''Neenga Nalla Irukkanum'' () is a 1992 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-language film written and directed by

Visu Meenakshisundaram Ramasamy Viswanathan (1 July 1945 – 22 March 2020), best known by his stage name Visu, was an Indian screenwriter, film director, stage, film and television actor and talk-show host. Visu initially worked as an assistant to ...

. It stars

Nizhalgal Ravi Ravichandran Samanna (born 16 April 1956), known professionally as Nizhalgal Ravi, is an Indian film, television and voice actor who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has also performed in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films and television series. ...

and

Bhanupriya Bhanupriya (born Manga Bhanu; 15 January 1967) is an Indian actress and dancer. In a four decade old career, she has appeared in 155 feature films, predominantly in Telugu cinema, Telugu and Tamil cinema, Tamil, and a few in Malayalam cinema, M ...

in the lead with Visu, Chandrasekhar and Manorama forming the supporting cast. Produced by G. Venkateswaran under his banner

GV Films GV Films is an Indian film production and distribution company headed by Ishari K. Ganesh. The firm had been a leading production studio in the Tamil film industry in the 1990s and had been founded by G. Venkateswaran as Sujatha Films in 1986 ...

, the film won the award for Best Film on Other Social Issues at the

40th National Film Awards The 40th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1992. Ceremony took place in ...

. The film was the first to be sponsored by the

Tamil Nadu Government The Government of Tamil Nadu () is the administrative body responsible for the governance of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the capital of the state and houses the state executive, legislature and head of judiciary. Under the Const ...

and had

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016), popularly known as Amma, was an Indian actress, politician, and philanthropist who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years between 1991 and 2016. She ...

in a pivotal role as a

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

(her real-life political profession at the time) in a brief appearance; making her unofficial comeback to films after a decade.

Plot

Anjalai, a village woman marries a drunkard Manickam, with the hope of changing his behaviour post marriage. But Manickam continues drinking and goes to a level where he steals Anjalai's jewelry before losing his job. During this time, his mother dies in a fire accident after which he vows not to drink any more. Meanwhile, Manickam falls sick after damaging his liver as a result of excessive drinking. To safeguard his life, Anjalai collects money by begging in the streets and donation from the chief minister of the state. Manickam is sent to the United States for treatment. When the couple returns to India after Manickam gets cured, he starts drinking again and gets addicted to it. Unable to tolerate his change in behaviour, Anjalai ends her life. This forces all the women in the village to jointly launch a protest against alcohol.

Cast

as Manickam *

as Anjalai *

* Chandrasekhar * Manorama *

Major Sundarrajan Srinivasan Sundarrajan (17 March 1935 – 28 February 2003), popularly known as Major Sundarrajan, was an Indian actor and film director who performed predominantly in Tamil language films and plays. He was well known for his sophisticated ...

Srividya Srividya (24 July 1953 – 19 October 2006), was an Indian actress best known for her work predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films, along with few Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films. In a career spanning for 40 years, she had acted in more t ...

as herself (

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu The chief minister of Tamil Nadu is the head of government, chief executive of the Indian Federated state, state of Tamil Nadu. In accordance with the Constitution of India, the Governor (India), governor is a state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de ...

)

Production

Actress-turned politician

who was the then

played herself in the film. This was also her final film as an actress.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack was composed by

M. S. Viswanathan Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan (24 June 1928 – 14 July 2015), also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. Popularly known by the sobriquet "Mellisai Mannar" (), he ...

and lyrics for all songs were written by Vaali. *"Poongathu" –

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (4 June 1946 – 25 September 2020), commonly known as SPB or Balu, was an Indian playback singer, television presenter, actor, music composer, dubbing artist, and film producer. He is widely regarde ...

*"Aasapattu" – S. P. Balasubrahmanyam *"Mangalyam" –

K. S. Chithra Krishnan Nair Shantakumari Chithra (born 27 July 1963) is an Indian playback singer and Carnatic musician. In a career spanning around five decades, she has recorded over 25,000 Songs in various Indian languages languages such as Tamil, Kann ...

*"Shivashankari" – K. S. Chithra *"Varugiraar" – T. M. Soundararajan *"Aalagi" –

Malaysia Vasudevan Vasudevan (15 June 1944 – 20 February 2011), popularly known as Malaysia Vasudevan, was a prolific Tamil playback singer and actor. Born in the town of Kuala Selangor in the Federated Malay States (present day Malaysia), he moved to Che ...

Swarnalatha Swarnalatha (29 April 1973 – 12 September 2010) was an Indian playback singer. In a career spanning almost 22 years (from 1987 until her death), she recorded over 10,000 songs in many Indian languages, including Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu ...

Reception

Released on 2 October 1992, coinciding with

Gandhi Jayanti Gandhi Jayanti is a national holiday in India, celebrated annually on 2 October to honour the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, one of the key leaders of the Indian independence movement and a pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence. It ...

, ''Neenga Nalla Irukkanum'' focused on

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

and was the first Tamil film to be sponsored by the

Government of Tamil Nadu The Government of Tamil Nadu () is the administrative body responsible for the governance of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the capital of the state and houses the state executive, legislature and head of judiciary. Under the Const ...

. The film was budgeted at a cost of 8.5 million (about 0.277 million in 1992–93). Despite being launched with much fanfare and media acclaim, the film did not make any impact among the audience as it turned out to be a box-office failure. It won the

National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues The National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues was one of the category in the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

and a Tamil Nadu State Film Award. The jury noted the film for its "effective and purposeful plea for prohibition". K. Vijiyan of ''

New Straits Times The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as a local offshoot of Singapore-based ''The Straits Ti ...

'' wrote, "This is not the usual Visu fare we are used to ..Visu has made sure this is not just an educational movie with an anti-alcohol message. There is an Indian saying that it is difficult to straighten a dog's tail and the story seems to subscribe to the fatalistic view that drunkards cannot quit". C. R. K. of ''

Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...

'' expressed similar views. However Ayyappa Prasad for ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' wrote that the film "fails to impress" and the "director in a bid to do propaganda-cum-commercial has ended up with a product that is neither".

Notes

References

External links

* {{Visu 1990s Indian films 1990s Tamil-language films 1992 films Best Film on Other Social Issues National Film Award winners Films about alcoholism Films directed by Visu Films produced by G. Venkateswaran Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films with screenplays by Visu Indian propaganda films Jayalalithaa Tamil-language Indian films