Manal Kayiru

Manal Kayiru
Manal Kayiru
	DVD cover
Directed by	Visu
Written by	Visu
Based on	Modi Masthan; by Visu
Produced by	Rajam Balachander; Pushpa Kandhasamy
Starring	S. Ve. Shekher; Shanthi Krishna
Cinematography	N. Balakrishnan
Edited by	N. R. Kittu
Music by	M. S. Viswanathan
Production; company	Kavithalayaa Productions
Release date	7 May 1982;
Running time	141 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Manal Kayiru (transl. Sand Rope) is a 1982 Indian Tamil-language comedy drama film written and directed by Visu in his directorial debut. The film stars S. Ve. Shekher and Shanthi Krishna, with Visu, Manorama, Kishmu and Kuriakose Ranga portraying supporting roles. It is based on Visu's play Modi Masthan. The film was released on 7 May 1982. It was remade in Kannada as Savira Sullu, in Telugu as Pelli Chesi Chupistham and in Malayalam as Thiruthalvaadi (with the ending changed). A sequel, Manal Kayiru 2, was released in 2016 with Shekar, Visu, and Ranga reprising their roles.

Plot

Kittumani lays down eight conditions which the girl he marries should fulfill. His uncle Naradar Naidu is fed up with seeking a girl for him. The eight conditions are as follows-

As Kittumani is a B.sc, she should have started studying, but should have left off in between.
She should look pretty only to Kittumani, but not to anyone else.
She should be bold to withstand thieves, kidnappers, etc.
She should never weep for any reason.
She should cook both veg and Non-veg as he is a vegetarian and his best friend is a non-vegetarian.
As he can play Mridangam, she should know how to dance to it.
Their secrets should be known to each other, but not to anyone else.
After Kittumani's death, she should remarry and live happily.

At last, Naradar Naidu finds a girl who is very nice, but unfortunately doesn't fulfill any condition. After some zig-zag work, he arranges their marriage. After four days, Kittumani finds that not a single condition has been fulfilled. He plans to send her out of his house, but Naidu, who pretends to support Kittumani, stops him. Later they realise that she is pregnant with Kittumani's child. After his sister is expelled from her husband's house as per Naidu's instructions and his wife is learning and speaking Hindi, Kittumani agrees to let her stay with him. He also has his own selfish reasons as he experiences much trouble cooking. At last they all convince, but Naidu is thrown out of the house as he is said to be the only reason behind the confusion. Naidu reveals that he did this as he, like Kittumani, had placed conditions which should be fulfilled by his fiancée and just before the marriage, he discovered that some conditions had not been fulfilled. The girl had killed herself and from then, Naidu had pledged to save people's lives from these types of issues.

Cast

S. Ve. Shekher as Kittumani
Shanthi Krishna as Uma
Visu as Naradhar Naidu
Manorama as Durga
Kishmu as Kamalakannan
M. R. Rajamani as Manickam Pillai
Kamala Kamesh as Uma's mother
Kuriakose Ranga as Lakshmanaswamy and Ramaswamy
Boopathy as Thangappan

Production

Manal Kayiru is the directorial debut of Visu,^[1]^[2] and was adapted from his own play Modi Masthan.^[3]^[4] Maadhu Balaji was initially offered the lead role, but could not accept since his mother gave him permission to act only in stage plays.^[5] The role of the character, Kittumani, later went to S. Ve. Shekher.^[6]

Soundtrack

Soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan and lyrics by Vaali.^[7]^[8]

Track listing
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Ettu Vidha Kattalaigal"	T. M. Soundararajan	4:05
2.	"Mandhira Punnagai"	S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, B. S. Sasireka	3:20
3.	"Mappillai Sir"	Malaysia Vasudevan, Manorama, Visu	5:49
Total length:			13:14

Release and reception

Manal Kayiru was released on 7 May 1982.^[9] S. Shivakumar of Mid-Day gave a negative review citing the film "is full of inane situations with double meaning, taking unnecessary digs at politicians and crude insinuations at vulgarity" and also criticised the photography as "uniformly bad" and M. S. Viswanathan's music as "jarring and harsh on the ears".^[10] Manjula Ramesh of Kalki criticised Shekher for not being able to emote his anger without making her laugh, but appreciated Visu's acting the most of the cast.^[11]

Sequel

The 2016 sequel for the film has Shekar, Visu, and Kuriakose Ranga reprising their roles, with Shekar's son Ashwin portraying the lead role.^[12]

References

^ Anantharam, Chitradeepa (8 November 2016). "Not a marriage made in heaven". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 13 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
^ "விசு எப்படி டைரக்ட் செய்கிறார்?" [How does Visu direct?]. Kalki (in Tamil). 28 March 1982. p. 59. Archived from the original on 13 August 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
^ Krishnamachari, Suganthy (22 November 2012). "On choosing a bride". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 14 March 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ Subramanian, Anupama (6 November 2016). "Balachander is the reason behind Manal Kayiru". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ Saravanan, T. (22 February 2017). "When quirk and mirth come to party". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 4 July 2018. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
^ Rao, Subha J; Jeshi, K. (30 June 2013). "Laughter lines". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 11 October 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
^ "Manal Kayiru (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – EP". Apple Music. 1 January 1982. Archived from the original on 28 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
^ "Manal Kayiru Tamil Film EP Vinyl Record by M S Viswanathan". Macsendisk. Archived from the original on 13 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2022.
^ "Manal Kayiru (1982)". Screen 4 Screen. Archived from the original on 18 November 2023. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ Shivakumar, S. (1982). "Inane, vulgar". Mid-Day. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2020 – via Twitter.
^ ரமேஷ், மஞ்சுளா (23 May 1982). "மணல் கயிறு". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 60. Archived from the original on 13 August 2022. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
^ "Three decades later, same cast!". Deccan Chronicle. 24 January 2016. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2016.