Ethir Neechal (2013 film)

Ethir Neechal is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language sports comedy drama film written and directed by R. S. Durai Senthilkumar in his directorial debut. The film stars Sivakarthikeyan, Priya Anand and Nandita Swetha. Produced by Dhanush under his studio Wunderbar Films, it was distributed by S. Madhan under the banner Vendhar Movies. Principal photography commenced on 23 July 2012, and ended on 22 February 2013. The music for the film is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, with cinematography performed by Velraj and editing by Kishore Te. The film was released on 1 May 2013 to generally positive reviews and became a success.

Plot
In 1985, in rural Thanjavur, a woman named Sivagami has complications while giving birth. Sivagami's husband prays to his native deity that if she delivers his baby successfully, he will name the baby after the deity. The baby is born without any problems, and as per the wish, they name the baby Kunjithapadham. As a boy, Kunjithapadham faces many problems and embarrassments due to his name, as his peers call him "Kunju" or "Kunji" (the private part of the male body). He decides to change his name, but his mother falls severely ill, and he prays to God that he will never change his name. His mother recovers, and they move to Chennai.

Years later, Sivagami dies. Kunjithapadam's friend Peter advises him to change his name in order to have a change in his life. After meeting an astrologer, Gunasekara Raja, he legally renames himself "Harish." He also changes his residence and job. Luck starts to favour him from that day onwards. He falls in love with Geetha, a school teacher, and succeeds in winning her heart. He later gets a job, and life goes smoothly for him. One day, his lottery ticket hits victory, and he must cash it in for a TV as a prize. However, the lottery has registered his earlier name as "Kunjithapadham." He gets the TV using Peter, but Geetha finds out his true name and berates him for lying to her about his name. She tells him that he needs to succeed at something in life in order to win her heart.

Harish decides to participate in the coming Chennai Marathon. He meets a trainer, J. Prakash, alias JP, who takes him to his former student Valli, who had quit athletics. She agrees to train Harish. Later, he sees her crying on the terrace with a photo of her deceased father. Harish asks her to tell her past. Valli was a naturally talented athlete from her young days. Her father supported her talent and spoke with many men to get her past many tournaments. She got into a state-level tournament where she beat the rookie of a corrupt coach, Raja Singh. Infuriated, Raja Singh accused Valli of failing a gender verification test. The board punished Valli and stopped her from participating. Heartbroken, Valli's father died of a heart attack. JP then met with an accident.

Hearing this flashback, Harish is moved and decides to win the marathon. Geetha also urges him to win it for the sake of Valli. During the marathon, Harish faces stiff competition from one of Raja Singh's rookies, but he eventually wins the race and publicly reveals Valli's innocence. Raja Singh is arrested, and Valli resumes athletics. Harish later opens and runs a training academy under his original name. A man named Dinakaran, acting on Harish's advice, proposes his love to Valli, and she accepts.

Cast

 * Sivakarthikeyan as Kunjithapadham aka Harish
 * Priya Anand as Geetha
 * Nandita Swetha as Valli
 * Sharath Lohitashwa as Valli's father (dubbed by M. S. Bhaskar)
 * Sathish as Peter, Harish's friend
 * Jayaprakash as Coach J. Prakash (JP)
 * Ravi Prakash as Raja Singh
 * Nithya Sree as Geetha's friend
 * Manobala as Numerologist Gunasekara Raja
 * Swaminathan as Paavadaisamy, later changed by Numerologist as Google
 * Surekha Vani as Sivagami, Kunjithapatham's mother
 * Pasanga Sivakumar as Kunjithapatham's father
 * Madhan Bob as Kunjithapatham's manager
 * Aarthi as lady at cinema
 * Suza Kumar as Kunjithapatham's love interest
 * RJ Balaji as himself (host of Chennai Marathon)
 * Dhanush as Soup Boy (special appearance in the song "Local Boys")
 * Nayanthara as dancer (special appearance in the song "Local Boys")
 * Anirudh Ravichander as Bar Waiter (cameo appearance)
 * Dinesh as Dinakaran (guest appearance)

Development
Dhanush signed up actor Sivakarthikeyan in his maiden production venture, directed by newcomer R. S. Durai Senthilkumar, a former assistant of Vetrimaaran. Priya Anand was signed up as heroine. She revealed, that Ethir Neechal is a city-based story without cheap comedy, vulgar dialogues or inappropriate scenes. The film's title was derived from the 1968 film of the same name. It was reported that Dhansika was cast as the second heroine; however Nandita Swetha was signed on. Anirudh Ravichander was hired as the music composer, after his debut film 3. The technical crew includes Velraj as the cinematographer, Kishore Te as the editor, G. Durairaj handling the art direction, Anu Parthasarathy as the costume designer, Stunt Silva choreographing the action sequences, and Baba Bhaskar as dance choreographer.

Filming
The film's photoshoot involving Sivakarthikeyan and Priya Anand happened at the Set Fire Studios, Chennai on 7 June 2012. Principal photography commenced on 23 July 2012, with the first shot taken by Balu Mahendra. Dhanush and Nayanthara appeared in a special appearance, dancing together in the dappankuthu number "Sathiyama Nee Enakku (Local Boys)", with Nayanthara designing costumes for herself. The song was shot in Nagercoil at a Punjabi dhabha restaurant. Principal photography wrapped on 22 February 2013, with the post production activities being commenced after the shoot which was completed on 24 April 2013.

Music
The soundtrack features six songs that belonged to varied genres; Vaali, Dhanush and R. S. Durai Senthilkumar penned lyrics for two songs each. For the title track "Ethir Neechal" composer Anirudh hired Punjabi rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh, and Adhi from the duo Hiphop Tamizha, to croon the rap versions of the song. The album's final mixing took place in Mumbai.

It was announced that Sony Music had brought the marketing rights for the film's soundtrack album. The making of the album was launched by the film's crew members, prior to the audio launch.

Release
The distribution rights of Ethir Neechal were secured by Vendhar Movies. The satellite rights of the film were purchased by STAR Vijay. Ethir Neechal was initially scheduled to release on April, later being pushed to 1 May 2013. The film was given a U (unrestricted) certificate by the censor board with no cuts.

Ethir Neechal was released in 300 screens across Tamil Nadu on 1 May 2013, clashing with Soodhu Kavvum and Moondru Per Moondru Kaadhal. Apart from the Tamil Nadu release, the film was simultaneously released in the US, by Gramaphone LLC, which acquired the distribution rights. The film's success was celebrated at the Victoria Hall in Geneva, Switzerland, along with audio functions of three other films distributed by Vendhar Movies.

Critical reception
The Times of India gave 3 out of 5 stars stating "The first half of Ethir Neechal follows the current Tamil cinema formula of ‘laughs first, plot next’." Behindwoods gave 3 out of 5 stars stating it as "A wholesome package which has something in it for everyone." Baradwaj Rangan for The Hindu wrote "Sivakarthikeyan looks like he’s getting there — he’s not yet a star, at least in the leading-man sense,[sic] he gets a feature-length platform to display his comic chops". The New Indian Express stated "Ethir Neechal is a mild passable entertainer". IANS stated, "The film starts off like every other romantic-comedy with adequate amount of comedy and drama, but there's hardly anything spectacular to rave about, including the story." S. Saraswathi of Rediff.com gave 3.5 out of 5 stating "Ethir Neechal is a simple city-based romantic comedy that is guaranteed to provide some wholesome family entertainment." Indiaglitz gave 3.5 out of 5 stating "A romcom and a sports film, put together makes you smile and inspire."

Box office
The film opened 80 – 90% occupancy on first day collected inr 40000000. The film collected inr 1797000 in UK and inr 1060000 in United States in first weekend. The film collected inr 551000 in United States in first day, inr 911999.9999999999 in three days including Thursday previews, around inr 150000 on 5 April and total collection of inr 1797000. It collected around inr 65199999.99999999 in Chennai and inr 220000000 in full run worldwide and became a success at global box office.