''Ooty Varai Uravu'' () 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

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film written and directed 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 ...

, K. R. Vijaya,

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 ...

and L. Vijayalakshmi. It was Vijaylakshmi's last film before her marriage. The film was remade in Telugu as ''

Sri Ranga Neethulu ''Sri Ranga Neethulu'' is a 1983 Indian Telugu-language comedy film, produced by Venkat Akkineni, Nagarjuna Akkineni under the Annapurna Studios banner and directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy. It stars Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Sridevi, with music ...

'' (1983) and in Hindi as ''

Aankh Micholi ''Aankh Micholi'' is a 1972 Bollywood drama film directed by Ramanna. It stars Rakesh Roshan, Bharathi in lead roles. It was a remake of Tamil movie Ooty Varai Uravu ''Ooty Varai Uravu'' () is a 1967 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy ...

''. The film released on 1 November 1967 and became a blockbuster, running for over 100 days at the box office.

Plot

Vedachalam, a wealthy businessman from

Ooty Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

, is married to Sundari and has a son, Ravi who is now taking care of the family business. Vedachalam is also secretly married to Sivakami and has a daughter Vijaya, by the second marriage. After Sivakami's death, his daughter decides to seek him out and sets out to Ooty to confront him with proofs of his second marriage. Meanwhile, Vijaya is the daughter of a wealthy zamindar. After her parents death, her uncle tries to marry her in order to acquire her wealth. Unwilling to marry him, she runs away from home. On the way to the railway station, her taxi runs over Vijaya. She tries to take her to the hospital, but the taxi driver refuses to help. Ravi who comes on the same road sees Vijaya and hospitalises her. Vijaya reaches the railway station and realises that she has Vijaya's luggage. She opens the trunk and finds evidence of Vedachalam and Sivakami's wedding. Needing a place to stay, she decides to go to Vedachalam and claim that she is his daughter. She meets Ravi on the train and she pretends to be Vedachalam's daughter. Ravi is disturbed to know that his father had a second wife, but does not reveal his identity to her. Vijaya meets Vedachalam and confronts him. He accepts the charges and introduces her to his wife and son as his friend's daughter. Vijaya also agrees to pretend to be his friend's daughter. Ravi initially accepts her claim, but later realises that she is not his real sister because his sister is left-handed while Vijaya is right-handed. She is forced to tell him the truth. Initially, Ravi decides to throw her out but later tells her to continue acting as his sister in order to make his father accept his real sister. Meanwhile, he falls in love with her and his mother accepts their relationship and want to get them married. Vedachalam is against this relationship since he believes that Vijaya is his daughter. Having lost the proof of her birth, the now-recovered Vijaya meets her boyfriend, Sundaram and seeks his help. Since his father is against love marriages, Sundaram puts her up temporarily in a hotel. Tirupathy is Vedachalam's family physician and he sees a "Missing" advertisement placed by Vijaya's uncle and tries to find out who she is. Meanwhile, Ravi meets his real sister in the hotel with Sundaram. Being Sundaram's friend, he tries to help the couple without revealing his relationship with Vijaya. At his suggestion, Sundaram takes Vijaya home claiming that he ran over her and that she has lost her memory as a result of the accident. Sundaram calls in Ravi who pretends to be a doctor and they convince Sundaram's father that if he does not help treat Vijaya, Sundaram will be jailed for the accident. So she stays in the house, and they give her a new name, Rathi. Since Ravi has to return to Ooty, Sundaram, his father and Rathi move there as well. There Ravi tells Sundaram's father that she is Vedachalam's daughter. He also advises him to get his son married to Vijaya on the quiet since her father is much wealthier than him and may not agree to the marriage. Vijaya wants Ravi to attend the wedding but he says that he is having a registered marriage with Vijaya on that day. Being anxious to get his son married to the wealthy Vijaya as soon as possible, Sundaram's father promises to conduct both weddings together at his expense. Meanwhile, there is a little bust up as Thirupathy's wife informs Vijaya's uncle about her whereabouts and he kidnaps her on the wedding day. However, Thirupathy, Ravi and Sundaram rescue her and return to the wedding venue. Vedachalam who comes there to attend Sundaram's wedding is shocked to see that Ravi is getting married there as well. Pushed to a corner, Vedachalam is forced to confess that he had a daughter by a second marriage and that Vijaya is this daughter. Ravi then steps forward and explains that she is not the daughter but Vijaya is. Sundari forgives Vedachalam, accepts Vijaya and both marriages take place.

Cast

as Ravi * K. R. Vijaya as Vijaya *

as Sundaram * L. Vijayalakshmi as Vijaya/Rathi/Bharathi * T. S. Balaiah as Vedhachalam * M. S. Sundari Bai as Sundari * V. K. Ramasamy as Nallasivam *

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 fil ...

as Dr. Thirupathy *

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 ...

as Alamel * Senthamarai as Veerasamy

Production

After acting in a few sentimental films directed by Sridhar, Ganesan asked him to prepare a lighter script for their next collaboration, which became ''Ooty Varai Uravu''. The film was initially titled ''Vayasu 16 Jakkiradhai'', then ''Vayasu 18 Jakkiradhai'' before settling on ''Ooty Varai Uravu''. The trope from Sridhar's earlier ''

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) of a man assuming a fake identity to help his friend win his love was reused here.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, 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 ...

Release and reception

''Ooty Varai Uravu'' was released on 1 November 1967, Diwali day. Despite facing competition from another Sivaji Ganesan film '' Iru Malargal'', released on the same day, it emerged a commercial success. ''

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 the film, despite its lack of originality, was worth watching for its humour. Malathi Rangarajan of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' noted, "The greatness of hitralayaGopu's scripts lies in the fact that even with a massive cast, he provided ample scope for every role", citing ''Ooty Varai Uravu'' as an example.

References

External links

* {{C. V. Sridhar 1960s Tamil-language films 1967 films Films directed by C. V. Sridhar Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films shot in Ooty Films with screenplays by Chitralaya Gopu Films with screenplays by C. V. Sridhar Indian romantic comedy films Tamil films remade in other languages