''Sandhya Raagam'' () is a 1989 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

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 ...

produced, written and directed by

Balu Mahendra Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran (19 May 1939 13 February 2014), commonly known as Balu Mahendra, was a Sri Lankan-born Indian cinematographer, director, screenwriter and film editor who worked predominantly in Tamil cinema. Widely regarded as ...

. It stars Chokkalinga Bagavathar, Oviyar Veera Santhanam and Archana in prominent roles. Shot in black-and-white, the film was photographed and edited by Mahendra himself. At the 37th National Film Awards, it won the Award for Best Film on Family Welfare (1990).

Plot

Chokkalingam, an octagenarian, leaves his village upon the death of his wife. He migrates to Madras, where his nephew Vasu, a lower-middle-class man lives along with his family. Chokkalingam becomes an additional burden for Vasu, who is not able to meet the demands of his own family.

Cast

Chokkalinga Bhagavathar Chokkalinga Bhagavathar, also known as K. A. Chokkalinga Bhagavathar or M. A. Chokkalinga Bhagavathar (1907 - 21 January 2002) Was an Indian stage and film artiste who acted mostly in Tamil language films. Though he began his film career in 1938, ...

as Chokkalingam * Archana as Thulasi * Oviyar Veera Santhanam as Vasu * Baby Rajalakshmi as Valli

Themes

The film's central theme revolves around old age.

Production

The film was made on a shoestring budget. Like his previous films, Mahendra wrote the screenplay, edited and photographed the film apart from handling the direction. Ramasamy was hired as the art director while V. S. Murthy and

A. S. Laxmi Narayanan A. S. Lakshmi Narayanan is an audiographer - audio engineering, Sound Designer, Production sound mixer and Sound editor (filmmaking), sound editor from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is based in Trinitydigi Labs, Trinity Digi Labs Studio. He won the Na ...

looked after the audiography. The film did not have any songs;

L. Vaidyanathan Lakshminarayana Vaidyanathan ( ta, லக்ஷ்மிநாராயண வைத்தியநாதன்; kn, ಎಲ್.ವೈದ್ಯನಾಥನ್; 9 April 1942 – 19 May 2007) was an acclaimed musicologist, music director and compo ...

composed the background score.

Reception

''Sandhya Raagam'' is yet to have a theatrical release, but was regularly aired on

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

. N. Krishnaswamy of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' said, "Balu Mahendra narrates the plight of his lead character with a tremendously observant eye. The celluloid breathes silence and beauty, and the humour and piquancy of the situations are striking". The film won the

National Film Award for Best Film on Family Welfare The National Film Award for Best Film on Family Welfare is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several ...

in 1990. A year later, it was screened at the

International Film Festival of India The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually, currently in the state of Goa, on the western coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common pla ...

along with ''Anjali'' (1990) as the only two Tamil films as part of Indian Panorama. In a 2007 interview to ''

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 ...

'', Mahendra said that ''Sandhya Raagam'' and ''

Veedu ''Veedu'' () is a 1988 Indian Tamil-language film directed by Balu Mahendra. Starring Archana as the central character, it depicts the difficulties faced by a middle-class family in building a house. Apart from directing, Balu Mahendra wrote th ...

'' were his two films "with the fewest compromises and mistakes." In 2011, Mahendra said that there was no existing negative of the film.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Balu Mahendra 1980s Tamil-language films 1989 drama films 1989 films Best Film on Family Welfare National Film Award winners Films directed by Balu Mahendra Films scored by L. Vaidyanathan Indian black-and-white films Indian drama films