Poomalai

<p>Poomalai is a happy-go-lucky girl living with her father and elder brother. Her life changes for the worse when she is raped. was directed by , written by and produced by under Meghala Pictures. Art direction was handled by B. Nagarajan, cinematography by Amirtham and editing by R. Devarajan. Karunanidhi appeared as himself onscreen, giving the film’s opening monologue. Although Karunanidhi was the owner of Meghala Pictures, he was not credited as the film’s producer. Historian R. Kannan said that Karunanidhi used to ingeniously weave contemporary politics into the dialogues he wrote for films, and named a dialogue in where the sister speaks highly of her brother and threatens to shoot anyone speaking ill of him as an example. The soundtrack was composed by . was released on 23 October 1965, during that year’s day. Meghala Pictures distributed the film themselves in Madras, while other distributors did so in other districts of Tamil Nadu. According to historian , the film landed Karunanidhi in deep debt. wrote on 30 October, “An otherwise loose screenplay is propped up by the beautiful dialogues by M. Karunanidhi and fine portrayals by Rajendran (the hero), R. Vijayakumari (the heroine), veteran Anjali Devi (the widowed sister of the hero) and comedian Nagesh. Neelakantan’s direction is nothing to write home about, but with the material at his disposal, he has made it into a good tear-jerker, appealing to family audiences, especially women”. Writing in , T. M. Ramachandran lauded the performances of Rajendran, Vijayakumari and appreciated the performances of Nagesh, Anjali Devi, Manorama, Ravi, Asokan, Muthiah and Rajsri. He added that Karunanidhi’s screenplay and dialogues were the film’s “saving graces”, but criticised Neelakantan’s direction for succumbing to “trivialities and box-office considerations”. praised the film for Vijayakumari’s performance and Neelakanta’s direction.</p>