Nandhaa (also referred to as Nandha)[1] is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by Bala.

The music was composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja with cinematography handled by R. Rathnavelu and editing by Suresh Urs.

Nandhaa is a story about a young man from a borstal coming back to a society and his family he had left many years ago.

He returns home to his mother, who is deaf and mute, and his younger sister, who are still in a state of shock after what has happened to their family.

Nandhaa, having to deal with the pain of losing the only man who gave him a second chance to live, struggles the fray of being convicted of murder once again and chooses to kill Durai in the court campus.

However, his paranoid mother, thinks that her son still has murder instincts, so she waits at home to feed him a meal, which she has poisoned herself for him.

The title role was initially offered to Ajith Kumar, who rejected the film citing that Bala had not fully developed the story and screenplay before narrating the terms to him.

[16] The songs "Amma Endrale" and "Orayiram" are based on the raga Pantuvarali,[17] and "Mun Paniyaa" is set to Keeravani.

[citation needed] S. R. Ashok Kumar from The Hindu noted that "powerful performance by the lead artists, a neat screenplay and narration without any deviations in the form of dance or song make Nandhaa worth watching.

"[20] Sify criticised the film's "Sethu hangover", but praised the performances of Suriya, Laila and Rajkiran, concluding, "Hankies will not be sufficient, take a towel if you are in the mood to watch Nanda".

[21] Visual Dasan of Kalki wrote the director, who has proved that he can deliver a vibrant film without the masala fragrance, is keeping the faith of the fans he earned with Sethu with Nandhaa.

[22] K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times wrote "This is a moving story from director Bala who gave the runaway hit Sethu.

[23] Malini Mannath of Chennai Online wrote "Director Bala re-establishes his credentials again as a film-maker who moves away from the beaten track, and tries to bring in freshness by way of concept and narrative style.