Moondram Pirai

Moondram Pirai
File:Moondram Pirai Poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Balu Mahendra
Written by	Balu Mahendra
Produced by	G. Thyagarajan G. Saravanan
Starring	Kamal Haasan Sridevi
Cinematography	Balu Mahendra
Edited by	D. Vasu
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Production company	Sathya Jyothi Films
Distributed by	Sathya Jyothi Films
Release date	19 February 1982 (1982-02-19)
Running time	134 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Moondram Pirai (English: The crescent seen on the third day following New Moon day) is a 1982 Indian Tamil drama film written, directed and filmed by Balu Mahendra. The film features Kamal Haasan and Sridevi in the lead roles, while Silk Smitha, Poornam Vishwanathan and Y. Gee. Mahendran play supporting roles. The film's soundtrack album and background score were composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics written by Kannadasan, Vairamuthu and Gangai Amaran.

The film is a morality tale about a school teacher, R. Srinivas, who rescues a woman, Bhagyalakshmi who is suffering from amnesia, from a brothel, and looks after her in his house located in Ketti. The rest of the film shows how Bhagyalakshmi recovers her memory with Srinivas' help. Moondram Pirai was shot in Ketti, a small town situated close to Ooty, with further shooting also taking place in Bangalore. A total of 30 days was taken to complete the filming, using 36,000 feet of film negative to make the film. The final length of the film was 3,918 metres (12,854 ft).

Moondram Pirai was released on 19 February 1982 to positive critical reception. It was a box office success and had a theatrical run of 379 days at Sathyam Theatre, and 200 days in other multiplexes. Kamal Haasan won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his role, while Mahendra won the National Film Award for Best Cinematography. The film was dubbed in Telugu under the title Vasantha Kokila and was released on the same day as the original version. The film was remade in the following year in Hindi as Sadma, with most of the cast and crew members from the original version reprising their roles.

Plot

Bhagyalakshmi (Sridevi) meets with an accident while returning from a party in a car and is hospitalised with severe head injuries. When she recovers, she is diagnosed with amnesia and she fails to recognise her own parents. She mentally regresses to the state of a child. While she is undergoing treatment, she is kidnapped and sold to the madam (Ganthimathi) of a brothel through devious methods. Srinivas alias Cheenu (Kamal Haasan) comes to Chennai to meet his old friend (Y. G. Mahendran) and together, they visit the brothel to relax. The madam sends Bhagyalakshmi, renamed as Vijaya, to his room. Cheenu realises that the call girl is still a child at heart and pities her. He understands that she is from a cultured family, and that she was kidnapped and forced into prostitution.

He returns the next day and after paying a huge sum to the madam, takes her out in the pretext of a pleasure trip, then takes her away to Ketti, where he is working as a school teacher. He takes her to his residence, where he protects her and also pampers her like a child. Viji, as she is called by Cheenu, has completely forgotten her past and becomes very close to him. Their relation however takes a turn when Viji accidentally spills ink over Cheenu' documents, angering him, but both eventually reconcile. Later, a local woodcutter (Nataraj) lusts for Viji and nearly molests her, but she manages to save herself. When she tells Cheenu about it, he becomes livid with rage and almost kills Nataraj, but is stopped by his neighbours who were informed of the incident by Viji. The sub-plot of the film follows the wife (Silk Smitha) of Cheenu's boss who is attracted to Cheenu, though he does not reciprocate her feelings.

Viji's father Vedachalam (Veeraraghavan), who was searching her through the police, releases a newspaper advertisement about his lost daughter. A co-passenger who had travelled with Cheenu and Viji from Chennai to Ooty by train gives them a lead. Cheenu takes Viji to an Ayurvedic medical practitioner (Ramanamurthy) and leaves her there for treatment for a day. In his absence, the police come to his house searching for Bhagyalakshmi which he later learns from his sympathetic neighbour. Finally, the police learn that Bhagyalakshmi is getting treated at the doctor's place and reach there. Cheenu is unable to come as he is afraid of police action. The treatment goes through successfully, Bhagyalakshmi regains her memory, becomes normal and completely forgets about the period between her accident and recovery. Vedachalam and his wife are happy and decide to leave. From the doctor, Vedachalam learns that the person who had brought her there had been taking good care of their daughter; hence he withdraws his police complaint and they begin their journey to Chennai with Bhagyalakshmi.

After the police leave, Cheenu comes running after the car in which Viji (Bhagyalakshmi) is travelling. He follows them to the railway station and tries to gain the attention of Viji, but she is unable to recognise him. Cheenu plays all her favourite pranks, but Viji (Bhagyalakshmi), unable to comprehend, thinks that he is mentally challenged and begging for food. Cheenu continues his fruitless attempts to gain her attention. Finally the train leaves with Viji not recognising him. Cheenu, who was hurt while chasing her car and trying to get her attention, is left alone and limps away heartbroken.

Cast

• Kamal Haasan as R. Srinivas / Cheenu
• Sridevi as Bhagyalaksmi / Vijaya / Viji
• Y. G. Mahendra as Srinivas's friend
• Silk Smitha as the school owner's wife
• Ganthimathi as the brothel owner
• Poornam Vishwanathan the school owner
• S. R. Veeraraghavan as Vedachalam
• Ramanamurthy as the Ayurveda practitioner
• Nataraj as the woodcutter

Production

"Do you know that Moondram Pirai got an 'A' certificate? But its Hindi remake Sadma was rated 'U'. So, even if I make a very simple film, chances are I might end up with an 'A' certificate. These 'A's and 'U's mean a damn to me. I make a film and that is it. I cannot talk about other filmmakers, but this rule doesn't stop me. If I want to make a film on a subject I have thought of, I will do it. Whether it gets an 'A' or a 'U', I'm least bothered. I'm not interested in its rating. I have my own code of conduct and I stick to that."

 – Balu Mahendra on the certification of his film, in an interview with M. Suganth of The Times of India in January 2014.

Development

In an interview with Anu Haasan in the talk show Koffee with Anu, Balu Mahendra stated that Moondram Pirai's theme – a temporary relationship between a childlike woman and a matured man, with their relationship ending abruptly, and in a tragic way – was based on his relationship with actress Shobha who died in 1980, shortly after their marriage. According to S. Shiva Kumar of The Hindu, the climax of the film was a clear metaphor of how Shobha left Mahendra without even saying goodbye. A Kannada film, Maanasa Sarovara, with a similar theme was made by director Puttanna Kanagal during the same year. The film was produced by G. Thyagarajan and G. Saravanan under their production banner, Sathya Jyothi Films. A. Ramaswamy and D. Vasu were in charge of art direction and editing respectively.

In C. B. Rao's review of the film's Hindi version, Sadma (1983), the English translation of the film's title, Moondram Pirai is given as "The Third Generation." Actually the term Moondram Pirai means "The crescent seen on the third day following New Moon day." In February 2014, Kamal Haasan, in an interview with The Hindu Business Line, said that when Mahendra narrated the story of Moondram Pirai to him, Haasan listened to Mahendra for about 20 minutes and then told Mahendra to include him in the film, after Mahendra assured Haasan that he would walk away with the applause. The role of Bhagyalakshmi was initially offered to Sripriya, who could not accept the role due to her prior commitments, before Sridevi was chosen for it. Silk Smitha, who had done around 20 films by then and was considered only for her grind and bump routine style of acting, was cast as the nymphomaniac wife of Srinivas' school principal.

Filming

Moondram Pirai was shot in Ketti, a small town situated close to Ooty. Shooting also took place in Bangalore. A total of 30 days was taken to complete the filming. Overall, 36,000 feet of film negative was used to make the film. Mahendra did not find hiring a train expensive at that time, as a result, he hired a train for the film's scene where Haasan and Sridevi depart for Ketti, and another train for the film's climax. The film's climax which was shot at the Ketti railway station. Since it was raining on the day the climax was shot, Mahendra decided to shoot the climax even though the rain was not part of the film's script. Silk Smitha's voice in the film was dubbed by Anuradha. Mahendra supervised Anuradha's dubbing session and taught her the methods to emote the dialogues for Smitha in the film.

While the film was under production the team was scoffed at for making a film about a youth falling in love with an amnesia patient, and that the film would not be a box office success. The film uses intense Violin music in both its opening and closing credits. In April 2006, Balu Mahendra said that the inclusion of the song "Ponmeni Uruguthey" in his film was "absolutely unneccessary", stating that the sole reason for its inclusion in the film was the presence of Smitha in the song to help promote the film.

Soundtrack

Untitled

The film's original soundtrack was composed by Ilayaraja. The number Kannae Kalaimane, which is based on the Kaapi raga, was written by Kannadasan, and was written in "about two minutes" time, after Kannadasan listened to the film's story and the situation for the song. It was the last song which Kannadasan wrote, before his death in 1981, during the making of the film. "Poongatru" was based on the Sindhu Bhairavi raga.

The soundtrack received positive critical reception. The song "Ponmeni Uruguthey" that was picturised on Kamal Haasan and Silk Smitha developed cult status. G. Dhananjayan, in his book, Best of Tamil Cinema called the music "outstanding", further saying that the songs contributed significantly to the success of the film. Hari Narayan of The Hindu said, "The lullaby "Kanne Kalaimane" sees the tranquillity reach a crescendo." Another critic from The Hindu, Shankar, called "Vaanengum Thanga" a "dream song". On the song, "Kanne Kalaimane", Balu Mahendra said, "Kannae Kalaimanae' stirs you to this day."

Tracklist

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Kanne Kalaimane"	Kannadasan	K. J. Yesudas	4:09
2.	"Nari Kathai"	Vairamuthu	Kamal Haasan, Sridevi	4:01
3.	"Ponmeni Uruguthey"	Gangai Amaran	S. Janaki	4:32
4.	"Poongatru"	Kannadasan	K. J. Yesudas	4:18
5.	"Vaanengum Thanga"	Vairamuthu	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki	4:34
Total length:				21:34

Release

Moondram Pirai was awarded an "A" (adults only) certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification. The film was released on 19 February 1982 with a final cut of 3,918 metres (12,854 ft). The film was a box office success and had a theatrical run of 379 days at Sathyam Theatre, and 200 days in other multiplexes. The film premiered at FILCA, a Film Festival held at Thiruvananthapuram in September 2014.

Moondram Pirai was dubbed in Telugu under the title Vasantha Kokila and was released on the same day as the original version. The Hindi remake Sadma was released in 1983, with most of the cast and crew members from the original version reprising their roles.

Critical reception

Moondram Pirai received mostly positive reviews. On 7 March 1982, Ananda Vikatan said, "The film goves an impression of reading a full novel in one go... The lead actors Kamal and Sridevi have lived their roles and brought in the effect desired by the director and they are the best couple in Tamil Cinema... Ilaiyaraaja's background score and songs and Balu Mahendra's photography have to be applauded" and gave the film 53 marks out of 100.

Writing for The Hindu, film critic Baradwaj Rangan called Moondram Pirai "The apotheosis of his [Balu Mahendra's] art", while also opining that the film was "a superb example of how the presence of a commercially viable plot and the participation of commercially viable actors and technicians can result in art." Another critic from The Hindu, Hari Narayan, wrote, "Throughout the narrative, a sense of uncertainty lurks in the viewer’s mind, the exact kind of uncertainty we get while dreaming.The knowledge that the spell would break any time. That Cheenu would be thrown back into his solitude. And that the fall from this ethereal tranquillity would be brutal, maybe even fatal." Malathi Rangarajan described Haasan's performance in the climax scene at the railway station as "sterling". Rediff.com said, "Moondram Pirai was a beautiful and tragic love story."

Behindwoods.com called the film "a beautiful and whimsical tale even if it does not pass scientific muster." In December 2012, IndiaGlitz said "How a simple storyline can influence the hearts of millions is the beauty of this movie." In February 2013, entertainment magazine Galatta Cinema said, "Balumahendra’s Moondram Pirai is a tragedy nevertheless, and that too one that had most of us bawling our eyes out." The critic further wrote, "The love that binds them [Kamal Haasan and Sridevi] is so beautifully presented through events and songs, that when the end draws near, you just know it's too good to end well. She gets back her memory but forgets her love..." and concluded that "Sridevi and Kamal just outdid themselves in this one..."

In contrast, the magazine Aside called it "neon moon" and said, "There was at one time a brooding, premonitory quality about Balu Mahendra's movies ... but (he) has now gone into the trade of picture postcards and pani puri." And after a brief word of praise for Haasan's performance in the climax ("darkly luminescent, like a rain drenched monsoon night") added, "Kamal makes a very amusing monkey, but should he not rather be playing a human character?"

Legacy

The climax scene where Haasan's character, Cheenu, runs after Sridevi's character, Bhagyalakshmi, who has recovered her memory but forgets the incidents that occur between her accident and recovery completely, and Cheenu trying desperately in vain to make Bhagyalakshmi remember the time he spend with him, became popular and was parodied many times. A. P. Thiruvadi, in his obituary to Balu Mahendra, hailed Mahendra as "The Moondram Pirai of Indian cinema". Moondram Pirai is also the name of a drama written by Tamil poet Puviarasu. In an interview with critic S. Shiva Kumar of The Hindu, when Kumar suggested to Balu Mahendra that the way the film ended lacked logic, Mahendra diasgreed, saying, "Believe me there’s no logic in life.”.

In March 2005, Sneha, in an interview with Rediff.com, listed Moondram Pirai among her favourite films. In July 2007, S. R. Ashok Kumar of The Hindu asked eight Tamil film directors to list their all-time favourite Tamil films; two of them – Mani Ratnam and Ameer – named Moondram Pirai. In September 2009, Singer Harini, in an interview with The Hindu, said that her favourite song is "Kanne Kalaimane". In February 2010, R. Balki, in an interview with Forbes, called Moondram Pirai as his favourite film. In October 2010, Vijay said he prefers to watch films like Moondram Pirai and Mahanadi (1994). In July 2011, Janani Iyer said she considered a role like Sridevi's character, Bhagyalakshmi, as "really challenging." Behindwoods.com included Moondram Pirai in its list of "Top 20 best love stories in Tamil". In March 2013, S. Shiva Kumar of The Hindu compared the climax of Sethu... (1999) to the climax in Moondram Pirai. In November 2013, S. Saraswathi of Rediff.com included Moondram Pirai in her list of the "10 best Films of Kamal Haasan". In February 2014, Arundhati said she "would love to play a role like Sridevi’s in Moondram Pirai". In September 2014, IndiaGlitz listed "Ponmeni Uruguthey" among Silk Smitha's top songs.

Balu Mahendra's telugu film Nireekshana (1982) was dubbed and released in Tamil as "Kanne Kalaimane". In Manadhai Thirudivittai (2001), Valayapathi (Vivek) pretends to have lost both his hands. His lover then promises to take care of him. The song "Kanne Kalaimane" is heard as the background music for the scene. In a comedy scene from Run (2002), Mohan (Vivek) imitates Haasan's mannerisms from the climax scene in Moondram Pirai to make his friend Shiva (Madhavan) to recognize him but fails. Behindwoods.com, in its review of the film, Deepavali (2007), said, "Deepavali is especially for those who did not like the sad climax of the Kamal starrer Moondram Pirai." Malathi Rangarajan, in her review of Deiva Thirumagal (2011), says the film "reminds you of Balu Mahendra's inimitable Moondraam Pirai.[sic]" Critic Rizwan Rafiudeen, in his review of Barfi! (2012), said that Ranbir Kapoor's character, Murphy "Barfi" Johnson, is deaf and dumb but possesses the same intelligence as that of Haasan's character in Moondram Pirai, Cheenu. The Hindu, in its review of the film, Cuckoo (2014), says the climax scene in the film are reminiscent of the climax scene in Moondram Pirai.

Awards and nominations

Filmfare Awards South

• Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Director – Balu Mahendra

National Film Awards

• Best Actor – Kamal Haasan
• Best Cinematography (colour) – Balu Mahendra

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

• Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film (Third prize)
• Best Actor – Kamal Haasan
• Best Actress – Sridevi
• Best Male Playback – K.J. Yesudas
• Best Female Playback – S. Janaki

Bibliography

• Asiaweek (1984). Asiaweek, Volume 10. Asiaweek Limited. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dhananjayan, G. (2011). The Best of Tamil Cinema, 1931 to 2010: 1977–2010. Galatta Media. ISBN 978-81-921043-0-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lakshmi, C. S. (2004). The Unhurried City: Writings on Chennai. Penguin Books India. ISBN 0143030264. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Moondram Pirai at IMDb