Karakattakkaran

<p>Muthaiya is the lead performer of a troupe based out of a village. Muthaiya’s mother was his dance guru. Similarly Kamakshi is also a karakattam dancer in the nearby village and she performs regularly during temple festival of that village. Chinnarasu is the village board president and he sets an eye on Kamakshi. But Kamakshi hates Chinnarasu. To take revenge on her, Chinnarasu invites Muthaiya’s dance troupe to perform during temple festival instead of Kamakshi’s performance. Muthaiya performs well and is widely appreciated by the villagers. Kamakshi also likes Muthaiya’s performance. Kamakshi’s father invites Muthaiya to his home. And to his shock, Kamakshi’s father understands that Muthaiya is his nephew but does not reveal it to him. Muthaiya and Kamakshi fall in love with each other. Chinnarasu gets to know about Muthaiya and Kamakshi’s love affair and plans to separate them. Balaraman is Kamakshi’s innocent brother-in-law who works for Chinnarasu. Chinnarasu persuades Balaraman to challenge a dance competition between Muthaiya and Kamakshi for which both accepts. In the meantime, Chinnarasu plans to kill Muthaiya during the dance program. His assassin, a butcher, throws a knife at Muthaiya, but Kamakshi saves him, thereby getting stabbed in her leg after the dance. Muthaiya’s mother gets furious upon realising that Kamakshi is her niece and takes Muthaiya along with her and also does not permit their wedding to happen. She reveals a flashback that Kamakshi’s father is her own brother and he eloped with the jewels that were meant to be sold to meet the medical expenses of Muthaiya’s father which led to his death. But Kamakshi’s father arrives there and reveals the truth that while he went to sell the jewels, he was caught by the police suspecting him to be a smuggler following which he was jailed for a few years. Now Muthaiya’s mother realises her mistake and unites with her brother. Also she agrees for wedding between Muthaiya and Kamakshi. Chinnarasu accuses that Muthaiya and Kamakshi misbehaved in the temple and orders them to walk on fire in the temple to prove that they are pure. Muthaiya and Kamakshi successfully walk on fire while Balaraman exposes Chinnarasu’s true identity before of the villagers. Balaraman pushes Chinnarasu on to the fire but Muthaiya saves him which makes Chinnarasu remorseful. Muthaiya and Kamakshi marry. wanted to do a film on the life of dancers and their art Karagam. When producers Karumari Kandaswamy and J. Durai approached Amaran to do a project for them they agreed to do the film titled . Amaran admitted that his film was reversal of (1968) with a change of backdrop and it was who suggested the story idea for the film while Amaran revealed he “didn’t plan anything for the movie and went on scene by scene”. After achieving back-to-back successful films like (1987) and (1988), Ramarajan was the director’s only choice for the lead character and it was his 18th project as actor. For the lead actress, , daughter of made her acting debut with this film. It was Amaran’s wife who suggested her for the role. and were chosen to handle comic relief and this film became their 100th collaboration. was the original choice for Goundamani’s role. The comedy track was written by A. Veerappan. Since Amaran wanted a female dancer for Ramarajan’s troupe, was cast. The filming was completed in 28 days. The crew found the village some distance off of Madurai Pandiyan hotel on the way to Alagar Kovil where the film was shot while the panchayat scene with the banyan tree and the climax were shot in Arunachalam Studios and Ambica Studios, respectively. The music composed by . All lyrics were written by Gangai Amaran except “Paattaalae Buddhi”, which was written by Ilaiyaraaja. The song “Maanguyilae Poonguyile” is set to the , “Mariyamma” is set to , and “Ooru Vittu Ooru Vandhu” is set to . The song “Nandhavanathil Oru” was adapted by Ilaiyaraaja’s son as “Muttathu Pakkathile” in (2009). “Ooru Vittu Ooru Vandhu” was remixed by in (2014). , the producer of that film, did not acquire permission to remix the song, leading to Ilaiyaraaja taking legal action against him. For the dubbed version , all lyrics were written by . was released on 16 June 1989. The film became a major commercial success, running for over a year in Nadana Theatre at Madurai. rated the film 44 out of 100, calling it a simple, realistic village love story without much grandeur. At the , won the , and D. K. S. Babu won for . became a cult film for bringing the art of Karagam into prominence. The car , 1960’s model used in the film became popular after the film’s release. In an interview with in 2002, Somasundaram, a real-life Karakattam dancer was critical of the film, stating that it was an “insult to the dance form”. In a 2012 interview, was asked if he would ever remake , and said “it would be extremely difficult to do justice to the original”. In May 2019, Amaran expressed interest in doing a sequel with the original cast, which Ramarajan opposed the following month. In a comedy scene from (1989), Goundamani who is jailed for a petty crime, dreams of singing under the music of Ilaiyaraja, he sings “Maanguyile” to . (1990) also directed by Gangai Amaran was named after a song from the film. The comedy sequence involving the banana joke still remains a cult classic. In the comedy sequence, Senthil goes to buy two bananas for one rupee. When he returns to Goundamani with one of the two bananas after eating the other one, Goundamani asks him where the other banana is, and Senthil replies to him by saying that the other banana is the one Goundamani is holding in his hand. The sequence was referred to in the films (1990), (1992), (1992), (1997), (2001), and a from (2012) where recreates the dialogues in Hindi. In (2008), when the friends witness the car which they are going to travel, the theme music of is used as background music for the scene. The 2016 film reveals who had kept Soppanasundari, the previous owner of the pink 1960 Chevrolet Impala according to the plot.</p>