Dowry Kalyanam

Dowry Kalyanam is a 1983 Indian Tamil-language black comedy film, directed by Visu and produced by S. Suseela. The film stars Visu, Vijayakanth, Srividya, S. Ve. Shekher and Viji. It is based on Visu's play Dowry Kalyana Vaibhogame. The films depicts the relationship betweet two best friends. One of them is financially struggling, and he increasingly depends financially on his friend. When an arranged marriage between his friend and his sister is proposed, the impoverished friend tries to collect the necessary dowry on his own. The film was released on 1 July 1983.

Plot
Ganeshan and Ethiraj are best friends and colleagues. Ethiraj is a widower and an alcoholic while Ganeshan is married and has a sister and a brother. Ganeshan does not earn enough and borrows from Ethiraj and Rowthar, a Muslim man who runs a grocery shop, frequently.

A misunderstanding arises when Ethiraj's mother proposes marriage between Ganeshan's sister and Ethiraj, leading to a rift in their friendship. He challenges that he would get his sister married in a pompous manner.

However, the groom's family is behind dowry. The mother of the groom runs the family tyrannically. How Ganeshan struggles to make ends meet with many subplots makes it an interesting movie to watch.

In the end, with help from many people, he gets his sister married, only for his own sister to ask him about the remainder of the dowry thereby denoting the cycle of dowry will forever continue.

Production
The film was shot at a village near Tiruvallur.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, with lyrics by Vaali.

Release and reception
Dowry Kalyanam was released on 1 July 1983. Kalki praised the performances of Visu, Nambiar and Srividya while also praising Visu for his direction and avoiding the influence of making it look like a stage play but panned Viswanathan's music.

Censorship controversies
Visu mentioned that the censor board wanted 87 cuts for the film as they were not impressed with the portrayal of the Rowther character speaking in Hindi mixed with Tamil because Rowthers speak pure Tamil. Visu then developed the scene where Rowther explains why he speaks like that, after which the film was cleared with no cuts.