Panchavarna Kili

Panchavarna Kili is a 1965 Indian Tamil-language film directed by K. Shankar and produced by Saravana Pictures. The film stars R. Muthuraman, Jaishankar, K. R. Vijaya, Nagesh, Major Sundarrajan and Manorama. It was released on 21 May 1965, and became a commercial success.

Plot

Megala wants to marry Sekar – an army officer, Sokkalingam first son. To her dismay, he is married to Chitra in Delhi and they have a child. Meanwhile, Sokkalingam is looking for marriage alliance for her second son Kannan through marriage broker Kalyanam. Kalyanam learns that Sekar's brother already has radio singer Vani in mind. He arranges marriage of Kannan and Vani. In a twist, Sekar look alike Balu – Vani niece morphs a photo with him and Vani. The morphed photo is sent to Sekar house to stop the marriage. Ashamed of the bad name, Vani mother dies and Vani absconds to Delhi. Vani picks her sister kid and returns to Sekar house to hand over the kid. In some twist, Vani is mistaken as Sekar wife and kept in house. Later Balu enters Sokkalingam house as Sekar using look alike appearance. Also, by lying and bribing to broker, he sets up Kannan to marry another women as Vani by proxying through a setup. Vani learns about her niece's malpractice. In a scramble, she suffers injury and lies in bed. In another twist, Sekar appears before his parents as he escaped Chinese captivity during war and did not die. With Sekar look alike, creating confusion, police arrive with broker to Sekar house. Broker reveals about the bribing incident. In this, Kannan clears the confusion by claiming that Sekar kid is dead. Look alike not panicking in that situation, is found to be the culprit. The police arrest him. Finally, Vani marries Sekar's brother, and Megala marries Sekar.

Cast

Jaishankar as Sekar / Balu
Muthuraman as Kannan
K. R. Vijaya as Vani
Revathi as Megala
Major Sundarrajan as Chokkalingam
S. N. Lakshmi as Meenakshi
L. Vijayalakshmi as Dancer
Nagesh as Kalyanam
Manorama as Meena
Karikol Raju as Vadivelu
A. Veerappan as Nagappan
Shoba as Fake Vani

Production

Panchavarna Kili was inspired from the 1950 film No Man of Her Own, and shot at AVM Studios. The story was, however, credited to Valampuri Somanathan. Ra. Sankaran worked as associate director.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by the duo Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy, while the lyrics were written by Bharathidasan and Vaali. The song "Azhagan Muruganidam Aasai Vaithen" is set in Tilang raga. The song "Tamizhukkum Amudhendru Per" extols the sweetness of the Tamil language, noting it means "that which is sweet" as it is derived from the world "Tam" and "-izh".

Reception

Kalki lauded Thambu's cinematography and Shankar's direction, saying the latter helped a confusing story look clear. The critic also appreciated Nagesh and Manorama's comedy.