Pasamalar (Also known in English as: The Flower of Love) is a 1961 film starring Sivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan. The film was cast in 1961 and directed by A. Bhimsingh. This film is considered to be one of the greatest Tamil movies ever made. Stellar performances from Sivaji Ganesan and Savitri make this movie a pleasure to watch. This movie was a great hit of its time and the melodious songs are a delight to hear to this day. One of the song, Vaarayen Thozhi Vaarayo, is still played in all Tamil weddings.
The movie was produced by Sivaji's own company Rajamani pictures. The producers were M. R. Santhanam and K. Mohan of the famous Mohan Arts. The dialogues were written by Aroor Das, some of the fiery dialogues delivered by Sivaji make this film memorable. Some of the exchanges between Gemini and Sivaji are exquisite. Kanadasan's verses touch the heart and bring tears to one's eyes when listening to the songs. The music director duo of Viswanathan Ramamurthy have created songs which still remain popular to this day. The songs reach new heights with the voices of T. M. Soundararajan, P. Susheela, P. B. Sreenivas, Jamuna Rani and L. R. Eswari. The movie was predominantly shot in Neptune Studios.
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The film follows the life and travails of Raju (Sivaji Ganesan), Radha (Savitri) and Anandan (Gemini Ganesan). Raju and Radha are orphans who lose their mother at a very young age. Raju loves his sister very much and raises her very dearly. Raju and Anandan work in the local mill and become fast friends when Anandan bails Raju out of trouble with the Mill foreman. Anandan and Radha fall in love and their love affair continues unknown to Raju.
Anandan who is a union leader makes Raju join the union much against his wishes. The workers call a strike at the mill and this leads to Raju losing his job. Raju is very worried as to how he is going to support the family when Radha comes up with 1000 rupees that she has saved. Raju is amazed and overcomes his initial anger at Radha for having worked without his knowledge. Radha convinces Raju that they can earn more if they start their own business making dolls and toys for children. Raju and Radha make it big in the toy business, the local mill owner who is unable to run the mill offers the mill to raju and asks him to buy him out. Raju reluctantly agrees to take over the mill and becomes its owner. Raju is shown receiving education from a teacher and becomes much more sophisticated.
Meanwhile Anandan and Radha are married, and her in-laws are very greedy towards Raju's wealth. They treat Radha badly, which culminates with Raju giving his entire wealth to them. Finally, Raju gets bedridden and he dies in poverty. Radha comes to see his dead-body on funeral, and cries hugging him, and dies in the same position.
It was the biggest Box Office Hit of the year with the revenue of USD 134,000 collections in 1 week and ran for more than 1 year in Sapphire Theater at Mount Road, Chennai