Manathil Uruthi Vendum

''Manathil Urudhi Vendum'' () is a 1987 Indian Tamil-language drama film written and directed by K. Balachander. The film stars Suhasini, with Sridhar and Chandrakanth in supporting roles. It was released on 21 October 1987.

Plot

Nandini, a nurse, is the sole breadwinner of her family with six siblings where she has an elder sister and five younger siblings. Nandhini is a dedicated and caring nurse whom everyone is fond of. She works in a nursing home and on her way back she shares auto with Sundari and later they become friends and they share the house on the 50-50 sharing concept. In the hospital she saves a suicide attempting lady and brings her home and later knows she is fond of movies. A thief tries to steal something from their house and get caught red-handed and she gives a lecture of earning and self-worth and gives him some money and ask him to work hard. She managed her house through letter communication. One day her siblings Ramesh and Vivek go to Chennai to give a visit to her later learns that she divorced her husband and asks them not to say anything to parents and other siblings. A reporter writes an article which portrays nurses in bad light and Nandhini along with nurses confront him and Nandhini and reporter have a heated argument and leave his house. The person to whom Nandhini gave money and asked to earn and he becomes successful step by step and meet Nandhini accidentally at every stage. Nandhini thinks of marrying her sibling sister to him but much to her dismay her sister elopes with a former tenant of their home. Her brothers Ramesh and another sibling have a fight which is regarding a political leader whom Ramesh is fond of and think as his God and during the fight the other sibling gets hurt which infuriates Nandhini and lashes out at Ramesh and ask him to earn on his own which makes him responsible. Ramesh manages to pay his exam fees by selling old news paper. In the twist of events, Nandhini's divorce comes to light and her father dies of heart attack. It is also revealed that Sundari was serving as a mistress to a rich man as she is also the sole breadwinner of her family. Nandhini stands as a pillar of support for Sundari. Nandhini matches her maid with the former thief and they are seen to be happily accepting the proposal. Meanwhile, the politician who was regarded as God by Ramesh goes to jail, he commits suicide by setting himself on fire. Even then Nandhini doesn't lose hope and continues her job and supports the family. The writer becomes fond of Nandhini and wishes to marry her. After some struggle, love blossoms between the two and Nandhini meets Surya's parents. Sundari's master dies suddenly and she is deprived of job. She then finds a similar job for high-profile celebrity at Delhi and Nandhini continues to morally support her. Meanwhile, Nandhini's ex-husband suffers from kidney failure and looks like Nandhini is his only match. She decides to donate her kidney to him in order to let him live for his now wife and child. This ruptures Nandhini's relationship with writer Surya as he accuses her of still having feelings for her ex-husband. After the kidney transplant is done, Dilip offers Nandhini a blank check with which she fills the earlier amount that she loaned from Dilip's father to help her sister to free her husband from jail. She declares herself debt free. Surya, seeing her genuine nature reconciles with her and she is happy. It is found that Nandhini's boss Dr. Arthanari has committed himself 24/7 for doctor service and lied about being married for past 17 years. This inspires Nandhini to indulge herself completely into nursing service 24/7. She comes to know through Dr. Arthanati that Surya was more worried about their sexual life after her kidney donation and doesn't appreciate her act of kindness like she earlier thought. She meets Surya and expresses her disinterest in marrying him and says she will always be a Nurse, serving the society. The film ends with Nandhini resuming her job and still being the breadwinner of the family.

Cast

* Suhasini as Nandhini
* Sridhar as Suriya
* Chandrakanth
* Aravind as Ramesh
* Vivek as Vivek
* Ravikanth
* Lalitha Kumari as Vasu
* Yamuna
* K. S. Jayalakshmi
* Chithra
* Krishnan as Gothandam
* Vasanth as Reporter (guest appearance)
* Charle as Patient (guest appearance)
* S. P. Balasubrahmanyam as Dr. Arthanari

Rajinikanth, Vijayakanth and Sathyaraj appear in the song "Vangaala Kadale".

Production

''Manathil Urudhi Vendum'' is K. Balachander's third film where "the daughter has to make sacrifices and take care of her family", following ''Arangetram'' (1973) and '' Aval Oru Thodar Kathai'' (1974). While assisting with the script for the film in 1987, Balachander offered Vivek an acting role in the film, which he decided to pursue thus made his acting debut in the film. Vivek recalling his experience on his first day of shooting: "I was asked to come running down the stairs. I did the shot to his satisfaction. But in doing so I hurt my toes. But I did not want to show it to him. But after a few minutes the blood was oozing from the wound. KB sir saw it and asked me immediately to attend to it". This was the acting debut of S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. Balachander initially recommended Ramesh Aravind to leave the film since his role was not substantial, and work on a venture with K. Bhagyaraj instead, to mark his debut in a leading role. Bhagyaraj's proposed film was later shelved, and Aravind returned to ''Manathil Uruthi Vendum''. Vasanth worked as an assistant director.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with the lyrics written by Vaali. For the dubbed Telugu version ''Sister Nandini'', all lyrics were written by Rajasri.

Release and reception

''Manathil Urudhi Vendum'' was released on 21 October 1987, and ''Sister Nandini'' on 31 March 1988. ''The Indian Express'' wrote, "''Manadhil Urudhi Vendum'' comes over like a badly written stage play. It is a hodgepodge of elements from several earlier films made by K. Balachander". Jayamanmadhan of ''Kalki'', however, reviewed the film more positively, comparing it favourably to Balachander's earlier films.

References

External links

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{{Kavithalaya Productions

1980s Tamil-language films
1987 films
Films directed by K. Balachander
Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja
Films with screenplays by K. Balachander
Indian drama films
Indian feminist films
Medical-themed films