Aalayamani
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''Aalayamani'' () is a 1962 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
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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
K. Shankar Kannan Shankar (17 March 1926 - 5 March 2006) was an Indian film editor, screenwriter and director. He directed more than 80 films in South Indian languages including Tamil language, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu language, Telugu and Kannada as well ...
and produced by
P. S. Veerappa P. S. Veerappa (10 September 191111 September 1998) was an Indian actor and a producer of Tamil cinema. Early life Born in 1911, Veerappa belonged to Kangeyam, then part of Coimbatore District in Madras Presidency. But he grew up in his grand ...
. 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 ...
,
S. S. Rajendran Sedapatti Suryanarayana Rajendran, also known by his initials SSR (January 1928 – 24 October 2014), was an Indian actor, film director, film producer and politician who worked in Tamil theatre and cinema. He often referred as Latchiya ...
,
B. Saroja Devi Bangalore Saroja Devi (born 7 January 1938) is an Indian actress who has acted in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films. She acted in around 200 films over seven decades. She is known by the epithets "''Abhinaya Saraswathi''" ( Saraswathi of ...
and C. R. Vijayakumari. It was released on 23 November 1962, and ran for over 100 days in theatres. The film was remade in
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...
as ''
Gudi Gantalu ''Gudi Gantalu'' () is a 1964 Indian Telugu-language drama film directed by V. Madhusudhana Rao. It stars N. T. Rama Rao and Krishna Kumari, with music composed by Ghantasala. The film was produced by Sunderlal Nehata and Doondy. It is a rem ...
'' (1964), in
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
as '' Aadmi'' (1968) and in
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 ...
as '' Oru Raagam Pala Thaalam''.


Plot

Thyagarajan "Thyagu" is a lonely rich bachelor, subjected to a deep-seated trauma from having witnessed the death of a childhood playmate, caused by his possessiveness. This is recurring theme in Thyagarajan's life, leading to disastrous results. The movie begins with an imposing bell being rung, a voice narrates the story of a poor man, Arumugam Pillai, who was about to commit suicide on the death rock, but was stopped by the sound of the divine bell from the temple. He decides to take another chance with his life and soon he becomes a rich man and his son is none other than Thyagu, our hero! Thyagarajan meets and becomes close friends with a virtuous man Sekhar and there is a well grown sense of mutual admiration and fondness amongst the friends. Sekhar and Meena are in love and Sekar promises he will ask her hand in marriage. Unbeknownst to both of them, Thyagu comes across Meena, whose father Muthaiah Pillai works in Thyagu's estate and impressed by her vivacity, Thyagu falls head over heels for her. This has all the makings of a typical love triangle. Meena has a sister, Pushpalatha, who falls in love with the villain Aatkondan Pillai's son who demands a large amount in dowry. Muthaiah Pillai is unable to rustle up the requisite cash and is now in the doldrums concerned about the fate of his elder daughter's marriage. Thyagu comes helping with the cash and they are wedded. Shortly thereafter, Thyagu proposes to marry Meena and sends Sekhar as his messenger. Except Sekhar and Meena, to their obvious shock and despair, it looks to the rest of the relatives that Thyagu and Meena are a pair made for each other. Sekhar, realising the extent of love and the depth of feelings of Thyagu asks Meena to forgo their feelings and that she should go ahead and marry Thyagu. The family members of both the families get together and agree to the arrangement. By this time, Thyagu, injured in a serious accident loses the use of both his legs and ends up being a cripple for life. The loyal partner Meena pitches into the effort to care for Thyagu and spends all her time caring for him. Sekhar can't forget Meena and tries to be close with her, while she honours her commitment to Thyagu and keeps Sekhar at a distance. Thinking Sekhar as a single, Prema, daughter of the Aatkondan Pillai, expresses her feelings for Sekhar and he fails to respond in kind. All these pent up emotions of love, friendship, loyalty, jealousy and physical debilitation boils over at one point and things take a turn for the worse for all three. Goaded by the feelings of inadequacy, Thyagu builds in his mind a picture, that his dear friend Sekhar is out to get his love, and decides to take matters into his hands and get rid of Sekhar. The lingering doubts about his friend and lover is now fuelled by his restive passions which are burning brightly. Thyagu plans that the appropriate location for revenge is the Death rock known for its enchanting scenery and dangerous cliffs, where once his father attempted suicide. He was to drive Sekhar to the edge and push him to death from the face of the cliff. Thyagu leads Sekhar to the cliff and reveals his anger and frustration about their perceived relationship, questioning the sincerity of his friend and his lover. A visibly angered Sekhar repulses by revealing the magnitude of his sacrifice he made for his close friend and to prove his innocence, Sekhar swears to take his own life from the same Death rock. Truth dawns on Thyagu, now deeply humiliated, jumps from the cliff to the tumultuous sea below. While Sekhar and Meena are mourning for their loss, Thyagu gets rescued by a fisherman and the shock of falling from the cliff has given back Thyagu the partial use of his legs. Meena now deems her as a widow and convinces Sekhar to marry the girl who loves him. On the wedding day, Thyagu, now dressed as a nobody shows up for the wedding and happens to overhear a conversation of Meena declaring that there is no life and happiness left due to Thyagu's death. This convinces Thyagu to reveal his identity and console Saroja, while Aatkondan Pillai with an eye on Thyagu's money thinks otherwise. Thyagu is hit on the head and falls unconscious, the marriage completes and Meena decides to take her life from the same cliff Thyagu plunged to death and seen running towards the cliff. Conscious now, Thyagu goes after Meena to stop her from committing suicide, calling out loud to stop and limping all the way behind her. Meena sees Thyagu is alive and changes her mind and the lovers unite. In the background, the song "Ponnai Virumbum Boomiyile" (meaning: In a world of wealth lovers, the dear one who loved me) is being played, a happy Thyagu and Meena waves us a farewell, the movie ends.


Cast


Production

The scene where Ganesan and Rajendran play tennis was shot at Egmore Tennis Stadium.


Soundtrack

The music 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 w ...
and lyrics for all songs were written by
Kannadasan Muthiah Sathappan Chettiar better known as Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was a poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important l ...
. The songs like "Kallellam Manikka", "Satti Suthadhada" and "Ponnai Virumbum" were well received. Philips, an
autodidact Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodi ...
guitarist, played the guitar for "Satti Sutthadhada". It was based on the
raga A raga ( ; , ; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. It is central to classical Indian music. Each raga consists of an array of melodic structures with musical motifs; and, fro ...
'' Bilaskhan-i Todi''. The song "Kallellam Maanikka" is based on Mayamalavagowla raga. Writing for ''
The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naidu ...
'', Sujatha Narayan noted that the song "Nallai Allai" from ''
Kaatru Veliyidai ''Kaatru Veliyidai'' () is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language romantic war film, produced, written and directed by Mani Ratnam. Made under the Madras Talkies banner, it features music composed by A. R. Rahman, cinematography by Ravi Varman and editin ...
'' (2017) was similar to "Ponnai Virumbum" from this film "in its mood, with the man reminiscing how his love for a woman of such character has changed him for the better."


Release and reception

''Aalayamani'' was released on 23 November 1962. ''
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, "''Aalayamani'' is an engrossing film, which though sometimes exceeds the bounds of possibility assures a fair return for cinegoers' fare." 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 ...
'' appreciated the performances of various cast members and the cinematography, but felt Vijayakumari was underutilised. The film celebrated its 100th day at the Vijaya Gardens, Kodambakkam.


Remakes

''Aalayamani'' was remade in
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...
as ''
Gudi Gantalu ''Gudi Gantalu'' () is a 1964 Indian Telugu-language drama film directed by V. Madhusudhana Rao. It stars N. T. Rama Rao and Krishna Kumari, with music composed by Ghantasala. The film was produced by Sunderlal Nehata and Doondy. It is a rem ...
'' (1964), in
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
as '' Aadmi'' (1968), and in
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 ...
as '' Oru Raagam Pala Thaalam'' (1979).


References


External links

* 1960s Indian films 1960s Tamil-language films 1962 drama films 1962 films Films directed by K. Shankar Films scored by Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Films with screenplays by Javar Seetharaman Indian drama films Tamil films remade in other languages Tamil-language Indian films {{Improve categories, date=March 2024