para Para" as "insipid", "Raa Raa" "a rather listenable track", and said "Annonda Pattu" is "vintage Rajni, and gets your feet tapping. One can almost picture Rajni brandishing his trademark cigarette and sunglasses as he gyrates to the beat. If one is a die hard Rajni fan, then one is likely to go dancing to this." Singer Charulatha Mani, writing for The Hindu called the song "Konjam Neram", which was based on the Sriranjani raga, an "attractive take on the raga" and said the song "is contemporary in feel and traditional at the roots".

The film was released on 14 April 2005, a Tamil New Year's Day release, alongside Kamal Haasan starrer Mumbai Xpress and Vijay starrer Sachein. Chandramukhi was released in 37 theatres in Malaysia, 15 in Europe, nine in Sri Lanka, seven in the United States, four each in Canada and the Persian Gulf countries and two each in Australia and Singapore. The film was released with 23 prints in Coimbatore, 12 more than Rajinikanth's Padayappa (1999). Chandramukhi was screened at the 18th Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan on 23 October 2005 and 28 October 2005 as part of the 'Winds of Asia' section. It was the first public screening of the film in Japan. It was met with positive response from audiences there. The film opened the 7th IIFA Awards Film Festival held at the Dubai International Convention Centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, becoming the first South Indian film to open the Film Festival. In November 2011, it was screened at the International Tamil Film Festival held in Uglich, Russia alongside Thillana Mohanambal (1968), Sivaji: The Boss (2007), Angadi Theru (2010), Boss Engira Bhaskaran (2010), Thenmerku Paruvakaatru (2010) and Ko (2011). Though the film was a remake, Madhu Muttam, who wrote the story for Manichithrathazhu, was not mentioned in either the opening or closing credits. Instead, the story was credited to the director P. Vasu. Vasu defended himself by stating the script was not a scene by scene remake of the original and that only the basic plot was used.

The producers entered into a business dealing with Tata Indicom to promote the film; ringtones of the songs from the film's soundtrack and special screensavers were issued. Giant cutouts of Rajinikanth and movie release posters were posted all over the state as a run up for the release. The promotional campaign started in early March 2005 and continued mid May that year. The film was screened in eight city theatres in Chennai.

The film's original negative was damaged because of poor care and ill treatment. AP International started a restoration project, which scanned the film frame by frame in a 2K workflow. They were able to remove all wear and tear and retain the natural film grain. This restored version was released on 2 August 2012 on Blu ray format. The satellite rights were sold to Sun TV. Its television premiere occurred on the occasion of Diwali in 27 October 2008.

Writing for The Hindu, Malathi Rangarajan said, "As you watch the film you cannot but admire the ingenuity of writer director P. Vasu in choosing a story that is bound to sell and at the same time helping Rajini maintain his image of an invincible hero", before concluding that, "The 'Mannan' team proves a winner again". Another critic from The Hindu, Sudhish Kamath, said Rajinikanth is "at his vintage best". A reviewer from The Times of India called the film "Entertaining, stylish, respectful of ritual, and always massively larger than life". Arun Ram of India Today said, "With Chandramukhi, Rajnikant revives his fading career and fortunes of Tamil cinema". Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan said in its review, "Rajni's films normally revolve around him but in this case, Rajni is in a script which goes around several people   Rajni as Vettaiyan is the highlight of the film   After many years, Rajni has shown that he does not confine to his personality cage through this film." and gave the film 40 marks out of 100. The Sify reviewer wrote that Chandramukhi was simply "a remake of P. Vasu's Apthamitra from Kannada with some additional songs, fights and comedy scenes thrown in to further boost the superstar's image" but like Ulaganathan, commended the comedy scenes of Rajinikanth and Vadivelu, terming them the film's highlight. A. Ganesh Nadar of Rediff said the film would become "a certain hit" and,"[t]he star will be happy, his fans will be happy and producer Prabhu will giggle all the way to the bank". V. Gangadhar of The Tribune wrote, "As in all Rajni films, Chandramukhi is a one star attraction and Rajni plays to the gallery, There are no political messages in the film and that should come as some relief. With Nayanthara and Jyothika in the female leads, there is plenty of glamour in the film. But the message is clear, King Rajni is back. His legion of fans can not ask for more." Karthiga Rukmanykanthan writing for Daily News Sri Lanka said, "   the long anticipated delight Chandramukhi has made itself the box office hit of the year". Grady Hendrix of Slate appreciated Rajinikanth's characterisation in the film, calling the character, Saravanan's ability to read minds "well trained" before concluding, "Rajinikanth's movies are crammed with comedy, action, and musical numbers and they take great delight in kicking narrative logic in the face."

Chandramukhi was a box office success, selling 20 million tickets worldwide and earning 150 million in salary and profit share for Rajinikanth. The film's distributors made a 20 per cent profit over the 25 million for which they bought the rights to the film. The film's 804th day celebration function was held at Kamaraj Arangam in Chennai on 25 June 2007. The then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, director K. Balachander, film producer and owner of AVM Productions M. Saravanan, Kamal Haasan and Sridevi attended the function. Karunanidhi presented the "Shivaji" sword to the film's cast and crew, and awards were given to everyone involved in the film.

Chandramukhi grossed 8.4 million in 11 days in eight screens in Chennai. In the Santham screen of Sathyam Cinemas, around 22,000 tickets were sold for the first 10 days of its release. Chandramukhi grossed 30 million in Coimbatore, beating the 24.5 million record set there by Padayappa. Chandramukhi received 60 million as Minimum Guarantee (MG) from theatres in North Arcot, South Arcot and Chengalpattu districts collectively. It was also a hit in Kerala where it grossed 711,545 in four days, doing better than the Mohanlal starrer Chandrolsavam, which also released on 14 April 2005, but grossed 523,340 during the same period of time. The film's theatrical run lasted 890 days at Shanthi Theatre, beating the 62 year record set by the 1944 film Haridas, which ran for 784 days at the Broadway theatre, also in Chennai. The New Indian Express estimates that it grossed 650 million (US$14.3 million in 2005). It was the longest running South Indian film, until surpassed by the Telugu film Magadheera (2009), which completed a theatrical run of 1000 days in April 2012.

Chandramukhi was screened in Tokyo in October 2005 to packed houses. Chandramukhi completed a 100 day theatrical run in South Africa. It collectively earned 43 million in Malaysia, UAE and the US during the first month of its theatrical run. The film collected 62.78 million (US$1.4 million in 2005) in Malaysia; it was the only Indian film to feature in that country's top ten grossing films of the year.

In an August 2005 seminar on revisiting psychiatric disorders which centred around Chandramukhi and Anniyan, psychiatrist Asokan noted that there were many logical faults in both films; Vasu said he knew nothing about psychiatric disorders. Writing for PopMatters in 2014, Kumuthan Maderya criticised Vasu for confusing "spirit possession with Dissociative Identity Disorder, conflating both to create pop psychology" and "Ostensibly fusing modern science and demonology for the sake of intellectualism".

Some scenes, lines and expressions from the film, such as the "Lakka Lakka " sound that Rajnikanth's character makes, became very popular, especially with children. Vadivelu's expressions and scenesespecially those with Rajinikanthand lines including "Maapu? Vachittandaa Aapu!!!" (Dude? He screwed me up!!! ), also became popular. A line spoken by Rajinikanth to Prabhu, Naan gunda irundha nalla irukkadhu nee elachcha nalla irukkadhu, which translates into "I won't look good if I put on weight but you won't look good if you have reduced weight" evoked a lot of laughter among audiences. Prabhu's line, "Enna kodumai Saravanan idhu? ", which means "What atrocity is this, Saravanan?" became popular. It is usually used to express irony or surprise. The line was often parodied by actor Premgi Amaren, who altered it slightly to "Enna Kodumai, Sir Idhu?" and used it in all of his featured films, subsequently becoming the actor's catchphrase. Prabhu, in an interview with Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu, expressed appreciation for the way his "serious line" was made into a comical one.

Chandramukhi was parodied in various films. In a comedy scene from Englishkaran (2005), Theeppori Thirumugam (Vadivelu) invents an idea to frighten Thamizharasu (Sathyaraj) but the ruse backfires on him as he witnesses Thamizharasu in a garb similar to that of Chandramukhi's. In a scene from Thalaimagan (2006), Erimalai (Vadivelu), after entering an old abandoned bungalow, gets frightened when he hears the "Lakka Lakka" sound, and says Yaaro Telugula Koopuddrangga! ( "Someone is calling in Telugu!"). In Vallavan (2006), Vallavan (Silambarasan) is seen singing "Konja Neram" to Swapna (Nayanthara). In Sivaji: The Boss (2007), Thamizhselvi (Shriya Saran) would be seen dancing for the song "Raa Raa", Sivaji (Rajinikanth) and Arivu (Vivek) are seen uttering the last lines of the song. Livingston who appears as a police inspector, utters the sound "Lakka Lakka" which Rajinikanth makes in Chandramukhi. Rajinikanth and Nayanthara's characters act in a film within a film titled Chandramukhi 2 in a scene from Kuselan (2008), which P. Vasu also directed. In Thamizh Padam (2010), Shiva (Shiva) would be seen imitating the film's introduction scene by stretching his leg when it is revealed that Siva has a split seam in his pants. Sundar C.'s role in the film Aranmanai (2014) was inspired by Rajinikanth's role in Chandramukhi. Chandramukhi was parodied in the Star Vijay comedy series Lollu Sabha, in an episode named Chappamukhi.

Chandramukhi was later dubbed in Hindi and Turkish with the same title and in Bhojpuri under the title Chandramukhi Ke Hunkaar. It is the first Tamil film to be dubbed into German. It was released in Germany under the title, Der Geisterjäger Despite the release of Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), Chandramukhi's Hindi dubbed version was released on 29 February 2008 by Dilip Dhanwani, owner of the production house Royal Film Company. The Hindi version was released in collaboration with producer A. M. Rathnam.

In April 2020, a sequel, Chandramukhi 2, to be produced by Sun Pictures was announced, but was eventually taken over by Lyca Productions in June 2022, owing to the delays from the COVID 19 pandemic. P. Vasu returned as the director with confirmed cast members including Raghava Lawrence, Kangana Ranaut, Lakshmi Menon and Vadivelu. Principal photography began in mid July 2022, and wrapped by mid August 2023. The film released on 28 September 2023 and was a major commercial and critical failure.

A spin off to Chandramukhi, named Nagavalli, was made in Telugu. It was a remake of Aptharakshaka (2010), which itself was a direct sequel to Apthamitra (2004). It was directed by P. Vasu and released on 16 December 2010.