Panithirai

Panithirai (Tamil: பனித்திரை) is a 1961 Indian Tamil film, directed by Muktha Srinivasan and produced by Muktha V. Ramasasmy. The film stars Gemini Ganesan, B. Saroja Devi, K. A. Thangavelu and T. S. Balaiah in lead roles. The film had musical score by K. V. Mahadevan.^[1][2][3]

Plot

Basically the film is about superstition and how it affects normalcy in life. Sakunthala (B. Saroja devi) is born to SV Suppiah, whose wife dies at child birth. Thus Sakunthala is labelled as abasagunam. She is tortured throughout her growing years, with her father as her lone supporter. When she comes of age, marriage is arranged for her. This is the situation for the song varuga varuga endru solli azhaippar by P Susheela,

However, the money saved by her father in a chit fund is lost, with the closure of the fund. This time SV Suppiah curses her ill-luck. After a while he realises his mistake and alls well until the family who had seen Sakunthala rejects her, due to public talk of her abasagunam. Heart broken, SV Suppiah dies. Sakunthala now has to live up to the name of having caused the death of both her parents.

In the meantime we are introduced to Mohan (Gemini Ganesan) and his father Balaiah and Mohan's friend Santhanam (Thangavelu). Mohan is a man who is totally agaionst superstition and makes fun of the gardener who had delayed his departure because of the crossing of a cat on his path. The PB Srinivas song EthO manidhan pirandhuvittaan appears here.

The now orphaned Sakunthala finds solace in Santhanam's house. Santhanam promises her a job at Balaiah's office. Sakunthala meets Mohan who happens to be doing some gardening. Sakunthala assumes Mohan is the gardener, before the truth dawns upon her. They fall in love and sing orE kElvi orE kElvi endhan nenjilE - PBS and PS duet.

Mohan considers Sakunthala as his Lakshmi and introduces her to his family. And that's when the parents realise that Sakunthala is the girl they rejected earlier. Mohan's step mum is convinced that Sakunthala only can bring bad luck and is against the marriage. Marriage occurs in any case and the next day Mohan loses his job as a pilot! His superiro than tells him that it is an April fool's joke! Leading to the song April fool April fool engalOdu jaadhi by AL Raghavan and LR Eswari.

Several misunderstandings happens in the meantime, mainly caused by the stepmum and eventually Mohan is required to fly with confidential papers to somewhere. Stepmum prevents Sakunthala from bidding goodbye to Mohan for fear of unfortunate events. True enough the plane crashes! Sakunthala does not believe that Mohan has been killed and is furthered tortured and finally droven away from the house. She sings Irukkum idam engE iraivaa by P Susheela.

In the meantime, there are accusations that Mohan didn't die and sold out to foreign powers. Is Mohan alive? What happens to Sakunthala?

Cast

• Gemini Ganesan as Mohan
• B. Saroja Devi as Shakuntala
• K. A. Thangavelu
• T. S. Balaiah
• S. V. Subbiah
• M. Saroja
• M. Lakshmi Prabha
• M. S. Sundhari Bai

Soundtrack

The music was composed by K. V. Mahadevan and lyrics was written by Kannadasan.^[4]Playback singers are P. B. Srinivas, Seerkazhi Govindarajan, A. L. Raghavan, S. V. Ponnusamy, P. Suseela, T. V. Rathinam & L. R. Eswari.

References

External links

• Panithirai at the Internet Movie Database
• Panithirai on YouTube