Dharala Prabhu

<p>Dr. Kannadasan is a who runs and manages a fertility clinic in with the help of his assistant, Kaamu. He promises high-quality sperm for his patients but is frustrated at his lack of success due to his inability to find a healthy sperm donor. Through his contact at the Employment Exchange Department, he reviews the employment applications filed under the sports category, finding a suitable person in the name of Prabhu Govind. Prabhu, a happy-go-lucky young man with an outstanding flair for playing , aspires to gain his dream job under the sports quota in order to support his mother Vaanathi and his grandmother, both of whom run a beauty spa. One day, while making a delivery at a mall on the behest of his mother, Prabhu meets Nidhi Mandhana, an employee and divorcee, and is instantly smitten by her. He later notices Kannadasan following him and corners him. Kannadasan, in a friendly manner, requests Prabhu to make a sperm donation, to which the latter rejects outright, out of disgust. Undeterred, Kannadasan follows Prabhu everywhere, determined to gain his sperm. Meanwhile, Prabhu regularly visits Nidhi at the mall and the two grow close. Later, after witnessing his football coach lamenting about his inability to have a child with his late wife, Prabhu has a change of heart and approaches Kannadasan. He regularly makes donations to Kannadasan, who in turn pays him for every donation he makes. Prabhu lavishly spends the money and lives happily. He maintains his donations a secret from his family. However, upon discovering that Kannadasan had repeatedly sabotaged his numerous attempts at gaining employment in order to remain in business, Prabhu leaves him and decides to marry Nidhi. Guilty, Kannadasan makes up for Prabhu by securing him his dream job and settling the rift between his family and Nidhi’s, resulting in them getting happily married. Prabhu, now reconciled with Kannadasan, makes one final donation to him (albeit at his nudging). Kannadasan uses Prabu’s sperm to covertly provide a Kid for a State minister, and gets a huge amount as settlement. Nidhi yearns to have a child with Prabhu but is unable to have one. Three years pass, but the couple is unable to bear a child. Kannadasan later explains that Nidhi is , leaving Prabhu devastated. Despite Kannadasan’s request to conceive a child through , Prabhu and Nidhi decide to a child. They adopt Kavya, a three-year-old girl, whose parents had died in a . Later, at home, Prabhu discovers that Kavya is actually his biological child, conceived through one of his donations, leaving him horrified. He confronts Kannadasan, who admits the truth. He urges Prabhu to raise Kavya with love and care. Despite this shock, Prabhu softens up to Kavya and raises her as his own child, also maintaining her true origins as a secret from his family. Prabhu’s family grows close to Kavya, but are unaware of her true origins. Later, the Income Tax Department arrests Prabhu on the charges of handling , and Kannadasan comes to his aid. With no other record, Kannadasan is forced to reveal the truth to the police, and they both escape prosecution using the influence of the Minister. Disgusted with the truth, Nidhi leaves Prabhu. Prabhu reconciles with Kannadasan and begs to Nidhi for forgiveness. Kannadasan later invites Prabhu, Nidhi, and Kavya to a function held at an orphanage. He explains to Nidhi that although Prabhu keeping his actions a secret from her was wrong, he urges her to look at the good intentions behind them and reveals to her the happiness that Prabhu gave to numerous families through his donations. He further reveals that 49 children were conceived through Prabhu’s donations. With a change of heart, Nidhi reconciles with Prabhu. Prabhu, Nidhi, Kavya, Kannadasan, and other families (whose children were conceived via Prabhu) celebrate. After the success of , a Tamil remake of the film was reported to be produced by who acquired the remake rights of the film under his banner Etaki Entertainment. Later also interested in the film’s production, collaborating with the actor for the second time after , and was reported to be made as a bilingual in and . But no developments had been made further despite its initial announcement. The same year, another Telugu film titled , starring ‘s son Raja Gautham in the lead role was reported to be the remake film, but the claims were refuted by its director Madhura Sreedhar. The film which was later made in Telugu as was released in November 2016. In May 2019, Screen Scene Media Entertainment which acquired the remake rights of the film announced that and will play the lead role reprising ‘s and ‘s role in the original version. At the end of the month, it was reported that Krishna Marimuthu who helmed the 2017 Telugu film was brought on board as the director, and the film’s tentative title was also announced. In June 2019, and Vivek were brought on to the film’s cast essaying pivotal roles. began the same month with filming taking place across the suburbs of . The first look of the film was released in January 2020, with the film’s tentative title was finalised as the official title. The soundtrack album of , features eight songs composed by eight different composers, which includes , , , , Madley Blues, Bharath Shankar, Kaber Vasuki and Oorka. The background score is composed by Bharath Shankar. Lyrics for the songs were written by , Subu, Nixy, Bharath Shankar and Kaber Vasuki. The audio rights were acquired by . Before the album released, five out of eight songs were released as singles. The first single “Aaha Ooho” composed by the Oorka band, was released on 5 February 2020. The second single “Unnaal Penne” composed and sung by Inno Genga, with lyrics written by Vignesh Shivan, was released on 17 February 2020. The third single track “Rasa Mavan” sung by stand-up comedian and Harish Venkat, with the former making his singing debut, was released on 28 February 2020. The fourth single “Kaadhal Theevey”, composed by Sean Roldan and sung by , was released on 1 March 2020. The fifth single “Dharala Prabhu Title Track” sung and composed by Anirudh, was released on 4 March 2020. The title track was re-used from (2019). The remaining songs were released on 6 March 2020. Post release a bonus track “Maatra Thendral” was released on 3 June 2020. was theatrically released on 13 March 2020. The film was made available for streaming via in April 2020. The film was later re-released in theatres, post Tamil Nadu government granted permission for its reopening with 50% occupancy on 10 November 2020. Thinkal Menon of gave 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, “A better background score and more effort on the emotional scenes would have made the movie a perfect remake.” Pradeep Kumar of wrote “Harish Kalyan’s film takes aim, but misses its objective of sensitising the Tamil audience to the concept of sperm donation, by quite some distance.” S. Subhakeerthana of gave 3 out of 5 and stated “Though Dharala Prabhu ends on a sentimental note, it is fairly entertaining.” Sreedhar Pillai, for , gave 3 out of 5 stating ” is an engaging, breezy entertainer which has the perfect blend of comedy and emotions, along with solid performances from its lead actors.” Janani K of gave 2.5 out of 5 and wrote “Dharala Prabhu is a remake with Tamil sentiments. It’s good that the film does not dilute the concept of sperm donation.” Karthik Kumar of wrote “Dharala Prabhu is not one of those remakes that blindly recreate the original scene by scene. It’s evident from the little but crucial changes made to suit Tamil sensibilities that effort has gone into the project to make it appealing.” gave 3.5 out of 5 and wrote: “The film takes a light-hearted, optimistic look at infertility and artificial insemination that entertains and enlightens the audiences”. gave the film 3 out of 5 and stated “The film takes up a noble subject at its core and despite being a remake that comes after eight years, the fresh treatment and good performances keep us invested in the movie. On the whole, Dharala Prabhu is a faithful remake that tickles you throughout, while still touching your sensitive nerves.” gave the film a rating of 3.25 out of 5 stating “Go for this breezy entertainer that mixes strong humane messages coated with fun.” of wrote, “Very deceptively, very casually, Dharala Prabhu addresses a number of issues without making them feel like “issues” (i.e. there are no lectures)…. even the central issue is treated with lightness.” had a strong opening weekend collecting ₹35.03 lakhs from 123 shows in Chennai box office. However the film had a receding occupancy due to the fear of , as well as theatres being shut down from 16 March 2020 (three days after the film’s release) as a precautionary measure in order to control the pandemic situation. The film collected ₹3.2 crores from its theatrical premiere across India and ₹3.4 crores worldwide. The film was made available for viewing on streaming platforms less than a month after its theatrical release due to the .</p>