Nizhalgal

Gopi and Hari, two unemployed graduates, share a room in Madras. While Gopi is looking for a job, Hari, a harmonium player, aspires to become a music composer in the film industry. They both manage to make ends meet with the help of their friends. Their neighbour is Prabhu, a college student who spends all his time smoking, painting and singing. A new family relocates to their apartment. The couple have a daughter Mahalakshmi. Prabhu and Maha both study in the same college and become good friends. Prabhu decides to apprentice under a veena exponent, but the exponent dies before he joins the class.

Gopi takes tuition for Maha and they both fall in love. During this time, Gopi, Hari, and Prabhu get arrested for different reasons. Maha pledges her chain and takes them out on bail. In an attempt to reform, Prabhu goes to meet his college principal, but gets dismissed from the college after impulsively slapping him for extinguishing his cigarette on a flower. He gets scolded by his father, but Maha becomes very supportive to him. Prabhu assumes that she loves him. During this time Maha's parents force her to discontinue her tuition as some of their relatives suspect she and Gopi are in a relationship. Hari gets a break in films and gets an advance payment of money from the producers. Using the sum, they return Maha's chain. By this time, Maha's parents start looking for a groom for her.

Maha meets Gopi and advises him to find a job so that they can marry. Things start to take a turn for the worse when Hari is dropped from the film because the financier of the film feels having a newcomer is not a good idea. Gopi and Hari are evicted from their room for not paying the rent, and seek shelter with Mani, a rickshaw puller. Gopi gets a telegram informing him that his father is dead. To bear Gopi's travel expenses, Mani's son Singam goes out, but meets with an accident. Hari tries to make money by becoming a street performer but fails. Gopi approaches a moneylender to borrow money for Singam's treatment. The moneylender talks ill about Singam, angering Gopi into stabbing the moneylender and taking his money. When he arrives, he sees that Singam is dead.

Meanwhile, Maha's parents arrange a marriage for her. When she meets Prabhu, he confesses his love for her. A shocked Maha informs him that she never loved him, only Gopi. Prabhu is disappointed and feels life has ditched him as every single moment. He tries to molest Maha but is stopped when she takes a knife and threatens that she will kill herself. Prabhu feels guilty, takes the knife and stabs himself to death. By this time, Gopi arrives at her house and informs her that he has killed the moneylender for money. They both go a step ahead and marry each other. The next day they are arrested for the deaths of Prabhu and the moneylender. Hari throws his harmonium in the sea and becomes insane.

• Rajasekaran as Prabhu[1]
• Rohini as Mahalakshmi (Maha)[2]
• Ravi as Gopi[1]
• Chandrasekhar as Hari[1]
• Suvitha as Poongothai[2]
• Charuhasan as the veena exponent[2]
• Manivannan as Mani[2]
• Janagaraj as the moneylender[2]
• K. K. Soundar as Gopi's father[2]
• Master Haja Sheriff as Singam[2]
• Rasi Ramasamy as Maha's father
• Ilaiyaraaja (special appearance)
• R. K. Kumar (special appearance)
• R. Purusothaman (special appearance in "Madai Thiranthu")[3]

Manivannan joined Bharathiraja's unit as an assistant in the film. He scripted the story and co-wrote the film with Bharathiraja.[4] The film's cast, principal cast in particular – Ravi, Chandrasekhar, Raadhu, and Rajasekar – completely featured newcomers. Raadhu was credited as Rohini.[5] Ravi was earlier asked to audition for Bharathiraja's Niram Maratha Pookkal (1979) as a dubbing artist for the lead character. However, since Bharathiraja himself dubbed for character, Ravi was dropped. Bharathiraaja, however, signed up Ravi for Nizhalgal as the lead actor, thus marking Ravi's cinematic debut.[6] Bharathiraja cast Rajasekar because he liked his eyes.[7]

The main theme of the film is unemployment.[8]

The film's soundtrack and background score were composed by Ilaiyaraaja.[9] The song "Ithu Oru Pon Malai" was written by Vairamuthu, making his cinematic debut.[10] The song is set in Kedaram raga,[11] while "Poongathave" is set in Mayamalavagowla.[12] The song "Madai Thiranthu" was later remixed by Yogi B and Natchatra in their album Vallavan.[13][14] A remix version of "Ithu Oru Pon Malai" is featured on music artist M. Rafi's album Aasaiyae Alaipolae.[15]

Nizhalgal was released on 6 November 1980.[8] Although the film's story, music and the performance of the cast members received critical acclaim, it failed at the box office.[4] After the film's release, the name "Nizhalgal" was added to Ravi's name as a prefix.[17]

At the International Film Festival of India in 1981, Nizhalgal was one of the 21 films to be screened at the Indian Panorama section. It was one of the two Tamil films to be screened at the festival; the other being K. Vijayan's Doorathu Idi Muzhakkam which was released the same year.[18]

Made in the neo-realistic style, the film was a different attempt by Bharathiraaja. The French film critic Yves Thoraval in his The cinemas of India stated: "a gloomy and violent film despite musical scenes with pretty dancers in short skirts."[19] In 2008, short filmmaker R. V. Ramani in an interview with The Hindu recalled Nizhalgal as being a film that made a strong impact on him. He further called the film as a path breaking one in Tamil cinema.[20]

In a 2015 interview, Bharathiraaja noted that he had to return to mainstream filmmaking as the failure of Nizhalgal forced him to stop making films of the same kind.[21]

At the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards (1981), Nizhalgal won two awards – Best Music Director (for Ilaiyaraaja) and Best Male Playback (for S. P. Balasubrahmanyam).[22]

• Dhananjayan, G. (2014). Pride of Tamil Cinema: 1931 to 2013. Chennai: Blue Ocean Publishers. ISBN 978-93-84301-05-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• Nizhalgal at IMDb