Puthiya Mugham

Puthiya Mugham^[a] (transl. New face) is a 2009 Indian Malayalam-language action thriller film directed by Diphan and written by M. Sindhuraj.^[1] The film stars Prithviraj Sukumaran, Bala and Priyamani. The music was composed by Deepak Dev, with cinematography and editing done by Bharani K. Dharan and Samjith Mohammed.

Puthiya Mugham was a major commercial success at the box office and was noted for making Prithviraj Sukumaran a superstar in Malayalam cinema. It was remade in Kannada as Ziddi (2013), while the film was dubbed in Tamil with the same name and in Telugu as Yama Mudhuru.

Krishnakumar alias Kichu, a resident of an agraharam in Kalpathy, pursues a career as a percussionist and teaches the mridangam to local students. Kichu is in love with Sreedevi, who is the daughter of Kichu's family friend and their relationship is supported by both families. Kichu moves to the city of Kochi to enroll in an engineering college. Sudhi, a senior student and the younger brother of gangster brothers Mahi and Giri, looks after his brothers' crime dealings and, in turn, his brothers support all his endeavours on the campus. Anjana, who is SI Shivaraman's daughter, joins the engineering college and Sudhi falls in love with her.

Sudhi tries to win her love by concealing and temporarily stopping all his illegal activities, but Kichu wins the heart of everyone in the college. Sudhi suspects that Anjana is attracted to Kichu and sends his brothers with an official proposal to Anjana's family. They accept the proposal and force the reluctant Anjana to agree. However, Anjana stipulates a condition that Sudhi would have to wait for 4 years for the marriage and Anjana will have freedom for these 4 years. The freedom of Anjana and the way she exercises it makes Sudhi jealous and suspicious. Sudhi wants to scare Kichu out of the college and arranges an attack on him at the college hostel.

Kichu apparently receives a blow to his head and attacks his own friend, who tried to rescue him. Kichu is admitted in a hospital and a doctor reveals that Kichu is suffering from a flashback phenomenon. When Kichu was young, he had witnessed the death of his younger brother, who was hit by a bus and traumatic incidents like this will turn him violent. Following this, Sreedevi's family disapproves of the marriage and his own family does not want him to go to college anymore, but his father urges him to go back and achieve something in life. Kichu arrives back at college, where he thrashes up Sudhi and his friends. Sudhi's brothers turn in for help, but Kichu mortally wounds Mahi and sends him into coma.

Policeman Shivaraman, who is in cahoots with Mahi and Giri, arrests Kichu and takes him to the police station. Kichu learns that he is going to be transported to the sub-jail, where his execution is planned. Kichu turns violent and storms the police station, where he gets hit by a policeman and apparently falls unconscious, but is only a ruse. Kichu is rushed to the hospital, where he escapes from the police. Sudhi kidnaps Anjana and a final showdown ensues at an abandoned construction site. A heated argument and close-combat ensue, which lead to Sudhi's death and Kichu walks away with Anjana, who has now fallen for Kichu.

The music was composed by Deepak Dev, with lyrics written by Kaithapram. The album features five tracks released on 24 July 2009 by Satyam Audios.^[2] Prithviraj made his debut as a playback singer through this film.^[3]

Paresh C Palicha of Rediff gave 2/5 stars and wrote "Director Diphan's effort to present a new face of Prithviraj does not work because of the over dependence on violence."^[5]

Puthiya Mugham became a commercial success at the box office and also heightened Prithviraj to superstardom in Malayalam cinema.^[6]

Shankar Mahadevan won the award of Best Singer at the Annual Malayalam Movie Awards. At the 2009 Asianet Film Awards, Deepak Dev received the award of Best Music Director for his songs in the film, while Shankar Mahadevan won the award of Best Male Playback Singer.

• Puthiya Mugham at IMDb