''Manidhanum Dheivamagalam'' () is a 1975 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, directed by P. Madhavan. 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 ...

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 ...

, Ushanandini, Shubha and Sukumari. It was released on 11 January 1975. The film was a remake of the 1969

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 ...

film '' Buddhimantudu''.

Plot

Kumaraiya is a temple priest in a village, living with his wife Valli and younger brother, Sundaram. Kumaraiya is a believer of god, he is very much respected by villagers and believes that he encounters mystic experiences whenever he sees Sundaram is a non-believer. Troubles will plague him after he finds out that Sundaram has not only been creating problems for Dharmalingam the village head, but has also fallen in love and wants to marry Vijaya, the daughter of Dharmalingam's sister. Taking this as an advantage, Dharmalingam separates Kumaraiya and Sundaram and an old ruined house of their grandfather is given to Sundaram as his share. Sundaram modifies and establishes a school in it. Before Kumaraiya could even attempt to resolve these issues, the keys of the temple are taken away from him by Dharmalingham, and he can no longer pray nor converse with Lord. Things come to a boil after he is told that Sundaram has forcibly taken the keys, and Dharmalingam has stolen all the temple's jewellery, when they are searching for it a treasure of Kumaraiya and Sundaram's ancestors is found. Kumaraiya says he will use the treasure for development and Sundaram argues that it is the school which will lead to progress and not the temples. The rest of the story is about who wins the bet.

Cast

as Kumaraiya and Sundaram (dual role) *

as Valli * Ushanandini as Vijaya * V. K. Ramasamy as Kanakku Pillai * M. R. R. Vasu as Dharmalingam * Sukumari as Kaveri * Sasikumar as Kannan * Shubha as Kalyani * C. K. Saraswathi as Sundari * M. Bhanumathi as Annakili *

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 ...

as Gopal *Veeraraghavan as Officer * Samikannu as Teacher *I.S.R as Marriage Broker

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan (2 March 1935 – 8 September 2008) was an Indian classical music violinist and music composer. Early life Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan was born on 2 March 1935 and was trained by his father, Ramaswamy Sastry. He was the brother ...

, with lyrics by

Kannadasan Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was an Indian philosopher, poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. Freq ...

Reception

Kanthan of ''

Kalki Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exist ...

'' appreciated the film for the cast performances and cinematography, but criticised the story.

References

External links

* {{P. Madhavan 1970s Tamil-language films 1975 drama films 1975 films Films directed by P. Madhavan Films scored by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan Indian drama films Tamil remakes of Telugu films