''Iravum Pagalum'' () is a 1965 Indian Tamil-language

crime thriller film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by Joseph Thaliath Jr. The film stars then newcomers

Jaishankar Jaishankar (12 July 1938 – 3 June 2000) was an Indian actor known for his work in Tamil cinema. He was a very popular lead actor in the 1960s and 70s. He was credited onscreen with title of ''Makkal Kalaingnar'' (people's artiste) or '' ...

and C. Vasantha, while S. A. Ashokan,

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 ...

Ganthimathi Ganthimathi (30 August 1940 – 9 September 2011) was a Tamil stage and film actress. She acted in over 500 films. Early life Kanthimathi was born in Manamadurai in the then Ramanathapuram district of India. She started acting in dramas and ...

and

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 ...

play supporting roles. A college student's house is robbed, and his mother prevents him from reporting it to the police. Suspicious, he sets out to unravel the mystery behind his mother's silence. The film was released on 14 January 1965 and was a hit.

Plot

Rajasekar is a wealthy college student who lives with his widowed mother Maragadhavalli and leads an untroubled life; he is in love with Parimala, his classmate. One night, Rajasekar and Maragadhavalli are robbed of their wealth by a gang; as Maragadhavalli prevents Rajasekar from reporting this incident to the police, he himself sets out to unravel the mystery behind his mother's silence.

Cast

;Male cast *

as Rajasekar * Ashokan as Govindan * Ramdas as the calvary leader *

as Balu * Baskar as Gopal * Viswanthan as the office manager ;Male support cast *

Ennathe Kannaiah Ennathe Kannaiah (1925 - 7 August 2012) was a comedian who appeared in Tamil-language films. In the Ravichandran-Jayalalita starrer Naan, as he spoke his dialogues, he frequently used the word Ennathe and this became his nickname. Decades later ...

, Muthukoorthan, Prabhakar,
Vasanthan, P. K. S. Mani, and Master Sridar. ;Female cast * C. Vasantha as Parimala *

as Chandra *

as Maragadhavalli * Mallika as Kamala's mother * Baby Bhavani as Kamala * Ramamani Bai as the maid ;Dance * Sakunthala

Production

Joseph Thaliath Jr. set up a production company named "Citadel Films", the name being inspired by the A. J. Cronin novel ''

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one of six senior military colleges in the United States. ...

''. He wanted to adapt that novel into a Tamil film, but Citadel Films co-founder F. Nagoor dissuaded him from doing so as he felt the subject was "risky". He instead suggested a crime thriller, which became ''Iravum Pagalum''. Due to the film's low budget, Joseph chose to cast newcomers. Joseph cast theatre actor Subramaniam Shankar in the lead role, christening him

and marking the actor's cinematic acting debut. C. Vasantha was cast as the female lead, also making her cinematic acting debut. Thengai Srinivasan was also cast in what would have been his film debut, but was removed after distributors were not supportive of him.

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 ...

, in his film debut, appeared uncredited. The film was produced by Joseph Thomas under the Citadel banner, photographed by B. B. Lucas, and edited by P. Radhakrishnan and M. Vellaisaamy. The final length of the film was .

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was composed by T. R. Pappa. The lyrics were written by

Alangudi Somu Alangudi Somu (12 December 1932 − 6 June 1997) was an Indian Tamil film lyricist who wrote many popular songs in several films. He was active in the field from 1960 till late 1990s. About Alangudi Somu born on 12 December 1932 in Alangudi vil ...

Release and reception

''Iravum Pagalum'' was released on 14 January 1965, Pongal day. Despite facing competition from other Pongal releases ''

Enga Veettu Pillai ''Enga Veettu Pillai'' () is a 1965 Indian Tamil-language masala film written by Sakthi T. K. Krishnasamy and directed by Chanakya. A remake of his own 1964 Telugu film ''Ramudu Bheemudu'', it stars M. G. Ramachandran and B. Saroja Devi, wi ...

'' and ''

Pazhani Palani ( or ''Palni'' as in British records, is a town and a taluk headquarters in Dindigul district of the western part of Tamil Nadu state in India. It is located about south-east of Coimbatore and north-west of Madurai, from Kodaikanal ...

'', the film became a commercial success. ''

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 ...

'' said on 6 February 1965, "''Iravum Pagalum'', despite a muddled script, is above the level of the run-of-the-mill suspense thrillers and has obvious box office potential."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=11700268 1960s crime thriller films 1960s Tamil-language films 1965 films Films directed by Joseph Thaliath Jr. Films scored by T. R. Pappa Indian crime thriller films