''Mella Thirandhathu Kadhavu'' () is a 1986 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

romantic musical film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

, written and directed by R. Sundarrajan starring Mohan,

Radha Radha ( sa, राधा, ), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is worshiped as the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. She is the avatar of goddess Lakshmi and is also de ...

and

Amala Amala may refer to: People * Amala Akkineni, South Indian actress * Amala Chebolu, playback singer in the Telugu film industry, also known as Tollywood * Amala Paul (born 1991), South Indian actress * Amala Shankar (1919–2020), Indian dancer * ...

. It was released on 12 September 1986 and became a commercial success. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by

M. S. Viswanathan Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan (24 June 1928 – 14 July 2015), also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. He was popularly known as ''Mellisai Mannar''. He compose ...

and

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one of ...

together as per the credits; however the song tunes were composed by Viswanathan and orchestra arrangements were by Ilaiyaraaja.

Plot

Tulasi is a village girl. One day, she gets a letter from her cousin Subramani. She gets excited as they were close friends in childhood, but Subramani leaves with his family to the city. Subramani visits the village for his college thesis about folk songs. Tulasi is in love with Subramani, but is unsure if Subramani also loves her. Tulasi's father dies of a heart attack. When Subramani's father arranges a marriage for Subramani with Tulasi, he refuses. As a result, Tulasi's mother dies in frustration; Tulasi moves in to her uncle's house. Later, a flashback comes in which Subramani is in love with Noorjahan, a student in his college. Since Noorjahan used to come to the college wearing a veil, Subramani has not seen her face. On a day when they plan to meet, Noorjahan accidentally steps into quicksand and dies. Subramani feels dejected after seeing Noorjahan's death and decides not to marry; that is the reason for him to avoid marrying Tulasi. Tulasi decides to kill herself by stepping into the same quicksand where Noorjahan died as Subramani shows no interest in marrying her, but Subramani rushes in and saves Tulasi, having understood Tulasi's true love towards him.

Cast

* Mohan as Subramani *

as Tulasi *

as Noorjahan *

Visu Meenakshisundaram Ramasamy Viswanathan (1 July 1945 – 22 March 2020), best known by his stage name Visu, was an Indian writer, director, stage, film and television actor and talk-show host. Visu initially worked as an assistant to director K ...

as Manickam Gounder *

Kamala Kamesh Kamala Kamesh is an Indian actress in Tamil movies. She was one of the prominent supporting actress in late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in Tamil movies. She has acted nearly 480 movies in Tamil. She is often seen in all of Visu's movies. Biography S ...

as Meenakshi *

Senthil Senthil (born 23 March 1951) is an Indian comedy actor who works in Tamil cinema. He is famous for his comedian roles along with fellow actor Goundamani. The pair dominated the Tamil industry as comedians in the 1980s and 90s. * M. N. Nambiar as Noorjahan's father *

Charle Velmurugan Thangasamy Manohar (born 6 March 1960), professionally credited as Charle, is an Indian actor who works in Tamil cinema. He has acted in more than 800 Tamil films as a comedian and supporting actor. He was named after the English co ...

as Subramani's friend *

Gundu Kalyanam Gundu Kalyanam is an Indian actor and director in Tamil film industry and active and hardcore member at AIADMK party. He entered cine field in the year 1967 and his first movie was Mazhalai Pattalam in 1979. He also had his hands on direction ...

as Subramani's friend *

Anu Mohan Anu Mohan (born 24 August 1990) is an Indian actor who works in Malayalam films. Career He made his debut in the 2011 film, ''Orkut oru Ormakut''. He also played the antagonist in Roopesh Peethambaran's '' Theevram''. Anu Mohan is the young ...

as Cook *

G. K. Venkatesh Gurusala Krishnadas Venkatesh (21 September 1927 – 17 November 1993) was an Indian film score composer who primarily worked in Kannada cinema during the 1960s, 1970s and until the late-1980s. He also composed music for Telugu, Malayalam and Ta ...

as Subramani's father

Production

''Mella Thirandhathu Kadhavu'' was Mohan's first film with

AVM Productions AVM Productions is an Indian film production studio founded by A. V. Meiyappan. It is the final oldest survived studio in India. The filming studios are located in Vadapalani, Chennai. It has produced over 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, ...

. When AVM learned that

was by 1986, having lesser films in hand, they decided to make this film and have him as composer along with

. Viswanathan also agreed to compose the music alongside Ilaiyaraaja. Director R. Sundarrajan's usual cinematographer Raja Rajan and editor R. Bhaskaran reunited for this film too.

Music

Except "Kuzhaloodhum Kannanukku", all the songs were composed by M. S. Viswanathan and the arrangements, orchestration and background score were done by Ilaiyaraaja. The song "Vaa Vennila" is inspired from another Viswanathan composition "Vaan Meedhile" from the 1953 film ''

Chandirani ''Chandirani'' is a 1953 Indian swashbuckler film directed by Bhanumathi and produced by P. S. Ramakrishna Rao under the Bharani Studios banner. The film is shot simultaneously in Telugu, Tamil, and Hindi languages. It stars Bhanumathi, N. T. R ...

''. Ilaiyaraaja later used "Kuzhaloodum Kannanukku" 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 de ...

as "Baatein Hawa Hain Saare" for ''

Cheeni Kum ''Cheeni Kum'' (Hindi for ''Less Sugar'') is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by R. Balki and starring Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, Paresh Rawal, Zohra Sehgal and Swini Khara. ''Cheeni Kum'' premiered at the 2007 Cannes ...

'' (2007).

Release and reception

''Mella Thirandhathu Kadhavu'' was released on 12 September 1986. Jayamanmadhan 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 ...

'' criticised the film for feeling like two distinct stories divided by an interval. The film initially opened to average response but later picked up in coming weeks. When the film was released in Cinepriya Theatre,

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

, a distributor released the film by reversing the two-halves of the film which enjoyed positive reception. Later all over Tamil Nadu the film was filmed by changing the two-halves of the film which shows Amala story in first half and Radha story in second half. The response prompted the producers to apply re-censorship for the film.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{AVM Productions 1980s romantic musical films 1980s Tamil-language films 1986 films AVM Productions films Films directed by R. Sundarrajan Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Indian romantic musical films