Manmadhan (titled onscreen as Maanmathaun)[a] is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language romantic crime thriller film directed by A. J. Murugan in his debut.
However, Madhan is also a sociopathic serial killer under the pseudonym "Manmadhan", through which he hunts and kills morally corrupt girls in the city by seducing them before rendering them unconscious using chloroform.
The media attention turns towards the case of missing girls, and Chennai's new ACP Deva (Atul Kulkarni) takes the charge to find the person behind the crimes.
They lived with their maternal uncle Puncture Pandiyan in Madhampatty in the outskirts of Coimbatore district, as both of their parents had died years ago.
There, he became very close and friendly with his hostel roommate Bobby, and fell in love with his classmate Vaishnavi (Sindhu Tolani), who also reciprocated his feelings upon seeing his good nature.
Kumar hence decided to avenge Raj's death by killing girls who cheat in the name of love, under the pseudonym Manmadhan and developed his nosebleed from then on.
Hence, Kumar concludes that avenging his brother's death is more important by killing immoral girls, and only God can judge his actions.
[11][12] Bollywood actress Mandira Bedi was chosen to appear in a cameo while Czech model Yana Gupta was recruited for a dance number with both making their debut in Tamil.
[17] "En Aasai Mythiliye", sung by Silambarasan, is remixed from his father T. Rajendar's original song in Mythili Ennai Kaathali (1986), with new lyrics written by Pa.
However, the film opened with 140 prints[22] and emerged successful despite facing competition from other Diwali releases such as Attahasam, Neranja Manasu and Chatrapathy.
[23] Sify wrote, "Manmathan is a taut thriller which engrosses the viewers with an engaging [narration], presentation, and is technically top class.
She added, "The hero takes on the onus of story, screenplay and direction supervision for the first time and displays a reasonable level of maturity.
"[25] Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote, "Manmadhan is worth a watch, an engaging suspense thriller, a fare different from the routine romance-action flicks dished out to the audience.
"[26] Visual Dasan of Kalki wrote that, though reminiscent of many American films including The Bone Collector, the plot was full of unpredictable twists and turns, and impresses without knives and without blood.
[27] Cinesouth wrote, "Though this movie is inspired by the films Sigappu Rojakkal and Manmadha Leelai, we can realize the efforts that had gone into the screenplay by Silambarasan to make it different.
[28] According to Sify, the film's collection reports from Chennai, Coimbatore and Salem distribution territories indicated that it surged ahead of Attahasam in its second week due to "rave reviews in the media and word-of-mouth among the youth".