Ethiroli (Eng: Echo) is a 1970 Indian Tamil language comedy-drama film directed by K. Balachander and featuring Sivaji Ganesan. Ethiroli had musical score by K. V. Mahadevan and became a commercial success. It was also the only collaboration between Balachander and Ganesan.
Shankar (Sivaji Ganesan) is a successful lawyer and a man with a heart of gold. One of his clients entrusts huge amount of money to him, which gets stolen before Shankar deposits it in the court. When his attempts to borrow money fails, accidentally a boxful of money and jewels reach his home. He rejoices at this God-sent gift and replaces his client’s money with this. His wife Vijaya (K.R. Vijaya) objects to this, but he tells her that there is no other alternative. Everything seems to be going hunky-dory until Mannikam (Sundarrajan), a taxi driver, starts blackmailing him about the box. Shankar’s daughter Raji is upset that her father is harassed. She tries to seek the help of the police. Meanwhile, the owner of the box found to be none other than the father-in-law of Shankar’s brother. Vijaya confesses about the box to him without Shankar’s knowledge. When Shankar finds out about this, he thinks everything is finished. The police arrest him for killing Mannikam. Worse still, Shankar’s daughter Raji, who is the sole witness to the murder, becomes speechless due to shock. Is Shankar the murderer or is it someone else? Will someone speak up for the man who always speaks up for others?
Directed by K. Balachander
Produced by G. N. Velumani
Screenplay by K. Balachander
Story by K. V. R. Acharya
Starring Sivaji Ganesan, K. R. Vijaya, S. S. Rajendran, Nagesh, Sivakumar, Major Sundarrajan
Music by K. V. Mahadevan
Cinematography N. Balakrishnan
Edited by N. R. Kittu
Production Navarathna Films
Distributed by Navarathna Films
Release date 27 June 1970
Running time 166 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
