''Dheepam'' () is a 1977 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, directed by K. Vijayan and produced by K. Balaji. The film stars

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram. Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001), better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian actor and film producer. He was mainly active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th centur ...

, Sujatha, Vijayakumar and Sangeetha. It is a remake of the

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

film '' Theekkanal''. The film was released on 26 January 1977, and ran for over 100 days in theatres.

Plot

Somu and Kannan are brothers. During a small fight, Somu injures Kannan and believing him to be dead runs away. He joins Raja, the elder as his adopted son and becomes a smuggler. Before dying, the father hands over everything he has to Somu, now Raja, including his daughter Latha for him to take care her. However, due to their shady business, he is unable to find a groom for her. Radha is Latha's friend and Raja is in love with her. She however shuns him for the same reason as others. They both meet Kannan and take a liking to him. Soon, Raja realises Kannan is his brother and showers love and riches on him. When he finds out Radha and Kannan are in love, he solemnises their marriage too. However, soon, Radha and Kannan start to suspect Raja's true intentions driving Kannan to drinking. Unable to declare the true relationship between Kannan and him as it would ruin the life of his sister who absolutely believes that he is everything in addition to him giving his word that he will never reveal that he is not her brother to their father, he takes on all the abuse. In the end, he kills himself to solve all problems asking Kannan to arrange for Latha's marriage.

Cast

Production

Devaraj–Mohan were originally chosen to direct the film but they left due to not liking the plot; hence Vijayan replaced them as director.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema, Tamil in addition ...

, with lyrics by

Pulamaipithan Pulavar Pulamaipithan (6 October 1935 – 8 September 2021) was an Indian scholar, poet and lyricist who got recognition through the song "Naan yaar nee yaar" which was featured in the Tamil film '' Kudiyirundha Koyil'' in 1968. He briefly serv ...

. The song "Anthapurathil Oru" is set in

Mayamalavagowla Mayamalavagowla (pronounced ) is a raga of Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is classified as 15th '' melakarta'' raga under Venkatamakhin's '' melakarta'' system. Originally known as ''malavagowla'', "maya" was p ...

raga, and "Poovizhi Vaasalil" is set in

Yamunakalyani Yamunakalyani is the janya raga of Mechakalyani, the 65th Melakarta ragam.''Ragas in Carnatic music'' by Dr. S. Bhagyalekshmy, Pub. 1990, CBH Publications It brings out Bhakthi, Sringara, Gambheera and Shantha rasas. Raga Lakshana Yamuna ...

. This film was to have been Ilaiyaraaja's debut before '' Annakili'' (1976) was released.

Reception

Kanthan 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 ...

'' praised the performances of Ganesan and other actors and Vijayan's direction but felt the comedy sequences of Manorama were unnecessary.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{K. Vijayan 1970s Indian films 1970s Tamil-language films 1977 films Films directed by K. Vijayan Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Tamil remakes of Malayalam films Tamil-language Indian films