''Manidhanum Dheivamagalam'' () 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 by P. Madhavan. 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 ...

Sowcar Janaki Sankaramanchi Janaki (born 12 December 1931), widely known as Sowcar Janaki, is an Indian actress known for her works in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. In a career spanning over seven decades, Janaki has appeared in nearly 390 fil ...

, Ushanandini, Shubha and

Sukumari Sukumari Amma (6 October 1940 – 26 March 2013) was an Indian actress best known for her works in Malayalam and Tamil films. In a career spanning more than five decades, She has appeared in more than 2500 films predominantly in Malayalam, T ...

. A remake of the 1969 Telugu film ''

Buddhimantudu Buddhimantudu () is a 1969 Indian Telugu-language drama film directed by Bapu. It stars Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Vijaya Nirmala, Sobhan Babu and Krishnam Raju, with music composed by K. V. Mahadevan. The film was remade in Tami ...

'', it was released on 11 January 1975.

Plot

Kumaraiya is a temple priest in a village, living with his wife Valli and younger brother, Sundaram. Kumaraiya is a believer of god, he is very much respected by villagers and believes that he encounters mystic experiences whenever he sees Sundaram is a non-believer. Troubles will plague him after he finds out that Sundaram has not only been creating problems for Dharmalingam the village head, but has also fallen in love and wants to marry Vijaya, the daughter of Dharmalingam's sister. Taking this as an advantage, Dharmalingam separates Kumaraiya and Sundaram and an old ruined house of their grandfather is given to Sundaram as his share. Sundaram modifies and establishes a school in it. Before Kumaraiya could even attempt to resolve these issues, the keys of the temple are taken away from him by Dharmalingham, and he can no longer pray nor converse with Lord. Things come to a boil after he is told that Sundaram has forcibly taken the keys, and Dharmalingam has stolen all the temple's jewellery, when they are searching for it a treasure of Kumaraiya and Sundaram's ancestors is found. Kumaraiya says he will use the treasure for development and Sundaram argues that it is the school which will lead to progress and not the temples. The rest of the story is about who wins the bet.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, 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 "Paal Pongum" is set in Hamsadhvani raga.

Reception

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 ...

'' appreciated the film for the cast performances and cinematography, but criticised the story.

References

External links

* 1970s Indian films 1970s Tamil-language films 1975 drama films 1975 films Films about brothers Films directed by P. Madhavan Films scored by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan Indian drama films Tamil remakes of Telugu films Tamil-language Indian films {{Improve categories, date=April 2024