Jiiva next starred in Dishyum (2006). Later that year, Jiiva made his debut in Malayalam cinema with Major Ravi's war film Keerthi Chakra, which saw a dubbed release as Aran in Tamil Nadu. His final 2006 release was E. He then starred in Kattradhu Thamizh (2007), as a lower middle class post-graduate degree holder in Tamil literature, who gradually turns a psychopath, frustrated by the inequality in the social structure. Whilst the film opened to rave reviews, Jiiva's portrayal as Prabhakar was praised by critics and widely termed as the best in 2007; a Behindwoods review labelled it as "a performance of his lifetime", while Rediff wrote that he was "endearing as the young, vulnerable Prabha, [...] perfect as the ganja-smoking near-lunatic [...] and freaking brilliant as the frustrated Tamil graduate". "He was, in a nutshell, simply superb". Jiiva had grown a full length beard for the character and cited the hardships during the shoots of the film, which he considered as his most painful experience and a "torturous affair".