Chandramukhi

Not to be confused with Chandramukhi (character).

Chandramukhi
Chandramukhi character
Created by	P. Vasu
Portrayed by	Jyothika Kangana Ranaut
Information
Nickname	Nagavalli
Race	Indian people
Gender	Female
Occupation	Bharatanatyam Dancer
Significant other	Gunasekaran
Religion	Hindu

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Chandramukhi is the titular fictional character in the Chandramukhi film series. Chandramukhi was potrayed as a passionate dancer, charming beauty, and a revenge taker.

Legend

A hundred and fifty years before the present day, King Vettaiyan, who lived in Vettaiyapuram mansion visits Vijayangara. There he meets Chandramukhi, a royal court dancer, known for her charming beauty as well as for her singing and dancing skills. He takes her to Tamilnadu without her consent and wants her to be his concubine. She was in love with Gunasekaran, her co dancer. The King locks her in a room till she shows interest for him and ill treats her. Knowing this, Gunasekaran secretly arrives the palace and resides in a nearby house, and meets her during the nights. They both plan to elope on the day of Durgastami. On the day, they both were ordered to dance before the King as a part of the festival. As they do so Gunasekaran was beheaded by the King, and even Chandramukhi was burnt alive by the King, knowing their plan. It is said that Chandramukhi's malicious spirit had attempted to take her revenge, and thus was contained in a room on the third floor with help from priests and sorcerers.

Films

Chandramukhi (2005)

Main article: Chandramukhi

A couple Senthilnathan and Ganga move into a mansion as a good option to house their extended family, despite the multiple paranormal occurrences and fear of the villagers towards the house. So Senthil invites his friend, the psychiatrist Saravanan to inspect the household and check if it's safe. Saravanan and Senthil's friend Murugeshan inspect the household and learn about Chandramukhi's history. Ganga becomes mysteriously drawn to the third floor of the mansion, which is off limits and is known to contain Chandramukhi. She and the gardener's granddaughter Durga obtain a key for the room and open it, which leads to the gardener dying of poison ingestion and Senthil nearly getting hit by a truck. The room turns out to be normal but filled with gold and artifacts in addition to Chandramukhi's painting.

Several strange paranormal occurrences occur over the weeks including attempts on Senthil's life which are somehow traced to Durga, such as a fallen fish tank and poisoned coffee. Senthil's relative Priya also gets chased by Chandramukhi before fainting. The family members panic but Saravanan stays up at night to hear music and dancing from Chandramukhi's room. He manages to put the pieces together and looks into Ganga's past, finding out that her fascination with historical epics and acting has led to her developing split personalities and turning into the characters she reenacts, posing a threat to herself. Chandramukhi becomes drawn to this and slowly takes over Ganga's body, as well as her rage of unfulfilled love on Senthil. Saravanan interrupts some possession episodes through loud shouting, and also manages to converse with Chandramukhi while posing as Vettaiyan.

The family hires a priest and exorcist Ramachandra Acharya, who sees that Saravanan has a pure aura that has kept Chandramukhi at bay from him. Saravanan suggests putting on a show for a possessed Ganga to make her think Vettaiyan dies at her hands. They perform a ritual the next day and restrain Ganga, giving her a torch and allowing her to burn Saravanan, but switching him with a dummy at the last second to make it look like Vettaiyan has died. Chandramukhi leaves Ganga peacefully and the household becomes peaceful.

Personality

Chandramukhi was one of the esteemed courtesans of the kingdom of Vijayanagaram. Famous for her beauty as well as her singing and dancing skills, she becomes a royal court dancer. She was in love with Gunasekaran, a fellow court dancer who loved her equally and the pair performed together in court at times. Chandramukhi leads a normal life before Vettaiyan kills her and Gunasekaran. In her spirit form she becomes a force of blind rage and grief with hostile intentions. However she appears to be patient in her goal and possesses Ganga like a parasite, slowly transferring her personality into the host. Throughout it, her host will merge behaviors with her and replicate how the spirit acted in her lifetime, for example, a trait of Chandramukhi was excessive vanity and obsession with how beautiful she looked. In her fully possessed form, Chandramukhi is a compulsive dancer who enjoys listening to the sound of her voice. She also has a demonic and murderous personality when confronted with whom she believes to be Vettaiyan.

Creation and casting

Jyothika

Kangana Ranaut

For the role Chandramukhi, Soundarya was initially selected to reprise her role from Apthamitra, but her death led the director to choose Simran and he shaped the character to suit her. In November 2004, Simran refused to do the project, as her role required a lot of dancing and cited her pregnancy at that time as another main reason for her refusal. Aishwarya Rai was offered the role but she declined the offer due to schedule conflicts. Sadha, Asin, and Reema Sen were also considered as replacements. The role finally went to Jyothika, who allotted 50 days of her schedule. Vasu wanted her to perform her scenes in a manner different from that of Shobana in Manichitrathazhu, enacting the scenes himself before they were shot featuring Jyothika.

In 2023, P. Vasu approached actress Kangana Ranaut to portray the character Chandramukhi in his sequel Chandramukhi 2. She immediately accepted the role and was officially announced to play Chandramukhi in November 2022.

Other versions

Chandramukhi has appeared in several non-Tamil films. These include the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993) where she was played by Shobana, the Kannada film Apthamitra (2004) where she was played by Soundarya, the Hindi film Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) where she was played by Vidya Balan, the Kannada film Aptharakshaka (2010) where she was played by Vimala Raman, and the Telugu film Nagavalli (2010) where she was played by Anushka Shetty.

Awards

Jyothika won and was nominated for multiple awards for her portrayal of the character Chandramukhi and won many prestige awards such as Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress and Dinakaran Awards and many more.

Year	Film	Nominee	Award	Result	Ref.
2005	Chandramukhi	Jyothika	Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress	Won
			Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Tamil	Nominated
			Film Fans Association Awards	Won
			Dinakaran Award for Best Actress
			Kalaimamani Award for Best Actress

References

This article "Chandramukhi (fictional character)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Chandramukhi (fictional character). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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