The Fragrance of Soil) is a 1983 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed by Bharathiraja.

The film stars Pandiyan and Revathi, with Vinu Chakravarthy, Gandhimathi, and Y. Vijaya in supporting roles.

It was released on 16 September 1983 and ran for over 200 days in theatres, besides winning the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil.

Though Muthupechi secretly nurtures a desire to marry her maternal uncle Veerannan, he does not think along those lines as their families are not on talking terms due to a dispute over a field that was to be gifted as dowry to Mookkaiya at the time of his wedding.

When Muthupechi attains puberty, Mookkaiya organises a ceremony but does not invite Ochayi and Veerannan, her suitor, to perform rituals as per tradition.

Hamsavalli's brother Muthukalai asks Mookkaiya why he was not invited to perform the rituals of a suitor at Muthupechi's function.

During a jallikattu festival in the village, Veerannan fights with a bull belonging to Malaichamy and wins a gold chain as a prize.

He manipulates Mookkaiya into announcing that the person who controls his bull will win Muthupechi as the prize.

Malaichamy does not relent; he approaches the Karisalpatti Panchayat and demands that Muthupechi should be married to his person.

The police intervenes, bans the Panchayat and imposes restrictions on the movement of people in the villages.

Veerannan explains the situation which led to his leaving the village, his joining the army and marrying the girl to save her.

The actor Pandiyan was spotted by director Bharathiraja, while seeing him selling bangles in Madurai and offered him the lead role in Mann Vasanai.

[7][3] While filming the climax scene, Bharathiraja slapped Revathi to ensure that she cried as required for the script, rather than use glycerine.

[11] S. Shivakumar of Mid-Day wrote "A love story based on a real incident is a trifle too long with some unnecessary song sequences but all this is compensated for by the technical brilliance" and appreciated the performances of Pandian and Revathi.

[12] Jayamanmadhan of Kalki praised the acting of star cast, Kannan's cinematography and Ilaiyaraaja's music but felt as there is no care in plotting the story and what should be given in what proportion, when we come out of the theatre, only vibrations are left in our chest and concluded there is more of smell of blood than the smell of sand.