Nature) is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by S. P. Jananathan in his directorial debut.

Marudhu, a sailor, arrives at Rameswaram port, Tamil Nadu from Rome, Italy after being away for 14 years.

Nandu directs Marudhu to the church, where he tells the parish priest, Stephen, the story of a captain who attempted to escape from his capsized ship.

Marudhu later meets Nancy, who overheard his conversation with Stephen, at a roadside restaurant run by her sister-in-law, Mercy.

Nancy, overhears their conversation and, distracted by her thoughts, gets her dress stuck on train tracks as she is walking.

The ship captain had told her not to wait for him because she was too young to make a proper judgement about love, but he gave her a ring.

The next day, he returns the ring to Nancy and tells the church father that he and his ship crew are planning to leave Christmas night.

He starts to open the piece of paper to sees whose name is written, before Nancy stops him and agrees to marry him the next day, on Christmas.

During their wedding, Nancy sees Marudhu and a group of other men dancing with Santa Claus masks.

[3] Jananathan's upbringing on Marina Beach—hanging out with fishermen's children, working on the harbor, and hearing stories of his friends from their six month sailing journeys—inspired him to make the film set in a ship with the sea as its backdrop.

[4][5] Jananathan was reported to have taken inspiration for the story from his friend's uncle, who, immediately after getting married, went alone on a boat voyage in the Mediterranean Sea.

[4] However, the film is actually an unofficial adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story "White Nights".

[7] Suriya turned down the offer to play the lead role, saying he was not interested in doing romantic films.

[8] Shaam, whom Jananathan worked with as an assistant editor on 12B (2001), was cast instead and signed the film prior to the release of 12B.

[12] Jananathan based Nancy on his friend's uncle's wife, and described her as an independent women with the autonomy to choose the man with whom she wants a relationship.

[14] Arun Kumar was chosen to play the ship captain, a character based on the life of Jananathan's friend's uncle.

[14][16] Jananathan felt that Biswas was apt for the character, and the film marked her Tamil debut.

[16][21] Since Jananathan demanded an abandoned, slanted lighthouse be erected on the Andaman Islands, art director Sabu Cyril spotted an island an hour away from Port Blair and built a five-foot lighthouse there with the help of fellow art director V. Selvakumar and thirty crew members (including ten carpenters, three molders and two painters) in eight days.

Ranagarajan was critical of the inclusion of Seema Biswas and had mixed feelings about Vidyasagar's rerecording, which was either soothing or jarring.

[14] Visual Dasan of Kalki appreciated the use of montage shots and Radhika's performance, but opined that Seema Biswas was underused.

[4][35] Jananathan wanted to return the award in protest of the death penalty for the hanging of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, but he did not do so.