Vasantha Maligai

Vasantha Maligai
Directed by	K.S. Prakash Rao
Produced by	D. Ramanaidu
Starring	Sivaji Ganesan Vanisri K.Balaji Santha Kumari Nagesh Pandhari Bai Sundarajan V. K. Ramasamy
Music by	K. V. Mahadevan
Release date	January 1973
Language	Tamil

Vasantha Maligai (English: Joyful Palace) is a 1972 Tamil film, directed by K.S. Prakash Rao. It is a remake of the hit Telugu film, Prem Nagar. It ran for nearly 750 days in the theatres and Sivaji Ganesan and Vanisri were both praised well for their acting. The producer D. Ramanaidu made the same films in three languages. In Telugu (the original) was made as Prem Nagar released in 1971 and in Hindi was made as Prem Nagar released in 1974. In Telugu the pair was played by Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Vanisree and in Hindi by Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini.

A digitally restored version of the film was released in March 2013.

Plot

Anand (Sivaji Ganesan) is a rich playboy and alcoholic, and he has an elder brother Vijay(K.Balaji). Anand goes on an aeroplane from another country back to his home. An air hostess called Latha (Vanisri) is also aboard on the plane. After the plane lands, the film returns to Latha's house. She has a father (Sundarajan), mother (Pandari Bai), two brothers and a sister. Her elder brother has already married and his wife lives in the same house too. Latha is the person who is now earning as she is the eldest. They are a middle-class family and her mother wants her to find another job as being air hostess means that she would come home late and it would be hard.

Meanwhile, Anand celebrates his birthday in a pub like area near his house. Vanisri goes to the same pub for her job now and she has an interview with the manager. However, the manager is a bad person who shuts the room and tries to rape her. Anand hears Latha screaming from outside as he is going home, and pushes the door. He fights the manager and takes Latha in his car to her own house. The next day, Latha returns to Anand's house with his coat that he gave her to wear and some money. She asks him for a job. He agrees and gives her a job as a person who takes care of his needs.

The next day,he shows her around his house and she meets his mother, brother and sister-in-law. Latha soon notices that Anand is an alcoholic and wants to go away but his servant says to her that she must not as after she has come, he is behaving a bit more properly.

Anand's fiancee comes to his home but she soon complains in front of Anand that he is a proper alcoholic and that she does not wish to marry him. Meanwhile his sister-in-law thinks that Latha has come to take his fiancee's place. Anand's mother is taken aback by her comment and Anand's fiancee's comment too. Latha tells her, after everyone has left the table; that she will try and stop Anand from drinking. Later on she catches Anand drinking with his servant(Nagesh). His servant runs away from seeing her but Anand stays there still drinking. Latha throws the glass after arguing with him and Anand gets so furious that he throws another glass bottle onto Latha's forehead. But he soon realises that what he did was bad and shoots all his drinking bottles and makes a promise to Latha that he will never drink again. He tells her about his life and that he had an Ayya who soon died when he was young and that he his father had died too. But after this incident Anand tells everyone that he is going to build an new palace for himself and the girl that he adores in his heart. This palace is called 'Vasantha Maligai'. He takes Latha to his house as everyone else in his family has sent her to ask him about the girl he likes. But actually, he loves Latha. Latha gets fascinated by seeing the person he loves. He shows her her own reflection in a separate room meaning that she is the girl. However, Vijay sees this and goes to tell his mother. He decides to make a complaint that Latha took one of his wife's jewellery. Anand becomes suspicious about Latha as one of his servant's say that she found the jewellery in Latha's house. He asks Latha but she runs away, as she didn't expect him to get suspicious about her. Anand tries to forgive her though as he secretly hears his servant (Nagesh) whisper to another servant about his brother's plan.

But she still doesn't forgive Anand. Anand soon loses his temper and gets ill. Meanwhile, Latha is proposed to have a marriage with someone else. Anand's mother goes to forgive Latha but she hands her an invitation for her marriage. She shows this to Anand but Anand still goes. Latha is shocked to see him even though he privately meets her except her sister-in-law spots this and announces this to the whole crowd. They all go away leaving Latha and her family. Then all of a sudden, Anand's mother comes in and says that she should marry Anand. Anand gets too sick that when Latha sees him in the palace and he faints. He also drank poison before she came. At the hospital Anand recovers and sees Latha ad his family. The film ends with Latha hugging Anand.

Cast

• Sivaji Ganesan as Anand
• Vanisri as Latha
• K. Balaji as Vijay
• Santha Kumari as Anand and Vijay's mother
• Nagesh as the servant
• Major Sundararajan as Latha's father
• Pandari Bai as Latha's mother
• Sreekanth as Latha's elder brother
• V. K. Ramasamy

Soundtrack

1. O!Manida Jathiye (TM Soundararajan)
2. Oru Kinnathai (TM Soundararajan)
3. Kudimaganey (TM Soundararajan, L.R.Eswari)
4. Kalaimagal (P Susheela)
5. Mayakam Enna (TM Soundararajan, P Susheela)
6. Irandu Manam (TM Soundararajan)
7. Yaarukaga (TM Soundararajan)

Reception

Reviews

M. Suganth of The Times of India said, "To be frank, the opening 20 minutes are as choppy a ride as that experienced by the characters in the introductory scene." He also said, "But forget K V Mahadevan's songs, forget Krishnarao's dazzling sets and forget the leading man. This film still holds up so well — 40 years after its release — because of the writing and characterization. Yes, for a film that is dismissed as melodramatic romance, the writing (Balamurugan) is quite nuanced." and concluded, "Vasantha Maligai is further proof that old is indeed gold."

Box office

Vasantha Maligai was one of the biggest blockbusters of Ganesan and ran for over 750 days in theatres. It held the record of running the highest continuous House Full Shows in Madras. Vasantha Maligai had a remarkable 271 continuous House Full Shows in all the three release theaters viz., Shanthi, Crown & Bhuvaneswari. Vasantha Maligai was also very successful in Sri Lanka where it ran more than 250 days.

Re-release

A digitally restored version of Vasantha Maligai was released in March 2013. The restoration was done by P. Srinivasan of Sai Ganesh Films at a cost of ₹10 lakh (US$12,000), consuming 5 months of work.

Home video

Vasantha Maligai is included alongside various Sivaji Ganesan hit films in the compilation DVD 8 Ulaga Adhisayam Sivaji.

External links

• Vasantha Maligai at IMDb