Puli

Puli is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language fantasy action-adventure film written and directed by Chimbu Deven. The film stars Vijay in a dual role as demon prince and his son a half-demon alongside Hansika Motwani and Shruti Haasan in the female leads. Sudeep features as the main antagonist of the film along with Prabhu and Nandita Swetha in cameo roles. Sridevi features as the possessed evil Queen.This film marks Sridevi's comeback to Tamil cinema after 29 years since 1986 in Naan Adimai Illai.

The film's original Tamil version was released worldwide on 1 October 2015. The film was dubbed into both Telugu and Hindi, which were released a day later on 2 October 2015. The film performed well overseas, but underperformed domestically. The film was released in China and Japan.

The film only regained its budget through its film run, but actually earned profit by selling the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi satellite rights out of which, 20% of only the Hindi and Telugu rights ₹70 lakh was paid as a remuneration to the late actress Sridevi The Tamil satellite rights sold for ₹22 crore to Sun TV, and the film recovered the ₹100 crore investment, makes the profit margin for the makers of Puli around ₹3-4 crore, a low-profitable venture.

The film was praised for its visual effects, but criticized for its screenplay and editing.

The story revolves around the clash between humans and demons (Vedhalams) ruled by a demon kingdom in a fantasy world, where a human is fighting for justice for the killing of humans by demons. He however turns out to be a child of a demon prince whose powers were suppressed by the human clan.

 

Plot

Marudheeran is the adopted son of a tribal village chief named Vembunathan. From a young age, he notices the atrocities regularly committed on the villagers by soldiers from the neighbouring kingdom of Vedhalapuram called the Vedhalams, who have supernatural powers. One day when Vedhalams try to kidnap Pavazhamalli, Marudheeran throws a stone, for which his sister sacrifices herself to save him. When he becomes an adult, Marudheeran starts to protect the villagers from the Vedhalams, because of which he is well respected by the villagers.

Marudheeran falls in love with Pavazhamalli, One day, she is kidnapped by a group of Vedhalams, who then ransack the village and also kill Vembunathan. Marudheeran, along with his close friends Kodangi and Sama, begins a journey to Vedhalapuram. During the journey, Marudheeran rescues Manthagini, the princess of Vedhalapuram, from a panther. That time Princess Manthagini falls in love with Marudheeran. This is noticed by Thalapathy Jalatharangan, the Commander-in-Chief of Vedhalapuram. On the pretext of being medicine makers, Marudheeran, Kodangi, and Sama enter the Vedhalapuram palace, where they meet Yavanarani, the cruel Queen of Vedhalapuram who is also a sorceress. She allows them to stay at the palace, and soon Marudheeran wins the support of the Queen and the love of Manthagini with his fighting prowess and resilience. Yavanarani announces the engagement of Marudheeran with Manthagini and both get married.

Later, Marudheeran finds out that he himself is a Vedhalam. Marudheeran was the son of Pulivendhan, the late prince of Vedhalapuram, Yavanarani's younger brother and Manthagini's uncle. When he stood up to Jalatharangan, who used to terrorise the citizens of Vedhalapuram with the help of his henchmen, Jalatharangan killed him and his wife Pushpa. Marudheeran also finds out that Yavanarani is actually a puppet Queen under the influence of evil magical power emanating from Jalatharangan's ring. Due to the evil magical influence, Yavanarani developed magical powers as well as her tyrannical behaviour. She performs yearly Kanya Puja to boost her magical powers. After Yavanarani performs the Kanya Puja for the 18th consecutive year (this time on Pavazhamalli), Jalatharangan has planned to eliminate her and take over the throne.

Marudheeran fights Jalatharangan and kills him, avenging his father's death, but before he dies, he opens his ring, releasing all the evil magical power so that Yavanarani could continue to rule Vedhalapuram as a tyrantess without his control after his death. Marudheeran realises that the Queen can be returned to normal only if her staff, which is the source of her magical power, is destroyed. Marudheeran and Manthagini find her performing the Kanya Puja on Pavazhamalli. After a bitter sword fight with the Queen, he manages to destroy the staff, thus restoring the Queen to her normal self. In gratitude for releasing her from the evil magical influence, Yavanarani makes Marudheeran heir to the throne of Vedhalapuram.

 

Cast

·         Vijay as Marudheeran and Pulivendhan (Puli)

·         Sridevi as Queen Yavanarani

·         Sudeep as Thalapathy Jalatharangan

·         Shruti Haasan as Pavazhamalli

·         Hansika Motwani as Princess Manthagini

·         Vijayakumar as Vedhalam King

·         Thambi Ramaiah as Kodangi

·         Sathyan as Sama

·         Karunas as Sooran

·         Ali as Karki Newton, the Liliput King

·         Aadukalam Naren as Pavazhamalli's father

·         Gayathri Raman as Pavazhamalli's mother

·         Joe Malloori as Herbalist

·         Robo Shankar as Albert @ Alpha

·         Imman Annachi as Peter @ Beta

·         Vidyullekha Raman as Einstein Kamalakshi @ Gamma

·         Jangiri Madhumitha as Tharagamangalam

·         Jasper as Jalatharangan's assistant

·         Sugunthan as Vedhalam

·         Ajay Rathnam as Pei-azhagu Kuruvi

·         Junior Balaiah

·         Sangili Murugan

·         Vadivukkarasi

·         Tinnu Anand

·         G. M. Kumar

·         Sampath Ram

·         I. S. Rajesh

·         TSR

·         Prabhu as Vembunathan (Cameo appearance)

Nandita Swetha as Pushpa (Cameo appearance)