DeAr 2024

G. V. Prakash Kumar as Arjun is a newsreader who lives in Chennai with his single mother, Rohini as Lakshmi, his short-tempered brother, Kaali Venkat as Saravana, sister-in-law Kalpana, and nephew Santhosh. His life, though ordinary, is colored by a medical quirk that shadows him: he suffers from light sleep, so even the quietest sounds can wake him, a detail that threads through every personal and professional decision he makes.

In nearby Coonoor, Aishwarya Rajesh as Deepika—often called Deepu—is quietly searching for a suitable alliance, but the process keeps stalling because she has to address her own snoring problem. The two families—Arjun’s and Deepika’s mothers, longtime school friends—meet and instantly click, setting the stage for an arranged union that feels hopeful and practical. As the wedding preparations unfold, Deepika’s snoring becomes a defining thread in their budding romance, yet a sense of compatibility between the two brings them together.

On their wedding night, Arjun opens up about his light sleep, and Deepika grows anxious. She tries to stay awake on her mother’s advice, but fatigue wins, and she ends up waking him. The moment seeds paranoia and fear in him, casting a shadow over the newlywed phase. The honeymoon is cut short by an accident that breaks his nose, adding physical pain to the emotional strain. Despite this rocky start, they attempt to move forward, and friends urge Arjun to seek help with a renewed spirit. The medical verdict, however, is harsh: the condition is untreatable. With ever-mounting frustration, Arjun and Deepika clash, and he proposes a drastic, albeit unconventional, sleeping pattern—an alternating schedule where one sleeps while the other stays awake—so daily life can continue in a fragile balance.

Arjun’s professional dream starts to look within reach when he lands a job as a newsreader at a company he admires. The turning point comes on a day of a high-stakes, last-minute interview with the finance minister; he studies for the momentous appearance but ultimately sleeps in the bathroom, missing the show, and is humiliated by colleagues and fired. The blow shakes him to the core, and he retreats into anger, announcing plans for divorce. Deepika, visibly distressed, pleads with him to reconsider, but he remains resolute. She reveals she is pregnant, intensifying the emotional stakes: Arjun chooses to pursue an independent path, while Deepika wrestles with the idea of abortion.

Time passes, and the divorce proceedings drag on. Arjun, now unemployed and disheveled, leans on drinking and smoking as a coping mechanism. He visits his mother during a moment when she’s away, only to find she’s suddenly hospitalized for bypass surgery. While she’s in hospital, she urges the family to locate Shanmugam, their estranged father who left after accumulating debt. A determined Deepika and Saravana convince Arjun to search for him, and the trio travels to Idukki to bring him back. Their reunion is happy in part, but Saravana’s grudge against his father lingers, leaving a sour note in the air. The mother’s sharp, revealing moment—she explains that their father had made many decisions on his own, without consulting anyone—touches a nerve and forces the family to confront the impact of hidden choices, including Kalpana’s own love for writing stories that she’d kept private.

Eventually, Shanmugam returns and the family begins to heal. The stress of the divorce case eases as the two sides start to see a future together again. The final day of hearing approaches, and Arjun and Deepika decide to cancel the divorce, choosing to work through their differences for the sake of the family they’ve built. A couple of years later, Arjun and Deepu welcome a baby, a quiet symbol of renewed hope. As he reads them a story, Deepu points out that the baby snores—an endearing echo of Arjun’s longtime struggle—and they both laugh, reinforcing that their life can still be warm, imperfect, and happily together.