Madhavan played an imposter gangster in K. S. Ravikumar's comedy "Aethiree" (2004) before being selected to feature in his fourth Mani Ratnam production, "Aaytha Ezhuthu" (2004), which featured him in an ensemble cast including Suriya, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, Esha Deol and Trisha. Madhavan portrayed the character of Inba Sekhar, a hitman living in the slums of Chennai, whose path crosses with the characters portrayed by Suriya and Siddharth. His role also featured him in a struggling marriage, where his wife desperately tries to claw him away from his profession. Madhavan bulked up and sported a shaven look for the first time in his career to resemble the character of a ruffian and shot for the film through the sync sound technique. He received widespread praise for his depiction, with Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu claiming that Madhavan outplayed Abhishek Bachchan's interpretation of the character in the Hindi version of the bilingual, "Yuva". Madhavan went on to win the Filmfare Award for the Best Tamil Supporting Actor, whilst another critic from The Hindu cited that he "sparkles as an anti-hero" and that the "character ought to find a very special place in his repertoire". Similarly, a critic from Indiaglitz.com stated "Madhavan's daring decision to play a negative character, who gets beaten up black and blue at the end, putting his 'hero' image in peril, has paid off, as he walks away with top honours", while a reviewer from Sify.com labelled him as "terrific". In late 2004, Madhavan worked on Rajiv Anchal's English-Malayalam crossover film "Nothing But Life" (2005) and completed his work in a single schedule across Las Vegas and Albuquerque. Portraying an orphaned youth with suicidal tendencies being treated by a Malayali psychiatrist in the US, the film and his portrayal opened to mixed reviews.