Mundhanai Mudichu

Munthanai Mudichu
Munthanai Mudichu
Directed by	K. Bhagyaraj
Produced by	M. Kumaran M. Saravanan M.Balasubramanian
Written by	K. Bhagyaraj
Starring	K. Bhagyaraj Urvasi Deepa Poornima Bhagyaraj Sujitha
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	Ashok Kumar
Edited by	A. Selvanathan
Production company	AVM Productions
Distributed by	AVM Productions
Release date	22 July 1983
Running time	150 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Mundhanai Mudichu (English: Saree Knot) is a 1983 Tamil comedy drama film directed and acted by K. Bhagyaraj along with Urvasi in the lead roles. The movie marked the debut of Urvashi in Tamil cinema.

It was remade in Telugu as Moodu Mullu with Chandramohan and Radhika and the original was dubbed in Telugu as Vaadante Pelli. The film was a blockbuster and was remade in Hindi as Masterji in the year 1985 with Rajesh Khanna and Sridevi in lead roles. It was also remade in Kannada as Halli Meshtru with Ravichandran.

Made at a cost of Rs 30 lakh, it netted Rs. 4 crore setting a new southern box-office record at that time. It was the first film to run for 25 weeks in four Madras theatres and 10 other centres all over the south. It was also the first Tamil film to celebrate its silver jubilee in Trivandrum. Its Hindi remake rights were sold for Rs 5 lakh, the highest ever paid for a remake rights of a Tamil movie at that time.^[1]

Plot

Parimala (Urvasi) is a mischievous nubile lady who perennially plays pranks on unsuspecting villagers, aided by her gang of preteen children. These often end her and the gang in the panchayat. A widower (K. Bhagyaraj) enters the village with his infant child (Sujitha) to take up the vacant teacher's post in the local school and is immediately pranked by Parimala's gang upon his arrival. Parimala's playful nature transforms into love when she learns that he's a widower. She tries many ways to win the teacher's heart, but fails every time. The teacher believes that a stepmother could not care for his child. As a desperate measure to attain him, Parimala falsely accuses the teacher of molesting her. She even swears upon the teacher's child's life to prove her case at the panchayat. The teacher is then forced to marry her against his wishes. However, he vows never to touch Parimala and to remain forever in celibacy. Parimala relentlessly tries to seduce him by various methods. All her advances are ignored by the husband. Faced with the prospect of never attaining her husband's love, Parimala decides to take the drastic measure of going through a tubal ligation procedure. With this she hopes that her husband will understand that she would never ill treat his son as a stepmother. Shocked upon hearing of Parimala's decision, the husband rushes to the hospital to prevent her from undergoing the procedure. He reaches the hospital to find Parimala unconscious on the bed and assumes she has already undergone treatment. However, the doctor assures him that she has not been operated as he found Parimala to be a virgin and realized that she must have wanted the operation under duress. The story ends with the couple happily united and in the process of planning for another child.

Cast

• K. Bhagyaraj
• Urvashi
• Sujitha
• Thavakkalai
• Deepa Unnimary

Production

The film was made at the cost of Rs. 30 Lakhs. AVM Saravanan said Bhagyaraj "took two months to write the script. He had everything planned out to the last-minute costume change." After the film was completed, Bhagyaraj locked himself with his editor and "with a staple gun and a pair of scissors he stitched all this material together".^[2]

Urvasi started her career with Thodarum Uravu, but Mundhanai Mudichu became her first release. Originally, her sister Kalpana was chosen for the film. Bhagyaraj spotted Urvasi who accompanied Kalpana and chose her to be the heroine of the film.^[3] Kovai Sarala acted as pregnant lady when she was in class X.^[4]

Soundtrack

The music composed by Ilaiyaraaja.^[5]

Sequel

A sequel to the film titled Mappillai Vinayagar was shot in 2012 with Lollu Sabha Jeeva portraying Bhagyaraj's son from Mundhanai Mudichu, but the film failed to have a theatrical release.

References

External links

• Mundhanai Mudichu on IMDb