''Avandhan Manidhan'' () is a 1975 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 and co-written by A. C. Tirulokchandar from a story by G. Balasubramaniam. 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 ...

, Muthuraman,

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016), popularly known as Amma, was an Indian actress, politician, and philanthropist who served as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years between 1991 and 2016. She ...

and Manjula. It revolves around an extremely generous man who refuses to budge from his nature, even as it leads to his downfall. After Balasubramaniam wrote the story exclusively for Ganesan, director K. Shankar and producer Noor were attached. Ganesan however refused, and the story was later filmed in

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 ...

as '' Kasturi Nivasa'' (1971). After that film's success, Ganesan agreed to act in a potential Tamil remake, which became ''Avandhan Manidhan'', his 175th film as an actor. The new film was directed by Tirulokchandar, produced by A. Ramanujam and K. N. Subramanian, photographed by M. Viswanatha Rai and edited by B. Kandhasamy. ''Avandhan Manidhan'' was released on 11 April 1975. The film became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres.

Plot

Ravikumar, the owner of a matchbox factory, is a widower who also lost his daughter in an accident. Recognising that his honest employee Chandran is in a similar position, he decides to help Chandran financially. As Chandran attends training in the United States, Ravi takes care of Chandran's charming daughter. Upon his return, Chandran suggests changing the company's structure. The traditionalist Ravi becomes infuriated. Protesting this, Chandran resigns and starts his own matchbox company and becomes the leading matchbox manufacturer. This begins Ravi's downfall, his charity and donating activities have eaten up profit and he ends up putting his house on sale. Chandran calls for the highest bid and wants to give it back to Ravi, but being the man that he is, Ravi would not accept. Chandran has already got Lalitha, his ex-secretary whom Ravi had a crush on, and now Ravi's house. Ravi is eventually left with only his dove, and Lalitha requests him to give it to her, as her daughter is sick and is crying for the dove. Ravi has just sold that, so that he could buy food. Unable to say no to a request, he breathes his last.

Cast

Production

In early 1970, G. Balasubramaniam had written a story exclusively for

, and film producer Noor bought the rights for 25,000, with K. Shankar signed on to direct. However, Ganesan was reluctant after hearing the story, feeling it was too tragic. A year later, the same story was bought by the director duo

Dorai–Bhagavan Dorai–Bhagavan were an Indian filmmaking duo consisting of directors B. Dorai Raj (died 2000) and S. K. Bhagavan (5 July 1933 – 20 February 2023), active mainly in Kannada cinema. The duo directed twenty seven films together, most of which ...

for 38,000, and they made it into a

film titled '' Kasturi Nivasa'', with Rajkumar starring. After the film's success, Ganesan decided to remake it in Tamil, and bought the remake rights for 2,00,000. The remake was titled ''Avandhan Manidhan'', and the 175th film of Ganesan. It was directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar, co-produced by K. N. Subramaniam, photographed by M. Viswanatha Rai and edited by B. Kandhasamy. While Tirulokchandar also wrote the screenplay,

Panchu Arunachalam Panchanathan Arunachalam (22 March 1941 – 9 August 2016) was an Indian writer, director, producer and lyricist who worked in the Tamil cinema. He was mentored by poet Kannadasan who was his uncle. He also worked as a lyricist in the Tami ...

wrote the dialogues. Some scenes involving Ganesan and Manjula were shot at Singapore, including Queen Elizabeth Walk.

Themes

Film historian

Mohan Raman Mohan Raman, also known as Mohan V. Ram (born 3 April 1956), is an Indian actor and writer. In 2017 and 2019, he was a Jury member for the National Film Award for Best Writing on Cinema. Raman is a film historian and writes for ''The Hindu''. H ...

interpreted one scene where Cho's character tells Chandrababu's character, "Ellarum Ungala Marandutaanga pa" () as reflecting Chandrababu's real life situation at that time. Another historian, K. Puttaswamy noted the story's similarities to ''

Timon of Athens ''The Life of Tymon of Athens'', often shortened to ''Timon of Athens'', is a play written by William Shakespeare and likely also Thomas Middleton in about 1606. It was published in the ''First Folio'' in 1623. Timon of Athens (person), Timon ...

'', a play by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Soundtrack

The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, with lyrics 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 song "Aattuviththaal Yaaroruvar", like many songs written by Kannadasan, extols the

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

god

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

. The song "Anbu Nadamadum" is set in Vasanthi

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 ...

. An assistant director suggested the director not to use the lyric "Thangai" () for a song in this film since "Thangaiyila Illai" () was the pallavi for a song in the director's earlier film '' Dharmam Engey'' (1972).

Release and reception

''Avandhan Manidhan'' was released on 11 April 1975. 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 Tirulokchander's direction and writing, Arunachalam's dialogues, and the performances of Ganesan, Muthuraman and Sundarrajan. The film became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres.

References

External links

* * {{A. C. Tirulokchandar 1970s Indian films 1970s Tamil-language films 1975 drama films 1975 films Films directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films shot in Singapore Indian drama films Tamil remakes of Kannada films Tamil-language drama films Tamil-language Indian films