Pudhumai Penn (1984 film)

Pudhumai Penn (transl. Modern Woman), officially released as AVMin Pudhumai Penn (transl. AVM's Modern Woman), is a 1984 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by Bharathiraja and produced by AVM Productions. The film stars Pandiyan and Revathi. It was released on 14 July 1984.

Pudhumai Penn
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bharathiraja
Screenplay by	Bharathiraja
Story by	R. Selvaraj
Produced by	M. Saravanan M. Balasubramaniam
Starring	Pandiyan Revathi
Cinematography	B. Kannan
Edited by	V. Rajagopal
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Production company	AVM Productions
Release date	14 July 1984 (1984-07-14)
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Plot

Seetha lives a simple life with her father, a Tamil teacher in a village. After Seetha's elder sister committed suicide by suffering from dowry harassment from her husband's family, Seetha's father struggles to find a suitable groom for her owing to his poor financial condition. One day, her father meets Ram, a bank employee, and introduces him to Seetha. After a few days, Ram meets Seetha and the pair decides to get married.

Ram's mother doesn't like Seetha, as her family haven't provided dowry and she insults Seetha frequently. Seetha decides to tolerate this treatment due to her love for Ram, but her father commits suicide, unable to bear his daughter's suffering.

Ram invites his new boss, Rajasekar, to his home for lunch. Rajasekar is attracted to Seetha, who keeps her distance from him.

Meanwhile, Ram's sister becomes pregnant by Ram's friend and their families push them to marry. Unable to pay the wedding expenses, Ram steals money from the bank, but gets caught by Rajasekar, who says that if Ram will allow him to have sex with Seetha, he will forgive Ram and not inform the police about the theft. Angered by this suggestion, Ram beats up Rajasekar and leaves home.

The next day, Rajasekar is found dead and Ram is arrested by the police on suspicion of murder. Seetha decides to seek help from David, a criminal lawyer and a friend of her father's, but learns that David has moved away. Seetha finds another lawyer for Ram, and begins modeling for a painter to pay the legal expenses, and is also able to financially assist Ram's mother and sister. However, Ram's mother insults Seetha by accusing her of prostitution.

One day, the painter asks Seetha to pose nude, which angers Seetha, and she stops modeling for him. She begins earning money through various jobs such as cooking and household chores.

One day, Seetha sees David and follows him home. She asks David to appear in court on behalf of Ram. David tells Seetha that he killed Rajasekar for raping his sister and apologises that Ram was falsely arrested.

David appears in the court and confesses to the murder, leading to Ram's release. Later, Seetha learns that she is pregnant and looks forward to sharing the news with Ram. However, Ram's mother convinces Ram that he is not the father of Seetha's baby. When Ram questions Seetha about the child's paternity, she considers committing suicide, but instead decides to leave home and live on her own.

Cast

• Pandiyan as Ramachandran
• Revathi as Seetha^[1]
• Pratap Pothen as David
• Rajasekhar as Rajasekhar
• Y. G. Mahendran
• Janagaraj
• Chitra Lakshmanan
• Ra. Sankaran as Seetha's father^[2]

Production

AVM Productions wanted to make a film with Bharathiraja after the success of his Puthiya Vaarpugal (1979) which never happened. A few years later they both collaborated on the project which eventually became Pudhumai Penn.^[3] The film's story was written by R. Selvaraj who revealed this story was initially supposed to be made as Bharathiraja's debut titled Sontha Veedu (transl. Own house) with R. Muthuraman and J. Jayalalithaa which got shelved.^[4] Pudhumai Penn marked the acting debut of Dr. Rajasekhar.^[5] It was also Pandiyan's only collaboration with AVM.^[6] Revathi was 17 years old when doing this film.^[7] The studio's name was prefixed to the film's title (AVMin Pudhumai Penn).^[8] A few scenes were shot at Ooty.^[9]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, while the lyrics were written by Vairamuthu.^[10] The song "Kasthuri Maane" is set in Mohanam raga and "Kadhal Mayakkam" is set in Shuddha Saveri.^[11]

Song	Singers	Length
"Oru Thendral"	Malaysia Vasudevan, Chorus	4:40
"Kasthuri Mane"	K. J. Yesudas, Uma Ramanan	5:09
"Alamara Pondhu"	Ilaiyaraaja	4:18
"Kathal Mayakam"	P. Jayachandran, Sunanda	6:12

Release

Pudhumai Penn was released on 14 July 1984,^[12] and ran for 208 days in the Mini Priya theatre, Madurai. The film failed at the box-office during its first run. M. G. Ramachandran, then the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, decided to re-release the film with tax exemption by reducing ticket prices to three rupees which led to bigger success.^[3][13]

Critical reception

Jayamanmadhan of Kalki praised the performances of cast and direction but was critical of logical mistakes and found the climax of Revathi leaving home disappointing and added that the film can be enjoyed in bits and pieces here and there.^[14] Balumani of Anna praised the acting and dialogues and also praised Bharathiraja and AVM for making a film with a revolutionary message.^[15]