Eeram

Eeram
Tamil	ஈரம்
Directed by	Arivazhagan
Produced by	S. Shankar
Written by	Arivazhagan
Starring	Aadhi Pinisetty Sindhu Menon Saranya Mohan Nandha Srinath Lakshmi Ramakrishnan
Music by	S. Thaman
Cinematography	Manoj Paramahamsa
Edited by	Kishore. Te
Production company	S Pictures
Release date	11 September 2009 (2009-09-11)
Running time	164 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹60 million (equivalent to ₹110 million or US$1.5 million in 2017)

Eeram (English: Wetness/Moisture) is a 2009 Tamil gothic horror film written and directed by newcomer Arivazhagan. Starring Aadhi Pinisetty and Sindhu Menon in the lead roles, with Saranya Mohan and Nandha in supporting roles,^[1][2][3] the film was produced by S. Shankar. The filming of Eeram began in November 2007 and happened for nearly two years since January 2008 to June 2009, and the movie was released on 11 September 2009 to unanounimously positive reviews and was declared as a super-hit blockbuster at the box office.^[4] The Telugu dubbed version was renamed as Vaishali (వైశాలి) and the dubbed version was released in November 2011. The movie was mostly shot in Chennai, Srirangam, Trichy, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam and Pondicherry.

Plot

The plot opens with water over flowing from an apartment and Block E, which is seen by the apartment watchman. When he goes to stop water, he witnesses a young woman Ramya (Sindhu Menon), drowned in the water. Eventually the investigation of the death takes place which is done by Assistant Commissioner of Police, Vasudevan (Aadhi), who is an honest and upright police officer, and also Ramya's former lover. Although circumstantial evidence claims it as a suicide, Vasu doubts that it isn't, and starts to investigate it in another angle.

Investigation reveals Ramya was known to be in an illegal affair with an unknown person, and his frequent visit to her flat is confirmed by the neighbors in the apartment. But Vasu is not convinced and he is sure that there is someone behind Ramya’s death and names him Mr. X. He also remembers his love life with Ramya during their college time. Vasu is denied marriage with Ramya by her father Shriraman (Rajashekar), as he is not willing to get his daughter married a police officer. When Vasu asks her to marry him without the consent of her father, she does not accept and both part ways. Later Ramya marries a rich groom named Bala (Nandha), a businessman. From then on the relationship is entirely cut between Vasu and Ramya. Vasu then becomes a police officer.

Meanwhile, strange mishaps begin to take place in the apartment where Ramya died. Kalyani Subramanyam (Lakshmi Ramakrishnan), who resides in the flat opposite to Ramya’s, dies by electric shock. An ex-army veteran Thiyagarajan (Boys Rajan) on his travel to Pondicherry dies by an umbrella tip piercing his neck. The watchman of the apartment also dies a mysterious death. Vasu is able to relate the deaths with Ramya but doesn't know how exactly, but finds that Water has been the common element in all the deaths. He appoints a few assistants to live in various flats of the apartment and inform him if there is any suspicious activiy. The assistants point out that a young man (Krishna) comes there to meet his girlfriend Deepa. Vasu identifies him as Mr. X and follows him to a theatre, but before he tries to catch him, he sees the ‘Mr.X’ banging himself in the restroom mirror. Vasi tries to stop him but an entity stops him from saving Mr. X. Vasu then sees human footprints walking on water and understands that it is the work of a supernatural entity.

Subtle symbols keep appearing to Vasu and he begins to receive premonitions of the killings that are about to take place. The color Red and Water keep appearing together as premonitions and signals to Vasu that a murder is about to take place. Vasu is unable to convince his superiors that the deaths are not accidental. He investigates in the angle of life after death, and finds that a life can contact this world in any medium after the death. It may be also through water. Vasu now understands that Ramya's spirit kills everyone. One night, when Divya (Saranya Mohan), Ramya's sister, visits Vasu in his house to console him for Ramya's death, the latter's spirit possesses her body and reveals the truth of her life after their separation to Vasu.

Ramya married Bala and lived happily with him just for a short time. Bala was a person who disliked anything secondhand in his life. He could not digest his wife’s past relation with her lover Vasu, and hence started to torture her. Ramya’s maidservant complained of Thiyagarajan in another flat, who was sexually harassing her. Ramya warned the master if he would have repeated this she would inform it to his wife. Ramya advised a girl to stop having a boyfriend as it would spoil her life, and this earned her the dislike of that girl. Ramya’s opposite apartment woman Kalyani wanted the flat where Ramya lived, for her daughter. The boyfriend created an impression that he had came to visit Ramya to the woman in the opposite flat. She has spinned a false story against Ramya, and the master also confirmed it to Bala for taking revenge on her. Therefore, Bala killed Ramya and drowned her in water to make it look like a suicide. Hence the beginning of the movie's plot with confusions among Vasu and other police officers for her death.

Hence Ramya's soul killed Kalyani by electric shock, Thiyagarajan by the umbrella tip, and the watchman who supported the false statement against Ramya, Mr. X by dashing him in the mirror and now, she Mr. X's lover and makes her mentally unstable. Vasu warns Bala that he will soon catch him with evidence. Bala’s friend Vicky alias Vignesh (Srinath) misguides him right from the beginning about the women tendency of varieties and also against Ramya. He is killed by Bala himself as he threatened to reveal the truth about the murder. Bala is confident that he can be caught only if he himself admits the crime. Bala kidnaps Divya, and Vasu comes to save her. At the fight Bala gains the upper hand and hits Vasu on his head and stabs Vasu in his stomach, leading the former to lose power and consciousness. So Ramya's ghost possesses Vasu and gives him the upper hand to knock out Bala. Vasu succeeds in saving Divya and Ramya's spirit leaves him. The very next day, Bala suddenly confesses for the murder of his wife. Hence Vasu gets a chance to prove him as the murderer. Actually, Ramya had possessed him and made him speak the truth. After the press conference, while Bala is being taken to court, the sky's color appears bizarre and it begins to rain and petrol is shown to be leaking from the van in which he is being taken, and Vasu sees a red umbrella with water dripping from it. Then it is understood that Ramya's ghost won't spare Bala and would kill him soon.

Cast

• Aadhi Pinisetty as A.C.P Vasudevan I.P.S alias Vasu
• Sindhu Menon as Ramya Bala Krishnan (The Water ghost)
• Saranya Mohan as Divya Shriraman
• Nandha as Bala Krishnan alias Bala
• Srinath as Vicky alias Vignesh
• Krishna as Mr . X
• Lakshmi Ramakrishnan as Kalyani Subramanyam
• Boys Rajan as Col. Thiyagarajan, an ex-army as well as the Pervert Master
• Rajashekar as Shriraman, Divya and Ramya's father

Production

The filming began in mid-2007, after shankar had completed the shooting of his previous film Shivaji, which starred Rajinikanth in the main lead. The shooting happened since January 2008, while the recording of the songs took place from December 2007 to March 2008. Filming was finally ended in June 2009 and was prepared for a September 2009 release. Aadhi Pinisetty of Mirugam fame was roped as the Protagonist, while Nandha of Mounam Pesiyadhe and Urchagam fame was selected as the Main Antagonist. While Simran to make her comeback as heroine through this film, though actress's demand led Shankar to cast new face. Soon Sindhu Menon signed for the role yet she is not a new face to kollywood.

Box office

The film released in 120 screens worldwide and was blockbuster at the box office.^[5]

Soundtrack

The music was composed by debutant S. Thaman and all the lyrics was written by Viveka. The audio rights was bagged by Sony Music India. The songs were released in 2009, although the recording took place in 2007-2008. The audio event was attended by M. Sasikumar, Rajinikanth, Allu Arjun, Nandha, and Aadhi Pinisetty.

• "Mazhaiye Mazhaiye" - Ranjith
• "Tharai Erangiya" - Suchitra
• "Saaral En" - Ranjith
• "Theme of Eeram" - S.Thaman

Critical reception

Rediff wrote "Debutant director Arivazhagan, who has written and directed the film, has turned out a horror/suspense film that strives to score points on logic, novelty and raciness. The best part is that he actually makes you cling to the edge of the seat most of the time. No mean feat, considering the limitations on mainstream Tamil cinema."^[6] Behindwoods wrote " Although paranormal subjects are not something new, the narrative style, technical wizardry and the brilliant camera work give Eeram, the real eerie experience."^[7] The Hindu wrote "Arivazhagan must have polished his screenplay over and over again to come up with such a lucid narrative that strongly impacts the viewer. Only wish the attempt doesn’t prove to be a flash in the pan. Because Eeram shows that this young director is worth looking out for."^[8]

See also

• List of ghost films
• List of horror films of 2009
• Gothic film – Notable films

References

External links

• Eeram on IMDb