Pagal Nilavu

<p>Selvam is an aimless youth in Muttam, Kanyakumari. Out of a sense of deep gratitude, he ends up joining the gang of Devaraj alias Periyavar and complications arise when he falls in love with Jyothi, the sister of Peter, an honest and committed police inspector who is newly posted to the town. Periyavar pretty much runs the town and though he helps people in need, he is a diabolical kingpin who will not compromise on his hold of the town for anything. He wins Selvam’s undying loyalty when he helps him with money and power at a critical juncture to save his mother. In this backdrop Peter takes charge and moves into the town with his sister and daughter. Being uncompromising in his morals, Peter is automatically drawn into a game of one-upmanship with Periyavar and his gang. He also consequentially cannot stand Periyavar’s chief henchman Selvam, and is consequentially drawn into continuous verbal and physical duels with him. Selvam meanwhile falls hook line and sinker to Jyothi and tries every trick in the book to woo her and eventually wins. and of were childhood friends as both their fathers were partners of Venus Movies and after the latter became a producer, he was keen to make a film directed by Ratnam. Like with the producer of (1984), Ratnam initially narrated the script of (1986), then under the title of , but Thyagarajan wanted an ; the pair eventually began work on . The producer suggested that should play a character, while and were also signed on for the lead roles in the film. and were also selected to portray supporting roles. As the film was set in a small town milieu, Ratnam felt that he could not do justice to the local dialogues and A. L. Narayanan was drafted in to help work on the dialogues. The film was Ratnam’s first in Tamil. Since Radhika’s character was a dancer, the actress had to undergo training. The film was launched at Prasad Studios along with song recording in December 1984. was the first Mani Ratnam film to have standalone songs, which had to be picturised and he shot the videos of “Maina Maina” and “Nee Appothu”, one after another. To make the film more commercially viable, Thyagarajan included a comedy subplot written by and , featuring as a . Cinematography was handled by , and editing by . The music was composed by , with lyrics by . was released on 28 June 1985, and was successful at the box office. gave the film a rating of 46 out of 100.</p>