Dowry Kalyanam


Dowry Kalyanam is a 1983 Indian Tamil film, directed by Visu and produced by S. Suseela. The film stars Visu, Vijayakanth, Srividya, S. V. Sekhar and Viji. The film had musical score by M. S. Viswanathan. The film was remade in Kannada as Madhuve Madu Tamashe Nodu. It was based on a play by Visu and Kathadi Ramamurthy. The film is a black comedy showing the evils of Dowry.

Plot

Ganeshan and Ethiraj are best friends and colleagues. Ethiraj is a widower and an alcoholic while Ganeshan is married and has a sister and a brother. Ganeshan does not earn enough and borrows from Ethiraj and Rowthar, a Muslim man who runs a grocery shop frequently.
A misunderstanding arises when Ethiraj's mother proposes marriage between Ganeshan's sister and Ethiraj leading to a rift in their friendship. He challenges that he would get his sister married in a pompous manner.
However, the groom's family is behind dowry. The mother of the groom runs the family tyrannically. How Ganeshan struggles to make ends meet with a lot of sub plots makes it an interesting movie to watch.
In the end, with help from lots of people, he gets his sister married only for his own sister to ask him about the remainder of the dowry.

Cast

The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan.

Censor Controversies

Visu mentioned that the censor wanted 87 cuts for the film as they were not impressed with the caricatured portrayal of character Rowther. Visu had to come up with the scene where he explains about his portrayal.