Aneethi

Aneethi (transl. Injustice) is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language romantic psychological thriller film written and directed by Vasanthabalan. It is produced by Vasanthabalan himself, V M. Krishna Kumar, Murugan Gnanavel, Varadharajan Manickam under the banner Urban Boyz Studios. The film stars Arjun Das and Dushara Vijayan in the lead roles.

Aneethi
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vasanthabalan
Written by	Vasanthabalan
Produced by	M. Krishna Kumar See Murugan Gnanavel Varadharajan Manickam Vasanthabalan
Starring	Arjun Das Dushara Vijayan
Cinematography	A. M. Edwin Sakay
Edited by	Ravikumar. M
Music by	G. V. Prakash Kumar
Production company	Urban Boyz Studios
Distributed by	S Pictures
Release date	21 July 2023 (2023-July-21)
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹5 crore

The film was announced in February 2021, under the tentative title Production No.1, as it is the production banner's maiden production, while the title of the film was revealed in September. Principal photography commenced in February 2021 and wrapped in May 2022. The music is composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, while the cinematography and editing are handled by A. M. Edwin Sakay and Ravikumar M, respectively.

Aneethi released theatrically on 21 July 2023 and received positive reviews from critics and become a sleeper hit at the box-office.

Plot

The film starts with Thirumeni going into a house holding an pickaxe and searching for Subbu.

One year before, Thirumeni was working as a food delivery boy at Meal Monkey. He is staying in a shared room with his friend Pothi and his roommate Bhaskar. When Thirumeni goes to deliver food, a customer asks him to get to the thirteenth floor, and he goes there by walking upstairs, but the customer argues with him for not having change for two thousand rupees. At that moment, he uses a sangu and kills the customer. The next morning, in his room, he sees a chocolate advertisement on TV. Seeing that, he gets furious and breaks the TV. Bhaskar scolds him for breaking the TV and starts insisting on leaving the room. Pothi deals with the matter by politely requesting Bhaskar. Later, it was revealed to the audience that Thirumeni has obsessive-compulsive disorder. He gets treated by a psychiatrist, and those customers were not killed; he just hallucinated. After finishing his session with the psychiatrist, Thiru gets out of the hospital, and Bhaskar sees him there. Later that day, when Thirumeni enters the room, Pothi and Bhaskar ask him about being treated in a mental health hospital. He tells them that nowadays he feels like killing whoever he sees. Pothi asks him if he has ever wanted to kill him, and Thirumeni replies that he has killed him a hundred times in his imagination. Bhaskar asks the same question to Thirumeni, and he replies that he has killed him a thousand times. After that, frightened Pothi and Bhaskar slept outside of the room. After that, Thirumeni's Meal Monkey account gets blocked by the manager due to low ratings. Pothi requests the manager give him a last chance. One night, while delivering food, he talks with a girl, but he can't see her because she didn't open the gate. He likes her, so he starts to deliver the food she orders every day. In order to see her face, he packs the food in a big parcel, so she will open the gate and he can see her. She opened the gate, and he finally saw her. Later, he follows her, and he leaves the shopping store once she gets scolded and beaten by her employer, an old lady named Mangayarkarasi. Subbu is a maid for Mangayarkarasi. Later, after receiving her food, Subbu asks Thirumeni to forgive her for not telling him that she is a maid. He tells her that he knows that she is a maid before following her to the shopping store. Then she opened the gate, and they both became lovers. After a few days, when Subbu gets out of the house, Mangayarkarasi checks her bag and then checks her body. frustrated Subbu cries, tells her to see, and lifts her clothes. Mangayarkarasi beats Subbu, and Thirumeni sees through the window. While going to her house, he says that he wants to kill Mangayarkarasi. Later that day, while talking about Subbu's family issues, Thirumeni and Subbu hugged, as seen by Mangayarkarasi. They start arguing, and Thirumeni leaves. Later that night, Subbu calls him, and they both take Mangayarkarasi to the hospital, but she's dead. Subbu tries to call Aji, but he doesn't pick up the call, so they put the dead body in a private mortuary, and they used Mangayarkarasi's debit card for the expenses. Later, Pothi met with an accident, and Thirumeni rescued him and took him to a private hospital. He asked for Mangayarkarasi's debit card to pay the bill and told Subbu he would return the money. But Subbu refuses to give the debit card, so Thirumeni cuts the phone call, and an auto driver helps him pay the bill. The next day, she says that her brother stole the card and swiped two lakhs. So they decide to arrange the money, so they ask the people they know for loans, but no one helps. Aji calls Subbu and asks why she called him. She lies, saying that Mangayarkarasi wanted to talk to him. Later, Thirumeni arranges for a mimicry artist to talk with Mangayarkarasi's daughter, Anitha. The mimicry artist manages to talk like Mangayarkarasi, and Anitha tells her that she has a surprise gift for her, so she asks Subbu to open the gate. After opening the gate, Subbu was frightened because it was Anitha and Aji, and their families had come here to see Mangayarkarasi. Anitha and Aji find that their mother is dead, and they start beating Subbu and Thirumeni. They go and see their mother's dead body, and it is confirmed that their mother died due to poisoning. Thirumeni and Subbu were arrested by the police. Anitha goes to the police station and starts to shoot them with her gun, but they escape. Anitha's uncle bribed the police to cover the thing that happened. The police start investigating by beating both Thirumeni and Subbu. After the inspector manipulates Subbu by telling her that Thirumeni may have killed Mangayarkarasi, Subbu recollects the conversation and Thirumeni's mental illness, so she concludes he must be the killer and yells to Thirumeni, Why did he kill Mangayarkarasi? Later, the police start torturing him to convict him. The police go to Thirumeni's room and inform Bhaskar that Thirumeni has killed an old lady. They find the note of Thirumeni, in which it is written many times that the taste of the chocolate is bitter.

Many years ago, Thirumeni and his father lived happily, but he asked his father to buy him chocolate, which costs fifty rupees. His father works in a small store where his salary is five hundred, but the store owner will give only three hundred. So his father promises to buy it on his birthday. But he was beaten up and humiliated by the store owner and his employer. The store owner makes a fake complaint to the police that he tried to steal the money, so the police beat him up. Later that night, Thirumeni's father returns home, and he gives him the chocolate, which was covered by his blood. Seeing that, Thirumeni tells him that he doesn't want chocolate; he only wants his daddy. That night, while sleeping, Thirumeni's father died of suffocation. After a few days, Thirumeni hallucinates throwing a stone at the store owner's face, but he didn't throw it in real life.

Now Thirumeni makes the statement that he is the one who killed Mangayarkarasi while being filmed by police. The cameraman finds a letter that was written by Mangayarkarasi. It reveals that she killed herself by consuming sleeping pills because her children, Aji and Anitha, didn't care about her. After that, Subbu and Thirumeni get released from prison. Subbu asks Thirumeni to forgive her, but he walks away. Anitha's uncle gives four lakhs to Subbu's father so he can let her go with them to America and work as a waitress in their hotel. Thirumeni goes to his room, where he can't find the key, and his belongings are thrown out. He finds his father's photo out of the room, which was damaged due to rain. Subbu realises that Aji and Anitha want to get her sign because Mangayarkarasi has registered the house in her name. She leaves the place because she doesn't want to go to America. Bhaskar arrives at the room, where he finds the lock has been broken. As he enters the room, he finds Thirumeni taking a bath without locking the bathroom. At the same time, the employees of Meal Monkey protested against the layoff. Subbu arrives at the Meal Monkey office to find Thirumeni, but she leaves because she didn't find him there. After taking a bath, Thirumeni asks Bhaskar to forgive him for breaking the lock, and he cries because the photo of his father has been damaged due to rain. He leaves, saying that he has vacated the room. After he was gone, it was shown that Bhaskar was killed by breaking the TV on his head. Thirumeni takes Bhaskar's bike and rides it to the Meal Monkey office, and he kills the owner of the company. Anitha and Aji find Subbu and take her to their home, and they start to torture her. When Thirumeni arrives there, he gets more aggressive, seeing Subbu kneeling and begging to let her go, which he connects to his father, and he beats Aji, Anitha, and their uncle. First, he kills Anitha's uncle, and then he goes upstairs and kills Anitha and Aji using an axe. Finally, he confronts Subbu, where she kneels, begs, and asks him to kill her. She says that she is the reason for his becoming a killer. He drops the axe, kisses her hands, and says that he loves her hands very much and will always love those hands. He says that those who kneel and ask for an apology should be forgiven. If they didn't forgive, then they were not humans but beasts. If the store owner forgives his father, his life may be different and happier. Then he when he opens the gate, he has a hallucination where he sees his father on a bicycle, and asks him why his clothes are dirty. Thirumeni replies that it is just for play. His father says that your name, Thirumeni, means pure, both mentally and physically.

Cast

• Arjun Das as Thirumeni (Thiru)
• Dushara Vijayan as Subbulakshmi (Subbu), Thiru's love interest and Mangayarkarasi's house maid
• Bharani as Pothi, Thiru's colleague
• Sha Ra as Bhaskar, Thiru's colleague
• Vanitha Vijayakumar as Anitha, Mangayarkarasi's daughter
• Kaali Venkat as Thiru's father
• Arjun Chidambaram as Aji, Mangayarkarasi's son
• Suresh Chakravarthi as Aji’s father-in-law
• T. Siva
• J. Satish Kumar
• Santha Dhananjayan as Mangayarkarasi
• Aranthangi Nisha as Kalaimamani Nisha
• Subramaniam Siva
• Arun Vaidyanathan

Production

Development

In early January 2021, Vasanthabalan was reported to collaborate with Arjun Das for his next directional. An official confirmation was made on 12 February. The film would be produced by Vasanthabalan himself and his school friends under Urban Boyz Studio, in their maiden production, with a production budget of ₹5 crore (US$630,000). The day after the confirmation, Dushara Vijayan was announced to play the lead female role. During an interview, she stated "While I was shooting for Ranjith's film Sarpatta Parambarai (2021, Vasantabalan sir had come to see Shankar sir, who was shooting for Indian 2 at a spot nearby. He saw me and asked me to come to the office. I had a look test with Arjun and got the role." G. V. Prakash Kumar, who made his composition debut through Vasanthabalan's directional film Veyil (2006), was announced to compose the score. A muhurat puja was held on 18 February in Chennai. Stills shared by the makers confirmed that the cinematography and editing would be handled by A. M. Edwin Sakay and Ravikumar M, respectively, as they were present at the puja. The film was reported to be a remake of The Lift Boy (2019); however, Vasanthabalan denied the reports. On 10 September, on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, the film's title Aneethi was revealed by Sivakarthikeyan and P. C. Sreeram along with a teaser.

Filming

Principal photography commenced on 18 February 2021. The filming took mostly place in Chennai. Principal photography wrapped by 24 May 2022.

Music

Aneethi
Soundtrack album by G. V. Prakash Kumar
Released	2023
Recorded	2021-2023
Studio	Jehovahson Alghar, Divine Labs
Genre	Film soundtrack
Length	15:19
Language	Tamil
Label	Think Music India
Producer	G. V. Prakash Kumar
G. V. Prakash Kumar chronology
Kathar Basha Endra Muthuramalingam (2023) Aneethi (2023) Karumegangal Kalaigindrana (2023)

The music for the film was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, in his fourth collaboration with Vasanthabalan after Veyil (2006), Angadi Theru (2010) and Jail (2021); second with Arjun after Putham Pudhu Kaalai Vidiyaadhaa (2022).

The first single "Thikatta Thikatta Kadhalippom" released on 31 October 2022,

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Thikatta Thikatta Kadhalippom"	Na. Muthukumar	G. V. Prakash Kumar, Yamini Ghantasala	04:46
2.	"Thuli Eeram Surakkaadha - Theme song"	Karthik Netha	Harish Sivaramakrishnan	03:30
3.	"Malardhan Vizhundhadhu"	Karthik Netha	Hesham Abdul Wahab, Ravi G	03:50
4.	"Poo Naazhi Pon Naazhi"	Ekadesi	Sid Sriram	03:16

Release

Theatrical

Aneethi released theatrically on 21 July 2023. Apart from Tamil, it also released with a dubbed Telugu version titled Blood and Chocolate. The distribution rights were acquired by S. Shankar under S Pictures, working with Vasanthabalan for the second time after Veyil.

Home media

Aneethi was available to stream in Amazon Prime Video and Aha on 15 September 2023.

Reception

Aneethi received positive reviews from critics.

Logesh Balachandran of The Times of India gave the film 3.5/5 and wrote "Vasantha Balan, who is known for making emotionally loaded films, has come up with a well-written, hard-hitting thriller in Aneethi that's quite impressive in many ways." Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu wrote "Aneethi is miles ahead with its plot and treatment when compared to the director’s previous film, Jail (2021). But it’s a far cry from Vasanthabalan’s earlier works which were more well-rounded and compelling. Despite having its heart in the right place and a lovely performance from Arjun Das, Aneethi, as a whole, is inadequate in pushing home its several messages in an intriguing manner. For a film on injustice, that’s unfair!" Pachi Avudayappan of ABP Nadu gave the film 2.5/5 and wrote "On the whole, 'Aneedhi', which calls for justice for the common man, would have been appreciated if it had increased its pressure through visuals."

Dinamalar gave the film 2.5/5. Kallilullah of Hindutamil.in wrote "'Aneethi' is not likely to do injustice to the audience as it talks about various things like capitalist exploitation and the impact of consumer culture on the common people, but the screenplay is still not without justice."

External links

• Aneethi at IMDb