Thalaikoothal Trailer Talk: Will A Man End his Own Father's Life?

“Do you want us to live well at the expense of taking a life?" asks Samuthirakani, a distraught villager who works as a watchman. He is contemplating voluntarily ending his vegetative father’s life to ease the pain and suffering, using a practice known as Thalaikoothal. Since many of us might not be familiar with the practice, the trailer opens up with the Googled meaning of the term - a traditional practice of senicide (killing the elderly) by their own family members performed in many southern places in Tamil Nadu.

The trailer promises a gripping, deeply emotional drama that will focus on the value of human life and the suffering any family goes through while deciding the fate of their kin who is afflicted by a coma. “Forget morals. Let’s do thalaikoothal,” advises one of the villagers to Samuthirakani as taking care of the comatose father adds more to the financial woes of the family. “My father might be an empty bottle to them. But he is the one who gave me life”, argues Samuthirakani. And to emphasise this, we also get flashback sequences portraying the old man's ( the younger version played by Kathir) love and his relationship with the son.

While the film is a social drama, the story is an intimate one that can connect across communities. The film posits the decision to employ the practice as a moral, philosophical conflict between Samuthirakani and the other villagers. Helmed by Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan, the film also stars Vasundra and is slated to release theatrically on February 3.