''Avandhan Manidhan'' () is a 1975 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 ...
, co-written and directed by
A. C. Tirulokchandar
A. C. Thirulokachandar (11 June 1930 – 15 June 2016), also known as A. C. Tirulokchandar, was an Indian film director and screenwriter who worked mainly in Tamil films from the 1960s to 1988. He also directed a few films in Hindi and Telugu. ...
from a story by G. Balasubramaniam. 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 ...
,
Muthuraman,
Jayalalithaa
Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...
and
Manjula
Manjula (Sanskrit: मंजुला) is a Hindu and Sanskrit female given name, which means, "melodious".
Notable people named Manjula
* Manjula (Kannada actress) (1954–1986), Indian actress
* Manjula Chellur (born 1955), Indian doctor and ...
. It revolves around an extremely generous man who refuses to budge from his nature, even as it leads to his downfall.
After Balasubramaniam wrote the story exclusively for Ganesan, director
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 producer Noor were attached. Ganesan however refused, and the story was later filmed in
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 ...
as ''
Kasturi Nivasa
''Kasturi Nivasa'' () is a 1971 Indian Kannada-language drama film written and directed by the director duo Dorai–Bhagavan based on a story, ''Kasturi Nivasam'' written by G. Balasubramanium. It was produced by K. C. N. Gowda under the banne ...
'' (1971). After that film's success, Ganesan agreed to act in a potential Tamil remake, which became ''Avandhan Manidhan'', his 175th film as an actor. The new film was directed by Tirulokchandar, produced by A. Ramanujam and K. N. Subramanian, photographed by M. Viswanatha Rai and edited by B. Kandhasamy.
''Avandhan Manidhan'' was released on 11 April 1975. The film became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres.
Plot
Ravi, the owner of a matchbox factory, is a widower and lost his daughter in an accident. Recognising that his honest employee Chandran is in a similar position, he decides to help Chandran financially. As Chandran attends training in the United States, Ravi takes care of Chandran's charming daughter. On return, Chandran suggests changing the company's structure. The traditionalist Ravi becomes infuriated. Protesting this, Chandran resigns and starts his own matchbox company and becomes the leading matchbox manufacturer.
This begins Ravi's downfall, his charity and donating activities have eaten up profit and he ends up putting his house on sale. Chandran calls for the highest bid and wants to give it back to Ravi, but being the man that he is, Ravi would not accept. Chandran has already got Lalitha, his ex-secretary on whom Ravi had a crush on, and now Ravi's house.
Film ends on a tragic note when all Ravi has is his Dove, and Lalitha requests him to give it her, as her daughter is sick and is crying for Ravi uncle's Dove. Ravi has just sold that, so that he could feed. Unable to say no to a request he breathes his last.
Cast
*
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 ...
as Ravikumar
*
Muthuraman as Chandran
*
Jayalalithaa
Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...
as Lalitha
*
Manjula
Manjula (Sanskrit: मंजुला) is a Hindu and Sanskrit female given name, which means, "melodious".
Notable people named Manjula
* Manjula (Kannada actress) (1954–1986), Indian actress
* Manjula Chellur (born 1955), Indian doctor and ...
as Manju
*
Major Sundarrajan
Srinivasan Sundarrajan (17 March 1925 – 28 February 2003), popularly known as Major Sundarrajan, was an Indian actor and director who performed predominantly in Tamil language films and plays. He was well known for his sophisticated and ...
as Murugan
*
Cho
Cho or CHO may refer to:
People
* Chief Happiness Officer
Surnames
* Cho (Korean surname), one romanization of the common Korean surname
* Zhuo (), romanized Cho in Wade–Giles, Chinese surname
* Cho, a Minnan romanization of the Chinese sur ...
as Appavu
*
M. R. R. Vasu
Madras Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan Vasudevan was an Indian actor who was active in Tamil cinema and theatre during the latter half of the 20th century. He was known for playing negative roles, but he was also a successful character actor. He acte ...
as Paramasivam
*
Chandrababu
Joseph Panimayadas Chandrababu Rodriguez (1927–1974) was an Indian actor, comedian, director, singer and dancer, whose Chaplinesque-style on-screen movements and singing style made him popular from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. He had ...
as Singaram
*
Sachu
Saraswathi Sundaresan Iyer, professionally known as Kumari Sachu (born 7 January 1948) is an Indian actress who has acted in more than 500 films in five different languages and a few television serials. She is a character actress/comedienne who ...
as Kamala
*
Baby Sumathi
Sumathi (born 18 August 1964) is an Indian actress from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. She started her career at the age of two. She starred in many Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi language films.
Personal life
Sumathi was born in Madura ...
as Selvi
Production
In early 1970, G. Balasubramaniam had written a story exclusively for
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 ...
, and film producer Noor bought the rights for 25,000, with
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 ...
signed on to direct. However, Ganesan was reluctant after hearing the story, feeling it was too tragic. A year later, the same story was bought by the director duo
Dorai–Bhagavan
Dorai–Bhagavan were an Indian filmmaking duo consisting of directors B. Dorai Raj (died 2000) and S. K. Bhagavan (born 1933), active mainly in Kannada cinema. They directed fifty films, most of which starred Dr. Rajkumar, Rajkumar and were hig ...
for 38,000, and they made it into a
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 ...
film titled ''
Kasturi Nivasa
''Kasturi Nivasa'' () is a 1971 Indian Kannada-language drama film written and directed by the director duo Dorai–Bhagavan based on a story, ''Kasturi Nivasam'' written by G. Balasubramanium. It was produced by K. C. N. Gowda under the banne ...
'', with
Rajkumar starring. After the film's success, Ganesan decided to remake it in Tamil, and bought the remake rights for 2,00,000. The remake was titled ''Avandhan Manidhan'', and the 175th film of Ganesan. It was directed by
A. C. Tirulokchandar
A. C. Thirulokachandar (11 June 1930 – 15 June 2016), also known as A. C. Tirulokchandar, was an Indian film director and screenwriter who worked mainly in Tamil films from the 1960s to 1988. He also directed a few films in Hindi and Telugu. ...
, co-produced by K. N. Subramaniam, photographed by M. Viswanatha Rai and edited by B. Kandhasamy. While Tirulokchandar also wrote the screenplay,
Panchu Arunachalam
Panchanathan Arunachalam (22 March 1941 – 9 August 2016) was an Indian writer, director, producer and lyricist who worked in Tamil cinema. He was mentored by poet Kannadasan who was his uncle. He also worked as a lyricist in the Tamil cin ...
wrote the dialogues.
Themes
Film historian
Mohan Raman
Mohan Raman, also known as Mohan V. Ram (born 3 April 1956), is an Indian actor and writer. In 2017 and 2019, he was a Jury member for the National Film Award for Best Writing on Cinema. Raman is a film historian and writes for ''The Hindu''. He ...
interpreted one scene where Cho's character tells Chandrababu's character, "Ellarum Ungala Marandutaanga pa" (Everyone has forgotten you, man) as reflecting Chandrababu's real life situation at that time.
Soundtrack
The music was composed by
M. S. Viswanathan
Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan (24 June 1928 – 14 July 2015), also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. He was popularly known as ''Mellisai Mannar''. He compose ...
, with lyrics 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 song "Aattuviththaal Yaaroruvar", like many songs written by Kannadasan, extols the
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
god
Krishna
Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is one ...
.
Release and reception
''Avandhan Manidhan'' was released on 11 April 1975. 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 ...
'' praised Tirulokchander's direction and writing, Arunachalam's dialogues, and Muthuraman's performance. The film became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres.
References
External links
*
{{A. C. Tirulokchandar
1970s Tamil-language films
1975 drama films
1975 films
Films directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar
Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan
Indian drama films
Tamil remakes of Kannada films