Puriyada Pudir

Puriyadha Pudir (transl. Incomprehensive Puzzle) is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language mystery thriller film written and directed by K. S. Ravikumar in his directorial debut. It is a remake of the 1989 Kannada film Tarka which was based on Agatha Christie's 1958 play, The Unexpected Guest. The film, produced by R. B. Choudary, stars Rahman, Raghuvaran, Sarathkumar, Anand Babu, Rekha and Sithara. It was released on 7 September 1990.

Raghu escapes from jail and hides in a bungalow to hide from the police. Luckily, the bungalow belongs to his college mate Geetha. He confesses to Geetha that he is a convict on death row. Suddenly the police show up and Raghu tries to hide in a wardrobe. A dead body fall out and Geetha says that is her husband Chakravarthi, and she had killed him. Raghu still hides in the same closet. Police informs Geetha that the flight that Chakravarthi took to Calcutta earlier that day crashed and there are no survivors. After the police leave, Geetha requests Raghu to help her dispose the dead body for which Raghu agrees. Raghu and Geetha take the dead body and dispose it in outskirts of the city.

Geetha reveals her past to Raghu. Chakravarthi was a rich business man, however he was apparently a sadist. Babu is a disco dancer and a very good friend of Geetha. Chakravarthi suspects Babu and Geetha are having an affair and tortures her verbally and physically. One day, Chakravarthi decides to go on a business trip to Calcutta and Geetha invites Babu over to her house to discuss how to treat Chakravarthi's mental illness. However, Chakravarthi cancels his trip and returns home and is enraged seeing Babu in his house. Babu leaves the house, planning to come back with the police. Chakravathi then tries to hurt her, and Geetha says she had to kill him in self defence.

Raghu sympathizes with Geetha and accepts her invitation to stay in her house and be supportive. He also needs a place to stay after escaping from jail with says he has a mission. One day, Geetha gets a phone call from a stranger mentioning about her and Raghu's involvement in murder of Chakravarthi. The blackmailer wants Geetha to pay him a few lakhs of rupees else, he would inform this to the police. Geetha and Raghu suspect that Babu could be the blackmailer as he is only one who is aware that Chakravarthi did not take the flight to Kolkata. Geetha now reveals that she actually did not kill Chakravarthi. She was in fact hiding in her bedroom after Babu left. When she came down after a few minutes, she saw Chakravarthi dead and assumed Babu had killed him. She then decided to take the blame because Babu did this to save her.

Regardless, Geetha follows the blackmailer's instructions and takes the money to a hotel, but the blackmailer backs out. We also see a random person stabbed to death. The blackmailer proposes and alternate location for drop off. Raghu also accompanies Geetha. However, police arrive at the situation and arrests the blackmailer – who happens to be the policeman who came to Geetha's house to inform her about the plane crash. It is revealed that crime branch inspector Sarath was investigating this case as he had developed some doubts over Geetha when he saw Raghu with her. Sarath tapped Geetha's telephone and understood about the stranger threatening her for money. Upon investigation, the policeman reveals that he spotted Raghu and Geetha in the city outskirts when they were disposing Chakravarthi's dead body and decided to extract money by threatening Geetha using this opportunity. Sarath arrests Babu, Geetha and Raghu. During the police interrogation, the plot unfolds revealing the real killer. The film ends with the escape of the unsuspecting killer and the voiceover of the director, K.S. Ravikumar saying not to reveal the suspense for those who have not watched the movie.

The uncredited cast includes:

• Srikanth as Venkatraman, Geetha's brother
• K. S. Ravikumar as fellow prisoner
• V. Gopalakrishnan as Chakravarthi's father^[2]

The producer R. B. Choudary had remade the Kannada film Tarka (1989), based on Agatha Christie's 1958 play, The Unexpected Guest in Malayalam as Chodhyam; however, the remake remained unreleased,^[3][4] as he was not happy with the final cut. He later decided to remake Tarka in Tamil, and asked K. S. Ravikumar, then an assistant under Vikraman, to write the screenplay. Ravikumar completed the screenplay within a week, and later realised that Choudary had appointed him as the director. The film, Puriyada Pudir, thus marked Ravikumar's directorial debut. R. Sarathkumar, who acted in the film, wore a belt around his neck while filming due to an accident he had before production began.^[5] The film was planned to be filmed in a 30-day schedule, at the rate of ₹1 lakh (equivalent to ₹9.8 lakh or US$12,000 in 2023) per day, which would bring the entire budget to ₹30 lakh (equivalent to ₹2.9 crore or US$350,000 in 2023). Ravikumar finished the entire film in 29 days, saving the producer a lakh.^[1]

The music was composed by S. A. Rajkumar.^[6][7]

Puriyada Pudir was released on 7 September 1990.^[5] On 21 September, N. Krishnaswamy of The Indian Express wrote, "Puriyaadha Pudhir is a murder thriller that is interesting, and well made from Kodambakkam standards".^[2] Kalki appreciated Ravikumar for making his debut with a thriller. The critic felt despite filming a story which resembles pocket novel, the director's hard work is visible throughout the film.^[8] The film underperformed at the box office, and Ravikumar later opted against directing offbeat, experimental films; instead he went on to identify with mainstream, populist films.^[9][10][11] Sarathkumar went on to star in various other films directed by Ravikumar, including his next Cheran Pandian (1991) and Nattamai (1994).^[12]

• Aldridge, Mark (2016). Agatha Christie on Screen. Springer. ISBN 978-1-349-67695-8.

• Puriyada Pudir at IMDb