Kuzhandaiyum Deivamum

<p>Chandrasekar “Sekar”, Sundaram and Sathyabama “Bama” are college-mates in . Bama’s parents – the henpecked Ramalingam and Alamelu – own a bus company. Due to Alamelu’s influence, Bama too is like that. Sekar survives on scholarship provided by Ramalingam because the former’s grandfather helped Ramalingam, but is unaware as money is always sent to him through a lawyer. Sekar and Bama fall in love. Alamelu objects, and Sekar leaves Bama, but at her insistence, Alamelu agrees for their wedding after finding Sekar intelligent and smart. Post-wedding, Sekar moves into Bama’s house. He is appointed as the manager of the bus company, but is frustrated over lacking the clout to decide or to handle financial matters. A year later, Bama gives birth to twin girls Lalitha “Lalli” and Padmini “Pappi”. Sekar continues to struggle working under Alamelu. When she insults Sekar’s friends who came as guests for an official event, an infuriated Sekar decides to leave the house. He asks Bama to come with him, but as Bama shows hesitation and tries to pacify Sekar, Alamelu pushes her into a room. Bama falls unconscious due to the push. An unaware Sekar continues knocking on her door asking her to come with him. He mistakenly believes she is reluctant to accompany him, and leaves with Pappi for Singapore, where he becomes an estate manager. Bama publishes advertisements unsuccessfully seeking them. A few years later, Sekar returns to Madurai and Pappi joins the school where Lalli studies. Nirmala, Pappi’s newly appointed dance teacher, plots to exploit Sekar with the help of her mother Sogusu. Sundaram, who is unemployed after losing multiple jobs, joins Sekar and tries to unite him and Bama. Nirmala and Sogusu move into Sekar’s house. Pappi and Lalli fight during their school picnic, and are forced to share a room for the night as punishment, during which they start bonding and also realise that they are twins. Sekar becomes ill and Nirmala serves him alcohol. He becomes drunk, and Nirmala tricks him into sexually pursuing her. When he falls unconscious in bed, Nirmala and Sogusu stage it to appear like he had sex with Nirmala. The next morning, Sekar, who cannot remember what happened, thinks he impregnated Nirmala. He promises to marry her to save her from shame. Pappi and Lalli agree to swap identities for a while; after the picnic ends, Pappi goes to Bama as Lalli, and Lalli to Sekar as Pappi. Lalli is against her father marrying Nirmala. She later learns about Nirmala and Sogusu’s true colours and informs Pappi over phone. Sundaram overhears this and realises the twins swapped identities but promises to support them. Sundaram’s attempt to expose Nirmala causes Sekar to repeatedly slap him. Lalli demands that Nirmala leave the house. Enraged, Nirmala, pushes Lalli and she faints. Sundaram informs Pappi over phone about Lalli’s injury and when she cries on learning this, Ramalingam and Bama learn about the identity swap. Bama and Pappi rush to meet Lalli. On regaining consciousness, Lalli reveals her true identity to her father. Bama meets Sekar and unsuccessfully begs him for forgiveness. Sekar decides to keep both girls and throws Bama out of his house, but she chooses to wait outside the house. The girls, locked in a room, pray to to unite their parents, and Lalli remembers an earlier suggestion by Sundaram that praying at the , would be effective. When attempting to escape, they meet Sogusu and share their plans. Sogusu, seeing an opportunity to rid them, helps them out. The next day, Sogusu sends a killer with the girls, lying that he is their bodyguard. Sekar finds Bama still waiting outside his house, and refuses Sundaram’s pleas to accept her. Sekar laters overhears Nirmala and Sogusu conversing and realises they manipulated his relationship with Nirmala and their current plan to kill the girls to usurp his wealth. Enraged, he disowns Nirmala and rushes with Bama to Palani to save the girls. Lalli realises her bodyguard is a killer and informs Pappi. They escape to the temple through , but the killer catches up. He attempts to kill them but a snake kills him instead. The family reunites. M. Kumaran of saw the American film (1961), based on ‘s German novel , and saw potential for a Tamil version of it; he persuaded his brother to watch the film. Saravanan complied, but was sceptical over the story’s commercial viability if filmed in Tamil and also felt audience would not be receptive towards the concept of divorce, although Kumaran remained adamant. They later asked to watch and if he could it in his screenplay; AVM was impressed with his screenplay. Saravanan said Seesumpatti Rajagopal wrote the climax portions. were selected to direct the film, titled . Cinematography was handled by and G. Vittal Rao, art direction by A. K. Sekar, and Panju edited the film under the pseudonym “Panjabi”. was selected to play the male lead and was paid (equivalent to 670,000 or US$7,900 in 2023). portrayed twin sisters; in the scenes where both characters appear, and techniques were used. The climax was shot at . A real snake was brought for filming at the time, but Padmini, unlike other South Indian child actors, was unafraid of the snake. The music was composed by . The song “Pazhamuthir Solaiyile” is set in the raga, and “Enna Vegam Nillu Bhama” is set in . The song “Anbulla Maanvizhiye” was remixed by Rafi in the film (2010), and “Enna Vegam” was remixed by Mursak in (2011). of wrote, “One of the major factors contributing to the success of the movie was its melodious music composed by M. S. Viswanathan. Many of the songs became hits and are still remembered today”. was released on 19 November 1965. The Tamil magazine , in a review dated 19 December 1965, applauded Padmini’s performance and stated that she was the sole reason to watch the film, which the reviewer called childish. Writing for , T. M. Ramachandran criticised the film’s lack of originality, but called it a “clever adaptation” of , and described Padmini’s dual role performance as the film’s ” “. appreciated the cast performances, but criticised the film for lacking AVM’s signature touch. , then the , appreciated the film mainly for the twins’ performance, and was initially unaware they were played by the same actress. The film was a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres. At the , it won in the category. Krishnan–Panju remade the film twice; in as (1966) and in as (1967). It was also remade in as (1974) and in as (1976).</p>