Mella Thirandhadhu Kadhavu is a 1986 Indian Tamil-language musicalromance film, written and directed by R. Sundarrajan starring Mohan, Radha and Amala. This movie was a box office superhit. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by M. S. Viswanathan and Ilaiyaraaja together. Entire background score and orchestration for all the songs was done by Ilaiyaraaja.
Plot
Tulasi is a village girl. One day, she gets a letter from her cousin Subramani. She gets excited as they were close friends in childhood, but Subramani leaves with his family to the city. Subramani visits the village for his college thesis about folk songs. Tulasi is in love with Subramani, but she is confused whether Subramani also loves her. Tulasi's father dies due to a heart attack. When Subramani's father arranges a marriage for Subramani with Tulasi, he refuses. Because of this, Tulasi's mother dies in frustration. Then, Tulasi comes to her uncle's house. Later, a flashback comes in which Subramani is in love with Noorjahan, a student in his college. Since Noorjahan used to come to the college with a veil, Subramani has not seen her face. On a day when they plan to meet, Noorjahan she accidentally steps into quicksand and dies. Subramani feels dejected after seeing Noorjahan's death and decides to remain unmarried and that is the real reason for him to avoid marrying Tulasi. Tulasi decides to end her life as Subramani shows no interest in marrying her and she goes to the same place where Noorjahan died. Tulasi steps into the same quicksand, but Subramani rushes and saves Tulasi, having understood Tulasi's true love towards him.
Mella Thirandhathu Kadhavu was Mohan's first film with AVM Productions. When AVM came to know that M. S. Viswanathan was facing difficulties, they decided to make this film to save him from penury. Ilaiyaraaja also agreed to compose the music alongside Viswanathan.
Music
All the songs except "Dil Dil Dil Manadhil" were composed by M. S. Viswanathan and the orchestration was done by Ilaiyaraaja. The song "Vaa Vennila" is inspired from another Viswanathan composition "Vaan Meedhile" from the 1953 filmChandirani. Ilaiyaraaja later used "Kuzhaloodum Kannanukku" in Hindi as "Baatein Hawa Hain Saare" for Cheeni Kum.
Release
Mella Thirandhathu Kadhavu was released on 12 September 1985. The film initially opened to average response but later picked up in coming weeks. When the film got released in Cinepriya theatre in Madurai, a distributor released the film by reversing the two halves of the film which enjoyed positive reception. Later all over Tamil Nadu the film was filmed by changing the two halves of the film which shows Amala story in first half and Radha story in second half. The response prompted producers to apply re-censorship for the film.
