''Nadhi Karaiyinile'' () is a 2003

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

, written and directed by

Ponvannan Ponvannan (born Shanmugam; 23 September 1963) is an Indian actor and director who has worked in Tamil cinema and television. After beginning his career as an artist (painter), Ponvannan apprenticed as a director and writer under Bharathiraja. H ...

. The film, which had an initial release at international film festivals with the title ''Jameela'', stars

Suvalakshmi Suvaluxmi (born 19 August 1977) is a former Indian actress who predominantly appeared in Tamil films. She also appeared in Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada films. Career As a child, Suvaluxmi was passionate about Indian classical and folk d ...

Rajan P. Dev Rajan P. Dev (20 May 1951 – 29 July 2009) was an Indian film and stage actor. He was born in Cherthala in the Alappuzha district of the former state Thiru-Kochi (present day Kerala). He had acted in over 500 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu ...

and Ramji. The music for the film was composed by

Sirpy Narayanan, known by his stage name Sirpy ( ta, சிற்பி; born 25 May 1962), is an Indian film score and soundtrack composer. He has predominantly scored music for Tamil films apart from working in Telugu and Malayalam films. He has als ...

and the film opened to positive reviews in November 2003, after several delays.

Cast

as Jameela *

as Mohammed Khan * Ramji as Nazeer *

Cochin Haneefa Muhammed Haneefa (22 April 1951 – 2 February 2010), better known by his stage name Cochin Haneefa, was an Indian actor, film director, and screenwriter. He started his career in the 1970s mainly portraying villainous roles, before going on to ...

Ajay Rathnam Ajay Rathnam is an Indian actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil language, Tamil films and serials. He is known for his supporting and negative roles and has acted in over 300 movies. Standing at 6 ft 4 in (193 cm), Rathnam is one of the t ...

Shanti Williams Shanthi Williams is an Indian film and television actress who has played supporting roles in various Tamil and Malayalam movies and serials. Career Williams came into the industry as a child artist at the age of 12. Williams started her acting ...

* R. C. Sakthi

Production

Ponvannan's second directorial venture, ''Jameela'' (2003), featuring

and Ramji, told the story of an ego clash between two men which ruins the life of an obedient woman. Ponvannan had been impressed with writer

Sara Aboobacker Sara Aboobacker ( kn, ಸಾರಾ ಅಬೂಬಕ್ಕರ್; 30 June 1936 – 10 January 2023) was an Indian Kannada writer of novels and short stories, and a translator. Early life and education Sara was born in Kasaragod, Kerala on 30 J ...

's novel and bought the script rights, before submitting his screenplay to

National Film Development Corporation of India The National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) based in Mumbai is the central agency established in 1975, to encourage high quality Indian cinema. It functions in areas of film financing, production and distribution and under Ministr ...

to finance the film. The agency agreed and ''Jameela'' was shot for 17 days in

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

at a shoestring budget of ₹35 lakh (worth ₹2.4 crore in 2021 prices).

Release

The film won positive reviews in screenings and was well received by critics, prompting it to be selected to be shown in the non-competitive category at the

2002 Shanghai International Film Festival The 2002 Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) was the 6th SIFF to be held and the second festival to be held on an annual basis. The festival was held between June 8 and June 16, 2002. Jury * President: Li Quankuan (China) - director * Fran ...

. Despite being censored in 2001, the film only had a theatrical release across India in November 2003 under the title ''Nadhi Karayinile'', after the distributor Viswas Sundar did not want the film to be classified as a "Muslim film". The film did not perform well at the box office, but went on to win three State film awards including the recognition as Best Film portraying Women in Good Light. The Hindu described Ponvannan's direction as an "absorbing presentation", adding "his sensitivity comes to the fore throughout the film". This was Suvalakshmi's last film she had worked before she left the film industry.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book, last=Dhananjayan , first=G., author-link=G. Dhananjayan, title=Pride of Tamil Cinema: 1931 to 2013, date=2014, publisher=Blue Ocean Publishers, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e07vBwAAQBAJ 2003 films 2000s Tamil-language films Films about women in India Indian feminist films Indian drama films Films about domestic violence 2003 drama films Films based on Indian novels Films shot in Puducherry