Naanum Oru Thozhilali

Bharath (Kamal Haasan) returns to India from his studies abroad after his father Yoganand (Veera Raghavan) dies in a car accident. The family's factory is run by the father and son team of Rammohan (V. S. Raghavan) and Sundar (Jaishankar). They are looting from the factory and treating the workers poorly. Kumar (Rajeev) works at the factory and often clashes with Rammohan and Sundar. The duo accused Kumar's older brother of running away with stolen company cash but Kumar does not believe this. He is also suspicious of Yoganand's death and is trying to investigate.

Bharath falls in love with factory worker Meena (Ambika), soon after his arrival in India. He also quickly realizes that something is amiss with the factory and his father's accident. With the help of Meena, he poses as factory worker Raju to investigate matters. He soon learns that Kumar is an ally and the two work together to get to the bottom of the mystery.

The film was launched by C. V. Sridhar in 1980 as a Cinemascope venture and was then titled as Sakthi. Sridhar collaborated with Kamal Haasan after the success of the 1978 film Ilamai Oonjal Aadukirathu, which had also featured Rajinikanth. The film was meant to be the first film which featured Kamal Haasan and Ambika as a lead pair and stills were released featuring Ambika in a swimsuit. The film got delayed and was put on the back burner, before it re-emerged in 1986 under the title of Meendum Suryodayam and shooting progressed. It was planned for an April 1986 release, which got postponed to 1 May 1986.[1] There was a local authority election in March 1986 and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam won seats. Sridhar felt that if the film released with the title Meendum Suryodayam (Rising Sun), it would be seen as if they are welcoming the DMK's re-emergence, whose symbol was that of a rising sun. Hence the title was changed to Naanum Oru Thozhilali. Sridhar had previously started a film with the same title in the mid-1970s, with M. G. Ramachandran in the lead; that film was shelved.[1][2][3]

Naanum Oru Thozhilali released on 1 May 1986 alongside Sridhar's other film Yaro Ezhuthia Kavithai and it became a rare incident when two films of the same director were released simultaneously. But only this film emerged successful at the box office.[1] Telugu-language version released one year later on 3 July 1987.[4][5] The film dubbed in Kannada as Sooryodaya, but didn't theatrical release.[6]

However, critics point out that the difference of quality between the Cinemascope footage shot in 1981 and 1:1.33 footage shot in 1986 were visible throughout the film, including the color quality and the appearance of the lead actors.

Naanum Oru Thozhilali
Soundtrack album by Ilaiyaraaja
Released	1986
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	30:18
Language	Tamil
Label	Echo
External audio Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja.[7] The highlight of the album was the disco song Oru Nilavum Malarum.

• Naanum Oru Thozhilali at IMDb
• Andarikante Ghanudu at IMDb