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.
Ethir Neechal is the directorial debut of R. S. Durai Senthilkumar, a former assistant of Vetrimaaran. It was produced by Dhanush via Wunderbar Films. Senthilkumar initially wanted him as the lead actor, but Sivakarthikeyan was instead cast.[1][2]Priya Anand, the lead actress, revealed that Ethir Neechal is a city-based story without cheap comedy, vulgar dialogues or inappropriate scenes.[3] The film's title was derived from the 1968 film of the same name.[4] It was reported that Dhansika was cast as the second heroine;[5] however Nandita Swetha was signed on.[6]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,[7] and Baba Bhaskar as dance choreographer.
Filming
Principal photography commenced on 23 July 2012, with the first shot taken by Balu Mahendra.[8] 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.[9] Principal photography wrapped on 22 February 2013,[10] with the post production activities being commenced after the shoot which was completed on 24 April 2013.[11]
It was announced that Sony Music had brought the marketing rights for the film's soundtrack album.[16] The making of the album was launched by the film's crew members, prior to the audio launch.[17]
Ethir Neechal was released in 300 screens across Tamil Nadu on 1 May 2013, clashing with Soodhu Kavvum and Moondru Per Moondru Kadal.[19] Apart from the Tamil Nadu release, the film was simultaneously released in the US, by Gramaphone LLC, which acquired the distribution rights.[22] 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.[23]
Reception
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’."[24]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".[25]The New Indian Express stated "Ethir Neechal is a mild passable entertainer".[26]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."[27] 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."[28]
Box office
The film opened 80 – 90% occupancy on first day collected ₹4 crore (US$480,000).[29] The film collected ₹17.97 lakh (US$22,000) in UK and ₹10.60 lakh (US$13,000) in United States in first weekend. The film collected ₹5.51 lakh (US$6,600) in United States in first day, ₹9.12 lakh (US$11,000) in three days including Thursday previews, around ₹1.5 lakh (US$1,800) on 5 April and total collection of ₹17.97 lakh (US$22,000).[30]
