Sethu (film)

Sethu, aka Chiyaan, is a rough and macho college student, and the Chairman of the college's Student Union. He deals with people violently and has a bad temper. He lives with his older brother, a magistrate, and his sister-in-law, who is the only person who seems to understand him.

The movie begins with Sethu winning the Chair of the Students' Union election, followed by celebrations and an on-campus fight between the rival candidates. Sethu is shown to have an aggressive and temperamental nature. He also has an entourage of loyal friends and a strange vagabond lunatic girl who follows around their group. The next day after election, Sethu gets into an argument with his older brother over the election fight and storms off the house irritated. He rejoices back with his friends at the college entrance. While smoking a pack of cigarette, he encounters a timid brahmin girl, Abitha, who is the daughter of a poor temple priest, making her way into the college. He calls her out and mercilessly rags her for fun by asking trivial questions. However, Abitha's innocent nature and soft-spoken responses win his tough exterior and he grows a liking towards her. Unknowingly after the ragging, Abitha drops a peacock feather from her book, which Sethu keeps. He also bumps into her at the temple during his birthday prayers which leads to some lighthearted interaction between the two. Slowly but gradually, Sethu finds himself falling in love with Abitha. His sister-in-law and his friends also note some subtle changes in him as well; getting early to go college, spending time grooming himself to look good and other good conduct. He also begins to fondly admire the peacock feather to remember Abitha. Sethu also helps her by using his college chairman powers to let her sit for an exam entrance which she got denied earlier. His friends jokingly tease and confirm to a shy Sethu that he has fallen in love indeed.

Concurrently, Abitha's sister returns back home in a pitiful state citing dowry-related torture from her husband. She is determined to throw back the dowry payment to her husband to annul her marriage and stay at home with her kid. She unsuccessfully asks a few people for loan to repay her dowry. Abitha's father feels strained with burden as a result. Meanwhile, Sethu decides to express his feelings for Abitha. He catches up with her in the school library and shyly expresses his love in a rather awkward manner. However, Abitha is completely in utter shock at the proposal as she had never had any feelings for him. In a fit of disbelief, she is unable to react properly when Sethu asks if she loves him and Sethu assumes that she reciprocates his love. He continues to dote on his romance until when he spots Abitha being accompanied by another brahmin man at the college entrance. Curious, Sethu asks his friend who that man is and he reveals that it is her would-be fiance. Feeling insecure and viewing him as a threat to his romance, Sethu displays a mild shady side of obsession. He threatens her fiance who is a passive mannered priest, to back off from Abitha. Frightful, the priest complies.

Subsequently, Abitha openly rejects and dismisses Sethu when he attempts to present her a gift while catching up with her in college science lab. She also explains to him that she never had any romantic interest in him. Unable to digest the truth, Sethu aggressively and angrily questions her causing Abitha to scold him off. Feeling dejected, Sethu spends the night drinking with his friends who advice him to shed his rowdy image and instead be more timid in front of her to earn his chances back. The next morning, one of Sethu's friends gets beaten up by his rival and Sethu attacks the rival up in retaliation. He continues to throw punches, until he catches the sight of Abitha who has witnessed the ordeal at the corner. He immediately stops and walks away feeling a sense of powerlessness to her. His friends noticing the profound change in Sethu, question him about his loyalties to friendship over his love. They argue in the midst and one of the friend passes a crude remark about Abitha causing Sethu to fight him. Realising that his love is causing him to act rashly, Sethu apologizes to his friends and they patch up. However, he still feels heartbroken over Abitha.

At this point, Sethu gets informed by his friend on a shady brothel racket whose patron had misbehaved with the former's sister. He wastes no time and busts their operations while beating out the brothel owners. While searching in one of the rooms, he encounters Abitha's sister in it. Unaware of who she is, Sethu is scornful of her for being a prostitute. Feeling confused and angered by his remarks, Abitha's sister slaps Sethu, explaining to him on her arrangement to collect the dowry loan at the premise. Sethu then soon realizes that she has been conned into prostitution without knowing. While the police arrests the brothel owners and prostitutes, Sethu rescues her discretely from the place by covering her with his jacket and brings her to his bike. Ironically, he also catches sight of Abitha who is amongst the crowd outside witnessing the police arrest. Abitha also sees him with the covered woman thinking that its a brothel worker, completely unaware that its her sis. Though awkward, Sethu takes off with his bike with the woman sitted behind him. Dropping her to safety, Sethu enquires Abitha's sister about her husband's whereabouts. Breaking down, she thanks him for the merciful help and informs Sethu who then goes off into the night. Meanwhile, Abitha's fiance has witnessed the entire incident realizing the grave help Sethu has done.

The next day, Sethu travels to the Sub-registrar office and thrashes Abitha's sis's husband. He threatens him to accept his wife back. Learning his lesson, the husband reunites with Abitha's sis. The family feels blissful over the dispute resolution and a joyous Abitha prays at the temple for the good turn of events. However, her would-be fiance explains to her on Sethu's role on that night her sister got rescued and that the covered woman was none other than her sister. He also points out how Sethu is unaware of the woman's relationship to Abi and that he acted with morality rather than to impress anyone. He also explains that Sethu, though rough is but a truly selfless man who stands to do the right thing. He also reminds Abitha that his own profession as a priest would not sustain her married life with him. Acknowledging that he has a heart of gold, Abitha realizes Sethu's feelings.

However, Sethu acts rashfully and kidnaps Abitha to an abandoned building. In there, he painfully expresses his love and feelings while also berating her for not understanding him. Feeling scared, she tries to escape the building but he subdues her. Its a marked change from the usual Sethu that Abitha has seen. Here, she witnesses his vulnerability to her. He also opens up and shares how torturous the ordeal is for him and that he truly feels that she is meant for him and promises her to take good care of her. Fully realizing his extend of his love, Abitha finally succumbs to his love. Things finally has worked out for Sethu. His pain is finally free and he starts to relish the moment by daydreaming about his newfound love lying on top of his bike..until..

Out of a sudden, Sethu is hit on his face by a brothel goon who had come to take revenge on him for busting their prostitute racket. Several other goons join in and brutalize him in a bloody manner. He feels powerless to defend himself and he is knocked out to the ground. While laying still, the goons carry and drag him until they smash his head into a rock with severe force. The impact causes a part of his brain to suffer a laceration and it gets torn. His brain insides gets damaged as a result. They then throw his body on a cliff and leave him in a gory condition. He gets admitted in a hospital who consider his case to be hopeless for recovery and recommends his worried sister-in-law and brother to send Sethu to a mental ashram in a temple at Yerwadiashram. The doctor advises that the ayurvedic therapeutic treatment at the temple might prove a chance to cure him.

Sethu's life is flipped upside down as his condition has made him a mental patient unable to comprehend anything. He is send to the Yerwadi ashram where conditions are rather inhumane. He becomes thin and is shaved bald, wearing tattered shirt and shorts in the ashram. He is also chained to the walls like other mentally ill patients. He undergoes intense treatment at the temple. Meanwhile, Abitha is worried for him as she had yet to hear from him since his injury. Slowly over time, Sethu recovers back to normal. He tries to persuade the ashram authorities and Swamiji that he is fully recovered and can be released. However, his cries fall on deaf ears and the wardens beat him up. A desperate Sethu attempts to escape from the ashram by climbing over the gates, but he fails and obtains serious injuries.

At the same time, Abitha is being pressured to marry her fiance. She is also unable to sacrifice her love for Sethu.

Whilst Sethu is sleeping, Abitha pays him a surprise visit and is distraught to see him in such a condition. As she is about to leave the institution, he wakes up and realizes she had come to see him. He calls out, but she leaves unable to hear him as his shouts are drowned by the noises. Determined to meet her, he makes another attempt to escape the institution, and this time is successful. His legs still chained, his shirts dirty and tattered, he limps his way to Abi's house. When he arrives at her house he finds marriage decorations at her place. Confused, he limps inside to the house and notices a crowd gathered at the center. Glancing over, he finally gets a view of Abitha lying still on the ground with garlands on her neck with people mourning her. She has committed suicide.

Shocked with grief and heartbreak, Sethu realises his efforts have amounted to nothing in the end. Sorrowfully, he steps outs of the house in distraught and walks away limping. His friends and family run over to see him full of tears. But Sethu doesn't respond nor sees them and keeps limping until the ashram wardens come with their van. He has one final last look and walks in to the van. The film ends with Sethu leaving with them as he has nothing left to live for after his true love's death.

Bala, an assistant of Balu Mahendra, wrote the script of the film in the mid-1990s, which was then titled Akhilam. He based the film on a real-life incident of one of his friends who had fallen in love, lost his mind and ended up at a mental asylum.[3] He first offered the film's lead role to his housemate Vignesh, who did not accept. He then offered the lead role to J. D. Chakravarthy who liked the script but was unable to sign the film as he was busy with another project. Murali was then also considered for the lead role in the project, but did not sign up.[4][5] Finally in 1997, Bala gave the role of Sethu to his friend, then struggling actor Vikram. Keerthi Reddy was initially signed on to play the lead female role, but was later replaced by Rajshri and then subsequently Abitha.[1][6]

To prepare for the character, Vikram shaved his head, thinned down to half his size by losing 21 kilograms and grew out his nails and even exposed himself under the sun for hours for skin darkening as the script demanded it.[2][7][8] Bala did not want Vikram to accept any other offers during this period to maintain the continuity of his looks and asked him to cease working as a dubbing artist. The film's launch was held in April 1997, and production lasted close to two years as the film languished in development hell. The FEFSI strike of 1997 halted filming across the Tamil film industry from June to December 1997, and as a small budget film, Sethu was unable to progress during the period.[3] When the strike was called off, the producer left the project and Vikram and Bala's assistant, Ameer, pled with the producer to return, with filming resuming in January 1998.

After further slow progression, the film was finally completed in June 1999. M. S. Bhaskar lent his voice for S. S. Raman who appeared as a temple priest in this film.[9] Rathnavelu, who worked as a cameraman, said he gave the asylum scenes a predominantly green tone for the intense psychological impact.[10] Vikram has described the period of production as "the worst phase of his career", as he was weak economically, and "his fire was in danger of dying down".[7]

The film struggled to find a distributor and only after sixty-seven screenings did the film manage to find a buyer, with most refusing the film due to its tragic climax.[11] At that time, Bala and Vikram used money from Vikram's wife, Shailaja, to organize press previews. Despite garnering good reviews, no one was interested in purchasing the film and it remained finished but unreleased.[7] Made on a shoestring budget, Sethu was a sleeper hit grossing almost ₹4 crore ($560,000) at the box office. The film was released on December 10, 1999,[12] and initially began running at a single noon show in a suburban theatre, but gradually built up audiences through word-of-mouth publicity. The film ran over 100 days at several cinema halls across Chennai, with Vikram being mobbed by people on the streets as a result of the film's success.[2] Critics lapped up Vikram's performance with the reviewer Easwaran Haricharan of Indolink stating, "Vikram is a revelation".[13] Similarly, a critic from the New Straits Times described the film as an "unforgettable experience" and described Vikram's performance as "praise-worthy".[14]

The following year, Sethu won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil, while also securing wins in the Best Film category at the Filmfare Awards and the Cinema Express Awards. Bala won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Director and the Filmfare Award for Best Director – Tamil for his directorial debut. The performance also drew accolades for Vikram who won the Filmfare Special Award – South and the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for his portrayal of the title character, he was nominated for the National Film Award for Best Actor but lost to Mohanlal.[15][16] Post-success, Vikram has said the film would have been close to him regardless of the commercial success, and it put him on the "right path", with Vikram choosing to adopt the prefix of Chiyaan to his screen name.[7] Owing to its success, the film was remade in Hindi as Tere Naam, in Kannada as Huchcha and in Telugu as Seshu.

The film was a milestone in the career of Vikram. The success of the film made Bala one of the most sought after directors in the industry. The film continued the trend of films with themes that focused on realism and nativity. K. Jeshi, a journalist for The Hindu, placed it in the category of films which propagates social issues, like Kaadhal (2004), Veyil (2006), Mozhi (2007) and Paruthiveeran (2007).[17]

Sethu was parodied in various films. In a comedy scene from Alli Thandha Vaanam (2001), Vivek, who acted as a Tamil teacher, would lie in a similar way as Vikram while the song "Enge Sellum Indha Paadhai" played in the background.[18] The scene where Vikram kidnaps and threatens Abitha to accept his love was imitated by Vadivelu in Style (2002).[19] In Ragasiyamai (2003), Karunas who appears as a barber, shows a customer (who asked for the same hairstyle of Kuruthipunal Kamal) another of his customers is lying in a position similar to Vikram from Sethu.[20]

The soundtrack album and background score were composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The lyrics were written by Mu. Metha, Ponnadiyan, Arivumathi, Pazhani Bharathi, and Ilaiyaraaja.

• Sethu at IMDb