Director: Kasturiraja; Writer: Kasturiraja; Producer: Rajkiran; Cinematographer: Kichaas; Cast: Rajkiran, Meena, Srividya, Saradha, Preetha, Vadivelu
Summary: Based on a Madurai folk narrative, the
melodrama claims to address the downside of
marriages arranged in the cradle, but actually
solicits our sympathy and understanding for
callously brutish men. The crude drunkard
Mayandi (Rajkiran) marries and rapes his
fearful young niece Cholaiamma (Meena),
making her pregnant. The girl eventually
realises that Mayandi is a nice man whom she
should have loved all along, but it is too late
and she dies in childbirth. Undeterred,
Mayandi then turns his attentions to
Choliamma’s sister Kasturi (Preetha) and,
recognising that only truly brutish men are
irresistible, she challenges him to try and take
her away from the man who loves her. The
latter, in contrast to the sterling masculine
qualities of Mayandi, is represented as a
weakling who actually loves Kasturi. Mayandi
eventually realises that he has to curb his
notions of ‘masculinity’. Unfortunately, he
pays the price for this change of heart and he
dies in the arduous process of helping Kasturi
to get together with her beloved weakling,
whereupon Kasturi adopts her sister’s
orphaned child.
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