''Naanum Oru Thozhilali'' () is a 1986 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

masala film Masala films of Indian cinema are those that blend multiple genres into one work. Masala films emerged in the 1970s and are still being created as of the 2020s. Typically these films freely blend action, comedy, romance, and drama, or melod ...

directed and produced by C. V. Sridhar. The film stars

Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...

and Ambika, while Jaishankar, V. S. Raghavan and

Devika Devika Devadoss (born Prameela Devi; 25 April 1943 – 2 May 2002) was an Indian actress who worked in Tamil cinema, Tamil and Telugu cinema, Telugu along with a few Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi films. She was one of the popular lead actresse ...

play supporting roles. The film was also simultaneously shot in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

as ''Andarikante Ghanudu'' ().

Murali Mohan Maganti Murali Mohan (born as Maganti Raja Ram Mohan Roy; 24 June 1940) is an Indian actor, producer, politician, and business executive from Telugu cinema. In 1973, Murali Mohan debuted in ''Jagame Maya'', produced by Atluri Poornachandra Rao. ...

plays supporting role in Telugu version. The Tamil version was released on 1 May 1986.

Plot

Bharath returns to India from his studies abroad after his father Yoganand dies in a car accident. The family's factory is run by the father and son team of Rammohan and Sundar. They loot from the factory and treat the workers poorly. Kumar works at the factory and often clashes with Rammohan and Sundar. The duo accused Kumar's older brother of running away with stolen company cash but Kumar does not believe this. He is also suspicious of Yoganand's death and is trying to investigate. Bharath falls in love with factory worker Meena, soon after his arrival in India. He also quickly realises that something is amiss with the factory and his father's accident. With the help of Meena, he poses as factory worker Raju to investigate matters. He soon learns that Kumar is an ally and the two work together to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Cast

Production

The film was launched by C. V. Sridhar in 1980 as a Cinemascope venture and was then titled as ''Sakthi''. Sridhar collaborated with Kamal Haasan after the success of the 1978 film '' Ilamai Oonjal Aadukirathu''. The film was meant to be the first film which featured Haasan and Ambika as a lead pair and stills were released featuring Ambika in a swimsuit. The film got delayed and was put on hold, before it re-emerged in 1986 under the title of ''Meendum Suryodayam'' () and shooting progressed. It was planned for an April 1986 release, which got postponed to 1 May 1986. There was a local council election in March 1986 and the

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; ; DMK) is an Indian political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu, where it is currently the ruling party, and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry, where it is currently the main ...

(DMK) won seats. Sridhar felt the title ''Meendum Suryodayam'' would imply that the filmmakers were welcoming the DMK's re-emergence, whose symbol is that of a rising sun. Hence the title was changed to ''Naanum Oru Thozhilali''. Sridhar had previously started a film with the same title in the mid-1970s, with

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 – 24 December 1987), popularly known by his initialism M.G.R. and as Makkal Thilagam/Puratchi Thalaivar, was an Indian actor, politician, and philanthropist who served as the chief minister of ...

in the lead; that film was shelved.

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 ...

, with lyrics by Vaali.

Release and reception

''Naanum Oru Thozhilali'' released on 1 May 1986,

Labour Day Labour Day is an annual day of celebration of the labour movement and its labor rights, achievements. It has its origins in the trade union, labour union movement, specifically the Eight-hour day movement, eight-hour day movement, which advoca ...

. The

-language version ''Andarikante Ghanudu'' released one year later on 3 July 1987. The film was also dubbed 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 ''Sooryodaya'', but that did not have a theatrical release. Jayamanmadhan 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 ...

'' criticised the director for assuming that Haasan, Ambika, the stunts and songs were enough for the film's success as audiences would not feel the same.

References

External links

* * 1980s Indian films 1980s masala films 1986 multilingual films 1980s Tamil-language films 1980s Telugu-language films 1986 films Films directed by C. V. Sridhar Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Films with screenplays by C. V. Sridhar Indian multilingual films Tamil-language Indian films {{Improve categories, date=April 2024