Azhiyatha Kolangal

Plot

Gowrishankar, a managing director of a company in Madras (presently called Chennai), receives a letter from his childhood friend Pattabi. The story goes into a flashback mode where he along with Pattabi and another friend Raghupathi live in a small village. The three friends who are in their teens, get attracted to Indumathi, a school teacher who comes to their village, and try to impress her. The film ends with a tragic note where Raghupathi gets drowned in a river, eventually leading to his death.

Cast

Production

After the critical and commercial success of his directorial debut Kokila, Balu Mahendra decided to make a film in Tamil, that was partly autobiographical according to him. It was during this time, he was approached by J. Mahendran to shoot Mullum Malarum, the latter's directorial debut. Initially hesitant to work in Tamil films, Balu Mahendra accepted the offer, thus entered the Tamil film industry as a cinematographer. Because of his commitments with Mullum Malarum, he shelved his directorial venture. After the success of Mullum Malarum, he revived the project and named it Azhiyadha Kolangal. The film was produced by Devi Films of Devi Theatre Complex. The film was shot at Pettavaithalai,Sirugamani and Inungoor near Trichy in 27 days within the budget of 8 lakhs.

The central characters of the film are played by three adolescent boys, who are in the verge of sexuality. Shobha, played a small role as a school teacher. Kamal Haasan played a guest role as a token of friendship for Balu Mahendra and his portions was shot in a day at three locations.

Apart from direction, Balu Mahendra assumed his usual responsibility of cinematography and wrote the screenplay, while D. Vasu edited the film.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Salil Chowdhury, with lyrics by Gangai Amaran. Mahendra originally wanted his friend Ilaiyaraaja to compose the music, but Chowdhury who had previously worked with Mahendra in Kokila was keen to work in his Tamil film too.

Reception

Azhiyadha Kolangal opened to critical acclaim and was commercially successful too. Along with Uthiripookkal it was the only Tamil film to be shown at the International Film Festival of India in 1980. The film's camera work was considered to be very innovative and was very different from other Tamil films that had come before. The film is widely considered to be one of Mahendra's "masterpieces".