En Rasavin Manisile

1991 143’ col Tamil d/sc Kasturiraja p Rajkiran pc Red Sun International c Kichaas lyr Pirachudan m Ilaiyaraja lp Rajkiran, Meena, Srividya, Saradha, Preetha, Vadivelu

Based on a Madurai folk narrative, the melodrama claims to address the downside of marriages arranged in the cradle, but actually solicits our sympathy and understanding for callously brutish men. The crude drunkard Mayandi (Rajkiran) marries and rapes his fearful young niece Cholaiamma (Meena), making her pregnant. The girl eventually realises that Mayandi is a nice man whom she should have loved all along, but it is too late and she dies in childbirth. Undeterred, Mayandi then turns his attentions to Choliamma’s sister Kasturi (Preetha) and, recognising that only truly brutish men are irresistible, she challenges him to try and take her away from the man who loves her. The latter, in contrast to the sterling masculine qualities of Mayandi, is represented as a weakling who actually loves Kasturi. Mayandi eventually realises that he has to curb his notions of ‘masculinity’. Unfortunately, he pays the price for this change of heart and he dies in the arduous process of helping Kasturi to get together with her beloved weakling, whereupon Kasturi adopts her sister’s orphaned child.

Film