Pichaikkaran (2016)

Arul is the heir to a large business, and his mother means everything to him. When an accident leaves her in a coma and doctors can do no more, a sage tells him that her life may be saved if he lives for 48 days as a beggar, accepting whatever the street gives him and telling no one his identity. Arul gives up his comfort and joins the city's beggars, discovering both the kindness and the cruelty of that world, while a young woman he meets has no idea who he really is and a gang that exploits beggars becomes a threat. Vijay Antony, who also composed the music, plays Arul with restraint. The film was a sleeper hit, and its Telugu version Bichagadu did even better. A sequel, Pichaikkaran 2, followed in 2023.