Apoorva Ragangal

1975 144’ b&w Tamil d/s K. Balachander pc Kalakendra Films lyr Kannadasan c B.S. Lokanathan m M.S. Vishwanathan lp Kamalahasan, Sundarrajan, Nagesh, Rajnikant, Srividya, Jayasudha, Kanaga Durka, Kannadasan

Melodrama in which the lovers end up exchanging parents. The rebellious Prasanna (Kamalahasan) leaves his home after quarrelling with his father (Sundarrajan) and finds shelter with the singer Bhairavi (Srividya) whose illegitimate daughter Ranjini (Jayasudha) also leaves home and finds shelter at Prasanna’s father’s house. The problem becomes acute when the newly formed couples want to marry: leading to the famous line ‘My son has become my father-in-law, your daughter has become your mother-in-law’. The film uses several avant garde conventions fashionable at the time incl. freeze frames and unconventional camera angles, although one unusual scene is the spontaneous jugalbandi in the bathroom between Prasanna and Bhairavi. Rajnikant’s debut film also re- launched Kamalahasan. Lyric writer Kannadasan plays himself.

Film