Pillai Nila

<p>Dolly is the young sister of a widowed rich man named David. She falls in love with Mohan, who studies at her university. Before she tries to express her love, she suddenly flies abroad for an office matter. Meanwhile, in India, Mohan’s mother arranges his marriage with his cousin Bhuvana, and he marries her. When Dolly returns from abroad on her birthday, she expresses her love to Mohan, but he rejects her because his wife is pregnant. Dolly’s obsession causes her to commit suicide in front of him at the hospital. At the same time, as his wife is giving birth. Their daughter, Shalini, is imbued with Dolly’s evil spirit as Dolly takes revenge. What happens next is the rest of the story. After his directorial debut (1982) failed, did not get any further offers to direct which left him depressed and he contemplated suicide. approached Manobala to direct a film for him which was titled ; however the partners of Kalaimani were uninterested in having Manobala as director and replaced him with . Despite this Kalaimani promised Manobala to direct a film which eventually became . The film took inspiration from various horror films such as (1983), (1982), (1976) and (1973). The makers sought to avoid clichéd horror film tropes such as , “sex-charged teenagers” and “unrealistic monsters in rubber masks”. The music was composed by . It took him six days to finish the film’s re-recording. was released on 14 April 1985, . Despite facing competition from other films released in the same week including Mohan’s own films and , it emerged a commercial success. (a duo) of wrote the first half was not so boring, but the second half did not test their patience at all. The duo praised Ashok Kumar’s cinematography, the performances of Mohan, Nalini and Shalini but felt the climax was absurd.</p>