''Porkaalam'' ( ta, பொற்காலம் ) is a 1997 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, nati ...

-language

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film written and directed by Cheran. The film has Murali,

Meena Meena () is a sub-group of Bhils. They speak Meena language. They started adopting the Brahmin worship system. Its name is also transliterated as ''Meenanda'' or ''Mina''. Historians claim that they belong to the Matsya tribe. They got the sta ...

Sanghavi Sanghavi (born Kavya Ramesh) is an Indian actress and a model known for her work predominantly in Telugu and Tamil language films. She was one of the leading actresses in South Indian cinema for a decade from 1993 to 2004. In her career spannin ...

, Rajeshwari and

Vadivelu Kumaravadivel Natarajan (born 12 September 1960), known professionally as Vadivelu, is an Indian actor, comedian and playback singer, having acted in supporting and lead roles in Tamil cinema. He gained widespread acclaim in Kollywood in the 2 ...

in key roles. It was later remade in

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 ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

and

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 ...

. ''Porkaalam'' was one among 1997 Deepavali releases and became a huge success.

Plot

The film deals with the social stigma associated with a disabled girl in a rural milieu. Manikkam ( Murali) is a potter by profession. He has a sister, who is born dumb. Murali has to struggle a lot as the handicraft industry is a dying industry and a good amount of money is taken away by his father (

Manivannan S. Manivannan Rajagopal (31 July 1953 – 15 June 2013), better known by his mononym Manivannan, was an Indian film director, actor and activist who worked mainly in Tamil cinema and also worked in a few Telugu & Malayalam films. In a care ...

), who is a drunkard and a gambler. But, he tries to hide his sorrows by having fun with his sister and servant (

), who is also his trusted friend. He is in love with his neighbour Maragatham (

), a weaver. He wants to get his sister married to a noble man. But many reject her as she is dumb. Finally, one man agrees to marry his sister but on condition that Manikkam must offer

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment b ...

. Manikkam then sells many things dearer to him to get money for the dowry. But, that money is taken away by his father and the marriage falls through. Yet (

) offers to marry his sister without asking dowry and Murali goes home along with

to convey this happy news to his sister. But it was too late as the sister commits suicide. Manikkam as a penance decides to marry a disabled girl.

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album and background score were composed by

Deva Deva may refer to: Entertainment * ''Deva'' (1989 film), a 1989 Kannada film * ''Deva'' (1995 film), a 1995 Tamil film * ''Deva'' (2002 film), a 2002 Bengali film * Deva (2007 Telugu film) * ''Deva'' (2017 film), a 2017 Marathi film * Deva ...

. The lyrics were penned by

Vairamuthu Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he first ...

. Track list

Release

Critical reception

The movie generally received positive reviews. Krishna Sivarampuram said, "... very few have the ability to make the viewers think... And only two or three have the rare ability to combine a good comedy line with a tear-jerker...Cheran seems to have revived this genre of film making". '' Arunachalam'' movie 100th day function 'superstar'

Rajinikanth Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 160 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannad ...

praised well this movie and he appreciated gifted a gold chain to director Cheran.''Kalki'' review
/ref>

Remakes

Awards

* Cheran won

Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Director The Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Director is given by the state government as part of its annual Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Tamil (Kollywood) films. List of winners ;Key See also * Cinema of India References General * Specif ...

* Meena won

Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress The Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress is given by the state government as part of its annual Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Tamil (Kollywood) films. The awards were first given in 1967 and discontinued after 1970. The awards were giv ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Porkaalam 1997 films Films directed by Cheran Tamil films remade in other languages 1990s Tamil-language films Films about disability in India Films scored by Deva (composer)