Polladhavan (Eng: Ruthless Man) is a 2007 Tamil action thriller film written and directed by Vetrimaran. Polladhavan stars Dhanush and Divya Spandana and was released on 8 November 2007. The musical score was by G. V. Prakash Kumar, while Yogi B and Dhina composed each one song. Velraj was the director of cinematography, V. T. Vijayan was editor and Rambo Rajkumar was the stunt choreographer. Polladhavan was a major success at the box office.
Prabhu (Dhanush) is a happy-go-lucky middle-class family guy who spends time playing carrom in the streets with his friends Sathish (Santhanam) and Kumar (Karunas). He and his father (Murali) keep falling into minor misunderstandings, and he indulges in a hopeless romance with a strange girl Hema (Divya Spandana), who he meets at a bus stop. When he is caught in the act of stealing a pittance from his father for booze with his friends, Prabhu questions his father’s responsibility towards his upbringing. His angry father gives Prabhu some of his savings and tells him to do something with his life. Prabhu purchases a Bajaj Pulsar bike instead and finds a job. The bike eventually saves his life from a freak incident and gets lost, subjecting him to interminable anguish as he searches for his bike. When his family members asks him about his bike, he tells them that he has given it for dealer service.
Prabhu comes into conflict with the underworld when he witnesses a brutal murder planned by a gang in Kasimedu in North Chennai by a smuggling don Selvam (Kishore) and his accomplices. Prabhu finds out that his bike was stolen by a petty bike thief who turns out to be in connection with Selvam’s younger brother Ravi (Daniel Balaji). Prabhu traces down the culprit as Sendrayan and hands him over to the local police station. A formal complaint is lodged on Sendrayan on the same night. Later that night, Prabhu confesses to his family that his bike was stolen. His family is very upset with him due to his irresponsible behavior. The next morning, Ravi visits Prabhu’s residence and threatens him to withdraw the complaint against Sendrayan. When Prabhu refuses, a fight breaks between Prabhu and Ravi, where Ravi is joined by few of his accomplices, but Prabhu manages to fight them all and leaves Ravi beaten and embarrassed among the public. Selvam returns home in bail after a murder charge. When he finds out what happened to Ravi, he gets furious and sends his henchmen to kill Prabhu without knowing the reason for his brother’s embarrassment. Meanwhile, Prabhu and Kumar meets Selvam at his own residence in Kasimedu. Ravi is not home at that time. Prabhu tells the truth to Selvam, but refuses to believe that his brother Ravi and his men stole his bike. After hearing from his close ally Out (Pawan), Selvam believes Prabhu, apologizing for what happened and promises Prabhu that he will do whatever he can to get his bike back, but it was too late for Prabhu’s father, who receives the attack from Ravi’s men. He was admitted in a hospital, and Prabhu breaks down after knowing that his father may never walk again after his right leg is paralyzed by the attack. Selvam, Ravi, and their men visit Prabhu to condole and apologize for what happened this time. Prabhu turns down the apology and again an immediate fight was about to break between Prabhu and Ravi before Selvam separates them both. Although he wants to stay away, Prabhu invariably gets dragged into rubbing shoulders with the criminals who now target his family to seek revenge.
Prabhu’s bike was caught by Anti-Narcotics wing police and they nab Prabhu, suspecting him of drug smuggling in his bike. They release him after Prabhu tells them that his bike was stolen and shows them his FIR copy. But he doesn’t tell them about Ravi or Selvam. Now Prabhu learns that his bike was stolen by Selvam’s men to escape from a murder scene, but it was Ravi who smuggled drugs in his bike’s petrol tank. Prabhu loses his job as an employee in his workplace since his bike was a source of transport, and as he was kept at police custody for one night. Prabhu also gets despair from Hema’s father for being involved unwillingly with Selvam’s men. Ravi makes one more attempt at Prabhu’s life, but he was snubbed again by Prabhu. Selvam becomes unhappy about this and warns him to quit smuggling if he ever gets in Prabhu’s business anymore. Ravi accuses Selvam of being a non-caring brother, and Out intervenes and warns Ravi to mind his language. Then surprisingly, Selvam himself comes in support of his brother to lash out at Out. Out separates briefly from Selvam after this conflict. The next day, Selvam and Ravi get attacked by unknown gangsters when they were traveling in their car outside the city. Selvam asks his brother to stay inside the car and handles the killers on his own. He gets brutally injured only to find out that he’s been stabbed on back by Ravi. The attack was arranged by Ravi to kill Selvam. Ravi delivers the killer blow before telling that Selvam is too complacent of Prabhu and he’s going to kill him after killing Selvam. Selvam dies. Ravi creates a scene among Selvam’s family, henchmen, and Out that he’s not aware of who launched the assault on Selvam. Out gets furious and vows to kill every enemy of his mentor Selvam including Prabhu.
Prabhu gets his bike back and was relieved for a brief time before coming to know what is going on, and Ravi is after him and his family. He first goes to save Hema. After securing her, he goes to save his family. He thinks the only way to stop this is to confront Ravi himself. he takes down all the men sent by Ravi who comes in his way. Meanwhile, Prabhu’s family were chased down in Kumar’s auto-rickshaw by Ravi’s men. Prabhu finds Ravi hiding in an ice factory and engages him in a fight. Prabhu gets Ravi under the knife, threatening him to ask his men to leave Prabhu’s family. Ravi does so. When Prabhu is about to leave, Ravi provokes him to continue the fight until death. Prabhu manages to dodge Ravi’s swing of his knife and gets a steel rod to fatally knock him down. Out arrives at the scene. Surprisingly, he tells Ravi that he discovered Ravi’s conspiracy of killing Selvam before Ravi dies. Prabhu leaves the scene in his much beloved Pulsar bike.
Directed by Vetrimaaran
Produced by S. Katheresan
Written by Vetrimaaran
Starring Dhanush, Divya Spandana, Kishore, Daniel Balaji
Music by Songs: G. V. Prakash Kumar, Dhina, Yogi B
Background Score G. V. Prakash Kumar
Cinematography Velraj
Edited by V. T. Vijayan
Production Group Company
Distributed by Five Star Films
Release date 8 November 2007
Running time 150 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
Visitor Rating: 4 Stars