Director: Bharathirajaa; Writer: Bharthirajaa; Producer: Bharathiraja; Cinematographer: B. Kannan; Editor: K. Palanivel; Cast: Raja, Rajashree, Periyadhasan, Maheshwari, Rajina
Summary: Remarkable Bharthirajaa melodrama
addressing the feudal practice of female
infanticide in parts of Tamil Nadu. The school
teacher Soosai secretly adopts the third
daughter of the villager Mokkaiyan
(Periyadhasan) when he learns that she is to
die. The two elder daughters, Periyakanni and
Karuthamma (Rajashree), grow up to a tragic
fate. Periyakanni is unhappily married and sees
her own daughter killed at birth. Karuthamma,
however, gets her sister’s evil husband arrested
for the act, supported by the progressive
veterinarian Stephen (Raja). In the end, when
the evil husband is released from jail,
Karuthamma kills him. A second plot has
Karuthamma fall in love with Stephen to the
envy of his urban girlfriend Rosy (Maheshwari),
who eventually turns out to be the surviving
third sister of Karuthamma. The film’s opening
sets the tone as an ancient nurse sings a lullaby
in a cracked voice, preparing to feed poisoned
cactus milk to girls who have to die. The
director, enhancing his selfmade image of
social reformer, introduces the film.
Nevertheless, he occasionally achieves
surprisingly tragic, primitive realism,
strengthened by Rehman’s extraordinary song
Porale ponnu thayi.
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