Sadhu Mirandal

Sadhu Mirandal is a 1966 Indian Tamil-language crime thriller film directed by the duo Thirumalai–Mahalingam. It was produced by A. Bhimsingh, who also wrote the screenplay based on a real incident about a bank official being murdered for money by three people in a moving car. The film stars Nagesh and T. R. Ramachandran. Released on 14 April 1966, it became a critical and commercial success, and was later remade in Hindi by Bhimsingh as Sadhu Aur Shaitaan (1969).

Cast

 * Nagesh as the taxi driver
 * T. R. Ramachandran as Pasupathy
 * O. A. K. Thevar as Narasimhan
 * Manorama as Karpagam
 * Kalpana as Kalpana
 * Kutty Padmini as the bank manager's daughter
 * Master Prabhakar as the bank manager's son

Production
On 13 November 1958 in Madras (now Chennai), Suryanarayana, a bank official, was murdered for money by his friend Narayana Swamy and associates Vijayakumar and Joginder, while travelling via Narayana Swamy's car after taking a large sum of cash from his bank's head office in Parry's Corner to his branch in T. Nagar. Vijayakumar and Narayana Swamy were apprehended, but Joginder escaped. This incident became known as the "Suryanarayana Murder Case", and inspired A. Bhimsingh to write a screenplay. He produced it under the banner Sree Venkateswara Cinetone as the film Sadhu Mirandal, which his assistants Thirumalai–Mahalingam directed. The story and dialogues were written by Usilai Somanathan. Art direction was handled by H. Shantaram, editing by A. Paul Durai Singham and cinematography by G. Vittal Rao. A. Veerappan also contributed to the script, but was not credited. It is the feature film debut of Master Prabhakar. The final length of the film was 3996 metres.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by T. K. Ramamoorthy. Ramamoorthy earlier composed for films with M. S. Viswanathan (under the name Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy) and this was his first film as a solo composer. One song, "A for Apple... B for Biscuit...", written by Thanjai Vaanan and sung by A. L. Raghavan and L. R. Eswari, attained popularity, as did "Arulvaaye Nee Arulvaaye", sung by M. Balamuralikrishna. This song is set in the Carnatic raga Sindhu Bhairavi.

Release and reception
Sadhu Mirandal was released on 14 April 1966, and was distributed by Sun Beam. The film became a commercial success, and received a positive review from Kalki for its innovative storyline and making.