36 Vayadhinile () is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film directed by Rosshan Andrrews, which is a remake of his own Malayalam film How Old Are You (2014), and produced by Suriya Sivakumar under his production studio 2D Entertainment, marking his debut as a producer. The film stars Jyothika marking her comeback to films after an eight-year hiatus, while Rahman, Abhirami, Nassar, Delhi Ganesh and Siddhartha Basu appear in other prominent roles. The film's soundtrack was composed by Santhosh Narayanan, with cinematography and editing handled by R. Diwakaran and Mahesh Narayanan respectively. The film released on 15 May 2015 and met with positive reviews by praising Jyothika's performances, emotional weight, social message. she was awarded Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress at 63rd Britannia South Filmfare Awards.
Plot
36-year-old Vasanthi is a UD clerk in the Revenue Department; her husband Tamizhselvan works at All India Radio. Tamizhselvan aspires to emigrate to Ireland, but Vasanthi cannot accompany him as most Irish companies refuse her job applications because of her age being a problem. There is nothing interesting about her life; she leads a mundane life but she craves for a change.
One day, Vasanthi is summoned by the IG, Rajan to his office and she learns that the President of India would like to have a conversation with her. The meeting ends in disaster after she faints in front of the President and she becomes the subject of Facebook memes and before long, she watches helplessly as her husband and daughter Mithila fly away to Ireland.
Vasanthi's old classmate Susan David, now a successful CMO, reminds her of the bold, strong-willed woman she used to be and inspires her to rediscover her younger self, a woman with big dreams and aspirations. Vasanthi, who is encouraged to have bigger goals in her life, gets an idea through a wedding catering order. She learns about the unhealthy market vegetables that are sprayed with toxic pesticides, and refines her home greenhouse while appealing to other women in her neighbourhood to start their own greenhouses for the welfare of their families.
Susan gets Vasanthi a slot in the region's annual architectural conference, which is graced by the bigwigs of the country, and her talk on organic greenhouse farming concept is well received by the audience. Despite resistance and lack of support from her husband, Vasanthi persists on with her new project, which turns out to be a big success as she was able to fulfill the demand of the wedding catering order and materialise her idea. She receives regional and national acclaim for her endeavours. Following this success, Vasanthi once again gets an invitation from the President of India. This time, Vasanthi is unwavering and cleverly answers the questions of the President, and finally gets the respect and appreciation of her husband and daughter that she deserves.
Cast
Jyothika as Vasanthi Tamizhselvan (Voice dubbed by Savitha Reddy) Rahman as Tamizhselvan (Ram Prasad in Telugu) Abhirami as Susan David Nassar as Commissioner Rajan Siddhartha Basu as President of India Amritha Anil as Mithila Tamizhselvan Delhi Ganesh as Vasanthi's father-in-law Kalaranjini as Vasanthi's mother-in-law Bose Venkat as Police Officer Ilavarasu as Vegetable Merchant Khalid Hussain as Plants Creative Officer Sethu Lakshmi as Thulasi M. S. Bhaskar as Stephen Devadarshini as Girija Sreenivasan Prem as Jayachandran Sujatha Sivakumar as Raani Mohan Raman as Nalabagam Chellur Pichai Vazhakku En Muthuraman as Vasanthi's superior Bayilvan Ranganathan as Bayilvan Ranganathan Scissor Manohar as Auto driver Rajasekar as retired teacher and neighbour Karnaa Radha Mippu Vettai Muthukumar as Kurian
Production
In August 2014, it was announced that actress Jyothika would make a comeback to acting after a seven-year sabbatical by featuring in the Tamil remake of Rosshan Andrrews's Malayalam film How Old Are You (2014), which featured Manju Warrier in the leading role. Jyothika's husband Suriya agreed to produce the venture under his production banner 2D Entertainment, while director and writer Rosshan Andrrews and Bobby Sanjay were retained from the original version. Suriya revealed that Jyothika and he were impressed by the Malayalam version and Jyothika took two days to agree to make a return as an actress. Actor Rahman was added to the cast in October 2014, to play the role originally played by Kunchacko Boban. Music director Santhosh Narayanan was signed on to compose the film's score and soundtrack.