TomOcampo9313 at 05:23, 3 March 2026

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{{short description|1980 film by K. Vijayan}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Use Indian English|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox film
| image = Doorathu Idi Muzhakkam.jpg
| caption = Title card
| director = [[K. Vijayan]]
| writer = T. Somasoodan
| producer = K. Vijayan
| starring = Poornima<br />[[Vijayakanth]]
| cinematography = N. Balakrishnan
| editing = B. Kandasamy
| music = [[Salil Chowdhury]]
| studio = Saisudha Films
| released = {{film date|1980|12|5|df=yes}}
| runtime = 125 minutes{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|1998|p=445}}
| country = India
| language = Tamil
}}

'''''Doorathu Idi Muzhakkam''''' ({{IPA|ta|ðuːɾatu iɖi muɻakkam|pron}} {{Translation|Distant thunder}}) is a 1980 Indian [[Tamil language|Tamil]]-language [[drama film]] produced and directed by [[K. Vijayan]] and written by T. Somasoodan. Starring debutante Poornima and [[Vijayakanth]], it has [[Peeli Sivam]], and [[Suruli Rajan]] in other prominent roles. Set in the backdrop of a fishing community, the film tells the story of a woman who is torn between her love and husband. The film was screened at the Indian Panorama of the [[International Film Festival of India]] in 1981.

== Plot ==
A group of students visit a fishing village and see the statue of a young lady holding a shell and a lamp in both her hands. A tourist guide narrates the story as the film goes into a flashback mode.

Perumooppan, the village head, finds a child abandoned in a boat in the sea. He takes the child with him and brings him up. The child grows up into a skilled fisherman (Ponnan). Ponnan falls in love with Chelli, the daughter of a potter from the same village. Maari, Chelli's maternal uncle, who has an eye on her himself, learns about the relationship between her and Ponnan. One day when Ponnan and Chelli are together in a temple, a lamp breaks down. When Chelli is asked about her companion in the Panchayat, she fails to reveal Ponnan's name. The entire village questions her chastity and punishes her by making her swim across the sea and bring mud to light the lamp. When she does it successfully, the villagers become happy and get satisfied. This makes Maari even angrier.

On the insistence of Perumooppan, Ponnan along with a group of fishermen go to sea for fishing. During the event, Ponnan is taken away by a shark. The villagers believe that Ponnan is dead. On hearing this, Chelli attempts suicide but is saved by Maari. The villagers advise Chelli's father to have her marry Maari. Despite her reluctance, the marriage proceeds, and while returning home afterwards, she sees a dead body of a child being carried away by the villagers. Maari moves out of the house and notices a tantric (Pillikoda) who removes buried child in the graveyard and chases him. Meanwhile, Maari is appointed as one of the prominent members of the village Panchayat.

Chelli and Maari begin a happy life. By this time, the long-lost Ponnan returns to the village and finds them together. A dejected Ponnan leaves without informing her. Further, when he learns about their marriage, he decides to keep himself away from Chelli to avoid further complications. He goes to Perumooppan's house and leaves a shell that he brought from the deep sea. When Perumooppan sees this, he learns that Ponnan is still alive. In the meanwhile, Chelli delivers a baby boy. Since the baby looks dark and bears a close resemblance to Ponnan, the villagers label the child as an illegitimate one. Maari too starts believing that the child was not paid to him. A dejected Maari goes to a nearby temple during which he meets Pillikoda who asks him to bring a first male child of any family and the shell which is kept in the Pampadevi temple for exchange of some gold coins. Maari accepts the deal and takes the child and the shell and sets out to meet Pillikoda.

Meanwhile, Chelli notices her child is missing and runs to the Pampadevi temple and starts praying to the god to save her child. She then goes to Perumooppan's house to seek his help, where she finds the shell which was brought by Ponnan. Perumooppan advises her to take the surface and keep it inside the temple. He also tells Ponnan to save Chelli's child. When he is about to hand over the child to Pillikoda, Maari reforms and fights him, so Pillikoda kills him. During this time, Ponnan arrives and fights with Pillikoda and almost kills him. On the other hand, Chelli stands on the seashore and prays to the god with the shell in one hand and a lamp in another hand. When Ponnan returns to the shore with her child and Maari's corpse, Pillikoda throws a sickle and kills Ponnan. The boat arrives at the beach with the child along with the bodies of both Ponnan and Maari. Pillikoda is destroyed by a fire. Chelli becomes infuriated and asks the sea deity about the killings of her husband and Ponnan. She continues to stay on the shore. Her father erects a statue of her holding the lamp shell on both her hands at the coast.

== Cast ==
* Poornima Devi as Chelli{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|1998|p=445}}
*[[Vijayakanth]] as Ponnan{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|1998|p=445}}
*[[Peeli Sivam]] as Maari{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|1998|p=446}}
*[[A. K. Veerasamy]] as Perumooppan
*A. Jagadeesan as Pillikoda
*[[Suruli Rajan]] as Neelakandam
*[[Karuppu Subbiah]]

== Production ==
The film was produced by the director Vijayan himself. The film score was provided by [[Salil Chowdhury]] while cinematography was handled by N. Balakrishnan.{{Sfn|Dhananjayan|2014|p=264}} Poornima Devi made her debut as lead actress with this film. None of the actors applied makeup for their roles.<ref name=an /> The filming was held at Payanoor near Kerala and its surroundings.<ref name="ka">{{Cite magazine |date=7 December 1980 |title=புதுமை! புதுமை! |url=https://archive.org/details/kalki1980-12-07/page/n33/mode/2up |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230322161105/https://archive.org/details/kalki1980-12-07/page/n33/mode/2up |archive-date=22 March 2023 |access-date=22 March 2023 |magazine=[[Kalki (magazine)|Kalki]] |pages=32–33 |language=ta |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> A few scenes were shot in [[Kerala]] in locations such as Ettikulam, Neeliswaram and Poochal.<ref name="an">{{cite news |date=15 July 1979 |title=தூரத்து இடி முழக்கம்: விஜயன் பேட்டி |url=https://images.eap.bl.uk/EAP372/EAP372_6_23_3_265/3.jp2/full/1000,1366/0/default.jpg |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241214190043/https://images.eap.bl.uk/EAP372/EAP372_6_23_3_265/3.jp2/full/1000,1366/0/default.jpg |archive-date=14 December 2024 |access-date=25 May 2025 |newspaper=Anna |pages=3 |language=ta |via=[[Endangered Archives Programme]]}}</ref> Although censored in December 1979, the film had a theatrical release only after a year.{{Sfn|Dhananjayan|2014|p=265}}

== Soundtrack ==
All lyrics were written by [[Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam]] and the music was composed by [[Salil Chowdhury]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thooraththu Idimuzhakkam Tamil Film EP Vinyl Record by Salil Chowdhry |url=https://mossymart.com/product/thooraththu-idimuzhakkam-tamil-film-ep-vinyl-record-by-salil-chowdhry/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810055531/https://mossymart.com/product/thooraththu-idimuzhakkam-tamil-film-ep-vinyl-record-by-salil-chowdhry/ |archive-date=10 August 2023 |access-date=10 August 2023 |website=Mossymart}}</ref> Since the film is primarily set in seashore, Vijayan wanted use real sounds of sea waves and Salil Chaudhary recorded the real sounds of waves.<ref name="ka" />
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Title
!Singer(s)
!Length
|-
|"Ullam Ellam Thalladuthe"
|[[K. J. Yesudas]], [[S. Janaki]]
|4:27
|-
|"Sevvali Poove"
|S. Janaki, chorus
|4:19
|-
|"Valaiyendi Kollvom"
|[[S. P. Balasubrahmanyam]], [[P. Susheela]]
|3:22
|-
|"Ullam Ellam Thalladuthe"
|[[P. Jayachandran]], S. Janaki
|2:56
|-
|"Indro Manam Kalangi"
|K. J. Yesudas
|2:48
|}

== Release and reception ==
''Doorathu Idi Muzhakkam'' received positive response from the critics who appreciated the film for its realistic portrayal of a love story set in the backdrop of a fishing community.{{Sfn|Dhananjayan|2014|p=264}} It is widely regarded as one of the new wave films that came out in the early 1980s in Tamil cinema.<ref name="RayJoshi2005">{{Cite book |last1=Ray |first1=Bibekananda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IedkAAAAMAAJ |title=Conscience of the Race: India's Offbeat Cinema |last2=Joshi |first2=Naveen |date=1 January 2005 |publisher=[[Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India)|Ministry of Information and Broadcasting]] |isbn=978-81-230-1298-8 |pages=123 |access-date=17 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326042144/https://books.google.com/books?id=IedkAAAAMAAJ |archive-date=26 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> Nalini Shastry of ''Kalki'' felt what was there in this film to get selected for the Delhi Film Festival but praised the cinematography for capturing seashores beautifully and called the performances of cast as natural, despite feeling that the scenes of Surulirajan in flashback was unnecessary, he was natural and his presence will be missed.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=சாஸ்திரி |first=நளினி |date=28 December 1980 |title=தூரத்து இடி முழக்கம் |url=https://archive.org/details/kalki1980-12-28/page/n37/mode/2up |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230322160928/https://archive.org/details/kalki1980-12-28/page/n37/mode/2up |archive-date=22 March 2023 |access-date=21 March 2023 |magazine=[[Kalki (magazine)|Kalki]] |page=36 |language=Ta |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> It was one of the 21 films to be screened at the "Indian Panorama" section of the [[International Film Festival of India]] in 1981; apart from ''[[Nizhalgal]]'', it was the only other Tamil film to be screened at the festival that year.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Indian Cinema '80/'81 |url=http://dff.nic.in/2011/IP1981.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232755/http://dff.nic.in/2011/IP1981.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 |access-date=14 August 2015 |publisher=[[Directorate of Film Festivals]] |pages=98}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{Cite book |last=Dhananjayan |first=G. |author-link=G. Dhananjayan |title=Pride of Tamil Cinema: 1931–2013 |title-link=Pride of Tamil Cinema |publisher=Blue Ocean Publishers |year=2014 |oclc=898765509}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Rajadhyaksha |first1=Ashish |author-link=Ashish Rajadhyaksha |title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema |last2=Willemen |first2=Paul |author-link2=Paul Willemen |publisher=[[British Film Institute]] and [[Oxford University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=0-19-563579-5 |orig-date=1994}}

== External links ==
*{{IMDb title}}

{{K. Vijayan}}

[[Category:1980 films]]
[[Category:1980 Indian films]]
[[Category:1980 Tamil-language films]]
[[Category:Films about fishermen]]
[[Category:Films directed by K. Vijayan]]
[[Category:Films scored by Salil Chowdhury]]
[[Category:Tamil-language Indian films]]

{{Improve categories|date=March 2024}}

Doorathu Idi Muzhakkam - Revision history

TomOcampo9313 at 05:23, 3 March 2026