Pachaikili Muthucharam
Pachaikili Muthucharam is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. It is loosely based on James Siegel's 2003 novel Derailed. The film stars R. Sarathkumar, Jyothika, Andrea Jeremiah and Milind Soman. The score and soundtrack were composed by Harris Jayaraj. The film was released on 16 February 2007, and performed average at the box office.
Plot
Venkatesh, a medical representative, is happily married to Kalyani, and they both have a son named Nanda. They all have a perfect life, until Nanda falls sick and ends up in a hospital where he gets diagnosed with diabetes and things between Venkat and Kalyani cool down a bit. Kalyani begins to spend more time with Nanda and starts to ignore Venkat involuntarily. Venkat, feeling a bit lonely and neglected, walks in and out of his monotonous life without complaining much. He tries to understand Kalyani's feelings.One morning while riding the train to work, Venkat notices a woman named Geetha 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 that 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 they slowly 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 doing something alone. Venkat agrees and they take a taxi and drive to Mayajaal on East Coast Road.
However, 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. A knock on the door prompts Venkat to open the door. A goon who calls himself as Lawrence barges in, beats him up, robs the couple and ties Venkat up before raping Geetha. Venkat is grief-stricken, and he and Geetha both part ways. Lawrence starts calling Venkat and Geetha to blackmailing them for money. Venkat takes the full financial responsibility and starts paying off money that he had been saving for Nanda's medical expenses. As there is no money pay off, Venkat confesses to Kalyani. Angry and disappointed, she leaves him after he broke a promise of being with another girl, but she returns after 3 days after realising that she is short of money and wanted to see Nanda. Venkat admits his mistake and Kalyani forgives him.
One day, Venkat finds Geetha and Lawrence together in the street. He follows them and realises that he has been conned and that this is their daily business. When the gang is pulling the same trick on another person named Ramachandran, he beats Lawrence, barges into a hotel and explains it to Ramachandran. A fight occurs where Ramachandran is killed and Venkat accidentally shoots Geetha on her stomach. Angrily, Lawrence stabs Venkat on his hand and in a fit of rage, Venkat kills Lawrence. Venkat escapes but not before he gets a horrible beating from Geetha's men. He relocates with his family to Hyderabad. One day, Geetha's men kidnaps Kalyani. Later, he realises that Geetha didn't actually die and she kidnapped Kalyani to avenge Lawrence's death. She orders her men to beat Venkat up, for killing Lawrence. After a long fight, Venkat kills Geetha and saves Kalyani. He returns the money to Geetha's henchmen and leaves with Kalyani and Nanda.
Production
After reading the novel Derailed by James Siegel, Gautham Vasudev Menon decided to make a film loosely inspired by it rather than adapting the novel verbatim. The film was previously titled Vilai Uyirendraalum and Silandhi, but later titled Pachaikili Muthucharam, after a song from Ulagam Sutrum Valiban. Menon described the title as a metaphor to the film's content, saying, "What will happen to a string of pearls if a parrot gets it? The pearls might scatter away."For the lead female role several actresses were considered with Tabu, Kamalinee Mukherjee and Shobana as the frontrunners. Shobana was chosen to play the role whom Menon described as the "finest actor in the country". However, she was replaced by Andrea Jeremiah, who previously collaborated with Menon in Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu as a playback singer. The lead role was initially offered to Kamal Haasan, who declined. Cheran showed interest, but declined due to scheduling conflicts. R. Madhavan also declined as he was uninterested in playing the father of a child. After Menon casually met R. Sarathkumar, the actor agreed to do the film. The director also changed the actor's general looks for the film.