''Thirudathe'' () is a 1961 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 ...

directed by

P. Neelakantan Palaniyaandi Neelakantan (2 October 1916 – 3 September 1992) was a Tamil film director, who was active for nearly four decades. Life He was born at Villupuram, Tamil Nadu. He graduated to movies from stage play. His play '' Naam Iruvar'' ...

. A remake of the

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 ...

film '' Pocket Maar'' (1956), it stars

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

B. Saroja Devi Bangalore Saroja Devi (born 7 January 1938) is an Indian actress who has acted in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. She acted in around 200 films in over six decades. She is known by the epithets "''Abhinaya Saraswathi''" (Saraswathi of ac ...

and M. N. Nambiar. The film, produced by V. Arunachalam, had musical score by

S. M. Subbaiah Naidu Subburayulu Munuswami Subbaiah Naidu (a.k.a. SMS) (15 March 1914 – 26 May 1979) was an Indian composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He was one of the oldest music directors. He worked as an in-house music composer for Central Studios an ...

and was released on 23 March 1961. ''Thirudathe'' ran 100 days in theatres. The film was remade in

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 ...

as ''

Manassakshi ''Manassakshi'' is a 1968 Indian Kannada-language film, directed by S. K. A. Chari and produced by A. L. Srinivasan. The film stars Rajkumar, Bharathi, Narasimharaju and M. P. Shankar. The film has musical score by G. K. Venkatesh. The movie ...

'' (1968).

Plot

Balu is a small-time thief. Once he happens to steal money from a woman. After his death the family becomes Balu's responsibility, and his attitude toward stealing changes when his mother discovers her son was a thief and sacrifices her life. How the family is saved forms the rest of the story.

Cast

as Balu *

as Savithri * M. N. Nambiar as Ponnambalam / Duraisingam * K. A. Thangavelu as Jambu *

V. Nagayya V. Nagayya (born Vuppaladadiyam Nagayya Sarma; 28 March 1904 – 30 December 1978) also known as Chittoor Nagayya was an Indian actor, singer, music composer, and director known for his works in Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, and Telugu theatre. ...

as the orphanage owner * M. N. Rajam as Tharaa * A. Karunanidhi as Marikozhundhu * Kula Deivam V. R. Rajagopal *

M. Saroja M. Saroja was an Indian actress and comedian who worked in Tamil cinema. She was frequently paired alongside K. A. Thangavelu. Career Director K. Subramaniam introduced Saroja to the film industry, when she was 14 years old. She played the role ...

as Padma *K. Kannan as Singaram *

G. Sakunthala G. Sakunthala (19 August 1932 - 8 November 2004) was an Indian actress who worked predominantly in Tamil films and plays. As she was a prominent member of MGR's drama troupe, Sakuntha appeared as a 'regular' cast member in many of MGR's movies, ...

as Kaveri *S. Rama Rao as Money lender *M. K. Mustafa as Raju *Lakshmiprabha

Production

The film, a remake of the

film '' Pocket Maar'' (1956), was directed by P. Neelakandan and V. Arunachalam under A. L. S. Productions, with story written by Chinna Annamalai and dialogues written 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 ...

and Ma. Lakshmanan. Lakshmanan came up with two titles for the film: ''Thirudathe'' () and ''Nalladhukku Kaalamillai'' (), recommending the latter.

objected, believing that audiences would think the title would represent his own opinion, and that the film actually exhorts people not to do wrong. Hence, the former title was finalised.

was cast as the lead actress at Ramachandran's insistence.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

. Lyrics by

Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram (13 April 1930 – 8 October 1959) also known as Pattukottaiyar was an Indian Tamil poet and lyricist. Considered to be the most popular Tamil lyricist of the 1950s, he is particularly remembered for the philo ...

, Ku. Sa. Krishnamurthy,

Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam Kurichchi Marimuthu Balasubramaniam better known as Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam (1920-1994) was an Indian writer and poet who wrote mainly in the Tamil language. Early life Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam born on 13 May 1920 at Velukkudi near Mannargudi in ...

, M. K. Athmanathan, Muthukoothan and Ra. Pazhanisami. The song "Ennaruge Nee Irundhal" was composed by

Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy were an Indian music composing duo composed of M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy. They worked together on over 100 films, from 1952's '' Panam'' to 1965's '' Aayirathil Oruvan''. After their split, Ramamoorthy wo ...

. It was recorded for an earlier film produced by A. L. S. Productions, but was not used due to that film's length. With the permission of S. M. Subbaiah Naidu, producer A. L. Srinivasan used that song in this film. However, credit was not given to Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy in the title.

Release

''Thirudathe'' was released on 23 March 1961. The film was a commercial success, running for 100 days in theatre. According to

Ashish Rajadhyaksha Ashish Vithal Rajadhyaksha (born 12 March 1957) is an Indian film scholar, art curator and cultural theorist. He was a Senior Fellow at the Bangalore-based Centre for the Study of Culture and Society. Early life Ashish Vithal Rajadhyaksha was ...

and

Paul Willemen Paul Willemen (17 August 1944 – 13 May 2012) was a Belgian-born British professor, author and essayist. According to the British Film Institute, he was regarded as "a pioneering figure in the revolution in thinking about the cinema that be ...

in the book ''Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema'', for Ramachandran this marked a beginning of transition to roles that had "a contemporary setting", as opposed to period settings. Historian M. S. S. Pandian considers the film "inaugurated the MGR persona of a subaltern in the service of society", a trend that continued through the 1970s.

In popular culture

In ''

Andha 7 Naatkal ''Andha 7 Naatkal'' ( ) is a 1981 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by K. Bhagyaraj. The film stars him, Rajesh and Ambika, with Kallapetti Singaram and Master Haja Sheriff in supporting roles. It revolves around a ...

'' (1981), Gopi (

Master Haja Sheriff ''Master'' Haja Sheriff (born Khaja Sheriff) is an Indian actor, who primarily worked in Tamil cinema (Kollywood). He has worked in popular movies like Uthiripookkal, Suvarilladha Chiththirangal, Andha 7 Naatkal. He debuted in the 1979 film Pu ...

) sells stolen goods on the street; when police seize the goods, the poster on which the items were kept is revealed to be that of ''Thirudathe''.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{P. Neelakantan 1960s Tamil-language films 1961 drama films 1961 films Films directed by P. Neelakantan Indian drama films Tamil films remade in other languages Tamil remakes of Hindi films