Kadal Meengal

1981 Indian film
  • Kamal Haasan
  • Sujatha
  • Nagesh
  • Swapna
  • Ambika
CinematographyN. K. ViswanathanEdited byK. R. RamalingamMusic byIlaiyaraaja
Production
company
K. R. G. Art Productions
Release date
  • 5 June 1981 (1981-06-05)
Running time
137 minutesCountryIndiaLanguageTamil

Kadal Meengal (transl. Sea Fishes) is a 1981 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by G. N. Rangarajan, starring Kamal Haasan, Sujatha, Nagesh and Swapna. It is a remake of the 1980 Malayalam film Meen,[1] and also draws inspiration from the Hindi film Trishul (1978).[2] The film revolves around a man seeking revenge on his father for abandoning the former's mother. It was released on 5 June 1981.[3]

Plot

Selvanayakam alias is a poor but hard-working fisherman who is in love with Bhagyam from the same fishing hamlet. After a tiff with the locals, Selvam moves to a neighbouring village for fishing and is feared dead during a cyclone. Selvam returns alive after a while and unable to find Bhagyam, marries another woman. Bhagyam has borne his child but lives in isolation away from the life of Selvam who has grown to be a rich businessman. After several years, Bhagyam's son Rajan finds out about his father whom he despises for having deserted his mother. He vengefully joins his father's rivals and enters into a long confrontation with his father in business and in personal life as well.

Cast

  • Kamal Haasan as Selvanayakam and Rajan (dual role)
  • Sujatha as Bhagyam[4]
  • Nagesh as Peter
  • Swapna as Nisha
  • Ambika as Selvanayakam's daughter
  • Suman as Sekhar
  • K. A. Thangavelu as Mudhaliyar
  • Sangili Murugan as Dhanakodi
  • Thengai Srinivasan as Sivaanandham
  • Sukumari as Annaporani
  • Nizhalgal Ravi as Ravi
  • G. Srinivasan as Nachimuthu
  • K. Kannan as Vadivelu
  • V. Gopalakrishnan
  • A. R. Srinivasan
  • Pandu as Vadivelu's colleague

Production

The makeup for old look of Kamal Haasan was done by R. Sundaramoorthy who revealed the look is inspired from a character from the 1980 film Babylon.[5]

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja.[6][7]

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Madini Madini"Gangai AmaranP. Susheela, Malaysia Vasudevan & Chorus 
2."Thaalattudhe Vaanam"KannadasanP. Jayachandran, S. Janaki 
3."Endrendrum Anandhame"Panchu ArunachalamMalaysia Vasudevan 
4."Kalai Maane"KannadasanP. Susheela 

Reception

Sindhu-Jeeva of Kalki praised Kamal Haasan's acting, Viswanathan's cinematography and Ilaiyaraaja's music but felt unit who worked a lot in the idea of taking gold and making jewellery not realising it is just clay and concluded Meen (fish) in Malayalam, Karuvadu (dried fish) in Tamil.[8]

References

  1. ^ Pandian, Avinash (30 June 2015). "The Malabar influence on Tamil superstars". Behindwoods. Archived from the original on 9 June 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  2. ^ Iyengar, Shriram (5 May 2018). "40 years of Trishul: Revisiting two Tamil remakes of Yash Chopra's classic drama". Cinestaan. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  3. ^ "Kadal Meengal (1981)". Screen 4 Screen. Archived from the original on 31 December 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  4. ^ Rangarajan, Malathi (9 April 2011). "We will miss you, Sujatha". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
  5. ^ "மேக்அப் - கலை" (PDF). Kalki (in Tamil). 2 August 1981. pp. 9–10. Retrieved 20 October 2023 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ "Kadal Meengal Tamil Film EP Vinyl Record by Ilayaraja". Mossymart. Archived from the original on 26 January 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  7. ^ "Kadal Meengal (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – EP". Apple Music. 5 June 1981. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  8. ^ சிந்து; ஜீவா (28 June 1981). "கடல் மீன்கள்". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 19. Archived from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2023 – via Internet Archive.

External links

  • Kadal Meengal at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  • v
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  • e
Films directed by G. N. Rangarajan