Thendral


Thendral is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language soap opera that aired Monday through Friday on Sun TV. It was broadcast from 7December 2009 to 17 January 2015 for 1340 episodes.
The show stars Shruthi Raj, Deepak Dinkar and Hemalatha and revolves around a girl's struggle in a middle-class family, focusing on the importance of women's education. It was produced by Vikatan Televistas Pvt Ltd and directed by S. Kumaran.Thendral was amongst the first Tamil Serials to go viral on the internet. The Indian newspaper Business Standard describes it as the "first youthful prime time daily soap in Tamil". Thendral has been highly acclaimed and has won many awards.

Plot summary

The story of this serial revolves around the main character Thulasi and her best friends, Deepa and Kalyani. Thulasi's mom ran away when she was a child and ever since Thulasi's family has shunned her, especially her father and stepmother. The only family member that genuinely cares for Thulasi is her grandmother. Thulasi's only dream is to continue her studies to help her family, and she gets the highest marks on her 12th board exams. The story is about how Thulasi overcomes all the struggles in her life and completes her studies.
Thulasi's father Manikam dreams about seeing his son become an engineer, yet his dreams are put on hold due to the lack of money. Knowing this, a break-inspector and a thug in the 40s, Velaayudam approaches them to help Manikam's dream come true, under one condition; that is if he agrees to get Thulasi married to him. A greedy Manickam coaxes Thulasi that the only way she can wipe away the sin committed by her mother, who had fled away with another man, is by marrying Velayudham. Stung by guilt, Thulasi agrees to marry Velayudham despite their age difference. Velayudham, in return, offers Manickam a massive amount of cash. But fate has other plans, and so by mistake, the photos of Thulasi and that of another girl Lavanya mixes up in the photo studio and ends up in the hands of the hero – Tamilzharasu. Lavanya happens to be the sister of Tamizharasu. On seeing Thulasi's photo, she conveys that she would like to have a sister-in-law as beautiful as Thulasi. Attracted by Thulasi's beauty and frequent taunts by Lavanya, Tamizharasu falls in love with Thulasi. Thulasi refuses to accept Tamizharasu's love and publicly insults him at his bank.
Meanwhile, Tamizharasu's mother wants him to marry a rich and voluptuous girl of her choice so that she can be the controller of her second daughter-in-law. Her relationship with the eldest-daughter-in-law Sudha is not in good terms, and so she wants Tamizharasu to marry a rich girl who is ready to be within the line drawn by her. She selects Charulatha the adopted daughter of a wealthy businessman, as the prospective bride. Tamizharasu is deeply saddened by Thulasi's refusal and so he accepts the engagement between him and Charu. However, through a string of events, Thulasi falls for Tamizh when he stops her marriage with Velayudham and joins her in an Engineering college paying the fees for her. Nevertheless, the friendship between Charu and Tamizh is arranged; Charu surrenders herself to Tamizh and sees him as her husband already, but Tamizh only loves Thulasi.
A sudden turn of events sees Tamizh marrying Thulasi at a temple without the consent of his family. The turn of events shatters Charu, and slowly she turns into a psychopath after directly witnessing the marriage between Tamizh and Thulasi. She develops a deadly vengeance towards Thulasi as she assumes that it was Thulasi who grabbed Tamizharasu from her. Charu and her would-be-Mother-in-law conspire to separate Tamizharasu and Thulasi. Thulasi catches the plot and explains Charu's mentality to Tamizharasu. But Charu cleverly outwits Thulasi, Tamizh thinks that Thulasi has no trust in him and their relationship turns sour. Tamizh is ready to divorce her, but Thulasi begs Tamizh for the last chance to prove Charu's dirty thoughts and succeeds in exposing her actual colour. Tamizharasu starts hating Charu. In disappointment and vengeance, Charu tries to commit suicide. Her track in the story is concluded by showing her as a person who had lost all her memory and is incapable of attending even to her own needs.
Then the story of Thulasi's mother comes up. Bhuvana is shown as a ruthless woman who would do anything to be in power and earn wealth. Though she had fled from her first husband Manickam, she stays devoted to her second husband, Laxmanan, who happens to be a doctor by profession and runs a hospital. They have a son named Prabhakar. Laxmanan lives with Bhuvana and is estranged from his first wife Sundari and her son Akil. Circumstances reveal that Bhuvana is Thulasi's mother and Thulasi conspires with Sundari to teach a lesson to Bhuvana and make her realise her mistake. Unfortunately, Manickam mistakes Thulasi of siding with Bhuvana and tries to commit suicide. He was saved, but he continues to hate Thulasi. Thulasi tries to explain her stance to him, which goes in vain.
Meanwhile, Laxmanan overwhelmed by the sufferings of his first wife Sundari and hurt by the audacity of Bhuvana, throws Bhuvana out of their house and starts living with Sundari. Bhuvana is a rage plan and burns Laxmanan's hospital and ends up in prison along with Laxmanan thus stopping Laxmanan-Sundari's sixtieth birthday celebrations. To save his prestige and status, Laxmanan gets his second son Prabhakar to marry Deepa – the friend of Thulasi. Deepa's father – a taxi driver by profession was helped both financially and medically by Laxmanan, so he yields for Laxmanan's wish. Upset by the treacherous behaviour of his second wife and poor health, Laxmanan dies owing to a heart attack.

Cast

Main cast

Title song

It was written by lyricist Yugabharathi, composed by the music director Kiran. It was sung by Karthik.

Awards

YearAwardCategoryRecipientResult
2010Vikatan AwardsBest Mega SerialThendral
2010Tamil Nadu State Television AwardsBest Television SerialThendral
2010Tamil Nadu State Television AwardsBest ActorDeepak Dinkar
2010Tamil Nadu State Television AwardsBest ActressShruthi Raj
2010Tamil Nadu State Television AwardsBest Villain MaleNizhalgal Ravi
2010Tamil Nadu State Television AwardsBest EditingB. Chandru
2011Mylapore Academy AwardsBest Production HouseVikatan Televistas
2011Mylapore Academy AwardsBest ActorDeepak Dinkar
2011Mylapore Academy AwardsBest Actress AwardShruthi Raj
2011Mylapore Academy AwardsBest Character ActorSubhalekha Sudhakar
2011Mylapore Academy AwardsBest Actor in a Negative RoleNizhalgal Ravi
2011Mylapore Academy AwardsBest Actress in a Negative RoleShanti Williams
2011Mylapore Academy AwardsBest Music DirectorKiran
2011Tamil Nadu State Television AwardsBest Villain FemaleSrividya
2011Tamil Nadu State Television AwardsBest Dialogue writerEzhilvaradhan
2012Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Jodi AwardDeepak Dinkar & Shruthi Raj
2012Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Director AwardS. Kumaran
2012Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Serial AwardThendral
2012Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Actor AwardDeepak Dinkar
2012Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Actress AwardShruthi Raj
2012Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Comedian Award MaleShyaam
2012Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Supporting Actress AwardHemalatha
2012Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Screenwriter AwardC. U. Muthuselvan
2012Tamil Nadu State Television AwardsBest Villain FemaleSadhana
2014Mylapore Academy AwardsBest SerialThendral
2014Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Actor AwardDeepak Dinkar
2014Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Devathaigal AwardShruthi Raj
2014Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Jodi AwardDeepak Dinkar & Shruthi Raj
2014Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Dialogue Writer AwardEzhilvaradhan
2014Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Actress AwardShruthi Raj
2014Sun Kudumbam ViruthugalSun Kudumbam Best Supporting Actress AwardHemalatha

Remake

The series has been remade into in Telugu language as Sravani Subramanyam broadcast on Gemini TV, Malayalam language as Illam Thennal Pole broadcast on Surya TV and Kannada language as Thangaali broadcast on Udaya TV.
CountryLanguageChannelShow NameAired
IndiaMalayalam languageSurya TVIllam Thennal Pole
IndiaTelugu languageGemini TVSravani Subramanyam
IndiaKannada languageUdaya TVThangaali