Kozhipannai Chelladurai

Kozhipannai Chelladurai (2024) is a family drama by director Seenu Ramasamy. It features Aegan, Yogi Babu, Brigida Saga, Sathya Devi and Kutti Pulli. The film is about Chelladurai, a hardworking butcher who sacrifices his own happiness to raise his sister Sudha after their mother Chitra abandons the family. As he learns painful truths from the past and reconnects with both separated parents, Chelladurai learns to forgive and finally embrace love with Thamarai, who has silently supported him all along.

Chelladurai's childhood is irreparably altered when his father, Viruman, discovers that his wife Chitra is having an affair with another man. Chitra eventually leaves the family, and because of this breach, Viruman leaves his children, Chelladurai and Sudha, with his grandmother after their mother leaves the family. When she dies, Chelladurai is forced to step up and, as the eldest, take care of Sudha. With the help of kind-hearted Periyasamy, he finds a job as a watchman at a chicken farm. Twelve years later, Chelladurai works as a butcher while saving for Sudha’s future. In the market, a potter named Thamarai quietly loves him, but he doesn’t show any interest. Chelladurai dreams of owning a house and starting his own chicken farm.

Sudha falls in love with Soundar, a librarian’s son. When Chelladurai finds out, he reacts violently but later accepts their relationship after investigating Soundar’s family. While preparing for the wedding, Chelladurai unexpectedly finds his mother, now a sick beggar with memory loss. He admits her to a mental hospital and lets Sudha visit her. After the wedding, a girl named Maheshwari introduces herself as his half-sister and takes him to their dying father. Chelladurai donates a kidney to save Viruman. In the end, he can forgive both of his parents, accept the love of Thamarai, and begin a new chapter now that he has made peace with the past.

​Kozhipannai Chelladurai is an honest-to-life, grounded family drama that pulls an audience in with quiet emotional power. The film avoids grand spectacle, instead favouring raw human emotion, gentle humour, and a familiar lived-in storytelling approach. Audiences have found it simultaneously tender and relatable, especially those with connections to the themes of sacrifice, estranged relationships, and rural legacy. The film was selected at the 22nd Oakland International Film Festival, where it was screened to a warm reception.