Dharala Prabhu

Dr. Kannadasan MBBS is a fertility doctor who runs and manages a fertility clinic in Chennai with the help of his assistant, Kaamu. He promises high-quality sperm for his patients but is frustrated at his lack of success due to his inability to find a healthy sperm donor. Through his contact at the Employment Exchange Department, he reviews the employment applications filed under the sports category, finding a suitable person in the name of Prabhu Govind.

Prabhu, a happy-go-lucky young man with an outstanding flair for playing football, aspires to gain his dream job under the sports quota in order to support his mother Vaanathi and his grandmother, both of whom run a beauty spa. One day, while making a delivery at a mall on the behest of his mother, Prabhu meets Nidhi Mandhana, an employee and divorcee, and is instantly smitten by her. He later notices Kannadasan following him and corners him. Kannadasan, in a friendly manner, requests Prabhu to make a sperm donation, to which the latter rejects outright, out of disgust. Undeterred, Kannadasan follows Prabhu everywhere, determined to gain his sperm. Meanwhile, Prabhu regularly visits Nidhi at the mall and the two grow close.

Later, after witnessing his football coach lamenting about his inability to have a child with his late wife, Prabhu has a change of heart and approaches Kannadasan. He regularly makes donations to Kannadasan, who in turn pays him for every donation he makes. Prabhu lavishly spends the money and lives happily. He maintains his donations a secret from his family. However, upon discovering that Kannadasan had repeatedly sabotaged his numerous attempts at gaining employment in order to remain in business, Prabhu leaves him and decides to marry Nidhi. Guilty, Kannadasan makes up for Prabhu by securing him his dream job and settling the rift between his family and Nidhi's, resulting in them getting happily married. Prabhu, now reconciled with Kannadasan, makes one final donation to him (albeit at his nudging). Kannadasan uses Prabu's sperm to covertly provide a Kid for a State minister, and gets a huge amount as settlement.

Nidhi yearns to have a child with Prabhu but is unable to have one. Three years pass, but the couple is unable to bear a child. Kannadasan later explains that Nidhi is infertile, leaving Prabhu devastated. Despite Kannadasan's request to conceive a child through surrogacy, Prabhu and Nidhi decide to adopt a child. They adopt Kavya, a three-year-old girl, whose parents had died in a car accident. Later, at home, Prabhu discovers that Kavya is actually his biological child, conceived through one of his donations, leaving him horrified. He confronts Kannadasan, who admits the truth. He urges Prabhu to raise Kavya with love and care. Despite this shock, Prabhu softens up to Kavya and raises her as his own child, also maintaining her true origins as a secret from his family. Prabhu's family grows close to Kavya, but are unaware of her true origins.

Later, the Income Tax Department arrests Prabhu on the charges of handling black money, and Kannadasan comes to his aid. With no other record, Kannadasan is forced to reveal the truth to the police, and they both escape prosecution using the influence of the Minister. Disgusted with the truth, Nidhi leaves Prabhu. Prabhu reconciles with Kannadasan and begs to Nidhi for forgiveness. Kannadasan later invites Prabhu, Nidhi, and Kavya to a function held at an orphanage. He explains to Nidhi that although Prabhu keeping his actions a secret from her was wrong, he urges her to look at the good intentions behind them and reveals to her about the happiness that Prabhu gave to numerous families through his donations. He further reveals that 49 children were conceived through Prabhu's donations. With a change of heart, Nidhi reconciles with Prabhu. Prabhu, Nidhi, Kavya, Kannadasan, and other families (whose children were conceived via Prabhu) celebrate.

The soundtrack album of Dharala Prabhu, features eight songs composed by eight different composers, which includes Anirudh Ravichander, Sean Roldan, Vivek-Mervin, Inno Genga, Madley Blues, Bharath Shankar, Kaber Vasuki and Oorka.[6] The background score is composed by Bharath Shankar. Lyrics for the songs were written by Vignesh Shivan, Subu, Nixy, Bharath Shankar and Kaber Vasuki. The audio rights were acquired by Sony Music India.[7][8] Before the album released, five out of eight songs were been released as singles.

The first single "Aaha Ooho" composed by the Oorka band, was released on 5 February 2020.[9] The second single "Unnaal Penne" composed and sung by Inno Genga, with lyrics written by Vignesh Shivan, was released on 17 February 2020.[10] The third single track "Rasa Mavan" sung by stand-up comedian Alexander Babu and Harish Venkat, with the former making his singing debut, was released on 28 February 2020.[11] The fourth single "Kaadhal Theevey", composed by Sean Roldan and sung by Sid Sriram, was released on 4 March 2020.[12] The fifth single "Dharala Prabhu Title Track" sung and composed by Anirudh, was released on 7 March 2020.[13] The title track was re-used from Nani's Gang Leader (2019). The remaining songs were released later on the time of release.

Times of India wrote, "A better background score and more effort on the emotional scenes would have made the movie a perfect remake."[4] Sify wrote: "The film takes a light-hearted, optimistic look at infertility and artificial insemination that entertains and enlightens the audiences".[5] Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion South wrote, "Very deceptively, very casually, Dharala Prabhu addresses a number of issues without making them feel like “issues” (i.e. there are no lectures)....even the central issue is treated with lightness."[14]

Despite positive reviews, the film was made available for viewing on OTT platforms less than a month after its theatrical release due to the COVID-19 lockdown in India.[15]

• Dharala Prabhu at IMDb