''Kizhakkum Merkkum'' ( ) is a 1998 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 by Kalanjiyam. The film stars

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, Nassar, Devayani and Geetha, with

Manivannan Manivannan (31 July 1953 – 15 June 2013) was an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter, voice artist, playback singer and social activist who worked in Tamil cinema. In a career spanning three decades, he went from being a story and ...

, Thalaivasal Vijay, Vichithra, Theni Kunjarammal, Kalyanjiyam, and Chaplin Balu playing supporting roles. It was released on 14 January 1998.

Plot

Suryamurthy (

) and Thillai ( Geetha) are siblings. They were expelled from their home by their stepmother Chinnamma ( Theni Kunjarammal) at a young age. The siblings worked hard to come up in life. Many years later, Suryamurthy looks for a groom for his sister and finds Kathalingam ( Nassar), who is from another village. So Suryamurthy inquires the villagers about Kathalingam's character, and everyone praised Kathalingam, but they lied. Kathalingam is actually a bad person and drunkard, and he has an affair with the village belle Valli ( Vichithra). Without knowing the truth, Kathalingam and Thillai get married. Finally, Thillai and Suryamurthy realise that Kathalingam is a bad person, but it was too late. In the meantime, Suryamurthy and Kathalingam's sister Mallika ( Devayani) fall in love with each other; however, Thillai warns him about the consequence of this love on her married life. After a misunderstanding, Mallika begins to hate the honest Suryamurthy. When Kathalingam prepares the wedding between Mallika and a well-educated groom, the wedding is cancelled. The groom's family refuses to marry the bride, who had an affair with Suryamurthy. Kathalingam gets angry and brutally beats Thillai in front of her brother. Suryamurthy begs him to leave her in peace, but Kathalingam refuses, and Suryamurthy is forced to beat Kathalingam in turn. Suryamurthy cannot bear the pain endured by his sister and kidnaps Mallika to stop this cruelty. Kathalingam decides to live with Valli. What transpires next forms the rest of the story.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema, Tamil in addition ...

Reception

D. S. Ramanujam of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' wrote, "Much of the director's work gets solid support from the camera of K. V. Mani, the unusual choice of the village landscape, the greenery and flower fields adding lustre to the artistes' efforts". He added, "For Napoleon, playing the orphaned younger brother Suryamurthy is a tall order no doubt. He is good in delivering long lines but the amount of emotional content in them not being fully brought out in his essay, the crying scenes not being his forte". The film won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film Portraying Woman in Good Light, and Arivumathi won for Best Lyricist. Two years after release, the producers were given a subsidy by the Tamil Nadu government along with several other films.

References

External links

* {{Improve categories, date=March 2024 1990s Indian films 1990s Tamil-language films 1998 drama films 1998 films Films directed by Kalanjiyam Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Indian drama films Tamil-language Indian films