Erattai Manithan

1982 Indian film

14 January 1982 (1982-01-14)

Running time

124 minutesCountryIndiaLanguageTamil

Erattai Manithan (transl. Double Person) is a 1982 Indian Tamil-language film, directed by K. Shankar. The film stars S. S. Rajendran (who is also credited for film's script), Jai Ganesh, Latha, Sumithra and Bhavani. It was released on 14 January 1982.^[1]

Plot

Durai is honest, straightforward and lives by a strict moral code. His only family is his younger sister Vani and he works as a manager for Thangavelu's company. Thangavelu's wife Mangalam and daughter Kannamma constantly clash with Durai's stodgy attitude but Thangavelu appreciates him. Thangavelu's family watches a play and see Durai as an actor in it. Mangalam and Kannamma point out Durai's hypocrisy and duplicity in pursuing acting when he has such strict expectations of everyone else. When Thangavelu confronts him, Durai lies and invents a younger twin brother, Raja, that is an actor and singer. Thangavelu and his family fall for his act and hire Raja to be Kannamma's music teacher. In the meantime, Vani falls in love with Chandran, Durai's co-star in his plays and also Thangavelu's nephew. Unknown to Vani, he's a cad that uses the ruse of producing films to get closer to various women. Kannamma falls in love with Raja who also loves her but is reticent due to his lies and her continuing dislike of Durai. Matters are further complicated when another of Durai's co-stars, Bhavani, learns the truth and blackmails him. Durai confesses all to Thangavelu's family and is forgiven but now has to face the ire of Chandran and Bhavani.

Cast

S. S. Rajendran as Durai
Jai Ganesh as Chandran
Latha as Kannamma
Sumithra as Vani
Bhavani as Bhavani
V. K. Ramasamy as Thangavelu
Manorama as Mangalam
Suruli Rajan as Sokkan
Gandhimathi as Ding Dong Ramamani
Vellai Subbaiah
D. V. Narayanaswamy
Preetha
A. K. Sundar
P. P. Subbiah
Karikol Raj
K. R. Seetharaman
Rajavelu
Jayadev

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan.^[2]

Song	Singers	Lyrics
"Indraikku Naan Piranthen"	T. M. Soundararajan	S. S. Rajendran
"Neer Thoda Marantha"	T. M. Soundararajan, Vani Jairam	Pulamaipithan
"Naan Paada Paada"	L. R. Eswari	Muthulingam
"Putham Puthithu Vayathu"	L. R. Eswari	Kannadasan

Reception

Sindhu-Jeeva of Kalki compared the film's plot to the Hindi film Gol Maal and added there were lot of political references in every frame and concluded looking at songs, background music, dialogues, comedy, etc. would have been appreciated if this film had come out twenty years ago.^[3]

References

^ "இரட்டை மனிதன் / Erattai Manithan (1982)". Screen 4 Screen. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
^ "Irattai Manithan Tamil Film EP Vinyl Record by M S Viswanathan". Mossymart. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
^ சிந்து-ஜீவா (7 February 1982). "இரட்டை மனிதன்". Kalki (in Tamil). pp. 62–63. Archived from the original on 13 April 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2023 – via Internet Archive.