Adaikalam

<p>Anbu is a doctor and also a lovable brother of Thamizh, who are the son and daughter of Kasthuri. Somasundaram, is Anbu’s uncle who takes care of Thamizh and her family. One day Anbu learns about Thamizh’s love and arranges for the marriage. During wedding preparations unexpectedly, Kasthuri dies out of shock. Hence Somasundaram calls Anbu’s father Sathyamurthy, who was separated from Kasthuri long ago. Anbu is infuriated and argues with Somasundaram not to allow Sathyamurthy to conduct the funeral and rituals. Sathyamurthy is repeatedly snubbed by his children; unperturbed by their mistreatment, he stays quietly with his family, bearing this agony. As story moves on, Sathyamurthy feels sad and shares his story to Somasundaram. Somasundaram narrates the flashback to Anbu and Thamizh and reveals their father’s real story. Sixteen years back, Sathyamurthy and Kasthuri, with their two children, were living happily. When Kasthuri gets pregnant for the third time, Sathyamurthy requests her to abort the baby on doctors’ advice. But Kasthuri was adamant to continue bearing the child, so she quarrels with her husband, leaves him abruptly, walks away with her children, and spends the rest of her life with her brother. When she is unconscious, the doctor had aborted the child. After finishing the flashback, Somasundaram says that all their financial needs and wants were fulfilled indirectly by Sathyamurthy from their childhood and for their education also. At last Anbu and Thamizh realise the truth and they accept and reunite with his children. Production for the film began in August 2004 with and signed on to play a brother and sister in the film. The film was revealed to be produced by Kaladass Creations, who had earlier produced ‘s (1988), while it would be directed by debutant Bhuvanaraja. Bhuvanaraja had earlier narrated two different scripts to Prashanth and by chance mentioned a partial storyline for a third, with the actor impressed with the final one. Unlike most other Tamil-language films, did not feature a romantic sub-plot for the lead character and Prashanth appreciated that he had accepted to work on the film purely for its strong script and screenplay. Bhuvanaraja cast Prashanth’s real life father, , in a pivotal role while actress worked on the film free of charge after being impressed with the film’s story. The shoot for the film continued throughout regions in in October 2004. Once the film was completed, the release was delayed after the producer became caught up with business commitments abroad. The film was further delayed as they did not want to clash with other films with similar themes such as (2005) and (2006). Subsequently, the director went on to start and work on another film titled , though it later did not release. The soundtrack was composed by the duo . The film opened on 29 December 2006. Malathi Rangarajan of wrote “‘Adaikkalam’ is for those who look for a reasonable amount of reality in cinema. Bhuvanaraja has waited long enough for the film to see the light of day. Now that it has, more such breaks ought to follow. The maker deserves it.” Malini Mannath of wrote “It’s a tale of family bonding, the script a little different and unusual, and narrated with fair competence. The debutant director has had his training with directors like Balu Mahendra and has tried to give his film a realistic emotional feel throughout”.</p>