Ethir Neechal is a 1968 Tamil-language Comedy Drama movie directed by K. Balachander and produced by N. Selvaraj, B. Duraisamy and N. Krishnan under the banner of Kalakendra Movies. Maathu (Nagesh) lives under the staircase in a building complex and does odd jobs for residents in return for food and living space. He is treated poorly and exploited by most residents except a bodybuilder Nair (Muthuraman) and a retiree (Major Sunderrajan). By working hard in school, Maathu dreams of moving on in life and develops a liking for a girl (Jayanthi) who moves into the building, but he must first get past being treated as a servant by the residents. Written by Joyojeet Pal. Ethir neechal stars Nagesh in the lead role along with an ensemble cast including R. Muthuraman, Sowcar Janaki, Jayanthi, Major Sundarrajan, Manorama and S. N. Lakshmi. The screenplay is written by K. Balachander which is inspired from Ethir Neechal by K. Balachander. The music was composed by V. Kumar. Cinematography was done by N. Balakrishnan and editing by N. R. Kittu. The motion picture has a running time of 165 minutes. It was released on 1st January 1968.