''Ore Oru Gramathiley'' () 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 K. Jyothi Pandian. The film stars

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

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. ...

. Based on the play ''Gandhi Gramam'' () by Vaali, it revolves around a collector who manipulates her caste certificate to get a government job. The film became controversial for criticising caste based reservations, but was later cleared for release by the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

following changes in the climax, and won the

National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues The National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues was one of the category in the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India ...

Plot

Gayathri is a Brahmin girl. Her father wants her to study IAS as per the wish of her deceased mother. But he worries whether Gayathri will succeed in exams because of the reservation policy and since she is a Brahmin girl, she will have no reservation and she has to secure more marks. He seeks opinion from the Tahsildar who is a well wisher of Gayathri's family because Gayathri's grandfather only helped him to study . So the Tahsildar devises a plan. He renames Gayathri to Karupayee and creates a false backward class certificate for her and enrolls her in a home for backward class in a remote area. He tells Gayathri's father not to reveal that Gayathri is his daughter. Few years pass by and Gayathri becomes a collector. She does good to the people and is a well respected woman. One day, an old servant of the Tahsildar who knows the truth about Gayathri, comes and demands for money from Gayathri. He blackmails that he will reveal the forgery done by Gayathri upon failure to pay up. Gayathri gives him money whenever he demands. One day Gayathri gets angry and doesn't give him money. So the servant gets angry and complains to the police about Gayathri's forgery. Gayathri is arrested and a case is framed on her for forgery even though the people of the locality support her. Gayathri reveals in the court that people from her community are poor but are denied the opportunities because of her community. The judge says that it is not fair and sentences them to 3 years in prison for forging certificate to get benefits.

Cast

Soundtrack

The soundtrack 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

C. V. Aravind 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 ...

'' praised the film for having a "novel theme", but said the comedy track was "not up to the mark".

Controversies

''Ore Oru Gramathiley'' was initially banned for criticising caste based reservations. The

later allowed its release, after the producer agreed to make changes in the climax. After it won the

, a writ plea to have the award nullified was made in the High Court. The plaintiff argued that the conferment of the award should be deemed "illegal" since the film was screened for the jury even before the ban was lifted by the Supreme Court. Ultimately, his efforts were fruitless.

References

External links

* * {{National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues 1980s Indian films 1980s Tamil-language films 1987 controversies 1989 films Best Film on Other Social Issues National Film Award winners Censored films Film censorship in India Films about the caste system in India Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Indian films based on plays Tamil-language Indian films Works about reservation in India Works subject to a lawsuit Works subject to expurgation