''Thalaikoothal'' () is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language

neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan is an Indian film director and actor, who has worked on Tamil and Malayalam language films. He rose to fame through the thriller drama ''Lens (film), Lens'' (2016), and has gone on to make feature films including the fam ...

and starring

Samuthirakani P. Samuthirakani (born 26 April 1973) is an Indian actor and film director who works predominantly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. He worked as an assistant to director K. Balachander, in '' Paarthale Paravasam''. He won the National F ...

Kathir Kathir is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Early life Kathir was born in kalkarai, a small village in the Radhapuram Taluk of Tirunelveli District, state of Tamil Nadu, India. Kathi ...

Vasundhara Kashyap Vasundhara Kashyap is an Indian actress and model in Tamil language films. Career Vasundhara was born to a Tamil father and a Maharashtrian mother. She first appeared in the 2006 Tamil film, ''Vattaram ''Vattaram'' is a 2006 Indian Ta ...

, Baby Vishrutha and Katha Nandi in the lead roles. It was released on 3 February 2023.

Plot

Pazhani is a middle-aged man who lives with his wife Kalaiselvi and daughter and cares for his

bedridden Being bedridden is a form of immobility that can present as the inability to move or even sit upright. It differs from bed-rest, a form of non-invasive treatment that is usually part of recovery or the limitation of activities. Some of the more se ...

, comatose father Muthu. His father had suffered an accident at his workplace, where he works as a mason with Pazhani. To care for his father and attend to his needs, Pazhani stops his work and begins night shift work as an ATM

security guard A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, factory guard, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) ...

. Kalaiselvi is always angry with him and picks fights since she feels he neglects her and his family because he is always busy caring for his father. She must work at a

match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

stick factory due to Pazhani's low income to support herself and her family. She is irked by the factory supervisor's attempts to woo her at her workplace. Pazhani has borrowed a large sum of money from the local moneylender, a relative, to spend on Muthu's treatment. The moneylender keeps hassling him to get the money back and settle his debts. His father-in-law suggests performing thalaikoothal on the ailing father since he's been comatose for so long and is now a burden to the family, to which Pazhani strongly disagrees. He had been consulting a local

demigod A demigod is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human, or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" (divine illumination). An immortality, immor ...

to find any cure or blessing for his father, and upon his advice, he agreed to arrange a feast for the whole village if his father's condition improved. One day, Muthu opens his eyes from a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...

and starts recognizing the people around him. Pazhani is elated and borrows money from the moneylender again to arrange a feast for the whole village. He starts taking his father out to roam around and for frequent doctor visits. He also pledges his house documents secretly to the money lender to meet the expenses. The film progresses in a non-linear fashion with intermittent flashbacks from Muthu's youth, when he was in love with a lower

caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...

washerwoman A washerwoman or laundress is a woman who takes in laundry. Both terms are now old-fashioned; equivalent work nowadays is done by a laundry worker in large commercial premises, or a laundrette (laundromat) attendant, who helps with handling w ...

girl named Pechi. Despite the social pressure of those days, he gets close to her and decides to marry her. On the day of their marriage, Pazhani's grandfather attacks them and cuts off her finger before taking Muthu away forcefully. Once the bedridden father of Pazhani recalls this incident from his life, he loses consciousness again and returns to a comatose state. One day, the money lender turns up at their house and tries to measure the house before selling it to someone when Kalaiselvi interrupts them. Kalaiselvi realizes that he pledged the documents to the lender without informing her and argues with Pazhani, eventually leaving the house with their daughter. His father-in-law and brother-in-law again meet Pazhani with the

swami Swami (; ; sometimes abbreviated sw.) in Hinduism is an honorific title given to an Asceticism#Hinduism, ascetic who has chosen the Sannyasa, path of renunciation (''sanyāsa''), or has been initiated into a religious monastic order of Vaishnavas ...

and inform him that Pazhani's brother-in-law took the documents back from the money lender after settling his outstanding amount. They start pressuring Pazhani to perform Thalaikoothal on his father since he has returned to a coma without hope for recovery. This time, Kalaiselvi threatens to leave him for good if he disagrees. Under immense pressure, Pazhani does not relent and lets them know he wants to care for his father without killing him. Kalaiselvi and her daughter leave his house, and he has nightmares that day about his daughter. Eventually, he goes to bring them back home and agrees with his in-laws to perform Thalaikoothal on his father. They give him an oil bath, make him drink

coconut water Coconut water (also coconut juice) is the clear liquid inside young coconuts (fruits of the coconut palm). In early development, it serves as a suspension for the endosperm of the coconut during the nuclear phase of development. As developm ...

, and put him to sleep on the floor overnight as per the standard procedure. When they see that he is still alive the next day, they bring someone who injects poison into Muthu and kill him instantly. They arrange his

funeral A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

as if he had passed away naturally and is cremated. Pechi also comes to see his funeral and goes back unnoticed. A devastated Pazhani takes some of his father's remains from the grave and plants a

banyan A banyan, also spelled banian ( ), is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adjacent prop roots, allowing the tree to spread outwards indefinitely. This distinguishes banyans from other trees with a strangler habit that begin life as ...

tree using the remains. Pazhani and his family relocate to the city to pursue his work when his daughter confronts him inside the bus about the thalaikoothal incident, which she discovered from her friend. The movie closes years later with Pazhani and his daughter spending time together below the now-grown banyan tree.

Cast

as Pazhani *Kalaiselvan as Muthu *

as younger Muthu *

as Kalaiselvi, Pazhani's wife, *Baby Vishrutha as Raji, Pazhani's daughter *Katha Nandi as Pechi *

Vaiyapuri Vaiyapuri (born 23 October 1968 as Ramakrishnan) is an Indian actor who has worked in Tamil-language films. He rose to fame by appearing in supporting roles in the late 1990s and early 2000s, often portraying supporting comedic characters. Hi ...

as a transgender demigod *

Aadukalam Murugadoss Aadukalam Murugadoss is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil language films. He made his breakthrough in Vetrimaaran's critically acclaimed '' Aadukalam'' (2011), thus adding the name of the film as a prefix to create a stage name. Career ...

as Vemba, Pazhani's friend

Production

who earlier directed ''Lens'' began working on the project by early 2021, revealing that he had started a "village-based" film during an interview in March 2021. The film was officially announced in December 2021 by

S. Sashikanth Shivaji Sashikanth is an Indian film producer, architect, film director, and entrepreneur from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. After studying architecture at university, Sashikanth established the Chennai-based design firm Space Scape in 2002, which becam ...

and Chakravarthy Ramachandra, under YNOT Studios, with

and Vasundhara announced as the film's lead actors. The title, ''Thalaikoothal'', refers to a ritual that is practised in rural areas of Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu. It is a form of traditional involuntary euthanasia done to the elderly. The film was largely shot in Kovilpatti, with some schedules held in Kutralam and Tenkasi.

Reception

The film was released on 3 February 2023 across Tamil Nadu. Bhuvanesh Chandar from ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' wrote that the film was "simply outstanding", adding that "Jayaprakash’s poignant drama about a son’s fight to save his comatose father has brilliant performances, unbelievably great sound design, and stunning visual imagery that speaks of the value of a life". Logesh Balachandran of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' also gave the film a positive review, noting "overall, ''Thalaikoothal'' is definitely a socially-relevant film and explores the practice of senicide in the most convincing way".

References

External links

* {{Y NOT Studios 2023 films 2020s Tamil-language films 2020s Indian films Indian drama films Tamil-language Indian films Films produced by S. Sashikanth