# Farhana (film)

Farhana is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language thriller drama film written and directed by Nelson Venkatesan and produced by S. R. Prakash Babu and S. R. Prabhu of Dream Warrior Pictures. The film stars Aishwarya Rajesh in the titular role alongside Selvaraghavan. The music for the film was composed by Justin Prabhakaran.
The film was released on 12 May 2023.

## Plot

The story revolves around Farhana, a middle-class woman who lives with her father and her husband Kareem. Farhana is always in need of money as the shoe shop, which her father and Kareem are running, is short of money.
As she is in need of money, one of the seniors of Farhana's friend, calls her for an interview at a bank call centre. Farhana who is reluctant at first, later clears the interview and goes to the job, because of which she receives much money. So she decides to keep it further until her youngest infant, Nabha's, costly hospitalisation.
Now, Farhana is in need of money when she notices her friend, Nithya, receiving many incentives after shifting her department. Farhana requests her to put her also in that department to which Nithya assigns her a name, 'ISHA' , in a friendship chat center. But the people there talk in a lewd manner, which disgusts her.
As she is about to quit, a random person talks to her nicely. Since nobody has ever talked to Farhana like that, she feels overwhelmed and reciprocates his energy and responds in the same way. They then converse almost daily. Later he says his name is 'Dhayalan'. So Farhana fell for him. But one day, he stopped calling her, confusing her.
Later, as this became a concern, Farhana confessed her feelings when he started calling her. He too tells her that they would meet immediately the next day, but Farhana refuses as it was Eid the next day. But she decides to meet him but turns around when she discovers that her friend and colleague, Sofia, died because she did this, too, but unlike Farhana, she is killed when her boyfriend, whom she met in the call, accidentally kills her. So Farhana, feeling hurt, decides to stop talking to Dhayalan, thinking about Sofia.
This wreaks havoc in her life as Dhayalan starts to torture Farhana to love him and marry him, by blackmailing her that he would send all their recorded calls to Kareem. A fed up Farhana decides to fight back and find him. With the support of Nithya and her colleague, Prithvi (who has a crush on Farhana), she locates Dhayalan and finds him, but that becomes a failure too.
A failed Farhana finally confesses everything to Kareem, to which Kareem understands and tells her that he loves her so much that he knows that she wont cheat on him (later when Farhana goes to meet Dhayalan, Kareem sees her and follows her). Farhana, who feels hurt, hugs Kareem and says that she has to end this as soon as possible. Kareem pledges he to support her at any cost.
They both plan to make Farhana go to Dhayalan's house. But when she goes there, she finds out that Dhayalan faced much humiliation when he mistakes a girl to be Isha and she slaps him. He also tells her that he loved her more than anything else, but before he could speak any further, Kareem and the Police arrive just in time and arrest Dhayalan.
Farhana, later joins her previous job and feels content.

## Cast

* Aishwarya Rajesh as Farhana
* Jithan Ramesh as Kareem
* Selvaraghavan as A. Dhayalan
* Anumol as Nithya
* Sakthi Raj as Prithivi
* Aishwarya Dutta as Sofia
* Raja Krishnamoorthy as Farhana's father
* Vishalini as Thilagavathy
* Jindha Gopi as Dev

## Production

Dialogues of the movie is written by Manushyaputhran and the writers Sankar Dass and Ranjith Ravindran have worked along with Nelson Venkatesan in the screenplay. The cinematography of the film was done by Gokul Benoy, and the editing of the film was done by V. J. Sabu Joseph. This film is the third collaboration between the director Nelson Venkatesan, editor V. J. Sabu Joseph, music composer Justin Prabhakaran, and cinematographer Gokul Benoy after the films Oru Naal Koothu and Monster.

## Music

The soundtrack of the film was composed by Justin Prabhakaran in his third collaboration with the director.

## Controversy

After the Trailer released film has been surrounded by controversy and demands for a ban. One of the producer of film S. R. Prabhu, Dream Warrior Pictures, issued a statement that read, "Farhana movie is for all fans: Not against any religion or sentiments".

## Release

Initially, the film was scheduled to release on 26 January 2023, but this was postponed until 12 May 2023.

## Reception

Gopinath Rajendran critic of The Hindu wrote that "Macroscopically, Farhana is an extremely simple and straightforward story. But it's the treatment and performances from its cherry-picked cast that make the film deserve a place on a higher pedestal." Logesh Balachandran critic of The Times of India gave 3 stars out of 5 and stated that "While Farhana may encounter occasional pacing issues, it ultimately soars, showcasing its strengths". Kalyani Pandiyan S critic of Hindustan Times wrote that "On the one hand, the credibility of the scenes conveys that this is happening to a member of the Islamic family, and on the other hand, Justin's music conveys it perfectly. The climax where Farhana finally meets him gives the film an incomplete feel. Farhana would have tasted great success if she had handled the space a little better". Anusha Sundar critic of Cinema Express rated 3 stars out of 5 and wrote that "Farhana lacks due to tepid stretches".

## Awards and nominations

* Won - Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress - Tamil - Aishwarya Rajesh