''Thirudathe'' ( ) is a 1961 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

crime drama film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...

directed by P. Neelakantan. 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 '' Pocket Maar'' (1956), it stars

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 ...

B. Saroja Devi Bangalore Saroja Devi (born 7 January 1938) is an Indian actress who has acted in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films. She acted in around 200 films over seven decades. She is known by the epithets "''Abhinaya Saraswathi''" ( Saraswathi of ...

and

M. N. Nambiar Manjeri Narayanan Nambiar (7 March 1919 – 19 November 2008) was an Indian actor who predominantly worked in Tamil cinema, renowned for his portrayals of villainous characters. With a career spanning over eight decades, he became a notable fig ...

. The film was released on 23 March 1961, and ran for 100 days in theatres.

Plot

Balu is a small-time thief. Once he happens to steal money from a woman. After his death the family becomes Balu's responsibility, and his attitude toward stealing changes when his mother discovers her son was a thief and sacrifices her life. How the family is saved forms the rest of the story.

Cast

Production

The film, a remake of the

film '' Pocket Maar'' (1956), was directed by P. Neelakandan and V. Arunachalam under A. L. S. Productions, with story written by Chinna Annamalai and dialogues 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 ...

and Ma. Lakshmanan. Lakshmanan came up with two titles for the film: ''Thirudathe'' () and ''Nalladhukku Kaalamillai'' (), recommending the latter.

objected, believing that audiences would think the title would represent his own opinion, and that the film actually exhorts people not to do wrong. Hence, the former title was finalised.

was cast as the lead actress at Ramachandran's insistence.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

S. M. Subbaiah Naidu Subburayulu Munuswami Subbaiah Naidu (a.k.a. SMS) (15 March 1914 – 26 May 1979) was an Indian composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He was one of the oldest music directors. He worked as an in-house music composer for Central Studios and ...

. The song "Ennaruge Nee Irundhal" was composed by

Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy were an Indian music composing duo composed of M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy. They worked together on over 100 films, from 1952's '' Panam'' to 1965's '' Aayirathil Oruvan''. After their split, Ramamoorthy w ...

. It was recorded for an earlier film produced by A. L. S. Productions, but was not used due to that film's length. With the permission of S. M. Subbaiah Naidu, producer A. L. Srinivasan used that song in this film. However, credit was not given to Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy in the title.

Release and reception

''Thirudathe'' was released on 23 March 1961. Kanthan 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 ...

'' gave the film a favourable review for many aspects, including Neelakanta's direction, the cast performances and the music. The film was a commercial success, running for 100 days in theatre. According to

Ashish Rajadhyaksha Ashish Vithal Rajadhyaksha (born 12 March 1957) is an Indian film scholar, art curator and cultural theorist. He was a Senior Fellow at the Bangalore-based Centre for the Study of Culture and Society. Early life Ashish Vithal Rajadhyaksha ...

and

Paul Willemen Paul Willemen (17 August 1944 – 13 May 2012) was a Belgian-born British professor, author and essayist. According to the British Film Institute, he was regarded as "a pioneering figure in the revolution in thinking about the cinema that b ...

in the book ''Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema'', for Ramachandran this marked a beginning of transition to roles that had "a contemporary setting", as opposed to period settings. Historian M. S. S. Pandian considers the film "inaugurated the MGR persona of a subaltern in the service of society", a trend that continued through the 1970s.

In popular culture

In '' Andha 7 Naatkal'' (1981), Gopi (

Master Haja Sheriff Master Haja Sheriff (born 3 January 1969 as Khaja Sheriff) is an Indian program organiser and former actor who has primarily worked in Tamil cinema. He has made appearances in popular films such as ''Uthiripookkal'', '' Suvarilladha Chiththira ...

) sells stolen goods on the street; when police seize the goods, the poster on which the items were kept is revealed to be that of ''Thirudathe''.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{P. Neelakantan 1960s Indian films 1960s Tamil-language films 1961 crime drama films 1961 films Films about theft Films directed by P. Neelakantan Indian crime drama films Tamil remakes of Hindi films Tamil-language Indian films