Sandhya Raagam

<p>Chokkalingam, an octagenarian, leaves his village upon the death of his wife. He migrates to Madras, where his nephew Vasu, a lower-middle-class man lives along with his family. Chokkalingam becomes an additional burden for Vasu, who is not able to meet the demands of his own family. The film’s central theme revolves around old age. The film was made on a shoestring budget. Like his previous films, Mahendra wrote the screenplay, edited and photographed the film apart from handling the direction. Ramasamy was hired as the art director while V. S. Murthy and looked after the audiography. The film did not have any songs; composed the background score. is yet to have a theatrical release, but was regularly aired on . N. Krishnaswamy of said, “Balu Mahendra narrates the plight of his lead character with a tremendously observant eye. The celluloid breathes silence and beauty, and the humour and piquancy of the situations are striking”. The film won the in 1990. A year later, it was screened at the along with (1990) as the only two Tamil films as part of Indian Panorama. In a 2007 interview to , Mahendra said that and were his two films “with the fewest compromises and mistakes”. In 2011, Mahendra said that there was no existing negative of the film.</p>