Manmadha Leelai (1976 film)

Manmatha Leelai is a 1976 Indian Tamil-language romantic sex comedy film written and directed by K. Balachander. The film stars Kamal Haasan and Aalam. A number of actresses debuted on Tamil industry through this film, including Hema Chaudhary, Jaya Prada, Y. Vijaya among others. It was released on 27 February 1976. Though the film was criticised for its bold content when it released, it has received cult status with passing years and is considered a trendsetter.

Plot
The film explores the life journey of a wannabe womaniser Madhu and his attempted affairs with various women where he fails invariably, including those who are married.

The main conflict is between Madhu and his wife Rekha. The many woman he flirts with and those who flirt with him are doing so for many different reasons. One has a drunkard husband who has no interest in her while other is merely living her fantasy of being in an extra-marital relationship through phone while another is an ultra-modern hippie cultured women. He, however, does not manage to consummate with any of them. He confesses all his problems to his secretary Mr. Iyer who resigns unable to bear his torture. In the end, his now pregnant wife finds out about his attempted philandering and decides to leave him only to find out that her role-model father has had a life long affair with their long term servant maid which her mother has chosen to ignore. Seeing that men are no better and considering that her husband is yet to consummate, she decides to go back to her husband who vows to become a reformed man.

Production
M. R. Radha's son Radha Ravi made his acting debut with the film. The coat that Kamal Haasan wears prominently in the film was actually his brother Charuhasan's.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, with lyrics by Kannadasan. The song "Naadham Ennum" is set in Shree ranjani raga, while "Hello My Dear" is set in Dharmavati.

Reception
The film struggled to get a censor certificate. Kanthan of Kalki called it a problematic story but gets specialised by skill in creating characters and added there is nothing special about it as a screenplay but Balachander has added innovation to the film by sticking the scenes quickly.

Other versions
After Vijaya Bapineedu acquired the rights to dub the film in Telugu, he edited it down by more than 250 feet. Though Balachander was disappointed with the dubbed version, titled Manmadha Leela, it fared better than the Tamil original. This was the first of many dubbed Telugu films where Haasan's voice was dubbed by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. The film was dubbed in Hindi as Meethi Meethi Baatein (1977), which fared reasonably well. In the late 2000s, K. Balachander reached out to Siddharth about remaking the film. The actor's refusal meant that the project was dropped.

Legacy
Even though it stirred up controversies when it was released, it later became a cult classic, and is considered a trendsetter. Kamal Haasan said, "it was an interesting subject. For that period it was unusual, a breaking down of the fidelity stereotypes".