''Dowry Kalyanam'' () is a 1983 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

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...

film, directed by

Visu Meenakshisundaram Ramasamy Viswanathan (1 July 1945 – 22 March 2020), best known by his stage name Visu, was an Indian writer, director, stage, film and television actor and talk-show host. Visu initially worked as an assistant to director ...

and produced by S. Suseela. The film stars Visu,

Vijayakanth Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami (born 25 August 1952), better known by his stage name Vijayakanth, is an Indian politician and former actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil cinema. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Leg ...

Srividya Srividya (24 July 1953 – 19 October 2006), also known as Sreevidya, was an Indian actress best known for her work predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films, along with few Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. In a career spanning for 40 years, ...

, S. Ve. Shekher and

Viji Viji was an Indian actress, who appeared in Tamil films. She made her debut in '' Kozhi Koovuthu'' and acted in over 40 films. Biography Viji made her debut in Gangai Amaren's '' Kozhi Koovuthu''. It went on to become a super hit and she was o ...

. It is based on Visu's play ''Dowry Kalyana Vaibhogame''. The film was released on 31 May 1983.

Plot

Ganeshan and Ethiraj are best friends and colleagues. Ethiraj is a widower and an alcoholic while Ganeshan is married and has a sister and a brother. Ganeshan does not earn enough and borrows from Ethiraj and Rowthar, a Muslim man who runs a grocery shop, frequently. A misunderstanding arises when Ethiraj's mother proposes marriage between Ganeshan's sister and Ethiraj leading to a rift in their friendship. He challenges that he would get his sister married in a pompous manner. However, the groom's family is behind dowry. The mother of the groom runs the family tyrannically. How Ganeshan struggles to make ends meet with many subplots makes it an interesting movie to watch. In the end, with help from many people, he gets his sister married only for his own sister to ask him about the remainder of the dowry.

Cast

as Ganesan *

as Ethiraj *

as Uma * S. Ve. Shekher as Manggupathi *

as Gowri *

Kishmu Meenakshisundaram Ramasamy Krishnamurthy better known as Kishmu was an Indian film and stage actor. He is also brother of famous actor and director Visu. Kishmu made his debut in the Visu-directed film Manal Kayiru in 1982. Other notable film ...

as Acharapakkam Raja Kalavai * Pushpalatha as Arcot Rushyendramani * M. N. Nambiar as Rowthar * Manorama as Seetha Latchmi *

Vennira Aadai Moorthy Vennira Aadai Moorthy (born 25 July 1936) is an Indian actor and comedian in Tamil cinema. He has starred in many Tamil films and television serials as a comedian and also played supporting roles. He is a lawyer by education, and holds a B.L. ...

as Karar Kandhasamy * V. K. Ramasamy as Jalandar Subbudu (Ganesan's uncle) * V. Gopalakrishnan as Kuselan (Ganesan's maternal uncle) *

Delhi Ganesh Delhi Ganesh is an Indian actor who mostly acts in supporting roles in Tamil cinema and serials. He has acted in more than 400 films from 1976 to present. Before films, he was a member of the Delhi-based theatre troupe, ''Dakshina Bharata Natak ...

as Kuselan *

Gundu Kalyanam Gundu Kalyanam is an Indian actor and director in Tamil film industry and active and hardcore member at AIADMK party. He entered cine field in the year 1967 and his first movie was Mazhalai Pattalam in 1979. He also had his hands on direction ...

as Kalyanam *M. R. Rajamani as Neelaganda Sastrigal *S. R. Janaki as Ganesan's grandmother

Soundtrack

The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, with lyrics by Vaali.

Censorship controversies

Visu mentioned that the censor board wanted 87 cuts for the film as they were not impressed with the portrayal of the character Rowther ( M. N. Nambiar) speaking 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 ...

mixed with Tamil because

Rowther Rowther (anglicised as ''Irauttar'', ''Rawther, Ravuttar'' ''Ravutta'', ''Rahtore'', ''Ravuthar'') is a Tamil Speaking Muslim community from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Rowthers are Tamil tribes converted to islam by Preacher Nath ...

s speak pure Tamil. Visu had to come up with the scene where he explains about his portrayal.

References

External links

* {{Visu 1980s Tamil-language films 1983 films Films about Indian weddings Films directed by Visu Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films with screenplays by Visu Indian black comedy films