Subramaniapuram
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sasikumar
Written by	Sasikumar
Produced by	Sasikumar
Starring	Jai Swathi Sasikumar Ganja Karuppu Samuthirakani
Cinematography	S. R. Kathir
Edited by	Raja Mohammad
Music by	James Vasanthan
Production company	Company Productions
Release date	4 July 2008 (2008-07-04)
Running time	147 minutes[1]
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Subramaniapuram is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language gangster action drama film^[2][3] written, produced, and directed by Sasikumar. The film stars Jai, Swathi, Sasikumar himself, Ganja Karuppu and Samuthirakani. The music was composed by James Vasanthan, with cinematography by S. R. Kathir and editing by Raja Mohammad.

The film released on 4 July 2008. Although a low-budget film, it received critical acclaim for its original script, direction, screenplay, performances, editing, fresh music, accurate sets, and costumes to resurrect Madurai from the 1980s. It became one of the biggest commercial successes of the year. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Ananthapuram 1980,^[4] and remade in Kannada as Prem Adda (2012).^[5]

The story takes place in the Subramaniapuram area of Madurai city. A convict is released from prison in 2008 after serving 27 years, and an unknown person stabs him outside the prison gates. The police are baffled at this as the convict refused to meet anyone coming to visit him during his time in prison. They are shocked that someone who had a grudge against him for 28 years would stab him when he stepped outside the prison. A flashback to 1980 reveals the events that led to the stabbing.

Azhagar, Paraman, Kasi, Dopa, and Dumka, are part of a set of unemployed close friends. They pass their time drinking liquor, smoking cigarettes, and fooling around on the streets with Chitthan opposite the house of an ex-councillor Somu and his brother Kanugu. Apart from them, the family consists of Somu's wife, their three children, including Thulasi and her two younger brothers, and Somu's elder brother Chidambaram and his wife.

The five friends, particularly Paraman and Azhagar, often end up in prison due to frequent fighting. Every time police arrest them, Kanugu and Somu bail them out immediately. In the meantime, Azhagu and Thulasi develop mutual feelings for each other. Paraman is against his friend developing feelings for the girl, and Azhagu, not heeding his friends' thoughts, begins to have a relationship with her.

There are signs of things to come when a local temple's committee especially the head Mokkaswamy does not select Somu for a function. Things suddenly turn for the worse when Somu fails to get people to elect him for his party's (Tamil Nadu's ruling party at the time) district chief post, and his wife ridicules him for being jobless. Kanugu locks himself up in a lodge and drinks all day. He makes sure his friends hear about him and come to visit. He requests that they murder Palaniswamy who is chosen for the district chief of party post. Azhagar, Paraman, and Kasi hatch a plan and execute the person almost perfectly with Azhagar striking the final blow. They run away, leaving the bicycle behind which leads to the cops to discover Paraman and Azhagar being responsible.

Azhagar and Paraman surrender themselves, hoping Kanagu will bail them out soon. But they come in for a rude shock when they learn from Kasi that Somu is selected for the district chief of party post and is avoiding their contact. They confront reality and stay helpless in jail, where they befriend a fellow inmate Ravi. He learns about their situation and bails them out. After their release Azhagar and Paraman break into Kanugu's house to take their revenge but stop when they find Thulasi crying. Azhagar later reconciles with Thulasi and they continue to meet.

Ravi expects a favour from them — to kill his brother-in-law Munish for murdering his sister. Accomplishing this task when Paraman kills Munish, Ravi impressed gives the duo additional weapons to kill Kanugu. In the meantime, Chidambaram learns about Azhagar and Thulasi's relationship and tries to convince Thulasi to end her relationship with Azhagar. Munish's men attempt to kill Azhagar and Kasi to avenge their boss's death but they fail. Azhagar and Paraman strike back, killing those men later in the day. The next day, Azhagar accidentally stabs Chidambaram in an attempt to kill Kanugu and manages to escape with the help of Paraman. To save himself from these buddies, Kanugu convinces the unwilling Thulasi to betray Azhagar. Kanugu sets a trap for Azhagar using the grieving Thulasi as bait and has his men kill him as Azhagar is in shock that Thulasi had betrayed him. Paraman avenges his friend's death by kidnapping Kanugu into an auto rickshaw the next day and brutally and slowly decapitates him. He then lays his head at his friend's murder site and reflects on his friendship with Azhagar. Paraman then calls Kasi and reminds him about Azhagar and how he killed Kanugu. He also informs him that he will kill the rest of the men in his family during which he sees Somu's henchmen rushing behind Kasi. Kasi betrays Paraman by leaving him at the mercy of the henchmen who kill him in exchange for the money from Somu.

Present: In the hospital, Kasi was the victim outside the prison walls. He lies in the hospital in critical condition, with a policeman interrogating him. The doctor intervenes and asks him to leave, after which Dumka comes in and reveals that it was Dopa who stabbed him. He kills him by removing his air supply after reminding him of his betrayal finally avenging Paraman's death and leaves him as Kasi in his dying moments begins crying leaving the audience to interpret whether it is out of remorse or pain and dies with no one by his side as Dumka walks out of the hospital.

The idea to make a historical film occurred to Sasikumar when he was assisting Ameer on Raam (2005).^[6] During the initial phases of Ameer's Paruthiveeran (2007), Sasikumar began groundwork for the film that would later become Subramaniapuram and left Paruthiveeran to focus on his film. Sasikumar started collecting old photographs, banners and boards of shops to imitate the style of writing from that period and also searched the Internet extensively for photographs of the 1980s. He especially researched photographs of wedding processions along the streets for a clear picture of how the roads looked and the kind of vehicles in use. The team relied on this visual information to construct the sets for the film.^[7]

Shanthanu Bhagyaraj was approached to play the lead role and Sasikumar began discussions with his father K. Bhagyaraj over Shanthanu's availability. Bhagyaraj had been keen to ensure that Sakkarakatti (2008) was his son's first release, as the team had brought in a prominent producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu and musician A. R. Rahman. Sasikumar stated that he was unable to wait for Sakkarakatti's release as he had loans to pay and moved ahead without the actor.^[8][9][10] Jai, who earlier appeared in Chennai 600028 (2007) was then selected to play the role after Sasikumar had seen him at Deva's residence and Jai signed up for the film without hearing the script under the basis that it was to be produced by Ameer.^[11]

The music of Subramaniapuram was composed by James Vasanthan,^[12][13] in his film debut.^[14] Sasikumar spoke of his apprehension to approach an established composer as he was a debut director himself: "I was not sure whether they would listen to me and give me what I wanted".^[7] Vasanthan had previously been Sasikumar's music teacher at school.^[14] The song "Kangal Irandal" is set in Reetigowla, a Carnatic raga.^[15] Vasanthan composed all the songs in his home. Sasikumar revealed for the song "Kadhal Siluvayil", Vasanthan composed "almost 15 tunes" before the director was satisfied, and this song was recorded by Shankar Mahadevan within 30 minutes.^[16] Vasanthan chose Benny Dayal to sing the song "Theneeril Snegitham" after watching his performance at a cultural festival.^[17] The song was composed only as a promotional song,^[18] and does not feature in the film. Sasikumar described it as the first Tamil film song used exclusively for promotion.^[7]

Subramaniapuram was released on 4 July 2008, two weeks after the bigger and high-profile Dasavathaaram. The film was released only in Mini Udhayam but after the film's overwhelming response it later got released in theatres like Shanti and Sathyam Cinemas who were initially wary of releasing this film. The film ran successfully for 100 days.^[19] Moser Baer released the film via home video in June 2009.^[20] The film's satellite rights were initially sold to Zee Tamil who later sold them to Sun TV. The film had its television premiere on both the channels the same day, 26 September 2009.^[19][21][22]

Sify wrote, "Sasikumar should be appreciated for making a bold and daring film, whose success will augur well for the industry. Subramaniapuram may be a bit brooding and dark, but still it's worth taking a look".^[23] Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff wrote, "Subramaniyapuram ends as it begins -- naturally, at its own pace. This one is for lovers of realistic cinema."^[24]

Bellie Raj won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer.^[25] The film won two in two categories at the 56th Filmfare Awards South: Best Tamil Film and Best Tamil Director.^[26]

On the film's 10th anniversary, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap tweeted that the film inspired him to make Gangs of Wasseypur.^[27][28] The film's screenplay was released as a book in 2014.^[29] The song "Kangal Irandal" was also featured in Naadodigal (2009).^{[citation needed]} The film was re-released in August 2023 to mark its fifteenth anniversary.^[18] While promoting the re-release, Sasikumar revealed that he intended on making a sequel to Subramaniapuram in which Paraman would have been revealed to have been alive, but dropped the idea due to fear of it impacting the first film's legacy.^[30]

• Subramaniapuram at IMDb 
• Subramaniapuram at Rotten Tomatoes