''Avana Ivan!?'' () is a 1962 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

-language

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

S. Balachander Sundaram Balachander (18 January 1927 – 13 April 1990) was an Indian veena player and filmmaker. He directed, produced, and also composed music for a few of his films. Balachander was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1982. He died of a hear ...

. The film was an adaptation of the 1951 American film '' A Place in the Sun'', itself adapted from the novel ''

An American Tragedy ''An American Tragedy'' is a 1925 novel by American writer Theodore Dreiser. He began the manuscript in the summer of 1920, but a year later abandoned most of that text. It was based on the notorious murder of Grace Brown in 1906 and the trial of ...

'' written by

Theodore Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm mora ...

. The novel itself was based on the Gillette murder case that happened in the early 20th century.

Plot

Kumar kills his wife Sumathi to marry another woman, Vaasanthi. The murder is witnessed by two children, who go for a picnic along with other children who later expose the truth. At the last the murderer is arrested and taken away by the police; he winks at the children who exposed him and says "

ta ta Tata or TATA may refer to: Places * Jamshedpur, a city in Jharkhand, India also known as Tatanagar or Tata * Tata, Hungary, a town in Hungary * Tata Islands, a pair of small islands off the coast of New Zealand * Tata, Morocco, a city in Tata ...

Cast

;Male cast *

as Kumar * Ramesh as Kannan *

Master Sridhar Sridhar was an Indian actor in the Tamil film industry. He has acted about 150 films and he was introduced to Tamil cinema as a child artist. He was famous for his child performance in many movies and so called as Master Sridhar. Personal life ...

as Venu *

V. S. Raghavan V S Raghavan (18 February 1925 – 24 January 2015) was an Indian actor, who has acted both in Tamil films as well as television. He started his career as a dramatist and stage actor and went on to act as a character actor in films, starting ...

as Rajaram *

Serukalathur Sama Swaminathan Vaidyanathan (26 June 1904—11 January 1963), known by his stage name Serukulathur Sama, was an Indian stage and film actor who was primarily known for playing the role of the Hindu god Krishna in Tamil language Hindu mythological f ...

as Sadhanandam *

Pattom Sadan Sadhasivan, popularly known as Pattom Sadan was an Indian actor in Malayalam cinema. He acted in more than 200 films. His debut movie was Chathurangam in 1959. He was a famous comedy artist during the 1960s and 1970s. He acted in many Tamil movie ...

as Assistant * Kottapuli Jayaraman as Assistant *

P. D. Sambandam P. D. Sambandam was a comic actor who has performed many supporting and minor roles in Tamil films. Filmography References

Male actors in Tamil cinema Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Li ...

as Teacher * Vidwan Ve. Lakshmanan as Inspector Rajan * S. G. Eswar as Eswar ;Female cast * Vasanthi as Jamuna * Baby Padmini as Meena * Lakshmi Rajam as Sumathi *

C. K. Saraswathi C. K. Saraswathi (died 1998) was an Indian actress who featured mainly in Tamil films. She was active in the field from 1945 till 1998. During the early days she featured in character roles and in comedy tracks. Later she became famous for her a ...

as Parvatham *

S. N. Lakshmi Sennalkudi Narayana Lakshmi (1927 – 20 February 2012) was an Indian actress, who appeared in supporting roles, often playing roles of a mother or grandmother in films. A recipient of the state government's Kalaimamani and Kalaiselvam awards, ...

as Amrthavalli * Thilakam Rajakumari as Valli * Shanthini as Ponnamma

Production

The film was an adaptation of the American film '' A Place in the Sun'', based on the novel ''

'' written by

. The novel was inspired by the Gillette murder case that shook America in the early part of the 20th century. The original film was a major success in India.

was much impressed with the film and tried to remake the film in Tamil, thus making his production debut. He named his company S. B. Creations, the first time the word "Creations" was used in a South Indian film for a film production company.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by S. Balachander, with lyrics by Vidhvan Ve. Lakshmanan.

Release and reception

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' wrote, "In story, treatment, music and in the style of dialogue delivery, ''Avana Ivan?'' is said to set a new pattern in film-making". Before the making of the film, it was reported that Balachandar sent blank cheques to the cast and crew. The film failed to make an impact at the box office.

References

External links

* {{S. Balachander 1960s Tamil-language films 1960s thriller films 1962 films Films based on American novels Films directed by S. Balachander Films scored by S. Balachander Indian remakes of American films Indian thriller films