Vaidehi Kathirunthal

<p>Vellaisamy is an unkempt derelict who lives by the village temple doing menial jobs to survive but has an impressive singing ability. Vaidehi is a young widow who lives in the village with her sorrowing, alcoholic father. Minutes after Vaidehi’s marriage, the groom and his parents died in a boat accident. This led to the village ostracising her and not letting her practice dance, which she was talented in. Her father, though rich, took to drinking upon seeing his daughter’s fate. One day when some villagers spot Vellaisamy scribbling Vaidehi’s name on the temple walls, rumours about them start circling. When a distressed Vaidehi approaches and questions Vellaisamy why he has been writing her name on the walls, he reveals his tragic past and how he lost the woman of his affection, also named Vaidehi. Vellaisamy and his widowed mother lived in another village. His cousin Vaidehi, who was also brought up with him, had high hopes of marrying him. Despite being in love with Vaidehi, Vellaisamy neglected her for fun. After buying wedding jewels for Vaidehi, he played a final prank on her by telling her that he is engaged to someone else. Distraught, Vaidehi ate poisonous seeds and died in Vellaisamy’s arms. Within weeks, Vellaisamy’s mother also died. Vellaisamy gave his properties to poor people and moved to his present village for closure. Vellaisamy and Vaidehi now share a mutual respect for each other’s melancholic lives but soon realise that they need to work together to unite Nataraj and Sengamalam, a young couple in love, against the wrath of the whole village, particularly Sengamalam’s ruthless brother Vellikizhamai Ramasamy. Vellaisamy is killed by Ramasamy’s goons in the melee, and the young lovers are united, while Vaidehi is left alone. After finished composing the songs of (1985) in half-a-day, well before the three-day schedule, he started to compose other songs since he was free at that time; he ended up composing six songs, hoping to use them in a potential film. Producer-lyricist , who used to listen to Ilaiyaraaja’s unused songs and pick any of them he liked for future projects, wanted one of the six tunes for the film that would become . But Ilaiyaraaja insisted that he listen to all six tunes; the producer did so, and the storyline of was developed based on them. The title was derived from a line from the song “Vasanthathil Orr Naal” from (1971). The film was written and directed by , and produced by Thooyavan under Appu Movies, while Arunachalam was credited as presenter. Cinematography was handled by Raja Rajan, and editing by M. Shrinivasan and B. Krishnakumar. agreed to play a “soft role” at a time when he was branded an . was initially offered to be the lead actress, but she declined, citing a lack of interest in an acting career; the role went to . This was the Tamil debut of actress (credited as Parimalam), and the feature film debut of (credited as Raghavendar) and Sivankumar. Shooting took place predominantly at the banks of the . The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The song “Kaathirunthu” is set in the known as , “Azhagu Malaraada” is set in , and “Inraiku Yen Indha” is set in . ‘s wife Sudha had been contacted by Ilaiyaraaja’s manager to sing in the film but, incorrectly believing it was a , declined. For every day played at a theatre in , “Rasathi Unna” attracted the attention of wild elephants which came near the theatre and remained till the song ended before returning to the for- , the singer of this song, “Kaathirunthu” and “Inraiku Yen Indha”, said all three songs were recorded within a day. was released on 23 October 1984, day. The Tamil magazine , in its issue dated 2 December 1984, carried the reviews of multiple people who had seen the film. The review board of the magazine gave the film a rating of 44 out of 100 based on these reviews, with the consensus being favourable towards Ilaiyaraaja’s music and critical towards the multiple storylines stitched together. critic posted similar views, praising the music but noting that despite so many positives, the film fell apart due to the subpar story. Balumani of praised acting, music, humour, cinematography and direction. Despite facing competition from other Diwali releases such as and the Tamil-dubbed version of the -language , the film was a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres. It was remade in as (1986), and in as (2004). emerged a breakthrough in Vijayakanth’s career. According to film journalist Sreedhar Pillai, it was one of the films that made him the “Raja of B and C stations”. The waterfalls where the film was shot was renamed after the film. The quote ” lightey venuma” ( ) spoken by Goundamani’s character became a popular phrase in Tamil Nadu and refers to someone wanting and persisting on something particular. The quote also inspired a song of the same name in (2014). The Chennai-based brand Dude Thamizha prints T-shirts that carry the dialogue which are their best-sellers too. The character name of Goundamani, All in All Azhagu Raja, was also used as the title a , while the 2019 film derives its title from that character’s dialogue.</p>