Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar

Cast

Production

Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar was the first Tamil film to be produced directly by communists. Around 45 members of the Indian Communist Party, which included director Nemai Ghosh and the film's music director M. B. Sreenivasan, formed a production company called Kumari Films. Each of them contributed an amount ranging from ₹500 to ₹ 5,000 to start the banner. None of the members contributed more than ₹ 5,000 as each of them preferred to have their due credit for their contributions to the film.

The film was launched by the communist leader P. Jeevanandham. It was originally titled Kaalam Maari Pochu but was changed to Paadhai Theriyudhu Paar by Jayakanthan, who played the role of a district tax collector. However, when the film had to be edited due to its excessive runtime, Jayakanthan requested Ghosh and the censor board members to remove his portion in the film. The film marked the debut of K. Vijayan, a former employee of the Golden Rock Railway Station in Golden Rock, Tiruchirappalli who later found success as a director, in Tamil cinema. Filmmaker and scriptwriter Ritwik Ghatak worked as an assistant director in the film.

Soundtrack

The film had musical score by M. B. Sreenivasan while the lyrics were written by Jayakanthan, Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram & K. C. S. Arunachalam.Playback singers are T. M. Soundararajan, Thiruchi Loganathan, P. B. Sreenivas, A. L. Raghavan, A. S. Mahadevan, S. Janaki & P. Suseela.

The song Thennankeetru is based on Valaji raga.

Release and reception

Despite critical acclaim, the film did not succeed commercially; the distributors complained that L. Vijayalakshmi did not dance, to which the director replied, "[Vijayalakshmi] knows how to dance, but the character she plays in the film does not!"