Eeswaran

Eeswaran is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language action drama film directed by Suseenthiran. 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 September 2020 and wrapped that November. The film was released on 14 January 2021, coinciding with Pongal.

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 his 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.

In September 2020, Silambarasan was reported to be a part of Suseenthiran's untitled film.^[1] The project was officially announced a month later, with Nidhhi Agerwal confirmed as the lead actress.^[2] Silambarasan released the first look of the film on 26 October, during Vijayadashami, in which the title was revealed to be Eeswaran. The film was produced by Madhav Media, with cinematography by Tirru, editing by Anthony and art direction by Rajeevan.^[3][4]

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 (66 lb) in the process. He also indulged in sports as a part of the fitness regime,^[5] and learned Bharatanatyam from former actress Saranya Mohan for a few sequences.^[6][7]

Principal photography commenced in October 2020, taking place in Dindigul and Madurai,^[8] and wrapped in early November 2020.^[9][10] Silambarasan completed his dubbing portions the next day.^[11]

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.^[12] The first single "Thamizhan Paattu" was released on 14 December 2020.^[13] The four-song soundtrack was released on 2 January 2021, at the Albert Theatre in Chennai.

Eeswaran was released on 14 January 2021, coinciding with Pongal.^[14] The Tamil Nadu theatrical rights were bought by 7G Films.^[15] It was released directly via the streaming service OlyFlix for viewers overseas.^[16]

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."^[17] Srinivasa Ramanujan of The Hindu stated "The Simbu-starrer is yet another village-based tale that has more uncles and relatives than ideas."^[18] Sify gave 2.5 out of 5 and stated "Eeswaran is an average formulaic rural family entertainer."^[19]

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."^[20] 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."^[21] 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."^[22]

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."^[23]

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 film and the snake was a fake one.^[24] 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.^[25][26]

Suseendhiran was involved in controversy over unnecessarily interrupting when Nidhhi Agerwal was speaking to the public during the film's audio launch. Suseendhiran reportedly urged Agerwal to say that she loves Silambarasan.^[27] His distasteful behaviour was heavily criticised via social media for harassing Agerwal in public.^[28] However Suseendhiran clarified that he wanted to give the essence to the audience on how the film will work.^[27][29]

The film was given permission to release the film with 100% seating capacity in theatres along with another Pongal release 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.^[30][31] 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.^[32] 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.^[33] Some doctors also cautioned against full seating capacity for the film.^[34][35] Soon after, Central Government notice was passed and it was revoked back to 50% seating capacity in Tamil Nadu theatres.^[36]

In overseas countries, the makers had signed a deal with OlyFlix, wherein the makers would 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 streaming release, fearing that piracy sites may upload the high definition print of the film, which will affect the theatrical business.^[37] The exhibitors also threatened to boycott the film, if they suggest for a streaming release on the said date.^[38] Following pressure from theatre owners and exhibitors, the makers decided to hold the release over video-on-demand,^[39] and instead they requested the theatre owners to increase the number of screens for the film.^[40]

• Eeswaran at IMDb 
• Eeswaran at Rotten Tomatoes