''Aalayamani'' () is a 1962 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

K. Shankar Kannan Shankar (17 March 1926 - 5 March 2006) was an Indian film editor, screenwriter and director. He directed more than 80 films in South Indian languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada as well as in Hindi. Film career Shanka ...

and produced by

P. S. Veerappa P. S. Veerappa (10 September 191111 September 1998) was an Indian actor and a producer of Tamil cinema. Early life Born in 1911, Veerappa belonged to Kangeyam, then part of Coimbatore District in Madras Presidency. But he grew up in his gra ...

. The film stars

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001) was an Indian actor and producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. Sivaji Ga ...

S. S. Rajendran Sedapatti Suryanarayana Rajendran, also known by his initials SSR (January 1928 – 24 October 2014), was an Indian actor, director, producer and politician who worked in Tamil theatre and cinema. Film career Rajendran made his acting de ...

B. Saroja Devi Bangalore Saroja Devi (born 7 January 1938) is an Indian actress who has acted in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. She acted in around 200 films in over six decades. She is known by the epithets "''Abhinaya Saraswathi''" (Saraswathi of ...

and C. R. Vijayakumari. It was released on 23 November 1962, and ran for over 100 days in theaters. The film was remade in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

as ''

Gudi Gantalu ''Gudi Gantalu'' () is a 1964 Indian Telugu-language drama film directed by V. Madhusudhana Rao. It stars N. T. Rama Rao and Krishna Kumari, with music composed by Ghantasala. The film was produced by Sunderlal Nehata and Doondy. It is a rem ...

'' (1964) and in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as '' Aadmi'' (1968).

Plot

Thyagarajan (

) is a lonely rich bachelor, subjected to a deep-seated trauma from having witnessed the death of a childhood playmate, caused by his possessiveness. This is recurring theme in Thyagarajan's life, leading to disastrous results. The movie begins with an imposing bell being rung, a voice narrates the story of a poor man, Arumugam Pillai, who was about to commit suicide on the death rock, but was stopped by the sound of the divine bell from the temple. He decides to take another chance with his life and soon he becomes a rich man and his son is none other than Thyagu, our hero! Thyagarajan meets and becomes close friends with a virtuous man Sekhar (

) and there is a well grown sense of mutual admiration and fondness amongst the friends. Sekhar and Meena (

) are in love and Sekar promises he will ask her hand in marriage. Unbeknownst to both of them, Thyagu comes across Meena, whose father (

Nagayya V. Nagayya (born Vuppaladadiyam Nagayya Sarma; 28 March 1904 – 30 December 1978) also known as Chittoor Nagayya was an Indian actor, singer, music composer, and director known for his works in Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, and Telugu theatre. ...

) works in Thyagu's estate and impressed by her vivacity, Thyagu falls head over heels for her. This has all the makings of a typical love triangle. Meena has a sister, Pushpalatha, who falls in love with the villain's (

M. R. Radha Madras Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan (14 April 1907 – 17 September 1979) was an Indian actor and politician active in Tamil plays and films. He was given the title "Nadigavel" (spearhead of acting) by Periyar E. V. Ramasamy. He mostly play ...

) son who demands a large amount in dowry. Nagayya is unable to rustle up the requisite cash and is now in the doldrums concerned about the fate of his elder daughter's marriage. Thyagu comes helping with the cash and they are wedded. Shortly thereafter, Thyagu proposes to marry Meena and sends Sekhar as his messenger. Except Sekhar and Meena, to their obvious shock and despair, it looks to the rest of the relatives that Thyagu and Meena are a pair made for each other. Sekhar, realising the extent of love and the depth of feelings of Thyagu asks Meena to forgo their feelings and that she should go ahead and marry Thyagu. The family members of both the families get together and agree to the arrangement. By this time, Thyagu, injured in a serious accident loses the use of both his legs and ends up being a cripple for life. The loyal partner Meena pitches into the effort to care for Thyagu and spends all her time caring for him. Sekhar can't forget Meena and tries to be close with her, while she honours her commitment to Thyagu and keeps Sekhar at a distance. Thinking Sekhar as a single, Prema ( C. R. Vijayakumari), daughter of the villain, expresses her feelings for Sekhar and he fails to respond in kind. All these pent up emotions of love, friendship, loyalty, jealousy and physical debilitation boils over at one point and things take a turn for the worse for all three. Goaded by the feelings of inadequacy, Thyagu builds in his mind a picture, that his dear friend Sekhar is out to get his love, and decides to take matters into his hands and get rid of Sekhar. The lingering doubts about his friend and lover is now fuelled by his restive passions which are burning brightly. Thyagu plans that the appropriate location for revenge is the Death rock known for its enchanting scenery and dangerous cliffs, where once his father attempted suicide. He was to drive Sekhar to the edge and push him to death from the face of the cliff. Thyagu leads Sekhar to the cliff and reveals his anger and frustration about their perceived relationship, questioning the sincerity of his friend and his lover. A visibly angered Sekhar repulses by revealing the magnitude of his sacrifice he made for his close friend and to prove his innocence, Sekhar swears to take his own life from the same Death rock. Truth dawns on Thyagu, now deeply humiliated, jumps from the cliff to the tumultuous sea below. While Sekhar and Meena are mourning for their loss, Thyagu gets rescued by a fisherman and the shock of falling from the cliff has given back Thyagu the partial use of his legs. Meena now deems her as a widow and convinces Sekhar to marry the girl who loves him. On the wedding day, Thyagu, now dressed as a nobody shows up for the wedding and happens to overhear a conversation of Meena declaring that there is no life and happiness left due to Thyagu's death. This convinces Thyagu to reveal his identity and console Saroja, while the villain with an eye on Thyagu's money thinks otherwise. Thyagu is hit on the head and falls unconscious, the marriage completes and Meena decides to take her life from the same cliff Thyagu plunged to death and seen running towards the cliff. Conscious now, Thyagu goes after Meena to stop her from committing suicide, calling out loud to stop and limping all the way behind her. Meena sees Thyagu is alive and changes her mind and the lovers unite. In the background, the song "Ponnai Virumbum Boomiyile" (meaning: In a world of wealth lovers, the dear one who loved me) is being played, a happy Thyagu and Meena waves us a farewell, the movie ends.

Cast

as Thiyagu/Thiyagarajan *

as Meena/Vanampadi *

as Sekar * C. R. Vijayakumari as Prema *

as Pakkiri *

as Aatkondan Pillai *

M. V. Rajamma M. V. Rajamma (10 March 1918 – 23 April 1999) was an Indian actress, producer and playback singer of films mostly in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu languages from the 1930s through 1970s. She has the distinction of having acted as both heroine an ...

as Sekar's mother *

Pushpalatha Pushpalatha is an Indian actress, who has worked predominantly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam language films. She has acted as heroine and character roles in more than 100 films. Her debut film was '' Sengottai Singam'', released in 1958. When ...

as Parvathi * T. R. Ramachandran as Aatkondan Pillai's son *

V. Nagayya V. Nagayya (born Vuppaladadiyam Nagayya Sarma; 28 March 1904 – 30 December 1978) also known as Chittoor Nagayya was an Indian actor, singer, music composer, and director known for his works in Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, and Telugu theatre. ...

as Muthaiah Pillai *

V. S. Raghavan V S Raghavan (18 February 1925 – 24 January 2015) was an Indian actor, who has acted both in Tamil films as well as television. He started his career as a dramatist and stage actor and went on to act as a character actor in films, starting ...

as Doctor *

C. R. Parthiban C. R. Parthiban (1 July 1931 – 25 January 2021) was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema and theatre. He was best known for his performance as Jackson Durai in ''Veerapandiya Kattabomman'' (1959). Biography Parthiban was born ...

as Doctor *K. Natarajan as Thiyagu's manager *

Master Sridhar Sridhar was an Indian actor in the Tamil film industry. He has acted about 150 films and he was introduced to Tamil cinema as a child artist. He was famous for his child performance in many movies and so called as Master Sridhar. Personal life ...

as Young Thiyagu *Master Mohan as Young Babu

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy were an Indian music composing duo composed of M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy. They worked together on over 100 films, from 1952's '' Panam'' to 1965's '' Aayirathil Oruvan''. After their split, Ramamoorthy wo ...

and lyrics for all songs were written by

Kannadasan Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was an Indian philosopher, poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. Freq ...

. The songs like "Kallellam Manikka", "Satti Suthadhada" and "Ponnai Virumbum" were well received. Philips, an autodidact guitarist, played the guitar for "Satti Sutthadhada". It was based on the

raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradit ...

'' Bilaskhan-i Todi''. The song "Kallellam Maanikka" is based on Mayamalavagowla raga. Writing for ''

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...

'', Sujatha Narayan noted that the song "Nallai Allai" from ''

Kaatru Veliyidai ''Kaatru Veliyidai'' () is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language romantic war film, produced, written and directed by Mani Ratnam. Made under the Madras Talkies banner, it features music composed by A. R. Rahman, cinematography by Ravi Varman and editi ...

'' (2017) was similar to "Ponnai Virumbum" from this film "in its mood, with the man reminiscing how his love for a woman of such character has changed him for the better."

Release and reception

''Aalayamani'' was released on 23 November 1962. ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' wrote, "''Aalayamani'' is an engrossing film, which though sometimes exceeds the bounds of possibility assures a fair return for cinegoers' fare." Kanthan of ''

Kalki Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exist ...

'' appreciated the performances of various cast members and the cinematography, but felt Vijayakumari was underutilised. The film celebrated its 100th day at the Vijaya Gardens, Kodambakkam.

References

External links

* {{K. Shankar 1960s Tamil-language films 1962 drama films 1962 films Films directed by K. Shankar Films scored by Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Films with screenplays by Javar Seetharaman Indian drama films Tamil films remade in other languages