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Nandu (film)
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Wikipedia article
'Nandu' is a 1981 Indian Tamil-language film written and directed by Mahendran. The film stars Suresh and Ashwini. It is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by Sivasankari. The film was released on 17 April 1981 and failed commercially.
Plot
Ramkumar Sharma is a sickly engineer living in Lucknow in a large family. He suffers from asthma and does not like the behaviour of his autocratic father, but is deeply attached to his loving mother. Unable to get along with his father who compels him to marry a girl of his choice, Sharma leaves for Madras. He finds a job there and meets Seetha. Once settled, he goes around looking for a house with the help of house broker. Incidentally, he finds Seetha residing as a tenant in a portion under the very same house. He likes the portion and agrees to start living there. The lives of the girls who live in portions of the large house are brightened by the appearance of the engineer from Lucknow. Of them, two of them try to impress Sharma. One of them is the house owner's daughter, while the other is Seetha. Eventually, he ends up marrying Seetha.
Cast
* Suresh as Ramkumar Sharma
* Ashwini as Seetha
* Venniradai Moorthy as Singa Muth
* Vanitha Krishnachandran as Uma
* Kutty Padmini as Lakshmi
*Senthamarai
*Samikannu as Arunachalam
*S. N. Parvathy as Uma's mother
* Kumarimuthu as the house broker
Production
'Nandu' is based on the 1975 novel of the same name by Sivasankari. Suhasini, who previously appeared in Mahendran's 'Nenjathai Killathe' (1980), worked as an assistant cinematographer under Ashok Kumar. The film took liberties with the novel; while the protagonist in the novel is a cancer patient, the disease was changed to asthma for the film.
Themes
Writing for 'Frontline', Venkatesh Chakravarthy believes the title 'Nandu' is a metaphor used as a "double-edged weapon in the film".
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The songs "Kaise Kahoon" and "Hum Hai Akele" are entirely in Hindi. The song "Manjal Veyil" is set in the Carnatic raga Kalyani.
Release and reception
'Nandu' was released on 17 April 1981. The posters were designed with a crab's shadow looming over the protagonist to indicate his eventual death. 'Kumudam' noted the film's abundance of Hindi dialogues, and caustically commented that any more dialogues in Hindi would result in K. Balaji (a film producer known mainly for remaking Hindi films in Tamil) remaking the film in Tamil. Jeeva of 'Kalki' appreciated the comedy by Mahendran's usual team of Kumarimuthu, Venniradai Moorthy and Samikannu, the cinematography by Ashok Kumar, Ilaiyaraaja's music, and concluded that the film was a must watch for Mahendran's filmmaking prowess. The film failed commercially, with 'Maalai Malar' attributing it to the audience's inability to understand the many Hindi dialogues.
References
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