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Pudhumai Penn (transl. Modern Woman), officially released as AVMin Pudhumai Penn (transl. AVM's Modern Woman), is a 1984 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by Bharathiraja and produced by AVM Productions. The film stars Pandiyan and Revathi. It was released on 14 July 1984.

Plot

Seetha lives a simple life with her father, a Tamil teacher in a village. Seetha's elder sister who committed suicide after suffering dowry harassment from her husband’s family. Seetha’s father struggles to find a suitable groom for her owing to his poor financial condition. One day, her father meets Ram, a bank employee, and introduces him to Seetha. After a few days, Ram meets Seetha and the pair decide to get married.

Ram’s mother doesn’t like Seetha as she doesn't have a dowry and insults Seetha frequently. Seetha decides to tolerate this treatment due to her love for Ram, but her father commits suicide, unable to bear his daughter’s suffering.

Ram invits his new boss, Rajasekar, to his home for lunch. Rajasekar is attracted to Seetha, who keeps her distance from him.

Meanwhile, Ram’s sister becomes pregnant by Ram's friend and their families push them to marry. Unable to pay the wedding expenses, Ram takes money from the bank, but gets caught by Rajasekar, who says that if Ram will allow him to have sex with Seetha, he will forgive Ram and not inform the police about the theft. Angered by this suggestion, Ram beats up Rajasekar and leaves home.

The next day, Rajasekar is found dead and Ram is arrested by the police on suspicion of murder. Seetha decides to seek help from David, a criminal lawyer and a friend of her father's, but learns that David has moved away. Seetha finds another lawyer for Ram, and begins modeling for a painter in order to pay the legal expenses, and is also able to financially assist Ram's mother and sister. However, Ram’s mother insults Seetha and accuses her of prostitution.

One day, the painter asks Seetha to pose nude, which angers Seetha, and she stops modeling for him. She begins earning money through various jobs such as cooking and household chores.

One day, Seetha sees David and follows him home. She asks David to appear in court on behalf of Ram. David tells Seetha that he killed Rajasekar for raping his sister and apologises that Ram was falsely arrested.

David appears in the court and confesses to the murder, leading to Ram's release. Meanwhile, Seetha learns that she is pregnant and looks forward to sharing the news with Ram. However, Ram’s mother convinces Ram that he is not the father of Seetha's baby. When Ram questions Seetha about the child's paternity, she considers committing suicide, but instead decides to leave home and live on her own.

Cast

Production

AVM Productions wanted to make a film with Bharathiraja after the success of his Puthiya Vaarpugal which never happened. A few years later they both collaborated on the project which eventually became Pudhumai Penn.[3] The film's story was written by R. Selvaraj who revealed this story was initially supposed to be made as Bharathiraja's debut titled Sontha Veedu with R. Muthuraman and J. Jayalalithaa which got shelved.[4] Pudhumai Penn marked the acting debut of Dr. Rajasekhar.[5] It was also Pandiyan's only collaboration with AVM.[6] Revathi was 17 years old when doing this film.[7] The studio's name was prefixed to the film's title (AVMin Pudhumai Penn, meaning AVM's Modern Woman).[8]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, while the lyrics were written by Vairamuthu.[9] The song "Kasthuri Maane" is set in Mohanam raga and "Kadhal Mayakkam" is set in Shuddha Saveri.[10]

Song Singers Length
"Oru Thendral" Malaysia Vasudevan, Chorus 4:40
"Kasthuri Mane" K. J. Yesudas, Uma Ramanan 5:09
"Alamara Pondhu" Ilaiyaraaja 4:18
"Kathal Mayakam" P. Jayachandran, Sunanda 6:12

Release and reception

Pudhumai Penn was released on 14 July 1984,[11] and ran for 208 days in the Mini Priya theatre, Madurai. The film failed at the box-office during its first run. M. G. Ramachandran, then the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, decided to re-release the film with tax exemption by reducing ticket prices to three rupees which led to bigger success.[3][12] Jayamanmadhan of Kalki praised the performances of cast and direction but was critical of logical mistakes and found the climax of Revathi leaving home disappointing and added that the film can be enjoyed in bits and pieces here and there.[13] In 2014, Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu praised Revathi's performance, but noted that the melodrama quotient was "a little too high".[14]

References

  1. ^ Shekar, Anjana (8 January 2018). "From demure to daring, actor Revathy's multi-faceted film career". The News Minute. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  2. ^ Shivpprasadh, S. (14 June 2012). "Father figure". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  3. ^ a b சரவணன், ஏவி.எம். (10 July 2005). "வரி விளக்கிய வள்ளல்!" (PDF). Kalki (in Tamil). pp. 44–47. Retrieved 18 April 2024 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ "16 வயதினிலே: 'அவருக்குப் படமெடுக்கத் தெரியுமானு தெரில'- விலகிய ஜெயலலிதா; வென்றுகாட்டிய பாரதிராஜா!". Cinema Vikatan (in Tamil). 15 September 2022. Archived from the original on 31 March 2023. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  5. ^ "'Chennai 28' director Venkat Prabhu to helm project starring Dr Rajasekhar next". The News Minute. 24 May 2017. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  6. ^ Saravanan 2013, p. 425.
  7. ^ Subhakeerthana, S (2 August 2019). "Suriya is my 'Jackpot': Jyotika". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  8. ^ Saravanan 2013, pp. 282–283.
  9. ^ "Pudhumai Penn- Nallavanukku Nallavan Tamil Film LP Vinyl Record by Ilayaraaja". Mossymart. Archived from the original on 3 October 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2021.
  10. ^ "இளையராஜா 75". Dinamani (in Tamil). 17 June 2018. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
  11. ^ Saravanan 2013, p. 278.
  12. ^ Saravanan 2013, pp. 279–281.
  13. ^ ஜெயமன்மதன் (29 July 1984). "ஏ.வி.எம்மின் புதுமைப்பெண்". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 62. Archived from the original on 15 September 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  14. ^ Rangarajan, Malathi (7 March 2014). "Women of Steel". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 10 April 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2018.

Bibliography

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