''Edhir Neechal'' () is a 1968 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 comedy drama film written and directed by

K. Balachander Kailasam Balachander (9 July 1930 – 23 December 2014) was an Indian film maker and playwright who worked mainly in the Tamil cinema. He was well known for his distinct film-making style, and the Indian film industry knew him as a master of un ...

. The film has an ensemble cast including

Nagesh Nagesh (born Cheyur Krishnarao Nageshwaran; (27 September 1933 – 31 January 2009) was an Indian actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian in Tamil films during the 1960s. Nagesh was born in Dharapuram. He acted in over 1,000 fil ...

, Muthuraman, Sundarrajan, Srikanth,

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 ...

Sowcar Janaki Sankaramanchi Janaki (born T. Janaki; 12 December 1931), popularly known as Sowcar Janaki (Tamil) or Shavukaru Janaki (Telugu) or Sahukar Janaki (Kannada), is an Indian actress who has appeared in over 300, films, predominantly in Tamil, Tel ...

and Jayanthi. It is based on Balachander's play of the same name, itself inspired by Sombhu Mitra's play ''Kanchanranga''. The film was released on 12 December 1968, and became a commercial success, with Balachander winning the

Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Dialogue Writer The Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Dialogue Writer is given by the state government as part of its annual Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Tamil (Kollywood) films. The list Here is a list of the award winners and the films for which they w ...

. It 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 ''

Sambarala Rambabu ''Sambarala Rambabu'' is a 1970 Indian Telugu-language comedy drama film directed by G. V. R. Seshagiri Rao and produced by T. Mohan Rao. It is a remake of K. Balachander's 1968 Tamil film '' Ethir Neechal'', itself based on his stage play of t ...

'' (1970) 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 ...

as ''

Lakhon Me Ek ''Lakhon Me Ek'' () is a 1971 Indian comedy-drama film directed by S.S. Balan. The film stars Mehmood and Radha Saluja. This film is about brotherhood relationship between characters played by Pran and Mehmood. It is a remake of the Tamil fil ...

'' (1971).

Plot

Maadhu is a destitute orphan who performs odd jobs in a multi-family tenancy for his living and education. For the services he renders, he's allowed to sleep under the stairs of the tenancy without any rent. He attends college with the help from one of his college professor and kind people that share roof in that tenancy he lives. Among few people who understand his situation, and are ready to help are Sabapathy and Nair. Paaru is a daughter to one of the tenants who returns from Bangalore and whose marriage has been fixed to Kumaresan, one of the tenants living in the house. When, in the marriage hall, one of them recognises Paaru as a person in a mental asylum and when he heard this, Kumerasan says that if Paaru's father pays 15,000 the marriage will happen but Paaru and her family had only 5000. For this reason, Kumerasan rejects her. and Maadhu overhears one of the tenants speaking to her husband of getting him married to their daughter Paaru who is said to be psychologically challenged. He forcefully makes his mind to love their daughter even before they propose a marriage, so as to calm himself that the girl is none other than the girl he loved and not some unknown psychologically challenged girl. Then they fall in love and then Maadhu finishes his college studies with lot of obstacles with Nair and Sabapathy helping him inside. Then one day a rich businessman claims that Maadhu is his long lost son. Hearing this, all the tenants give their gifts but which nair later reveals that that is a rumour and everyone later takes back the gifts and Paaru reveals that-she is the person behind all these and she said that maadhu has been serving the tenants from the very start if his life and she wanted maddhu to be served by the tenants. Listening thi,s kumaresen says that he will marry her to which Paaru agrees forcefully and is forced to break her love to Maadhu and gets a promise that he should not marry anyone. In the marriage, Paaru creates a ruckus, and thus stopping the marriage. Maadhu now returns as a rich man and Sabapathy says that he should marry her to which maadhu replies that he has already married a Punjabi girl. Shocking everyone, he reveals that the girl is none other than his friend Vadivelu and then Paaru and maadhu marries and thus ending the movie.

Cast

as Maadhu * Muthuraman as Nair * Sundarrajan as Sabapathy * Srikanth as Kittu *

as Kumaresan *

as Pattu Mami * Jayanthi as Paaru * Manorama as Renu *

S. N. Lakshmi Sennalkudi Narayana Lakshmi (1927 – 20 February 2012) was an Indian actress, who appeared in supporting roles, often playing roles of a mother or grandmother in films. A recipient of the state government's Kalaimamani and Kalaiselvam awards, ...

* Thengai Srinivasan (guest appearance)

Production

''Edhir Neechal'' was a play written by

, inspired by Sombhu Mitra's play ''Kanchanranga''.

, who acted in Balachander's play, returned to the film adaptation, which was written and directed by Balachander, and produced by Kalakendra Movies.

R. Muthuraman Muthuraman Radhakrishnan (4 July 1929 – 16 October 1981) was an Indian actor who predominantly appeared in Tamil language films. He was a leading actor during the 1960s and 1970s and was fondly called as ''Navarasa Thilagam''. He had paired w ...

played the

Malayali The Malayali people () (also spelt Malayalee and also known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. They are predomin ...

cook Nair, reprising the role originally played by Raman. Balachander considered

's role to be "a total contrast to the parts she was doing then, where she was always in tears." Cinematography was handled by N. Balakrishnan, editing by N. R. Kittu and art direction by Ramaswamy.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

V. Kumar V. Kumar ( ta, வரதராஜுலு குமார், ) (28 July 1934 – 7 January 1996) was a yesteryear Tamil cinema music director, born in Chennai, Tamilnadu on 28 July 1934 to Varadharajulu and Dhanabhakiyam couple, in July 1969 ...

, with lyrics by Vaali. The song "Aduthathu Ambujatha Parthela" is set in the Carnatic raga known as

Mohanam Mohanam is a rāga in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an ''audava'' rāga (or ''owdava'' rāga, meaning pentatonic scale). It is usually described as a '' janya'' rāga of Harikamboji (28th Melakartha Raga) ...

, and attained popularity. Although P. B. Sreenivas' cinematic career was declining in the late 1960s, B. Kolappan of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' described "Thamarai Kannangal" as "one of his finer numbers during this period."

Release and reception

''Edhir Neechal'' was released on 12 December 1968. The following week, ''

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 be ...

'' wrote, "The film, which has a few touching scenes and some interesting twists, is on the whole satisfying", though they criticised the music. ''

Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History and profile ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 wa ...

'', in a review dated 29 December 1968, praised the performances of the cast, particularly Nagesh, Sreekanth and Janaki.

C. N. Annadurai Conjeevaram Natarajan Annadurai (15 September 1909 – 3 February 1969), popularly known as Anna also known as Arignar Anna or Perarignar Anna (''Anna, the scholar'' or ''Elder Brother''), was an Indian Tamil politician who served as the fo ...

, then the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, called the film better than the source play. The film was commercially successful, and Balachander won the

Legacy

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 ...

considered ''Edhir Neechal'' to be one of several films where Balachander established Nagesh, a comedian, as a "serious actor". It was remade in

as ''

'' (1970), and in

as ''

'' (1971). The characters Pattu Mami and Maadhu became iconic in Tamil cinema. Stage actor

Maadhu Balaji Maadhu Balaji, born as Balaji, is an Indian actor and comedian known for his roles in Tamil theatre plays and Tamil television serials. Balaji has acted in a number of stage plays and films. He is the brother of the late ace humorist and playwr ...

adopted the prefix "Maadhu" after the character of the same name.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{K. Balachander 1960s Tamil-language films 1968 comedy-drama films 1968 films Films about orphans Films directed by K. Balachander Films scored by V. Kumar Films with screenplays by K. Balachander Indian black-and-white films Indian comedy-drama films Indian films based on plays Tamil films remade in other languages