Oru Thalai Ragam

Oru Thalai Raagam is the heartbreaking love story of Subhadra (Roopa) and Raja (Shankar). They are classmates, and their colleagues/classmates include Ravindran, Chandrasekhar, Kailash, Thyagu, and others. The day starts for them at the railway station, where they all catch the train to the college. Raja sincerely loves Subhadra, but she does not reciprocate as she is an introvert and afraid of society's backlash. Moreover, her mother's character is not spoken well by the same people. Even though Subhadra loves Raja, she always tries to insult him whenever the opportunity comes, but on the positive side, she sometimes shows her feelings for him as well.

Raja's life becomes hell as he could not concentrate on his studies and is not taking care of his health as he gets affected by liver jaundice. Raja cuts a sorry figure among his colleagues, and all of them want Subhadra to accept Raja's love. Later, Raja's health deteriorates as he still neglects to have proper food and rest. Finally, the college days are over for the batch, and Subhadra decides to proclaim her love. She gets in the train and sees Raja sitting in the compartment and happily starts speaking with him saying to accept his love and seek apology for her indifferent behavior, but it was too late as Raja dies during her proclamation.

• Shankar as Raja
• Roopa as Subhadra
• Chandrasekhar as Moorthy
• Usha Rajendar as Lavanya
• Ravindran
• Thyagu
• Kailash as Thumbu
• T.Rajendar in a cameo appearance

The film was entirely shot at AVC college in Mayiladuthurai where Rajendar was an alumnus.[2] The film marked the acting debuts of Shankar, Roopa, Thyagu and Ravindran.[3][4]

The film marked the debut of T. Rajendar as a writer and composer. The film's producer E. M. Ibrahim agreed to produce this film on the basis of one condition that Ibrahim himself will be credited as director while Rajender would be credited as the film's screenwriter and music composer. During the shoot, since Ibrahim had no prior experience of film direction, Rajender shot the whole film.[5]

The music was composed by T. Rajendar.[6] The songs became successful and made Rajender popular as a composer.[2] Rajender recalled that though he had composed the score for the film, his name was not credited for background score in the film which made him swear not to watch the film again which he follows till date.[5]

Oru Thalai Ragam was released on 2 May 1980.[7] Ananda Vikatan rated the film 50 out of 100.[8] The film completed 365 days of run in several theatres.[9][4] Initial days after the release saw low responses at the box office. But the film became "super hit" afterwards.[10][11]

Critic Baradwaj Rangan mentions the film in his book Conversations with Mani Ratnam as an example of a love story where the lead characters hardly speak at all.[12] Film historian S. Theodore Baskaran felt that Oru Thalai Ragam and Nammavar were the "two most representative Tamil films about students".[13]

• Oru Thalai Raagam at IMDb