''Nenjirukkum Varai'' () is a 1967 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 and produced by C. V. Sridhar. 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 ...

, Muthuraman, Gopalakrishnan, K. R. Vijaya and

Geetanjali __NOTOC__ ''Gitanjali'' ( bn, গীতাঞ্জলি, lit='Song offering') is a collection of poems by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore received the Nobel Prize for Literature, for the English translation, Gitanjali:''Song Offer ...

. It revolves around a man struggling with poverty, falling in love with his house owner's daughter. Sridhar initially decided to make ''Nenjirukkum Varai'' as revolving around the theme of war between India and Pakistan; the story was dropped after Sridhar learnt that

Lal Bahadur Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri (; 2 October 1904 – 11 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 2nd Prime Minister of India from 1964 to 1966 and 6th Home Minister of India from 1961 to 1963. He promoted the White Re ...

and Ayub Khan signed the

Tashkent Declaration The Tashkent Declaration was signed between India and Pakistan on 10 January 1966 to resolve the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Peace was achieved on 23 September through interventions by the Soviet Union and the United States, both of which push ...

. Retaining the same title, he developed a new story inspired by the

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

play ''Shudha'' (). The film was shot in black-and-white to emphasise the central theme of poverty, and none of the cast members applied make-up for their roles. ''Nenjirukkum Varai'' was released on 2 March 1967 and failed at the box office.

Plot

Raghu does odd jobs looking for a big break. He and his friend Peter rent a part of a house. The owner Natarajan's daughter is Raji. Raghu falls in love with her. Raghu meets Siva and likes his character. He lets him stay in his rented house. Raji and Siva fall in love. Raghu is devastated when he learns about it, but gets over it and decides to help them. Siva is away when Raji's father dies and Raghu takes care of the orphaned Raji, who is waiting for Siva to come back for her. Meanwhile, Siva hears people gossiping about Raghu and Raji and believes they are having an affair. When Raghu confronts him, he agrees to marry Raji if Raghu agrees to go away. Raghu agrees. How they reconcile forms the rest of the story.

Cast

as Raghu * Muthuraman as Siva * Gopalakrishnan as Peter * Raghavan as Natarajan *Mali as Shankar * Senthamarai as a rowdy * K. R. Vijaya as Raji *

as Sheela

Production

After the success of ''

Vennira Aadai ''Vennira Aadai'' () is a 1965 Indian Tamil-language romance film, co-written, produced and directed by Sridhar. The film stars Jayalalithaa, Nirmala, Shylashri, Srikanth and Moorthy, all in their Tamil cinema debut. It was released on 14 ...

'' (1965), Sridhar decided to make a film titled ''Nenjirukkum Varai'' revolving around the theme of war between India and Pakistan with

portraying an army colonel; however Sridhar decided to drop this film after reading an article about

and Ayub Khan signing the

. Sridhar then developed a story from the

play ''Shudha'', retaining the title ''Nenjirukkum Varai''. He did not, however, adapt the play verbatim, but took only the basic premise and created an otherwise original story. Ganesan and Muthuraman, who were part of the dropped film, were retained for the new film. The song "Nenjirukkum Engalukku" was shot at Beach Road, Madras. The last scene of the song was shot at the fountain near the

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

statue in the beach. None of the cast members applied make-up for their roles. Cinematography was handled by Balakrishnan, and editing by N. M. Shankar. Unlike Sridhar's earlier films such as ''

Kadhalikka Neramillai ''Kadhalikka Neramillai'' () is a 1964 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film produced and directed by C. V. Sridhar, who also conceived and co-wrote its script with Chitralaya Gopu. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Balaia ...

'' (1964) and ''Vennira Aadai'', ''Nenjirukkum Varai'' was shot in black-and-white to emphasise the central theme of poverty.

Soundtrack

Music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan. The song "Poo Mudippal" is set in

Simhendramadhyamam Simhendramadhyamam is a ragam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 57th ''melakarta'' rāgam in the 72 ''melakarta'' rāgam system of Carnatic music. It is called Sumadyuti in Muthuswami Dikshitar schoo ...

raga. "Muthukkalo Kangal" is set in

Madhyamavati Madhyamavati (madhyamāvati) is a rāga in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an ''audava'' rāga (or ''owdava'' rāga, meaning pentatonic scale), as it does not have all the seven musical notes (''swaras''). ...

and

Kanada Kanada may refer to: *Kanada (philosopher), the Hindu sage who founded the philosophy of Vaisheshika *Kanada (family of ragas), a group of ragas in Hindustani music *Kanada (surname) *Kanada Station, train station in Fukuoka, Japan *Kannada, one of ...

ragas.

Release and reception

''Nenjirukkum Varai'' was released on 2 March 1967, and distributed by Chithralaya Pictures themselves. ''

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 ...

'' said only half the film was excellent, and it was worth watching for Ganesan's performance. According to Sridhar, the film did not do well at box-office as audience could not digest Ganesan's character dying onscreen.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{C. V. Sridhar 1960s Tamil-language films 1967 films Films about poverty in India Films directed by C. V. Sridhar Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Indian black-and-white films