the mountain temple to conceal Uma's identity as the baby's unmarried mother. The temple priest finds the corpse and calls the other villagers, claiming this has diluted the temple's sanctity. Iyer suspects the baby is Uma's, and questions her mother about this. Uma's mother, frightened, confirms the suspicions, but lies that Chinna brought it to the temple. Iyer and the villagers become infuriated with the donkey, and it is stoned and beaten to death. The village astrologer announces that, because of the sin of killing the donkey, the village will be haunted by omens. Instead, however, miracles beginning happening in the village. Iyer's long lost son returns; a paralysed woman starts walking; Venkat's wife becomes pregnant after being unable to conceive for years. On returning, Narayanaswami learns about these happenings. People superstitiously believe that the deceased donkey is responsible for all the miracles and Iyer suggests constructing a temple for the donkey, to which everyone agrees. Narayanaswami finds Uma. Both search for Chinna's skeleton and find its skull. By then, the villagers arrive, pick up the skull and give a ritual funeral to Chinna by burning the skull, but the fire spreads and engulfs the whole village. Narayanaswami and Uma are the only survivors. Cast M. B. Sreenivasan as Narayanaswami Swathi as Uma Sreelalitha Gopali Raman as Venkat Veeraraghavan as Srinivasa Iyer Narasimhan Thillai Rajan Krishnaraj Rajan Production Agraharathil Kazhutai is John Abraham's second directorial venture after the 1971 Malayalam film Vidhyarthikale Ithile Ithile, and only one in Tamil. The idea for Agraharathil Kazhutai came to Abraham when he was staying in Coimbatore for some screenwriting work. While walking through a Brahmin ghetto, he noticed some donkeys and foals, and wondered why people never raise donkey foals as pets, leading to the film's conception. Abraham also took inspiration from Robert Bresson's French film Au Hasard Balthazar (1966). Principal photography lasted roughly 30 working days; locations included Loyola College and Kundrathur near Chengalpattu. M. B. Sreenivasan, the lead actor, also composed the music. Abraham and his team struggled to get the skull of a donkey for the shoot. They searched for skulls in veterinary hospitals and colleges, to no avail. One of Abraham's friends suggested making a fake skull using gypsum plaster, but Abraham disagreed. Eventually, one of his friends mentioned burying a donkey three days before. The team went to the spot, exhumed the donkey's carcass and cut off the