Ezhavathu Manithan

<p>Anand, a skilled engineering graduate, comes to a village from Madras to work in a cement factory. He is shocked when he learns about the exploitation and mistreatment of the workers there. Arjun, the corrupt manager of the factory, takes half of the wages from every worker as his commission. Anand complains to Ramkumar, the son of the factory owner, who used to be a college friend, and Ramkumar gives Arjun a warning. Meanwhile, Anand befriends Senthamari, a labourer in the factory, and is attracted to Gowri, Senthamari’s sister. Gowri has not told anyone that she is affected by a lung disease caused by air pollution. Sudhakar, another labourer in the factory, is affected by the same disease. Dr Prema, a government doctor, informs Sudhakar that the disease has advanced and he needs to be treated in . Kulashekara Perumal, the factory owner, refuses to provide treatment to Sudhakar, resulting in the latter’s death. A distressed Anand pleads with the management to look into the issue and to provide the employees with benefits that they are entitled to receive, but he is refused. Ramkumar tries to get the doctor who treated Sudhaker to issue a false certificate of death, but she refuses. Dr Prema also lets Anand know that she reported the death to the government health ministry, but nothing will be done about it because Ramkumar has bribed all the officials. Anand tries to speak with Ramkumar, but he beats him up. Anand establishes a union at the factory and calls a strike. When Senthamari leaves town to start another job, Ramkumar chases after him and murders him. The new factory manager, Settaya, arranges for Ramkumar to lay low in Chennai, while he buries Senthamari’s body in the factory. All the management’s attempts to get Anand to call off the strike fail. Settaya files a police report against Anand, accusing him of the attempted murder of Ramkumar. He also promises the factory workers that he will build a new chimney to reduce the air pollution if they call off the strike. A lawyer who is supportive of the factory’s trade union bails out Anand and alerts the government to the factory’s poor environmental record. The management decides to blow up the factory and claim the insurance money. However, their plan backfires as Anand and his friends spot most of the bombs and dispose of them. The one bomb that they do not remove is in the room where Settaya is hiding; he dies in the subsequent blast. Anand and the rest of the workers assume control of the factory. Dr Prema informs Anand that Gowri will recover from her illness. Director was initially approached by Palai N. Shanmugam, a former Indian independence activist and a leading criminal lawyer from , , to make a documentary film on the Tamil poet . The year 1982 marked the centenary of the poet. While carrying out research about Bharati, Hariharan felt Bharati was a “complicated character” and a film about him “would have to tell a few truths that people would not be too comfortable with”. Shanmugam and Hariharan abandoned the project and decided to make a film based on a real-life incident that took place in a village in which involved Shanmugam himself. He was fighting a case against a local cement factory in the locality that was polluting the air. Hariharan developed this event into a screenplay and thus made the film. was Hariharan’s second film in Tamil. He was formerly visiting faculty at the , , where Raghuvaran was a student. Raghuvaran was recommended to star in the film by co-writers and Arunmozhi, who were both students of the same institute. Raghuvaran was initially selected for the role of Ramkumar. However, after the screen test, the crew felt that he was “hero material” and elected him to play the lead role. The rest of the cast was made up by newcomers. The film was shot in the villages of the Tirunelveli district. The stated theme of the film is that it requires a “seventh man” to lead six others in a village. It also focuses on the effects of factory air pollution on people and the environment. It also highlights the plight of workers and their exploitation by factory owners. The film features ten songs, all taken from an album composed by . Vaidyanathan had set the words of the Tamil poet to music. The film was the first to feature a score by Vaidyanathan. had a theatrical release on 11 June 1982, and opened to critical acclaim. It had a 100-day run at the theatres and received praise for its content and cast performances. Raghuvaran’s acting was well received. In its review, the Tamil magazine appreciated the film’s theme but criticised its failure to provide a solution for the issue of factory air pollution. It further noted that the “intensity” reduced as the film progressed and called it “disappointing” towards the climax. It also noted that the was “poor” and the was “missing” in several scenes. However, it lauded the content and casting, and the “hard-hitting” dialogue. Thiraignani of praised the acting of Raghuvaran, Hariharan’s direction, Dharma’s cinematography, Somasundareshwar-Arunmozhi’s dialogues and Vaidyanathan’s music. At the , won the award for . In addition, it collected two awards: and at the . The film premièred at the “Indian Panorama” section of the . It was also screened in the where it won the , the first Tamil film to win an international award. It was also one of India’s official entries to the (1983), where it was nominated for the prize.</p>