Chandramukhi () is a 2005 Indian Tamil-language comedy horror film written and directed by P. Vasu. It is a remake of Vasu's Kannada film Apthamitra (2004) which itself was based on the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993). The film stars Rajinikanth, Prabhu and Jyothika (who played the titular role) in the leads, along with an ensemble supporting cast, including Vadivelu, Nayanthara, Nassar and Sheela. It revolves around a woman who has 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, the highest grossing Tamil film of the year 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.
Plot Dr. Saravanan, a psychiatrist, visits India while on vacation. He meets up with his foster brother Senthilnathan, alias Senthil, and his wife Ganga. Senthil's mother Kasthuri wanted him to marry Priya, the daughter of his father's cousin Kandaswamy, to reunite the two branches of the family after 30 years of separation; this is because Senthil's father chose to marry Kasthuri instead of Akhilandeshwari, Kandaswamy's sister. When Saravanan learns that Senthil has bought the Vettaiyapuram mansion, despite attempts by the local village elders to dissuade him, he decides to also move into the mansion. Akhilandeshwari is jealous of Saravanan and plots to kill him with the help of her assistant Oomaiyan.
When the family visits a temple, the chief priest reveals the reason everyone fears the Vettaiyapuram mansion. Some 150 years earlier, 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 a dancer named Gunashekaran. As a result, Vettaiyan took her back to his palace by force. Unknown to him, Chandramukhi made Gunashekaran stay in a house nearby and met with him in secret. When Vettaiyan discovered this, he beheaded Gunashekaran on Durgashtami and burnt Chandramukhi alive. Chandramukhi's ghost has haunted the southwest room of the palace ever since, in order to take revenge on the king. Later, the marriage between Priya and Vishwanathan, a dance professor, is supported by Saravanan; he then asks Kandaswamy to arrange their marriage.
After hearing Chandramukhi's story, Ganga thinks that the story was fabricated to scare thieves from stealing treasures in the room, and decides to go there. Saravanan receives an email to attend a patient and assures Senthil to call him if anything happens before leaving. Ganga gets the room key from the gardener's granddaughter, Durga, and opens the door. Subsequently, strange things begin to happen in the household; a ghost frightens the people in the house, things inexplicably break, and Ganga's saree catches fire. Suspicion turns towards Durga. Senthil calls Saravanan to solve the case. As soon as Saravanan returns, a mysterious being tries to kill Priya. Attempts to kill Senthil are made with poison and by pushing a fish tank. A mysterious voice sings during the night. Saravanan investigates these incidents.
Ganga mysteriously disappears during Priya and Viswanathan's wedding reception. Saravanan notices her absence and searches for her, but he is almost killed by Oomaiyan, who has been sent by Akhilandeshwari. Saravanan subdues Oomaiyan and, with Senthil's help, finds Ganga, who is supposedly being aggressively harassed by Viswanathan. Saravanan reveals to Senthil and Viswanathan that Ganga has Dissociative Identity Disorder. He details how she became affected by it and how she took up Chandramukhi's identity. He tells them Ganga tried to kill Priya and Senthil, and to frame Viswanathan for harassment because, from Chandramukhi's view, Viswanathan is her lover Gunashekaran, since he stays in the same house as Gunashekaran did. The only way to stop this from happening is to make Ganga believe Saravanan is dead. This is because Saravanan acted like Vettaiyan and disrupted one of the pujas conducted by the exorcist Ramachandra Acharya by conversing with the ghost to know its wish.
Akhilandeshwari overhears Saravanan's idea of self-sacrifice and apologises to him. Later, in the dance hall, the family witnesses Ganga completely dressed up as Chandramukhi, with disheveled hair and a maniacally spooky gaze. Saravanan uses Viswanathan as Gunashekaran to lure Chandramukhi into the exorcism place and Ramachandra Acharya gives Chandramukhi a burning torch and allows her to burn Saravanan alive. Just before the fire can reach Saravanan, Ramachandra Acharya blows smoke and ash on Ganga's face, temporarily blinding her. Senthil then opens a trapdoor to let Saravanan escape, and an duplicate of Vettaiyan gets burnt instead. Convinced that Vettaiyan is dead, Chandramukhi leaves Ganga's body, curing her. The two families are reunited after 30 years. Saravanan and Durga fall in love, and Swarna and Murugesan become parents after eight years of marriage.
Cast
Director P. Vasu, producer Ramkumar Ganesan and Rajinikanth's friend Raj Bahaddur make guest appearances in the song "Devuda Devuda".
Production Development
During a success meet for 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.
Ramkumar telephoned Vasu, who was offering worship in a temple in Guruvayur at that time, informing him of Rajinikanth's wish to do Apthamitra in Tamil under his direction. Vasu reworked the script he wrote for Apthamitra to suit Rajinikanth's style of acting. The film dealt mainly with the concept of dissociative identity disorder, commonly known as "multiple personality disorder" (MPD) or "split personality disorder". Another film titled Anniyan (2005), which was released two months after Chandramukhi, was also based on the same disorder.
Thota Tharani was the film's art director, and also designed the costumes. 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. Sidney Sladen did additional costume designing in the film.
Casting
Rajinikanth played the roles of Dr. Saravanan and King Vettaiyan. He sported a wig for his role. Both Rajinikanth and 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. 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, Simran was initially cast. She ultimately 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 later offered the role but declined. Sadha and Reema Sen were also considered 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).
Vadivelu portrayed the comic role of Murugesan. Rajinikanth, at the film's 200th day theatrical run celebration function, said that it was he who recommended Vadivelu to Vasu for the role and had asked Ramkumar to get Vadivelu's dates before planning the filming schedules. 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.
Filming
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 song sequences, one picturised on Rajini alone, two songs in which he appears with the other principal cast members, and the climax song, which was picturised on Jyothika, were filmed in Ramoji Film City. Vasu said the film had taken only 78 days to be completed instead of the planned 120 days.
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. The filming of the song was completed after the audio launch. "Konjam Neram" was shot in segments in Ephesus and Pamukkale. Shooting in Ephesus took six hours. The segment in Pamukkale was filmed in an amphitheatre in the ancient city of Hierapolis, which is located close to Pamukkale. The last segment was shot in the Cappadocia region, a 10-hour drive by bus from Istanbul. "Raa Raa" was choreographed by Kala and took four days to be completed instead of the planned seven days.
Music
Vidyasagar composed the soundtrack album and the background score of Chandramukhi. The soundtrack album consists of six tracks with lyrics written by Vaali, Yugabharathi, Pa. Vijay, Na. Muthukumar and Bhuvana Chandra. The album was released on 5 March 2005 at the Taj Connemara hotel in Chennai.
Release