''Kalam Vellum'' ( ) is a 1970 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

Western film The Western is a film genre defined by the American Film Institute as films which are "set in the American West that mbodythe spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier." Generally set in the American frontier between the Calif ...

produced, filmed and directed by M. Karnan. The film stars Jaishankar, Vijayakumari and Vijaya Lalitha. It revolves around a farmer who, in his quest to avenge his sister's death, becomes a dacoit bent on revenge. The film was released on 11 September 1970.

Plot

Velu, a poor farmer, loses his sister Dhanam due to the atrocities and exploitation of landlord Periyaraja. To avenge his sister's death, Velu kills Periyaraja's brother Chinnaraja. He then escapes from there and joins a gang of dacoits, headed by Narasingam. The gang is initially perturbed by Velu's presence, but his courage and good nature wins him their love and respect. Velu succeeds Narasingam as the gang leader. His aim is to rob the rich and save the poor. He is constantly looking for an opportunity to take revenge against Periyasamy. Velu forgets that his wife is waiting for his return to his village. Finally, Velu takes revenge on Periyaraja and surrenders to the police.

Cast

Production

In January 1970, several months after the release of his first film as a producer ('' Pennai Vazha Vidungal'', August 1969), M. Karnan began pre-production on his directorial debut, ''Kalam Vellum''. K. R. Vatsala initially shot for the role of Jaishankar's sister, which later went to Usharani.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

Shankar–Ganesh Shankar–Ganesh is an Indian music director duo who has worked on Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu movies for around 50 years. They also directed one movie '' Jagathalaprathapan'' in 1990 Personal life Shankar was the younger brother of ...

, 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 ...

Release and reception

''Kalam Vellum'' was released on 11 September 1970. ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' called it a "hotchpotch of all the adventure films that have come in Tamil and English movies that have been imported".

References

Bibliography

External links

* * 1970 directorial debut films 1970 films 1970 Western (genre) films 1970s Indian films 1970s Tamil-language films Films directed by M. Karnan Films scored by Shankar–Ganesh Indian films about revenge Indian Western (genre) films Tamil-language Indian films {{Improve categories, date=April 2024