The latest version of this page moved to indiancine.ma - Click here
Moondram Pirai
1982 143’ col Tamil d/s/c Balu Mahendra pc Satyajyothi Films p G. Thyagarajan lyr Vairamuthu, Kannadasan, Gangai Amaran m Ilaiyaraja lp Kamalahasan, Sridevi, Silk Smitha, Y.G. Mahendran, Poornam Vishwanathan, Nataraj
Mahendra’s best-known film is a morality tale about a schoolteacher (Kamalahasan) who rescues a mentally deranged woman (Sridevi) from a brothel and looks after her in his hillside home. While the crazed woman, regressing into a childlike state, becomes devoted to him, he struggles to keep his sexual desire in check. The libidinal tensions culminate in an orgiastic dream sequence attributed to the headmaster’s (Vishwanathan) sexually frustrated wife (Silk Smitha) who desires the hero: she erupts into a sinuous, hip-swinging dance around a tree (and the teacher) on a bare hill. Mahendra remade the film with its original cast in Hindi as Sadma (1983).