Kuruthipunal

Directed by                   P.C. Sriram
Produced by                  Kamal Haasan, Charuhasan
Written by                     Govind Nihalani (story)
 Starring                        Kamal Haasan
                                     Arjun Sarja
                                      Nasser
                                     Gouthami
                                     K. Viswanath
                                     Subhalekha Sudhakar
                                     Geetha
Music by                       Mahesh Mahadevan
Cinematography             P.C. Sriram
Distributed by              Rajkamal International
Release date(s)            1995
Running time                137 mins
Language                      Tamil
The film starts with two sincere police officers Adhi Narayanan (Kamal Hassan) and Abbas (Arjun) sending two secret vigilance officers, named Anand and Shiva on an operation called Operation Dhanush, to mingle with a terror group headed by a man named Badri, with the task of acting as a spy and providing updates about the movements of the group, then later sending it back to Abbas. A leak from inside the police camp leads the terrorist to oust Anand as a spy but before they could torture Anand and get the information of the second spy, he commits suicide.
Through Shiva, Adhi and Abbas learn of the arrival of an RPG expert shooter into the city to assassinate a minister who is to arrive soon. Adhi and Abbas manage to corner the RPG shooter in a railway station but he manages to escape the police in an intense shoot out. But the police duo captures the driver (Nasser) of the car that had come to pick up the shooter.
Thus starts the mind game between Adhi and the Driver. Adhi torture the driver for information on the terrorist head Badri and the spy among the police camp but the driver maintains his innocence. Adhi, convinced that the driver holds a mid-level position in the terrorist camp, refuse to believe him.
Meanwhile, Adhi and Abbas change the route of the minister who was to be assassinated at the last minute. But the terrorist knew about this plan and the RPG shooter kills the minister but is then captured by the police. The shooter names Srinivasan, a senior police officer who was Adhi’s mentor, as the spy who had alerted the terrorists of the change of plan. Before Srinivasan gets arrested, he confesses to Adhi that he was being blackmailed by the terrorist group who had threatened to kill his family if he didn’t act as a spy and commits suicide. This enrages Adhi and he beats up the driver even more.
The Driver then used one of his men inside the prison he is kept in to pass instructions to kill Adhi’s pet to show Adhi that he can kill Adhi’s family just as easily. The Driver reveals himself as Badri, the head of the terrorist group and threatens to kill Adhi’s family if he is not let go. Adhi, manages to let Badri escape. Adhi acts as the new spy for the terrorist group. Abbas gets a little suspicious and follows Adhi when he was to meet Badri. Abbas is caught, tortured and killed.
Overcome with sadness, Abbas’s wife, Geetha and their teenage daughter comes to live with Adhi and his wife, Sumitra (Gautami) and son. Badri, again threatens Adhi to let a couple of terrorist come and live with him to keep a closer eye on Adhi. Overcome with guilt and grief over Abbas’s death and his betrayal of his duty, he realizes that he is travelling down the same path Srinivasan had done and decides to end the arrangement.
Adhi manages to find the safe house the terrorists reside in. Meanwhile. Meanwhile, the amorous terrorist staying at Adhi’s house, overcome with lust and tries to rape Abbas’s teenage daughter. Gautami, intervenes and offers herself to him instead. While he gets a bit too excited, she gets the gun off him and kills him.
As Adhi approach the safehouse, he gets captured and the roles are reversed as Badri tortures Adhi to reveal the information of the second spy in the terrorist’s camp. When only Adhi, Badri and Badri’s second in command, Shiva is left in the room, Badri reveals to Adhi that the group has even found the radio used by the spy and that Danush (the codename of the spy ) can no longer contact the police. This surprises Adhi and he looks at Shiva, who is the spy, for confirmation. Badri notices this and realizes that Shiva is Dhanush. Adhi breaks free and tussle with Badri when Badri tries to kill Shiva. This leads to a tussle in which Adhi kills badri.
Adhi, realizing that the mission to bring down all the terrorist organizations is more important than his life, insists Shiva to shoot him so that Shiva could continue being the spy. Shiva shoots and kills Adhi just as the other terrorist members enter the room hearing the commotion inside. Shiva convinces the others that Badri was killed by Adhi and he killed Adhi. He proclaims that as Badri is dead, he, the second in command, will take over the reins of the group.
Kuruthipunal (Tamil: குருதிப்புனல்) is a 1995 Tamil drama and action film directed by veteran cinematographer P. C. Sriram. The film stars Kamal Haasan and Arjun Sarja in the lead roles. Upon release, the film met with a strong critical reception, and is recognized by some to have set high benchmarks for other action films in that period. The film featured no songs throughout the film, however the background score was composed by Mahesh Mahadevan. Produced by Kamal Hassan, the story is a remake of the 1994 Hindi film Drohkaal.
The plot revolves around a police officer with familial obligations and a strong desire to curb terrorism in the country. The film was featured as part of a retrospective to Kamal Haasan under the category "Director in Focus" at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film was India's official entry for the 68th Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film category.

The film grossed US$ 3 million at the box office