Muthal Mariyathai

aka A Matter of Honour aka Prime Honour 1985 161’ col Tamil d/p/sc P. Bharathirajaa pc Manoj Creations st/dial R. Selvaraj lyr Vairamuthu c B. Kannan m Ilaiyaraja lp Sivaji Ganesan, Radha, Vadivukkarasi, Ranjini, Sathyaraj, Janakaraj, Deepan, Veeraswamy, Aruna, Soorya, Ilavarasi, Ramanathan, Senapati, Muthaiah, Kanchana

A relentless melodrama told in flashback as the saintly landlord Malaichami (Ganesan) lies dying. Beset by a shrewish wife, Ponnatha (Vadivukkarasi), who cannot cook and who was pregnant by another man (Sathyaraj) when she married the hero, Malaichami falls in love with a fisherman’s young daughter, Kuyil (Radha). She kills Ponnatha’s lover and goes to jail, emerging under police escort to meet a dying Malaichami, who clings to life until she returns. A second tragic love story involves Malaichami’s evil son-in-law who is a rapist and a murderer. The ‘matter of honour’ that the title suggests was however Bharathirajaa’s first film with Ganesan, and it opens with a documentary homage to the star.

Film