Wedding Gift) is a 1959 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by Sridhar.
Kalyana Parisu was the directorial debut of Sridhar, who co-produced it with his partners S. Krishnamoorthy and T. Govindarajan under Venus Pictures.
It was critically acclaimed, particularly for eschewing formulaic Tamil cinema conventions like long dialogues and fixed-point cinematography in favour of short verses with simple words and camera mobility.
Kalyana Parisu emerged a milestone in Tamil cinema, and the breakthrough for Saroja Devi and Rajah.
Its success led to Sridhar launching his own production company Chitralaya, and set the pattern for his later works in which he repeated the motif of the eternal triangle and unrequited love.
The comedy subplot written by Gopu involving Thangavelu and M. Saroja gained popularity, and was sold separately on audio cassettes and vinyl records.
The film was later remade by Sridhar in Telugu as Pelli Kanuka (1960) and Hindi as Nazrana (1961), and in Malayalam by J. Sasikumar as Sammanam (1975).
Vasanthi writes to Baskar advising him to forget about the past and lead a happy life with Geetha; he relents.
After the success of the Venus Pictures production Uthama Puthiran (1958), its screenwriter Sridhar was keen on creating the story for his next film.
[7][8] Govindarajan initially did not like the plot as he found it similar to Amara Deepam (1956) for which Sridhar also wrote the script but later agreed to produce the film.
[9] T. A. Sadagoppan (later known as Chitralaya Gopu) a childhood friend of Sridhar, joined as an associate writer for the film, thereby making his cinematic debut.
[14] Although Ganesan had contracted typhoid fever, Sridhar felt only he could do "justice to the role" and decided to wait for him to get better before casting him.
[30][31] When Sridhar told Kalyanasundaram told the complete storyline of Kalyana Parisu in detail, Kalyanasundaram felt it was too "longwinded" and summed it up in two lines: "Kaathalile tholviyutraal kanni oruthi, kalangukiral avanai nenjil niruthi" (A virgin had lost her love, she is heartbroken about him).
Though initially depressed, he felt the lines were true and asked Kalyanasundaram to develop them into a song; the result was "Kaathalile Tholviyutraal".
[41][c] Historian S. Theodore Baskaran attributed the film's success "in large part to its music composed by [A. M. Raja], who was at his peak as a playback singer.
[45] It was praised for eschewing long dialogues in favour of short verses with simple words to touch the heart, and Vincent's camera mobility instead of being fixed to one point like many Tamil films then.
Gemini Ganesan, B. Saroja Devi, C. R. Vijayakumari and A. Nageswara Rao have all given sensitive performances" and commented positively on Thangavelu's comedy.
[47] Sekar of the Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan, in its 26 April 1959 issue, appreciated the fact that the film had no villain, and everyone had a good heart.
He praised the performances of Ganesan and Saroja Devi, writing that the latter showed the three emotions – love, sacrifice and duty – excellently.
[49] In his 1996 book The Eye of The Serpent, Theodore Baskaran said the comedy subplot did not fit into the main storyline and was not cinematic.
[53] Kalyana Parisu also set the pattern for Sridhar's later works in which he repeated the motif of the eternal triangle and unrequited love.
[59] In a scene from Avvai Shanmughi (1996), when Viswanatha Iyer (Gemini Ganesan) is shocked to hear that Shanmugi (Kamal Haasan) is married, "Kaathalile Tholviyutraan" is played in the background.
[20][62] Sridhar also directed the Hindi remake Nazrana (1961), which had Ganesan in the role originally played by Nageswara Rao in Tamil.
[64] Kalyana Parisu also inspired the Telugu film Devata (1982) and its Hindi remake Tohfa (1984), both directed by K. Raghavendra Rao.