''Punnagai'' () is a 1971 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 buddy

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 and written by K. Balachander. It is a remake of the

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 ...

film '' Satyakam'' (1969). The film stars

Gemini Ganesan Ramasamy Ganesan (17 November 1920 – 22 March 2005), better known by his stage name Gemini Ganesan, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was referred as Kaadhal Mannan (King of Romance) for his romantic roles in films. G ...

, R. Muthuraman, Nagesh,

M. R. R. Vasu Madras Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan Vasudevan was an Indian actor who was active in Tamil cinema and theatre during the latter half of the 20th century. He was known for playing negative roles, but he was also a successful character actor. He acte ...

and Jayanthi. It was released on 5 November 1971.

Plot

The story is narrated by Rajbabu, who wants to write a book on the life of his friend, Sathya. Sathya, Rajan, Rajbabu, Mandiramoorthi and Haniff are college-mates in

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

. To celebrate their graduation, they go on a drive around the city in Haniff's car, singing about the ideals of life. The car crashes and Haniff dies, leaving his friends shocked. As time passes, Rajan, Rajbabu and Mandiramoorthi become corrupted in their pursuit of a materialistic lifestyle while Sathya vows to remain a righteous person. He meets Kanchana, a helpless young woman who has been raped and impregnated by a rich predator. She gives birth to a son, Kumar. Sathya marries her and raises Kumar as his own son. Kanchana's rapist later leaves his wealth to Kumar, but Kanchana refuses to take it. Sathya falls ill. His kidneys fail and his friends turn away when the doctor asks if any of them would donate their kidney to him. Sathya ultimately dies, but Kanchana continues to hold on to the values he taught her. Sathya's friends ultimately realize their folly and publish Rajbabu's book with the title ''Punnagai''.

Cast

Production

''Punnagai'' is a remake of the

film '' Satyakam'' (1969), with some changes made in the screenplay. Although Gemini Ganesan was usually billed with the sobriquet "Kaadhal Mannan" (King of Romance) in film credits, this was the first film where he was billed as "Nadippu Selvam". The film's cinematographer was N. Balakrishnan.

Soundtrack

Music was by M. S. Viswanathan and lyrics were 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 ...

Reception

According to historian Randor Guy, the film was not a commercial success, but was considered a classic by critics.

References

External links

* * {{K. Balachander 1970s buddy drama films 1970s Indian films 1970s Tamil-language films 1971 films Films about rape in India Films based on works by Narayan Sanyal Films directed by K. Balachander Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films set in Chennai Films with screenplays by K. Balachander Indian black-and-white films Indian buddy drama films Tamil remakes of Hindi films Tamil-language Indian films