At the beginning we are subjected to some violent behaviour by Baththa who is triggered by trivial offences. Sabari, an 8 year old boy watches this and later is told by classmates how brutal the man is. He has a toy confiscated by a teacher and later tries to retrieve it at the school and after a set of flukey events he accidentally locks Baththa into a school washroom. At first Baththa acts violently banging on the wall, but to no avail. Sabari is scared and runs away, but feels guilty and takes some cheap food and slides under the door.
In the meantime the town people are very concerned about his disappearance and his gang is plotting revenge against whoever is responsible. Sabari is very scared,, but after 8 days there is no noise from the room and he goes in and discovers Baththa lying comatose in a tub. He hails help and the Baththa is revived. He is grateful and asks who is responsible for the rescue. His family treat Sabari as a son. At the same time Baththa's gang is speculating who locked him in. Sabari fears if they know he did the deed he would suffer. Baththa exclaims somewhat threateningly he wants to know.
Baththa is now truly a changed man, but at first only his wife Kannima and his daughter know. A fearful man and a timid boy develop a relationship. Later he tells Sabari how he used to love singing, but then he had been made fun of and turned violent.
This is one of the top movies seen this year and it comes down to a cast and crew. Below are a few.
Balaji Tharaneethara was the director and writer. He has 7 writing credits and 4 for directing.
Atlee was the chief producer. He has 5 writing credits, 7 for directing and 3 for producing including "Mersal" (2017) and "Jawan" (2023).
Ajit Andhare was a producer. He has 24 producing credits, 3 for additional crew and 1 for assistant directing including "Bhaag Mikha Bhaag" (2013), "Padmaavat" (2018), "Andhadhun" (2018), "She" (2020), "OMG 2" (2023) and "Jolly LLB 3" (2025). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/10/omg-2.html
Sai Abhyankkar was the composer and playback singer. He has 12 composing credits, 7 for the music department and 2 for acting.
Selvakumar S. K. was the cinematographer with 13 cinematography credits.
R. Kalaivanan was the editor with 8 editor credits including "Amaran" (2024).
Vijay Sethupathi played Baththa After graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree he drifted through a variety of jobs, he ended up as an accountant in Dubai and then was the accountant for a theatre group in Chennai. He has performed in Hindi, Tamil, Telegu and Malayalam cinema and won many awards. His film credits include "Puriyaatha Puthir" (2017), "Vikram Vedha" (2017), "Super Deluxe" (2019), "Kadaseela Biriyani" (2021) "Farzi" (2023), "Jawan" (2023) and "Maharaja" (2024). He has become a sign of a very good film. See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/03/farzi-or-fakes.html and http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2024/07/maharaja.html
Lijo Mol Jose played Kannima, wife to Baththa. She has 29 acting credits including "Jai Bhim" (2021), my top movie for that year. See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2021/11/jai-bhim.html
Sai Prithviraj played Sapira, the young boy. This was his first film, but he has now landed a part in a Dhanush film.
"Baththa" is available subtitled on Netflix. Original language, Tamil.
As usual I have bolded titles that I have seen when first mentioned. They are not necessarily recommendations, but generally I have enjoyed them. The links provide more information to help decide if you want to follow up.
