Annakili


Annakili is a 1976 Indian Tamil-language drama film, directed by Devaraj Mohan, starring Sivakumar, Sujatha and Phataphat Jayalaxmi in lead roles.
The film was produced by S. P. Thamizharasi under the production banner "SPT Films". The film stars Sivakumar, Sujatha in lead roles with Sreekanth, Thengai Srinivasan and S. V. Subbiah playing supporting roles. The film's story was written by R. Selvaraj and the screenplay, dialogues and lyrics were written by Panchu Arunachalam. A. Somasundaram and Kandasamy handled cinematography and editing respectively.
The film revolves around Annakili, who falls in love with teacher Thyagarajan. Due to circumstances, Thyagarajan marries another girl. Azhagappan, a womaniser creates a misunderstanding about Annakili among the villagers; the rest of the film shows how Annakili proves her innocence. The film was released on 14 May 1976 with a reel length of and became a commercial success at box office. The film was screened at Indian Panorama Film Festival in 1978. This movie was remade in Telugu as Rama Chilaka.
The film's soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, who made his debut as composer with this film.

Cast

Credits adapted from The Hindu:
When Ilaiyaraaja met Panchu Arunachalam, the latter asked if the former had composed any songs; Ilaiyaraaja casually sang a bunch of songs, one of which was "Annakkili Unnai Theduthe", an impressed Panchu Arunachalam decided to write a film story to accommodate these songs; the film would be titled Annakili. However, Panchu Arunachalam, was convinced to release the audio of Annakilli only on gauging the audience’s reaction, response and reach to Raja’s music, in a live performance arranged in a kalyana mandabam.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, who made his debut as composer with this film and the lyrics were written by Panchu Arunachalam. Selvaraj insisted to have Pavalar Brothers compose the music, but Panchu selected Rasaiyya to compose as he felt it was not appropriate to have three brothers to compose music. Panchu Arunachalam added "Ilaiya" as prefix in his name Raaja and he named as "Ilaiyaraaja" because in the 1970s there was one more music director A. M. Rajah who was a popular one. For the soundtrack, Ilaiyaraaja applied the techniques of modern popular film music orchestration to Tamil folk poetry and folk song melodies, which created a fusion of Western and Tamil idioms. The song "Machanai Paartheengala" was originally composed and sung at a marriage by Ilaiyaraaja and his orchestra even before the film's release. The violin portions of the song were used by music director K for the song "Bar Anthem" in Mugamoodi. The song "Sonthamillai Banthamillai" is based on Nadanamakriya raga.
The tune of the song Aayiram Malargale Malarungal ….. composed by Ilaiyaraja in the movie Niram Maradha Pookal-1979, is based on a tune composed by him, for the BGM in this film, Annakilli.
Ananda Vikatan, in a review dated 30 May 1976, was positive towards the film, particularly the performances of Sujatha, Sivakumar and Srikanth, but felt it would have been better in colour.