''Maanavan'' () is a 1970

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 directed by M. A. Thirumugam and produced by

Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Thevar "''Eugen Sandow, Sandow''" Marudur Marudachalamurthy Ayyavoo Chinnappa Thevar (28 June 1915 – 8 September 1978) was a producer of Tamil cinema, Tamil films in the mid-1950s through the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for his films featuring a ...

under Dhandayudhapani Films. The script were written by Balamurugan. The film starring

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 Muthuraman with

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, Telug ...

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...

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 film ...

and

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 ...

in supporting roles.

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...

appears only for a dance sequence along with

Kutty Padmini Kutty Padmini is an Indian actress who mainly works in Tamil cinema. She was a child star in her debut movie ''Ambala Anjulam'' (1959). She has also acted in Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi movies. She made her debut in Tamil cinema at t ...

. This was Haasan's first adult role after a seven-year hiatus. The film also marks the debut of many character actors and comedians like Pandu,

Kathadi Ramamurthy Sundaresan Ramamurthy (born February 2, 1938) better known as Kathadi Ramamurthy, is an Indian actor, director, writer and dubbing artiste. He is primarily known for his roles as a comedian in Tamil film, theatre and television. Early life ...

among others.

Plot

Kathiresan is the son of Parvathi, a maid at the Panchayat president's (O.A.K.Thevar) house and her husband (S.A.Ashokan) is a cattle herder. In a fight about gambling debts, his father kills a man and runs away with the police on his tail. He is later found and sent to jail for life imprisonment. Ravi, the son of Panchayat president of Salaiyur village in Chengapattu District, is Kathiresan's classmate. Ravi bullies Kathiresan and is not good in studies, while Kathiresan excels in it. Being jealous of this, the Panchayat president wants Kathiresan to quite studies and be a cattle herder. But Parvathi is intent on Kathiresan being educated and relocates to Madras. She becomes a maid in a school and a worker in a rice mill. With great difficulty Kathiresan studies well and get admitted to a college. To help pay his fees, he works as a Cycle Rickshaw puller on the side. Ravi, who grew up to be a playboy, is enrolled in the same college as Kathiresan. Kathiresan and Shanthi, who is the college-going daughter of Judge Satyamurthy, fall in love with each other. He passes his M.A in distinction and gets a job as a lecturer in the same college while preparing for his IAS entrance exams, which Ravi dislikes. Ravi finally gets dismissed from college due to his bad behavior. In revenge, he kills a student, Mani, and frames it on Kathiresan. Ravi is ultimately found responsible for the murder and sent to the same jail as Kathiresan's father for life imprisonment. Kathiresan becomes an IAS officer and ends up coming to the same jail for inspection. Kathiresan's father is released from jail and learns that his son is now an IAS officer. Ravi's father tries to assassinate Kathiresan with a bomb at a village function but is saved by Kathiresan. They are all reunited. The comedy track is provided by Ramu (a rickshaw puller turned car driver) and his lover.

Cast

as Kathiresan *

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 ...

as Ravi *

as Shanthi *

as Ramu *

S.A. Ashokan S. A. Ashokan, born as Antony and often spelled Asokan, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema and theatre. He was popular mainly for playing negative roles but was also a successful character actor. Early life Ashokan was bo ...

as Kathiresan's father *

Sowkar 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 langua ...

as Parvathy *

Major Sundararajan 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 Judge Satyamurthy *

V. S. Raghavan V S Raghavan (18 February 1925 – 24 January 2015) was an Indian actor, who has acted both in Tamil films as well as television. He started his career as a dramatist and stage actor and went on to act as a character actor in films, starting ...

as College principal *

O. A. K. Thevar O. A. K. Thevar (1924–1973) was an Indian actor. He acted in over 200 films and stage plays. He is known for his antagonistic roles. In 1955 he acted his debut movie ''Maman Magal''. His notable movie are Mahadhevi, Thaikkupin Tharam, Utha ...

as Ravi's father / Panchayat president *

as Ramu's wife *

Master Prabhakar Master Prabhakar, (born Prabhakar vaishyan) is an Indian actor, who primarily worked in Tamil cinema, and few Telugu films and acted in about 60 programmes for Doordarshan, between 1977 and 1987 and as a technician he has worked for few Bolly ...

as Young ravi *

Senthamarai Senthamarai may refer to: * Senthamarai (actor) Senthamarai was an Indian actor who acted in Tamil cinema and theatre. Career Senthamarai was born on 13 April 1935 at Kancheepuram. His family included his father Thiruvenkadam, his mother Vedamm ...

as School teacher *

Thengai Srinivasan Thengai Srinivasan (21 October 1937 – 9 November 1987) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil language, Tamil-language films and plays from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was given the prefix ''Thengai'' (coconut) after his role as a coco ...

as Mayandi *

Pandu In the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'', Pandu ( sa, पाण्डु, Pāṇḍu, pale) was a king of the Kuru Kingdom. He was the foster-father of the five Pandava brothers, who were the boons bestowed upon his wife Kunti by a number of deities ...

as Dimki *

as Ravi's friend * T. K. S. Natarajan as Bus passenger *

Vellai Subbaiah Vellai Subbaiah was an Indian actor who had appeared in more than 500 films and 1000 stage plays. He featured mostly in comedy roles and also minor roles. He is well known for his dialogue, "Thirumba Thirumba pesura nee..." in the movie Nesam ...

as Student *

Jayakumari Jayakumari is an Indian actress in South Indian films. She was born in 1952 and was a prominent lead actress during the 1960s and 1970s in Tamil and Malayalam films. She was noted for her glamorous roles. She has acted around 50 Malayalam movies ...

*Master Krishnakumar as Young kathiresan *Radhabhai ;Guest appearances in the song "Visiladichan Kunjugala" *

as Student *

as Student

Soundtrack

Music was by

Shankar–Ganesh Shankar–Ganesh is an Indian music director duo who has worked on Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada movies for around 50 years. Career They started as assistants to Tamil music composers M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy in 1964 a ...

and lyrics were written by Vaali, Tirchy Thyagarajan and Mariappa.

Release and reception

''Maanavan'' was released on 10 July 1970. ''

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 betw ...

'' called it "obviously an attempt to educate the students to be on their best behaviour". The reviewer praised the performances of the actors, saying Sowkar Janaki "stands out amongst the cast" while Muthuraman "puts in a breezy performance".

References

External links

* {{Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Thevar 1970 films 1970s Tamil-language films Films about educators Films about the education system in India Films directed by M. A. Thirumugam Films scored by Shankar–Ganesh Films set in Chennai Films set in schools Indian black-and-white films Indian coming-of-age films Indian drama films Indian satirical films