Nathayil Muthu

1973 189’ b&w Tamil d/p/sc K.S. Gopalakrishnan c P. Ramaswamy lyr Vali m Shankar-Ganesh lp K.R. Vijaya, R. Muthuraman, S.V. Subbaiah, M.R.R.Vasu, V.S. Raghavan, Chandrakantha, S. Varalakshmi

A melodrama about the perils of cross-class marriage. Madhu (Muthuraman), the foreign- educated son of the orthodox brahmin lawyer Varadhachari (Subbaiah) and his wife (Varalakshmi), falls in love with the poor Chelakannu (Vijaya) who looks after their cows. While bathing, Chelakannu’s sari is washed away and Madhu lends her his clothes. The slumdwellers misconstrue the situation and force Madhu to marry the girl right away, which he gladly does, going to live with her in the slums. However, Chelakannu realises the unfairness of inflicting such discomfort on her husband while the boy’s mother schemes to break up the marriage by suggesting Chelakannu is unfaithful to him. Events culminate in a Panchayat which judges in Chelakannu’s favour, but when the Panchayat leaders try to abuse Madhu’s sister, Chelakannu saves her and this act of generosity persuades Madhu’s family that their son’s wife is a worthy member of the group.

Film