Naalaiya Theerpu

<p>Mahalakshmi endures abuse from her husband, Arun Mehta, who is unfaithful to her with multiple women. Despite this, Mahalakshmi independently raises her son Vijay. As Vijay grows up, he seeks revenge for his father’s wrongdoings. Vijay made his debut as a leading actor with the film, aged eighteen. A fan of , he told Chandrasekhar that he wanted to headline a film. Vijay enacted a scene from (1992), the one in which the title character (Rajinikanth) challenges Ashok ( ). Chandrasekhar recalled, “He did it exactly the way it was in the film […] That’s when I realised that he had talent, a fierce passion”. The music was composed by , under the name of Manimekalai at the age of 12. The film featured lyrics written by , P. R. C. Balu and . The latter went on to become a popular music composer. was released on 4 December 1992. Ayyappa Prasad of wrote, “Many tongue-in-cheek remarks on the prevailing political and economic climate makes the film worth watching”. However, other reviews were mostly negative, including the magazine which wrote, “Should we pay to see this face in theaters?” Despite Chandrasekhar’s confidence, became a . Chandrasekhar recalled in 2018, “To be honest, I shouldn’t have made that film for him especially when he was just 18 […] I thought now that my son is also becoming an actor, I could continue to practise my style of filmmaking and pass on socially relevant messages to the audience through him. Maybe the timing wasn’t right”. Despite the film’s failure, Vijay won the .</p>