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Athey Kangal
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Wikipedia article
'Athey Kangal' is a 1967 Indian Tamil-language mystery thriller film written and directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar. The film stars Ravichandran and Kanchana. It focuses on a girl's family being stalked by a masked murderer, and her lover's attempts to apprehend him.
'Athey Kangal' was produced by A. V. Meiyappan under Balasubramanian & Co, a subsidiary of his company AVM Productions. It was simultaneously filmed in Telugu as 'Ave Kallu'. The film was released on 26 May 1967 and became a major box-office success.
Plot
A woman finds her husband dead, where the masked murderer tries to kill her, but escapes. The woman is left in a state of shock and becomes mentally paralysed. A murder case is registered and the investigation takes place. Susi, a college student, arrives at her hometown for vacation with her friends. She lives with her three younger paternal uncles the murdered person, Kamalanathan and Vimalanathan and her aunt, the murdered person's wife. Susi's parents had died years ago.
A series of murders take place at Susi's house with every time a cigar bit being left by the murderer intentionally. The cops suspect the visiting doctor, a Siddha doctor (who is close to Kamalanathan's family), butler etc. Since Susi's aunt is the only eyewitness of the murderer, her life is in danger. Despite tight protection, she is killed by the murderer, who frequently calls Susi and threatens that he is nearing her to kill her. Susi is frustrated by the incidents at her home and the threatening phone calls. Her lover Baskar promises to help.
Baskar investigates Vimalanathan, and later Kamalanathan; he follows him to a strange house and a woman who wanders like a ghost. She is actually Kamalanathan's lover, who was rescued some years back by him when she attempted suicide. Kamalanathan keeps quiet as he wants Susi to get married first, only then, would he marry his lover. Baskar sends everyone out of Susi's house for a night to lure the murderer. As expected, he enters Susi's room to kill her. Baskar fights and tries to unmask the murderer, managing only to retrieve his mask and see his eyes before he escapes. Baskar finds Vimalanathan murdered at the doorstep.
Kamalanathan and Susi plan to vacate the house after celebrating Susi's birthday party. On the day of the party, the murderer attacks Susi. Baskar chases him, but loses track. He sees the Siddha doctor injured at a place, who claims that the murderer attacked him and fled. No one knows why the murders are happening and who kills every member of their family. The Siddha doctor urges Kamalanathan to tell about his family which might help him find the identity of the murderer.
Kamalanathan reveals that his father had an extramarital affair with a woman and they had a son, but the woman and her 10-year old son died 15 years ago, in a fire set by Kamalanathan's elder brother (Susi's father). Baskar theorises that the son may not have died and is actually the murderer killing the family members as vengeance; he concludes that the murderer is present in the hall where all are gathered. Baskar places the murderer's mask on the faces of all the men in the hall to verify whose eyes match with the murderer's eyes, ultimately exposing the Siddha doctor as the illegitimate son and murderer.
Baskar chases the murderer, who gets injured trying to escape; while he is struggling to run, the cops shoots him, but he disappears suddenly. Everyone finds a secret room beneath the garden which leads to the Siddha doctor's house, and find the murderer lying dead due to the gunshot, thus leading everyone to figure out that this is how he escaped after committing each murder. Baskar later marries Susi, while Kamalanathan marries his lover.
Cast
;Male cast
* Ravichandran as Baskar
* S. A. Ashokan as Kamalanathan
* Nagesh as Bhaskar's friend
* S. V. Ramadas as Vimalanathan
* A. Karunanidhi as Appukutty Nair
* P. D. Sambandam
* Vasanthakumar as the Siddha doctor
* Typist Gopu
* K. Balaji as the family doctor
* Major Sundarrajan as the police officer
;Female cast
* Kanchana as Susi
* Madhavi Krishnan as Julie
* Geethanjali as Kamalanathan's secret lover
* G. Sakunthala as the first victim's wife
Production
A. V. Meiyappan of AVM Productions wanted to produce a thriller in Tamil inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, and made in colour. Director A. C. Tirulokchandar said he had a detective story ready, and it was launched as the film 'Athey Kangal'. The script was completed in one week, and took inspiration from various Hindi horror/thrillers such as 'Bhoot Bungla' (1965), 'Bees Saal Baad' (1962) and 'Gumnaam' (1965). The comedy track was written by T. N. Balu. The film was produced by Meiyappan under Balasubramanian & Co, a subsidiary of AVM. The assistant producers were M. Saravanan, M. Balasubramanian and M. S. Guhan. The dialogue was written by T. N. Balu, cinematography was handled by S. Maruti Rao, and editing by R. G. Gope. Ravichandran, who played the lead role, received a salary of . It was simultaneously filmed in Telugu as 'Ave Kallu'. The final cut of the film measured .
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by Vedha and the lyrics were written by Vaali. The song "Ethanai Azhagu" is based on "Pedal Pusher" by The Ventures, and "Boom Boom Maattukaran" is based on "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from 'Mary Poppins' (1964). For the song "Pombale Oruthi Irundaalaam", singers A. L. Raghavan and T. M. Soundararajan came up with lines in their first language Saurashtra. The words "Sodija" and "Daakara" in the song sound like gibberish that a character uses to frighten another, but they actually mean "Let me go" and "I am afraid" in Saurashtra.
Release and reception
'Athey Kangal' was released on 26 May 1967, and became a major box-office success upon release. 'Kalki' appreciated the film for its opulence, picturisation and colour.
References
Bibliography
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