''Avandhan Manidhan'' () is a 1975 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

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. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

, co-written and directed by

A. C. Tirulokchandar A. C. Thirulokachandar (11 June 1930 – 15 June 2016), also known as A. C. Tirulokchandar, was an Indian film director and screenwriter who worked mainly in Tamil films from the 1960s to 1988. He also directed a few films in Hindi and Telugu. ...

from a story by G. Balasubramaniam. The film stars

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001) was an Indian actor and producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. Sivaji Gan ...

, Muthuraman,

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December ...

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 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, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada as well as in Hindi. Film career Shanka ...

and producer Noor were attached. Ganesan however refused, and the story was later filmed in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

as ''

Kasturi Nivasa ''Kasturi Nivasa'' () is a 1971 Indian Kannada-language drama film written and directed by the director duo Dorai–Bhagavan based on a story, ''Kasturi Nivasam'' written by G. Balasubramanium. It was produced by K. C. N. Gowda under the banner ...

'' (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

Ravi, the owner of a matchbox factory, is a widower and 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. On 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 on whom Ravi had a crush on, and now Ravi's house. Film ends on a tragic note when all Ravi has is his Dove, and Lalitha requests him to give it her, as her daughter is sick and is crying for Ravi uncle's Dove. Ravi has just sold that, so that he could feed. Unable to say no to a request he breathes his last.

Cast

as Ravikumar * Muthuraman as Chandran *

as Lalitha * Manjula as Manju *

Major Sundarrajan Srinivasan Sundarrajan (17 March 1925 – 28 February 2003), popularly known as Major Sundarrajan, was an Indian actor and director who performed predominantly in Tamil language films and plays. He was well known for his sophisticated and ...

as Murugan * Cho as Appavu *

M. R. R. Vasu Madras Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan Vasudevan was an Indian actor who was active in Tamil cinema and theatre during the latter half of the 20th century. He was known for playing negative roles, but he was also a successful character actor. He acted ...

as Paramasivam *

Chandrababu Joseph Panimayadas Chandrababu Rodriguez (1927–1974) was an Indian actor, comedian, director, singer and dancer, whose Chaplinesque-style on-screen movements and singing style made him popular from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. He had ...

as Singaram *

Sachu Saraswathi Sundaresan Iyer, professionally known as Kumari Sachu (born 7 January 1948) is an Indian actress who has acted in more than 500 films in five different languages and a few television serials. She is a character actress/comedienne who ...

as Kamala *

Baby Sumathi Sumathi (born 18 August 1964) is an Indian actress from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. She started her career at the age of two. She starred in many Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi language films. Personal life Sumathi was born in Ma ...

as Selvi

Production

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

, and film producer Noor bought the rights for 25,000, with

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 (born 1933), active mainly in Kannada cinema. They directed fifty films, most of which starred Rajkumar and were highly successfu ...

for 38,000, and they made it into a

film titled ''

'', 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

, 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 Tamil cinema. He was mentored by poet Kannadasan who was his uncle. He also worked as a lyricist in the Tamil ci ...

wrote the dialogues.

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" (Everyone has forgotten you, man) as reflecting Chandrababu's real life situation at that time.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

M. S. Viswanathan Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan (24 June 1928 – 14 July 2015), also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. He was popularly known as ''Mellisai Mannar''. He compose ...

, with lyrics by

Kannadasan Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was an Indian philosopher, poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. Freq ...

. The song "Aattuviththaal Yaaroruvar", like many songs written by Kannadasan, extols the Hindu god

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is on ...

Release and reception

''Avandhan Manidhan'' was released on 11 April 1975. Kanthan of ''

Kalki Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exis ...

'' praised Tirulokchander's direction and writing, Arunachalam's dialogues, and Muthuraman's performance. The film became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres.

References

External links

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