''Alaigal'' () is a 1973 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 film written, produced and directed by Sridhar. The film, released on 13 January 1973, stars Vishnuvardhan and

Chandrakala Chandrakala was an Indian actress who appeared in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi films. Film career She debuted in Kannada films in 1963 and went on to pair with Dr. Rajkumar, Kalyan Kumar, Uday Kumar and Rajesh. In 1971, she ...

. It was the first Tamil film of Vishnuvardhan.

Plot

Cast

* Vishnuvardhan as Inspector Raju *

as Lakshmi * Cho * Manorama as Nalina *

Dhulipala Dhulipala Sitarama Sastry (24 September 1921 – 13 April 2007), known mononymously by the surname Dhulipala, was an Indian actor and thespian, known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He was noted for playing mythological roles, ...

* Selvakumar *

Thengai Srinivasan Thengai Srinivasan (21 October 1937 – 9 November 1987) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil language, Tamil-language films and plays from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was given the prefix ''Thengai'' (coconut) after his role as a coco ...

Suruli Rajan Suruli Rajan was a Tamil film comedian/character artiste. He was a recipient of Tamil Nadu State Government's Best Comedian Award for the year 1981–82. Biography Suruli Rajan was born in 1938 in Periyakulam, near Theni. His father ''Ponna ...

* Rama Rao *

Typist Gopu Gopalarathnam, known by his stage name Typist Gopu, was an Indian actor known for comedy and supporting roles. He acted in over 600 stage plays and 400 films. Career A native of Manakkal, Lalgudi in Trichy district, Gopalarathnam was active ...

* Sundari Bai * Kumudhini * Seethalakshmi

Production

After the average response to his previous film ''

Avalukendru Or Manam ''Avalukendru Or Manam'' () is a 1971 Indian Tamil-language film romantic drama film produced, written and directed by Sridhar. The film stars Gemini Ganesan, Muthuraman, Bharathi and Kanchana. It revolves around two women falling in love ...

'' (1971), Sridhar decided to make a Tamil-

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 ...

bilingual titled ''Thulasi'' () with A. V. M. Rajan starring in Tamil and

Sobhan Babu Sobhan Babu (born Uppu Sobhana Chalapathi Rao; 14 January 1937 – 20 March 2008) was an Indian actor known for his works in Telugu cinema.Bangaru Panjaram in Venditera Paatalu, Krishnasastri Sahityam, third volume, Vishalandhra Publishing House ...

in Telugu. Sridhar developed a story from the Hindi film '' Aadmi'' (1939) and the American film ''

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at t ...

'' (1931), retaining only the basic premise. However after canning , he decided to drop the film, uncertain whether the audience would accept a film with anti-sentimental elements. Sridhar restarted the same film with changes in the script and cast. The title was changed to ''Alaigal'', with

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

actor Vishnuvardhan in the lead which marked his debut in

Tamil cinema Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood' ...

Soundtrack

The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, while the lyrics 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 ...

Release and reception

''Alaigal'' was released on 13 January 1973. '' Kumudham'' called the story ordinary, criticising it for lack of originality. ''

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 ...

'' praised Sridhar for directing a film with a different kind of plot without including any cinematic elements. However the film failed at the box office.

References

External links

* {{C. V. Sridhar 1970s Tamil-language films 1973 films Films directed by C. V. Sridhar Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films with screenplays by C. V. Sridhar Indian black-and-white films Indian police films