Eeswaran

''Eeswaran'' is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by Suseenthiran and produced by Balaji Kapa under Madhav Media. The film stars Silambarsan in the titular role, alongside Bharathiraja, Nidhhi Agerwal (in her Tamil debut) and Nandita Swetha. The film has music scored by Thaman S, whereas cinematography and editing were handled by Tirru and Anthony respectively.

Principal photography commenced on Dindigul in October 2020 and wrapped up within a single schedule of 22 days. The film released on 14 January 2021, coinciding with Pongal. The film received mixed reviews from critics and was an average hit.

Plot

Periyasamy is a farmer who leads a simple and happy life with his wife, Paapathi, and their children. One day, the family astrologer Kaali, who is also Paapathi's younger brother, visits Periyasamy's family and makes accurate predictions about their past and future. Periyasamy's world turns upside down the very same day. Just as Kaali had predicted, Paapathi slips and injures her head and succumbs to her injuries. Years go by, and Periyasamy's children marry and move to Chennai for their livelihood, leaving him alone in the village. He eagerly awaits his family's occasional visits.

A young man, Eeswaran, joins as a house help/foster son for Periyasamy. Eeswaran is street-smart and wise and runs from pillar to post to get things done while establishing connections with many VIPs in the state. In March 2020, the Indian government imposed a COVID-19-related lockdown, and Periyasamy's family chose to move to the village rather than remain in the city. Periyasamy rejoices at the idea of spending more time with his grandchildren, so he calls astrologer Kaali, who predicts that there will certainly be a death in the next few days, leaving them worried about contracting the coronavirus and dying from the complications. The whole family takes PCR tests, and to their relief, the results are negative. However, the doctor informs Eeswaran about Periyasamy's young granddaughter Diya's rare heart condition, which requires immediate attention. Eeswaran arranges Diya's surgery without the family's knowledge to keep them calm and happy.

Meanwhile, Eeswaran's married ex-girlfriend and Periyasamy's granddaughter, Vasuki, also came to stay with them during the lockdown, and this caused tension between the two. Vasuki and Eeswaran fell in love, but they broke up when Eeswaran refused to leave the village for the sake of Periyasamy. Vasuki's younger sister, Poongodi, falls in love with Eeswaran, but he doesn't reciprocate her feelings. For the same reason, he doesn't want to leave Periyasamy alone. Periyasamy understands this situation and confesses to Eeswaran that Periyasamy lost the one true love of his life, Parvathi. He states that he married Paapathi because of his mother's wish, but Parvathi reentered his life again. He had no choice but to marry her as his second wife, and they had a son, Aadhisivan. But things go awry when Paapathi discovers Parvathi and Periyasamy's relationship. So, Parvathi took Aadhisivan and disappeared for good. Periyasamy doesn't know their whereabouts to date. He urges Eeswaran to accept Poongodi's proposal, and Eeswaran obliges.

Periyasamy's daughter and son-in-law Maragadhamani's business keeps incurring losses, and his wife's brothers lend him money, but he fails to repay them, leading to family feuds. Maragadhamani asks Periyasamy to sell the family-owned land and help him in his business, but Periyasamy vehemently refuses. So, Maragadhamani plans to kill Periyasamy to usurp the family property. He sends poisonous cobras to Periyasamy's farm; Eeswaran discovers the plan and saves the family, but a cobra bites Eeswaran. He thrashes Maragadhamani, but the family expels Eeswaran, citing that he is an outsider. Seeing the commotion, Diya faints, and the whole family tries to rush her to the hospital for surgery. But Rathnaswamy, Periyasamy's arch-nemesis, a recent release from jail, stops them. Rathnaswamy wants revenge against Periyasamy as he believes that the latter was the root cause of the suicide of his wife and daughter. Eeswaran rescues the family again from Rathnaswamy despite the snake poison affecting his body. Finally, he rushes to see Diya, where he collapses, and they take her for emergency treatment. Amidst all the confusion, Sonamuthu, a close aide of Periyasamy and Kutty Puli, Eeswaran's friend, explain that Eeswaran is none other than Periyasamy and Parvathi's son, Aadhisivan, and, as a dying wish from Parvathi, she hid the truth from him. Periyasamy and the whole family are overwhelmed by this news and rush in to see him. Eeswaran recovers from the snake bite, Diya's surgery is also a success, and the entire family is happily reunited.

Eeswaran marries Poongodi; he solves Maragadhamani's loan problems and asks him to manage his money efficiently. He is informed of the sudden demise of astrologer Kaali, indicating that Kaali's predictions came true in some form.

Cast

Production

Development

In August 2020, Silambarasan was reported to be a part of Suseethiran's untitled film. A source claimed that Simbu had read the script through a virtual meeting with the director, due to the COVID-19 lockdown, and expected to shoot the film in October 2020, during the fifth phase of unlock. Producer Balaji Kapa of Madhav Media, stated an official announcement of their collaboration with the director and actor on 10 October 2020. Silambarasan released the first look of the film on 26 October 2020, in which the title was revealed to be ''Eeswaran''.

Casting

The film's cast members had Bharathiraja signing to act as the father of Silambarasan. Bala Saravanan signed to appear in a comical role, and Nidhi Agerwal playing the female lead. Thaman S was roped in to compose music, whilst cinematographer Tirru, editor Anthony and art director Rajeevan, were also a part of the technical crew.

For his role in the film, Silambarasan took an extremely intense weight training and strict diet regime, under his trainer Sandeep Raj, in which he lost 30 kilograms in the process. He also indulged in sports, yoga and Bharathanatyam, as a part of the fitness regime. He learnt Bharathanatyam from former actress Saranya Mohan, for few sequences.

Filming

The principal photography commenced on 17 September 2020, the very same day as the launch. The production team adhered to the safety guidelines, imposed by the government in order to control the spread of COVID-19. Primarily shot at Dindigul, the principal shoot was wrapped up on 7 November 2020, Simbu also completed the dubbing portions of the film on a single day.

Soundtrack

The music for the film is composed by Thaman S, in his third collaboration with Silambarasan after ''Osthe'' (2011) and ''Vaalu'' (2015); first time collaborated with Suseenthiran. The lyrics for the songs were written by Yugabharathi. Thaman composed the film's music within a record time of two months. The first single "Thamizhan Paattu" was released on 14 December 2020. The four-song soundtrack was released on 2 January 2021, at the Albert Theatre in Chennai.

Release

''Eeswaran'' is scheduled to release on 14 January 2021, coinciding with Pongal. The Tamil Nadu theatrical rights of the film were bought by 7G Films. It was released through video-on-demand, over the new platform OlyFlix, for viewers across overseas countries.

Reception

M. Suganth of ''The Times of India'', gave 2.5 out of 5 and stated "The lack of novel ideas, ineffective twists and female leads who have hardly anything to do affect the flow of the film. The emotional scenes lack required intensity, and the tension surrounding the antagonist could have been much better." Srinivasa Ramanujan of ''The Hindu'' stated "The Simbu-starrer is yet another village-based tale that has more uncles and relatives than ideas." ''Behindwoods'' gave 2.25 out of 5 stating "STR's vintage changeover is promising, but Eeswaran falls short of expectations." ''Sify'' gave 2.5 out of 5 and stated "''Eeswaran'' is an average formulaic rural family entertainer."

Ranjani Krishnakumar of ''Firstpost'' gave 1.5 out of 5 and stated "In bringing together this colourful and relatable cast of characters, Suseenthiran scores. But that's that. Once he's established the milieu, he doesn't know where to take the film." Ashameera Aiyappan of ''Cinema Express'' gave 1.5 out of 5 and stated "It is great that Simbu looks like he has turned back time. But it isn't great that the film also seems to have travelled back with him." Manoj Kumar R of ''The Indian Express'' gave 1 out of 5 stars "Eeswaran is nothing but a two-hour-long verbal and visual flow of cues that reinforce the patriarchal view of women's subservient role to men in a family."

Logesh Balachandran of ''India Today'' gave 3.5 out of 5 and wrote "Eeswaran isn't a great film, but director Suseenthiran gets many things right. At a time when fans are longing to witness that energetic Simbu on screen, which has been missing for years now, Suseenthiran delivers a perfect rural entertainer that serves just that. The screenplay has been developed in a manner to please both the star's fans and family audience. Unlike the actor's previous films, there is adequate emotion in the script which works big time."

Controversies

Snake issue

In the motion poster of the film which was released on 26 October, the protagonist Silambarasan had a snake wrapped around his neck a forest official filed a case stating that the team had given sedatives to the animal to prevent it from harming the team which kills the animal very soon and also said that many crews are lying telling it is a fake snake. However, the team stated that the snake was plastic and no harm was there for the animal as well as the crew. But a video was released in which Silambarasan practised throwing a snake in a sack bag, but the team said it was a scene in the movie and the snake was a fake one. On 19 November, the Animal Welfare Board of India, objected the film's team to remove the controversial motion poster, which was later removed from YouTube.

Harassment against Suseenthiran

Director Suseendhiran was involved in controversy over unnecessarily interrupting when Nidhhi Agerwal was speaking in front of public during the audio launch of the film. The director reportedly urged the actress to say that she loves Silambarasan. His distateful behaviour was heavily criticised in the social media for harassing Agerwal in front of public. However the director clarified the controversy stating that he wanted to give the essence to the audience on how the film will work.

100% seating capacity issue in Tamil Nadu

The film was given permission to release the film with 100% seating capacity in theatres along with Vijay starrer ''Master'' (2021) by the Government of Tamil Nadu despite the increase in COVID-19 cases in India especially with cases also increasing in Tamil Nadu. However the Central Government of India issued warrant against Tamil Nadu government's decision to approve the release of the films with full 100% seating capacity. The central government stated that 100% seat occupancy is clearly in violation of the guidelines of MHA which only allows 50% seat occupancy in theatres. Some doctors also cautioned against full seating capacity for the film. Soon after, Central Government notice was passed and it was revoked back to 50% seating capacity in Tamil Nadu theatres.

OTT release issue

In overseas countries, the makers had signed a deal for the new OTT platform OlyFlix, where the makers will premiere the film through video-on-demand from 14 January 2021 (coinciding with the release in Indian theatres). However, the Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association opposed the decision for a simultaneous OTT release, fearing that piracy sites may upload the high definition print of the film, which will affect the theatrical business. The exhibitors also threatened to boycott the film, if they suggest for an OTT release on the said date. Following pressure from theatre owners and exhibitors, the makers decided to hold the release over video-on-demand, and instead they requested the theatre owners to increase the number of screens for the film.

References

External links

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{{Suseenthiran

2021 films
2021 action drama films
Indian action drama films
Films directed by Suseenthiran
Films scored by Thaman S
2020s Tamil-language films
Indian films about the COVID-19 pandemic
Tamil-language Indian films
2020s Indian films