Savaale Samali

Savaale Samali is a 1971 Indian Tamil-language film, starring Sivaji Ganesan in is his 150th film. It was released on 3 July 1971. The film was remade in Telugu as Manchi Rojulu Vachayi (1972), in Malayalam as Randu Lokam (1977), in Kannada as Siritanakke Savaal (1978) and in Hindi as Charnon Ki Saugandh (1988). The film become a blockbuster at the box-office, running for over 100 days in theaters.

Plot
This movie is about class struggle between the landlords who owned most of the land in India and their tenant farmers who were taken advantage off and ill treated by the landlords wrapped into a love story. Jayalalitha comes from a rich land lord family and visits her village from college where her parents reside. She is picked up from the station by Sivaji a local tenant farmer. Jayalalitha’s bags fall from the horse cart and she blames and insults Sivaji. Sivaji leaves her and drives away. In the local election, jayalalitha’s father agreees to get his daughter married to Sivaji if he loses the election and Sivaji should give up his lands if he loses. Sivaji wins and jayalalitha is forced into an unhappy marriage with a poor tenant farmer. Jayalalitha is bitterly unhappy, and returns to her mother’s house where her mother lectures her on the virtues of Indian marriage and after a few twists and turns, the couple is reunited. Although it is about class struggle, the portrayal that women do not have the agency to decide their fate is very sad to behold. That is still the fate of women in India and many other parts of the world, although things have become much better after 50 years since this movie was shot.

Soundtrack
The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan. P. Susheela won her second National Award for the song "Chitukuruvikenna".