Actress Nayanthara unveiled the teaser for her upcoming film Rakkayie on her 40th birthday on Monday, offering a glimpse at her character — a rural woman on a warpath to protect her daughter.

“In a land where justice is but a memory, there lived a mother whose world was her child. But when her daughter’s life is threatened by a monster, she does not flee, she does not falter. Instead, she declares war,” wrote Nayanthara alongside the video on Instagram.

The video opens with a newborn crying inside a hut in a rural area on a stormy night. The subsequent scenes show Nayanthara dressed in an orange sari. Presumably the child’s mother, Nayanthara begins grinding chillies in a mortar. As an army wielding torches approaches her dwelling, she feeds milk to her daughter.

With the men ready to attack, Nayanthara steps out armed with nothing but a pole and a sickle. She seems determined to go to any lengths to protect her daughter.

The actress essays the role of a fearless and formidable mother who single-handedly takes down her adversaries, slashing their throats with her rudimentary tools. The video ends with a close-up of Nayanthara’s blood-smeared face.

On Sunday, Nayanthara shared a poster of the upcoming film to tease the announcement of its title. “A war on the beasts,” she captioned her post on Instagram.

Written and directed by Senthil Nallasamy, Rakkaiye will be released in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam. No release date has been announced so far. The music for the film has been scored by Govind Vasantha.

Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairytale, a docu-series on the actress, dropped on Netflix today. It highlights Nayanthara’s journey as a successful actress and her roles as a daughter, sister, wife and mother. It also features exclusive interviews with Nayanthara, her friends, and industry colleagues, including Taapsee Pannu, Rana Daggubati and Nagarjuna Akkineni.

Besides, the documentary offers unseen footage of Nayanthara’s star-studded wedding with Vignesh Shivan, which was attended by celebrities like Rajinikanth, Mani Ratnam and Nayanthara’s Jawan co-star Shah Rukh Khan.

Nayanthara was last seen in Annapoorani: The Goddess of Food. She is set to appear in Test alongside R. Madhavan and Siddharth.

Additionally, the actress will be seen in the Malayalam film Dear Students alongside her Love Action Drama co-star Nivin Pauly.