''Neethikku Thandanai'' () is a 1987 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 film, directed by

S. A. Chandrasekhar S. A Chandrasekar (born 2 July 1945) is an Indian film director, film producer, screenwriter, and actor who primarily works within Kollywood. He made his directorial debut with ''Aval Oru Pachai Kuzhanthai'' (1978), He got his breakthrough wi ...

and written by M. Karunanidhi. The film stars

Radhika Radhika may refer to: * Radha, a Hindu goddess and eternal consort of Krishna * Radhika (given name), an Indian given name * Radhika (Malayalam actress) * Radhika (choreographer), in South Indian films * Kalamandalam Radhika, Indian dancer and ...

Nizhalgal Ravi Ravichandran Samanna (born 16 April 1956), known professionally as Nizhalgal Ravi, is an Indian film, television and voice actor who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He has also performed in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films and television series. ...

and

Charan Raj Charan Rajkumar is an Indian actor, director, film producer, and writer who works in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia and Hindi films. Career Charan Raj is a versatile actor who is popular for his villainy and character roles in South ...

. It was released on 1 May 1987. The film was remade in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

as ''Kudrat Ka Kanoon'' (1987) and 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 ''Nyayaniki Siksha'' (1988).

Plot

Cast

Production

In the late 1980s, politician and writer M. Karunanidhi was arrested and

thought the law was wrong to do so; this inspired the title for their next film ''Neethikku Thandanai''. Karunanidhi wrote the script while in prison. The original title was ''Idhu Nyayama'' (), but Chandrasekhar changed it to ''Neethikku Thandanai''.

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. Popularly known by the sobriquet "Mellisai Mannar" (), he ...

Swarnalatha Swarnalatha (29 April 1973 – 12 September 2010) was an Indian playback singer. In a career spanning almost 22 years (from 1987 until her death), she recorded over 10,000 songs in many Indian languages, including Tamil language, Tamil, Telugu ...

, who made her playback singing debut with the song "Chinnanchiru Kiliye", based on the poem by

Subramania Bharati Subramania Bharati (Born Chinnaswami Subramaniyan; 11 December 1882 – 11 September 1921) was an Indian writer, poet, journalist, teacher, Indian independence activist, social reformer and polyglot. He was bestowed the title ''Bharati'' for hi ...

, was chosen to sing the song by Viswanathan after he was impressed with her rendition of his composition "Paal Polave" from ''

Uyarndha Manithan ''Uyarndha Manithan'' () is a 1968 Indian Tamil-language drama film written by Javar Seetharaman and directed by Krishnan–Panju. The film was produced by A. V. Meiyappan, M. Saravanan, M. Kumaran and M. Murugan under AVM Productions. It sta ...

'' (1968), which he had asked her to sing during the song's audition. The film's "Chinnanchiru Kiliye" is set in

Harikambhoji Harikambhoji (pronounced harikāmbhōji) is a rāgam in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 28th ''Melakarta'' rāgam (parent scale) in the 72 ''melakarta'' rāgam system. One of the first scales employed ...

raga.

Release and reception

''Neethikku Thandanai'' was released on 1 May 1987. N. Krishnaswamy of ''

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 ...

'' wrote that the "story and narration are so thoroughly mired in preposterous situations". He went on to say, "M. S. Viswanathan has tuned a Bharathi song to good effect, but how come Bharathi agreed to write a song for this film?".

Controversy

The film became controversial as the dialogues were by the former chief minister Karunanidhi. The then ruling party

AIADMK The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK, also abbreviated as ADMK), also shortened to Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory ...

, led by the incumbent chief minister

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 ...

, tried to halt the release by filing a case that the film may disrupt law-and-order situation in Tamil Nadu, but Chandrasekhar overcame the case.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * {{S. A. Chandrasekhar 1980s Indian films 1980s Tamil-language films 1987 controversies 1987 films Films directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films with screenplays by M. Karunanidhi Indian courtroom films Indian rape and revenge films Political controversies in film Political controversies in India Tamil films remade in other languages Tamil-language Indian films