''Irumbu Thirai'' () is a 1960 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 produced and directed by

S. S. Vasan Subramaniam Srinivasan (4 January 1904 – 26 August 1969), popularly known by his screen name S. S. Vasan, was an Indian journalist, writer, advertiser, film producer, director and business tycoon. He is the founder of the Tamil-language maga ...

. 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 ...

Vyjayanthimala Vyjayanthimala (born 13 August 1936) is a former Indian actress, dancer and parliamentarian. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two BFJA Awards and five Filmfare Awards. She made her screen debut at the age of thirteen wit ...

, K. A. Thangavelu and

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 ...

, with S. V. Ranga Rao,

Pandari Bai Pandari Bai (1930 – 29 January 2003) was an Indian actress who worked in South Indian cinema, mostly in Kannada cinema during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She is considered Kannada cinema's first successful heroine. She has acted as both heroi ...

and

Vasundhara Devi Vasundhara Devi (1917-1988) was an Indian actress, trained Bharathanatyam dancer and carnatic singer. The Indian actress Vyjayanthimala is her daughter. Filmography *(1941) '' Rishyasringar'' *(1943) '' Mangamma Sapatham'' *(1947) ''Udayanan ...

in supporting roles. A remake of Vasan's own

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 ...

film '' Paigham'' (1959), it revolves around the two brothers Manikam and Kondamuthu and their mill owner. The soundtrack was composed by S. V. Venkatraman and the lyrics were written by Kothamangalam Subbu,

Papanasam Sivan Paapanaasam Raamayya Sivan (26 September 1890 – 1 October 1973) was an Indian composer of Carnatic music and a singer. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1971. He was also a film score composer in Kannada cinema ...

and

Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram (13 April 1930 – 8 October 1959) also known as Pattukottaiyar was an Indian Tamil poet and lyricist. Considered to be the most popular Tamil lyricist of the 1950s, he is particularly remembered for the phil ...

. The editing was done by M. Umanath while the camera was handled by P. Elappa and N. C. Bala Krishna. The film was released on 14 January 1960 and ran more than 175 days in theatres.

Plot

The story revolves around the two brothers Manikam and Kondamuthu and their mill owner.

Cast

as Manickam *

as Manju *

as Malathi *

as Parvathi * S. V. Subbaiah as Saravanan * S. V. Ranga Rao as Mohanarangam *

as Manju's mother *

B. V. Radha Bengaluru Vijaya Radha (15 August 1948 – 10 September 2017), commonly known as B. V. Radha, was an Indian actress and film producer. She began her career in the 1964 Kannada film '' Navakoti Narayana''. She went on to play mostly supporti ...

as Malathi's mother * K. A. Thangavelu as Kondamuthu *

T. S. Durairaj T. S. Durairaj (31 December 1910 – 2 June 1986) was a Tamil film comedian, drama artist, producer and director in the early stages of the Tamil film industry (Kollywood). He received a Kalaimamani award from the Tamil Nadu Government in ...

as Nandu * Vanaja as Challi *

D. Balasubramaniam D. Balasubramaniam was an Indian actor whose career spanned from the late 1930s through the late 1950s. He was well known for his roles in mythological films and later switched to character roles. Filmography References Male actors in Tam ...

as Sett *

Parthiban R. Parthiban (born 14 October 1958) is an Indian actor and filmmaker who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has directed 15 films, produced 13 films and acted in more than 70 films. He started his career as assistant director for K. Bhagyaraj in ...

as Circle Inspector * Mukherji as Inspector * Seetalakshmi as Sheela * G. V. Sharma as Jeevan * Pushpamala as Kamala * Master Gopi as Bhola * Karupaiah as Kundan * S. R. Janaki as Sett's wife * Pattusami as Sleuth * Azhwar Kuppusami as Prosecutor * Kannan as Judge

Production

In 1959,

, the proprietor of

Gemini Studios Gemini Studios was an Indian film studio based in Madras, Tamil Nadu. It was launched when S. S. Vasan, a businessman of many ventures (including the ownership of Ananda Vikatan) bought Motion Picture Producers' Combines from Krishnaswamy Sub ...

, began working on a film built around capital-labour relations. The film, which was the Tamil remake of his own

film '' Paigham'', was untitled, and the creative team of Gemini could not come up with a convincing title. Vasan invited his employees to suggest a title for the under-production film, and he received an abundance of entries; one office boy submitted as many as 2500 entries. After examining one by one, Vasan chose the title ''Irumbu Thirai'' (). He also hosted a reception to honour the boy who suggested the title and rewarded him with some prize money. Besides producing, Vasan also directed the film. The female cast of ''Paigham'' –

and

– returned to star in ''Irumbu Thirai'', while

reprised the role originally played by

Dilip Kumar Mohammed Yusuf Khan (; 11 December 1922 – 7 July 2021), better known by his stage name Dilip Kumar, was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi cinema. Credited with pioneering method acting in cinema, he dominated the Indian movie scene from ...

. It was a "coup of sorts" for Vasan to cast Ganesan since the latter had earlier been rejected by the former for a role in '' Chandralekha'' (1948), an incident which created a permanent rift between them. Vyjayanthimala's mother

played her screen mother as well, having done the same in ''Paigham''. The final length of the film was 18396 feet.

Themes

''Irumbu Thirai'' focuses on capital-labour relations, and the conditions of working-class people.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by S. V. Venkatraman. The album had Kothamangalam Subbu,

and

as the lyricists. The song "Nenjil Kudiyirukkum" is set in the carnatic raga known as

Shanmukhapriya Shanmukhapriya is a ragam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 56th ''melakarta'' rāgam (parent scale) in the 72 ''melakarta'' rāgam system of Carnatic music. It is called Chāmaram in Muthuswami Diksh ...

, while the classical-themed "Enna Seidhaalum" is set in Kharaharapriya.

Release

''Irumbu Thirai'' was released on 14 January 1960. The film was a commercial success, running for over 175 days in theatres and thereby becoming silver jubilee film.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{Gemini Studios 1960 films 1960s Tamil-language films Films directed by S. S. Vasan Films scored by S. V. Venkatraman Films with screenplays by Kothamangalam Subbu Gemini Studios films Tamil remakes of Hindi films