''Thamarai Nenjam'' ( ) is a 1968 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

romantic drama film Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...

written and directed by K. Balachander. 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 ...

, B. Saroja Devi and Vanisri, with

Major Sundarrajan Srinivasan Sundarrajan (17 March 1935 – 28 February 2003), popularly known as Major Sundarrajan, was an Indian actor and film director who performed predominantly in Tamil language films and plays. He was well known for his sophisticated ...

and

Nagesh Nageshwaran Rao (born Cheyur Krishnarao Nageshwaran; (27 September 1933 – 31 January 2009) was an Indian actor and comedian mostly remembered for his comic roles in Tamil films during the 1960s. Nagesh was born in Dharapuram. He acted in ov ...

playing supporting roles. It was released on 31 May 1968, and won two

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Governmen ...

: Best Film (Third Prize) and Best Dialogue Writer (Balachander). The film was remade in Telugu as ''Mooga Prema'' (1971), 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 '' Haar Jeet'' (1972) and 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 '' Mugila Mallige'' (1985) by Balachander himself.

Plot

Two friends, Kamala and Radha, fall in love with Murali, only for Kamala ending up helping Radha and Murali get together. However, when Radha finds out about this, she feels guilty and starts pushing away Murali towards Kamala thereby turning all three lives into hell. In the end, Kamala, who serialises her story in a weekly magazine through which Radha figures it out, concludes that the only way to resolve this is to kill herself. Does she succeed?

Cast

Production

C. R. Vijayakumari was offered to act in the film, but did not accept, resulting in B. Saroja Devi replacing her.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan and lyrics were written 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 ...

Release and reception

''Thamarai Nenjam'' was released on 31 May 1968, and favourably reviewed by ''

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 ...

''. The film won the

Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film The Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film is given by the Government of Tamil Nadu as part of its annual Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Tamil ( Kollywood) films. It includes prizes for three top places. Key List of winners Referenc ...

(Third Prize), and Balachander won the award for Best Dialogue Writer.

References

External links

* {{TamilNaduStateFilmAwardBestFilm 1960s female buddy films 1960s Indian films 1960s Tamil-language films 1968 films 1968 romantic drama films Films directed by K. Balachander Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films with screenplays by K. Balachander Indian black-and-white films Indian female buddy films Indian romantic drama films Tamil films remade in other languages Tamil-language Indian films