''Agal Vilakku'' () is a 1979 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 R. Selvaraj. The film stars

Shoba Mahalakshmi Menon, best known by her stagename Shobha (23 September 1962 – 1 May 1980), was an Indian actress best known for her work in Malayalam and Tamil films. At the age of 17, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her ro ...

and

Vijayakanth Vijayaraj Alagarswami (25 August 1952 – 28 December 2023), known by his stage name Vijayakanth, was an Indian actor, filmmaker, philanthropist and politician. He worked in Tamil cinema in a career spanning four decades. He ventured into politi ...

. It was released on 7 December 1979.

Plot

Navaneetham is an orphan living with her cruel aunt and hapless uncle. She sells

idli Idli, iddena, iddali or idly (; plural: idlis) is a type of savoury rice cake, originating from South India, popular as a breakfast food in Southern India and in Sri Lanka. The cakes are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented de-h ...

s at the local hospital to support herself and her family. The doctor, Jayalakshmi, puts the wellbeing of her patients above all else. Jayalakshmi's fiancé proves himself to be a suspicious coward and she calls off the wedding to focus on her patients. Dhanushkodi is admitted to the hospital after he is beaten up for standing up for workers' rights. He and Navaneetham quickly fall in love and marry though her aunt and his entire family disapprove. Dhanushkodi does not have a regular job as he is more interested in righting societal wrongs than his household. Navaneetham returns to selling idlis to make ends meet and gets hurt. This spurs Dhanushkodi to run for office and he becomes the mayor. Their financial situation improves and he can now make meaningful positive changes to society. Dhanushkodi's family see this as an opportunity to get rich by accepting bribes using his name. They do this but connive to make Navaneetham look like the culprit. When Dhanushkodi learns of the corruption, he resigns his post and separates from his wife. Navaneetham and Jayalakshmi work together to uncover the truth.

Cast

as Navaneetham *

as Dhanushkodi *

Kullamani Kullamani (1952–2013) was an Indian actor and comedian who appeared in Tamil-language films. He acted over 500 films. He is known for films like ''Karagattakaran'', ''Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989 film), Apoorva Sagodharargal'', ''Panakkaran'', ...

as Mani *Srilekha Rajendran as Jayalakshmi

Production

''Agal Vilakku'' is Vijayakanth's second film as actor, and first in a leading role.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack 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 ...

. The song "Ottukettu", written by Pavalar Varadharajan and sung by Ilaiyaraaja only appears on the film's LP records. The song "Yedho Ninaivugal" was adapted from "Bhanu Bhoomiya", which Ilaiyaraaja had composed for the

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

film ''

Maathu Tappada Maga ''Maathu Tappada Maga'' () is a 1978 Indian Kannada-language film written and directed by Peketi Sivaram. The film stars Anant Nag, Aarathi, Sharada and Rajinikanth in his 25th film appearance. Udaykumar, K. S. Ashwath, Narasimharaju and ...

'' (1978). The song is based on Sumanesa Ranjani raga.

Reception

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 ...

'' negatively reviewed the film, particularly for the story.

References

External links

* 1970s Indian films 1970s Tamil-language films 1979 films Films directed by R. Selvaraj (screenwriter) Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Tamil-language Indian films {{Improve categories, date=April 2024