''Avan Aval Adhu'' () is a 1980 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

Muktha Srinivasan Muktha Srinivasan (1929 – 2018) was an Indian film director and producer. Personal life V. Srinivasan was born in Malapuram on 31 October 1929 in a Tamil Brahmin family. His parents were Venkatachariar and Chellamma. His elder brother is M ...

and written 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 ...

. The film stars

Sivakumar Palaniswamy Gounder (born 27 October 1941), better known by his stage name Sivakumar, is an Indian visual artist and former actor who has appeared in Tamil cinema and television. He made his acting debut in '' Kaakum Karangal'' (1965) and has ...

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

Sripriya Sripriya is an Indian former actress, film director and politician from Tamil Nadu. She has acted in over 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi languages. She has also directed films in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu languages, ...

and

Thengai Srinivasan Thengai Srinivasan (21 October 1937 – 9 November 1987) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil-language films and plays from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was given the prefix ''Thengai'' (coconut) after his role as a coconut-seller in th ...

. Dealing with the then-groundbreaking issue of

surrogate pregnancy Surrogacy is an arrangement whereby a woman gets pregnant and gives birth on behalf of another person or couple who will become the child's legal parents after birth. People pursue surrogacy for a variety of reasons such as infertility, danger ...

, it is based on the story ''Oru Singam Muyalaagirathu'' () by

Sivasankari Sivasankari (born 14 October 1942) is an Indian author and activist who writes in Tamil. She is one of the four Tamil writers asked by the United States Library of Congress to record their voice as part of the South Asian article on Sivashank ...

. The film was released on 11 April 1980.

Plot

Ramu and Lavanya are a childless couple. Lavanya is forced to remove her ovaries because of a complication and is unable to conceive. So she hires Menaka as a surrogate mother who is impregnated by Ramu through artificial insemination, without knowing who the father is. Lavanya houses Menaka in a secluded home in an attempt to keep her pregnancy a secret and preventing Ramu and Menaka knowing each other. But Menaka and Ramu meet coincidentally, and fall in love with each other. Ramu starts to cheat on Lavanya. Lavanya learns about the affair and leaves the house. Menaka realizes her mistake and ends the affair after delivering the baby. Lavanya forgives Ramu and rejoins him and the newborn.

Cast

as Ramu *

as Lavanya *

as Menaka *

* Manorama as Muniyamma * Y. G. Mahendran *

Kathadi Ramamurthy Sundaresan Ramamurthy (born April 30, 1938) better known as Kathadi Ramamurthy, is an Indian actor, director, writer and dubbing artiste. He is primarily known for his roles as a comedian in Tamil film, theatre and television. Early life B ...

Typist Gopu Gopalarathnam, known by his stage name Typist Gopu, was an Indian actor known for comedy and supporting roles. He acted in over 600 stage plays and 400 films. Career A native of Manakkal, Lalgudi in Trichy district, Gopalarathnam was active ...

Gundu Kalyanam Lakshmi Narayanan better knows as Gundu Kalyanam is an Indian actor and director in Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry and active and hardcore member at All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, AIADMK party. He entered cine field in the year ...

Soundtrack

The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan. Lyrics 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 ...

Reception

Despite being significantly different from the source material, the film was well received critically and commercially. 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 film for the morals it was propagating.

References

External links

* {{Muktha Srinivasan 1980 films 1980s Indian films 1980s Tamil-language films Films about surrogacy Films based on Tamil novels Films directed by Muktha Srinivasan Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films with screenplays by Visu Indian pregnancy films Tamil-language Indian films