Vaazhai

In mid-1998, Karungulam is a village where people harvest raw banana bunches and load them onto lorries for a meager payment. Workers are paid ₹1 per bunch, which keeps Sivanaindhan and Sekar in a cycle of poverty and hard labor. This harsh economic backdrop sets the stage for everything that follows.

Sivanaindhan has a crush on his social science teacher Poongodi and even fabricates a promise after being caught stealing her handkerchief. The moment shows his longing and impulsiveness in a life dominated by poverty. It foreshadows how personal desires struggle against harsh realities.

His mother keeps pressing him to labor on weekends to repay the advance credit she had taken. Sivanaindhan and Sekar look for excuses to avoid the exhausting load, but poverty pulls them back to the fields. The promise to work hard grows out of desperation rather than choice.

Vembu, Sivanaindhan's elder sister, is in love with Kani, a communist thinker who challenges the village's labor system. Together with villagers, they push for a ₹1 extra per bunch through broker Muthuraj, and the trader reluctantly agrees to avoid a work stoppage. The political undercurrents add tension to the cycle of exploitation.

One weekend, Sivanaindhan fakes a thorn injury to escape the labor crowd, leaving his sister to tend the cow. He ends up going with Poongodi to the rice mill, abandoning the cow in the process. On return, the cow has wandered into Muthuraj's field, triggering a confrontation.

Kani loses his job as a loadman and is forced to lug bananas like the other villagers after defending against the field incident. The humiliation and Sivanaindhan’s mother's tears push him to vow to work without hesitation during the ten-day holiday to pay off the debts. The personal and communal injuries deepen the sense of injustice.

Months pass and the debts continue to mount, tightening their already strained finances. To cope, Sivanaindhan's mother sells their cow, deepening his sadness and underscoring how poverty corrodes family security. He becomes increasingly forced into labor as the burden tightens.

Despite the hardship, Sivanaindhan is selected for a dance performance at the school's annual day. The opportunity offers a brief escape from the grind of labor and a chance to express himself beyond the banana fields. It foreshadows a possible turning point through art.

Unable to confront his mother, he is forced to lug bananas with his sister Vembu, yet he persuades her to help him escape and attend the dance practice. They manage to reach the practice on an empty stomach. The tension between duty at home and self-expression heightens the drama.

In search of food, he ventures into a nearby banana field only to be caught by the caretaker, who beats him severely. He manages to escape, driven by hunger and the will to survive. The episode underscores the physical brutality of their labor conditions.

Back home, his mother confronts him with tearful accusations about hunger and suffering, lamenting the losses the family has endured. Sivanaindhan runs away and faints near the pond, overwhelmed by fatigue and despair. The moment marks a nadir in his personal ordeal.

When he awakens, the village is in mourning as nineteen dead bodies, including Vembu, Kani, Sekar, and Muthuraj, are linked to a lorry accident while transporting bananas. The trader is blamed for forcing laborers to climb onto the overloaded lorry, revealing systemic exploitation. The catastrophe is a devastating culmination of the community's struggles.

The screen cuts to an archived newspaper article from Dinathanthi reporting the deaths of twenty plantain farm workers near Srivaikundam who were buried alive when the lorry overturned. A closing note dedicates the film to those victims, as told by a survivor. This coda anchors the tragedy in real-world memory.