Endraavathu Oru Naal

Endraavathu Oru Naal is a 2021 Tamil language drama film directed by Vetri Duraisamy and starring Vidharth and Remya Nambeesan in the lead roles. Produced by The Theatre People, it was released on 8 October 2021.

Plot
Rasathi (Remya Nambeesan) is a single parent leading her life with her son Murugan (Master Raghavan) in a village in Kongu region. Rasathi is financially burdened, and she earns a little with the help of her two bulls. However, a money lender takes away Rasathi’s bulls and remains stubborn to return them only upon settlement of the debt. Rasathi takes up some small jobs under the MNERGA scheme to make her living.

A flashback is shown where Rasathi leads a happy life with her husband Thangamuthu (Vidharth), a struggling farmer. Thangamuthu and Rasathi raises a cow with much affection. Thangamuthu struggles due to severe drought in the village and his well dries up leading to water scarcity. Rasathi is conceived and Thangamuthu takes care of his wife well. Due to severe drought, Thangamuthu decides to further deepen his well by borrowing some money from a local money lender anticipating getting more water. The well deepening process goes on for a few days. Meanwhile. Thangamuthu’s cow delivers a couple of calves, and the family feels happy. Rasathi gets labour pain and is admitted to the hospital. Thangamuthu returns home despite heavy rain to take care of the calves while he gets a call about the birth of a baby boy. Thangamuthu is joyful. Unfortunately, lightning strikes Thangamuthu’s well where explosives are placed for the purpose of deepening the well leading to a major explosion leaving Thangamuthu dead.

The movie comes to the present. Rasathi meets a job agent (Ilavarasu) in her village who needs some people to work in other states. As they want only males, Murugan decides to go along with Ilavarasu. Rasathi is hesitant as she wants Murugan to continue to go to schools and not work at this age. However, Murugan convinces Rasathi as they are not left with any other option. Murugan joins Ilavarasu and he lands up in a quarry in Madhya Pradesh for work in a tough environment. Occasionally Murugan calls Rasathi with his friend’s mobile phone. After a few months, Ilavarasu meets Rasathi and hands over some money saying that it was given by Murugan. Rasathi complaints to Ilavarasu that she hadn’t received any phone calls from Murugan for the last 3 months and she couldn’t contact him as well as the number is switched off always. Ilavarasu rushes to the quarry and enquires with the in-charge and finds out that Murugan met with an accident in a conveyor belt and is dead a few weeks back. The in-charge also bribes Ilavarasu asking him not to disclose this to Murugan’s family for which he agrees. Rasathi bails out her bulls from the money lender with the help of money sent by Murugan. The movie ends with Rasathi anticipating a phone call from Murugan, not knowing about his death.

Cast

 * Vidharth as Thangamuthu
 * Remya Nambeesan as Rasathi
 * Master Raghavan as Murugan
 * Ilavarasu
 * Diana Vishalini
 * Rajesh Balachandiran
 * R. Bhaskar
 * Mahesh Shanmugasundram

Production
The film marked the directorial debut of Vetri Duraisamy, the son of former Mayor of Chennai Saidai Duraisamy, and production began in late 2020. The film was shot in Vellakoil near Tiruppur. Prior to release, the film had a festival run, winning 43 awards across various film festivals.

Soundtrack
Soundtrack was composed by NR Raghunanthan.
 * Kanne En – Vijay Yesudas, Saindhavi
 * Maattu Mani Satham – Namitha Babu

Release
The film was to have a direct television premiere on Zee Tamil on 3 October 2021. but instead released on the ZEE5 streaming platform on 8 October. A critic from The Times of India gave the film a mixed review noting "despite its less than two-hour running time, the film feels too long, like a 45-minute short film stretched to feature length". A reviewer from Cinema Express, wrote "good intentions alone don’t make a film", adding "Remya and Raghavan deliver one of their better performances, but there is only so much that actors can do when the writing is shallow". The critic likened the story of the film to Samuthirakani's Vellai Yaanai (2021) and Raame Aandalum Raavane Aandalum (2021).