Vasanthabalan’s Aneethi, seen in theatres earlier this year in July, claims to be a Romantic drama. While it could be classified as a romantic drama, Aneethi is more than just your average rom-com movie.
Starring Arjun Das and Dushara Vijayan, Aneethi takes us through the life of Thirumeni, a food delivery boy who also happens to suffer from severe OCD. While this disorder makes Thirumeni’s life much harder, he eventually tries to find some kind of happiness by spending time with Subbu, a maid he meets while at one of his jobs.
However, their love story is not going to be easy, as Subbu is held back by her responsibilities and Thirumeni has his chaotic mind to deal with. Aneethi is called Blood and Chocolate in one of its posters, which happens to be one of Thirumeni’s triggers.
Besides Arjun and Dushara, the rest of the cast of Aneethi consists of Bharani as Pothi, Sha Ra plays Bhaskar, Vanitha Vijayakumar stars in the role of Anitha, Kaali Venkat plays Thirumeni’s dad and Aranthangi Nisha portrays Kalaimamani Nisha.
Aneethi: What Happens In The Film?
Aneethi begins with Thirumeni, our food delivery guy, on one of his duties. The building he had to deliver in has many floors, and what’s worse is that the lift is out of order. Thirumeni somehow reaches the customer and gives him the food order, only for that customer to ask him to go down for change.
The man is persistent, so Thirumeni finally gets tired of him and kills him. He later returns to Bhaskar’s home, where he lives as a roommate. Thirumeni happens to see a chocolate advertisement on the TV and suddenly breaks it apart. Pothi, his friend, has to step in and manage the situation before it escalates.
Later, Thirumeni goes to a psychiatrist, where we find out that he suffers from severe OCD and has episodes of anger where he wants to kill the person in front of him. This also reveals that the people Thirumeni was seen killing at the beginning of the movie were not dead, and the whole thing was just his imagination.
Pothi and Bhaskar find out that Thirumeni has been to a Mental hospital, so they ask if he has any kind of disorder. Thirumeni lets them know that he has a strong urge to kill people when they irritate him. This causes Pothi and Bhaskar to back off.
Thirumeni’s work life only seems to be getting worse as his manager almost fires him due to low ratings. Pothi steps in and begs him to give Thirumeni another chance. He gets back on the job and has to deliver food to a nearby house.
When Thirumeni reaches the place, a girl’s hand reaches out from the gate to grab the food. The girl also helps Thirumeni find shelter and dry himself off after the rain. Every day after this, Thirumeni takes up the delivery for this house just to get to see that girl’s face.
To bring her out, he packs the food in a large container, and just like he had expected, the girl, who was named Subbu, comes out to take it. After following her later, Thirumeni finds out that Subbu is Mangayarkarasi’s maid and is tortured a lot by her.
They start meeting often, and Thirumeni and Subbu eventually fall in love. After Mangayarkarasi is mysteriously found dead one day, Subbu calls Thirumeni to help her take her to the hospital.
They pay for the hospital and mortuary expenses with the help of Mangayarkarasi’s card. Subbu’s brother was a useless drunkard, and somehow, he got ahold of that card and spent two lakhs from it.
Just as Subbu and Thirumeni are busy trying to get enough money, they get a call from Mangayarkarasi’s children, who had been in the US all along. They had decided to surprise their mom for her birthday and were all outside the house.
After finding out what happened, Anitha and Aji, Mangayarkarasi’s children, beat Subbu and Thirumeni a lot. The police question Thirumeni, and he has no idea what happened. When the police interrogate Subbu, she is convinced that Thirumeni did it and starts accusing him.
Aneethi: Ending Explained
After Thirumeni is accused of the heinous crime, they start beating him up badly. This is where we are taken to the past when Thirumeni was in school and had asked his father for chocolate.
His father worked at a store but was paid much less by the owner. When salary day arrives, Thirumeni’s father takes the chocolate and asks the owner to cut the cost from his salary. The detestable owner just accuses him of stealing it and sends him to prison, where Thiru’s father is beaten severely.
When his father returned that night, he gave the blood-covered chocolate to Thirumeni and passed away that night. This was the reason Thirumeni had OCD and anger issues, which were triggered by chocolates. Back in the present, Mangayarkarasi’s death turns out to be suicide because Ajit and Anitha had abandoned her.
Managayarkarasi had left her home in Subbu’s name, so Ajit and Anitha tried to coax her into giving it to them. Thirumeni arrives just in time to see them beat Subbu up, so he kills them with an axe. Subbu begs for forgiveness, and Thirumeni accepts it.
As Thirumeni leaves the house, we see that his father is riding a bicycle and asking him why his clothes are dirty. The Movie ends with him telling Thirumeni that his name means “pure, both physically and mentally.”
Thirumeni was indeed pure, but his anger often clouded his judgment. All he ever wanted was respect and kindness from people, but they turned out to be unkind each time.
The movie is one of the few Tamil films that focus on OCD so intensely. The plight of the poor, a sweet thing like chocolate that triggers Thirumeni, and Subbu being abused constantly, there are so many ways that Aneethi manages to make you just as uncomfortable as our characters.
Another thing that Aneethi revolved around was forgiveness. If only Subbu, Thirumeni, and his father had been forgiven for their shortcomings all along, things wouldn’t have gotten so bad. Aneethi is not the kind of film that has one clear motive. What you get out of this “Romance Drama” is completely up to you.
Its ending shows Thirumeni, now a murderer, finally feeling satisfied after listening to his whims. Subbu now has Mangayarkarasi’s property in her name, so we can assume that she was able to shift her family from the slums to a better place.
Thirumeni would likely have to go to jail, but since he suffers from OCD, he could be sent to counseling and therapy. At present, Aneethi is available to stream on Prime Video.
Also Read: Padmini Movie Ending Explained: Smrithi Never Shows Up
