Chandramukhi (2005)

Director:

P. Vasu

Writer:

P. Vasu (writer)

Release Date:

13 April 2005 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy | Horror | Musical | Romance

Plot:

Creepy happenings in an abandoned mansion are attributed to the ghost of an ancient courtesan, back for revenge

Plot Keywords:

One Word Title | Character Name In Title

Cast

Rajnikanth	...	Dr.Saravanan / Vettaiyan Raja (as Super Star Rajinikanth)
Prabhu	...	Senthilnathan
Jyothika	...	Chandramukhi / Ganga
Nayantara	...	Thurga (as Nayanthara)
Vadivelu	...	Murugesan
Vineeth	...	Visvanathan / Gunasekaran
Shweta Konnur	...	Priya (as Malavika)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chetana Das	...	Sorna (as Chetana)
Nasser	...	Kandasamy
Vinaya Prasad	...	Lakshmi
Sheela	...	Akilaandeswary
Sonu Sood	...	Oomayan
Sorna	...	Sorna
Balasubramaniam S.P.
P. Vasu	...	Special Appearance (Song - Devuda Devuda)
K.R. Vijaya	...	Senthil's Mother

Runtime:

166 min

Country:

India

Language:

Tamil | Telugu

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

Malaysia:U | UK:12A | Australia:M | India:U

Company:

Sivaji Productions

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Chatrapathi (2005)

To me, different, interesting, and FUN

OK, for starters, I'm a westerner, I just happen to like Indian movies, which I'm turning to more & more for entertainment as I get more disgusted with what's available anymore. Most of what I've seen over the past several years have been Hindi films, but lately I've ventured into a few Telugu films, this being one, and I was pleasantly surprised that this is not quite the "same old" stuff.

I was not previously familiar with the star Rajinikanth, but apparently he's been around for a very long time & is quite famous. In this film he plays a sort of maverick doctor, a psychiatrist, who specializes in beating up thugs by the score and ridding new homes of specters, apparently.

The film opens with a rather spectacular fight scene, as the employees of Ganesh Construction are confronted by a gang of thugs as they're rushing to their project, but along comes Dr. Saravanan (Rajinikanth) and single-handedly wipes out the bad guys. He then catches a bullock-cart to his friend's home to visit but then is mistaken for a groom, until his friend shows up to save the day.

Now, his friends have purchased an old mansion, as their new home, but of course the locals don't like it, because many years ago a king executed his courtesan there, because she wasn't faithful, so the mansion is supposedly haunted. But when the new couple move in, so do their relatives, I guess to make sure that all is well until they're settled. But of course, all isn't well.

There is music & singing coming from an abandoned area of the house, said the be the room where Chandramukhi died. The room is sealed off with amulets and a big strong door, but someone Ganga & servant girl Durga manage to get in and it's bad news from then on out.

I was rather impressed with the songs & dances in this film, because they're SO not Bollywood in their look & execution. Many of them involve LARGE groups of people and they're incredibly well choreographed. And FUN. AND colorful. The strange thing is, that I hate American musicals, and yet I love this kind of stuff in Indian films, maybe it's the music that gets me.

Overall, I found this to be quite clever, and humorous too, although some of the humor was rather silly, mostly that involving an actor called Vadivelu, who I wasn't too impressed with. The storyline was rather different and the roving "super star" doctor thing was rather an interesting concept to me. I'm glad I started poking into some of these Telugu films, because I'm finding them interesting for the most part, and quite fun. I rather enjoyed Rajinikanth too, he seems to be quite a character. 8 out of 10.