Puriyatha Puthir

A woman stands in the terrace calling someone from her mobile, apologizing, and then jumps off the terrace.

The film fast-forwards to a few months later, where a music director named Kathir and his friends Vinod and DJ are in a pub. Vinod and DJ are desperate about videos of women, while Kathir preaches them not to do so. On the way to his music shop, Kathir finds a girl writing her name "Meera" in the drenched window of a bus, and both of them smile at each other. A few days later, Meera orders for a red violin, which she wants to be delivered to her home. Kathir delivers it, and both become friends. They decide to become lovers. Meanwhile, Vinod is sacked from his job when illicit photographs of him with his boss's wife go viral online. Due to the humiliation faced in the office, he hangs himself to death. Kathir blames DJ for encouraging Vinod and provoking his suicide.

One day, Kathir gets a photograph of Meera in his mobile cell phone and gets shocked. He subsequently gets videos of Meera while she changes her dress in a shop's trial room. Kathir rushes to the shop where she is shopping and indulges in a fight with the employees. Meera gets irritated by his behavior and demands an explanation. Kathir tells her about the video, and she gets upset. In spite of Kathir's effort to console her, she attempts to commits suicide. Kathir manages to save her. He tries to lodge a complaint about the videos in a police station but soon decides to back off.

Kathir manages to get the sender's address. He angrily goes to catch the owner, Mrithula, but finds out that she died five years ago. Meanwhile, Meera gets discharged from the hospital. DJ finds out that Mrithula died by committing suicide due to the constant discipline torture of her father. He shares this to Kathir and asks him to meet him the next morning. However, DJ gets arrested by the Narcotics Bureau for indulging in drug trafficking. Kathir finds out that an anonymous video was shared to the Narcotics Bureau, which DJ happened to be in. Kathir rushes to his home but gets a video of Meera in her bathroom bathing naked. Kathir gets a message from the sender, who blackmails him to remove his clothes, wear a raincoat, and stand in a bridge. Kathir wears the raincoat and stands in the rain, but the raincoat soon becomes transparent, thereby making him naked. The sender then asks how it feels to stand naked in front of public and it is the same feeling when a person's privacy is breached.

Kathir later finds a diary that has information about Meera and Mrithula. The film goes into a flashback. Meera and Mrithula were friends at college. During a music competition, Meera sees Kathir, who studies in the same college as her, Mrithula, DJ, and Vinod. Meera is desperate to talk with him. Mrithula imitates Meera on how she will react when Kathir proposes to her while she was on her way to the bathroom in bathing attire. Meera takes a video of her imitation. Kathir, DJ, and Vinod find Meera's cell phone on the table and steal the video. The video goes viral to the entire college, and Mrithula is dismissed the next day and her father disowns her. Later, Mrithula jumps from the building and dies.

Meera is shown standing in the terrace ready to jump. It is revealed that she shot the photos and videos of Vinod and DJ and is the reason for their death and arrest respectively. Kathir begs her not to take a hasty decision and explains that he has nothing to do with that action, but Meera blames him that he reacted only when his loved ones faced a problem but remained quiet when a third person got affected. She tells him that staying dumb when a crime is happening is equivalent to committing the crime. Kathir failed to stop DJ and Vinod when they violated Mrithula's privacy. Kathir begs for an apology, while confessing his own love and feelings to Meera. Meera tells him that she loves him a lot, but both of them have become a reason for Mrithula's death. She then jumps off the building.

• Vijay Sethupathi as Kathir
• Gayathrie as Meera
• Mahima Nambiar as Mrithula
• Arjunan as DJ
• Ranjith as Vinod
• Ramesh Thilak as Meera's kidnapper
• Vanitha Hariharan
• Sonia Deepti (cameo appearance)

Vijay Sethupathi announced that he signed the film in September 2013 in an interview to The Hindu, under the direction of first time film maker Ranjith Jeyakodi.[3] Since Sethupathi had prior commitments, the film was supposed to take off only a year later. However, as Sanguthevan, a project of Sethupathi was getting delayed, the team chose to begin principal photography immediately, with the director telling that they had no time for pre-production but started filming since he had a cinematographer and a music director ready.[4] Gayathrie was swiftly signed on to play a violin teacher in the film, and to practice for her character she began to learn the instrument part-time.[5] The film was launched on 17 December 2013.[6] After the first schedule which lasted for 26 days, 50 percent of the film had reportedly been completed.[7] Filming was held across Chennai including at Fortis Healthcare, Vadapalani by mid-February.[8] In June 2014, the director informed that "about 10 -12 days of shooting" was remaining.[9] In October 2014, Telugu actress Sonia Deepti also stated that she had a short role in the film.[10]

Following a period of delay, the film was sold to JSK Film Corporation in October 2016 and renamed from Mellisai to Puriyatha Puthir.[11] Regarding the title change, Gayathrie said, "Mellisai, even though we said it was a mystery thriller, the title may not have given the same impact. But [Puriyatha Puthir] does it".[12] The team prepared to launch the film in January 2017 but had to withdraw after financiers contested against debts taken up by Deepan Boopathy for another film, Aakko.[13]

The film's music soundtrack was composed by Sam C. S., while the audio rights of the film was acquired by Think Music. The original album, titled Mellisai, was released on 14 October 2015 and featured four songs. Shreya Ghoshal won the Vikatan Award of the Best Female Playback Singer for the song "Mazhaikulle".

Puriyatha Puthir opened following several delays on 1 September 2017. A critic from The Hindu noted that "the film begins in a rather unimpressive manner and is out of place in today’s world", while a reviewer from Sify.com wrote "nothing really works in this contrived film mainly due to the unconvincing writing and a heroine who is unimpressive".[14][15] A reviewer from Behindwoods.com wrote the film "falls short of an engaging puzzle", adding "Ranjit Jeyakodi’s intention to present an intriguing thriller is nice, but the way of conceiving the idea and delivering it on screen could have been more confined and focussed".[16] Likewise,the critic from The Times of India wrote "given that Lens (2017) told us the same thing fairly recently (even though this film was shot a while ago), this ‘message’ doesn't impact us as much as it should".[17] In contrast, The New Indian Express wrote "Vijay Sethupathi shines in this decent thriller" but adds "Puriyatha Puthir could have been so much more and that is disappointing".[18]

• Puriyatha Puthir on IMDb
• Mellisai on Facebook