Thiruppu Munai

Thiruppu Munai is a 1989 Tamil-language crime film directed by Kalaivanan Kannadasan. The film stars Karthik and Chithra. It was released on 3 November 1989.

Plot
Sathyamoorthy, an honest politician, becomes the new Minister of Justice. Chakravarthy, a corrupted politician, who wants to be a minister feels ridiculous and tries to kill Sathyamoorthy but Chakravarthy fails each time.

Rajaram, a jobless graduate, comes to the city to find a job. He has a mother in his village and he has a lot of debts. There, he becomes friend with Pichandi, who is also a jobless graduate, and Chidambaram, a disabled family man. Sangeetha, Chakravarthy's niece, interviews Rajaram for a job and he passes it well. Rajaram is hired by Chakravarthy but Chakravarthy asks him to first charm Chitra, Sathyamoorthy's daughter. Rajaram tries to charm her and Chitra falls in love with him. Sathyamoorthy wants to see, his daughter's lover, Rajaram, so Chakravarthy gives him a flower bouquet with a bomb inside. Sathyamoorthy appreciates Rajaram and he gives the flower bouquet to Sathyamoorthy. Sathyamoorthy dies in the bomb blast. Rajaram is sentenced to life imprisonment and Pichandi to five years in prison.

Chakravarthy has succeeded to the minister post and he decides to kill the witnesses. Anand, the jailer, because of his corrupted services, becomes the sub-jailer. Vanchinathan, who looks exactly like Rajaram, is the new jailer. Manimudi, Chakravarthy's henchman, kills Pichandi under the command of Chakravarthy and Vanchinathan is sentenced to life imprisonment. Vanchinathan then escapes from the jail and with Chitra, they try to flee the innocent Rajaram. Later, Chidambaram and his wife are murdered by Chakravarthy's henchmen.

Finally, Rajaram and Vanchinathan kill Chakravarthy's henchmen. Chakravarthy is sentenced to life imprisonment, Rajaram and Chitra get married and Vanchinathan decides to bring up Chidambaram's son.

Cast

 * Karthik as Rajaram / Vanchinathan
 * Chithra as Chitra
 * Janagaraj as Pichandi
 * Vagai Chandrasekhar as Chidambaram
 * Vinu Chakravarthy as Chakravarthy
 * J. V. Somayajulu as Sathyamoorthy
 * Silk Smitha as Sangeetha
 * Sabitha Anand as Chidambaram's wife
 * Thyagu as Anand
 * Ajay Rathnam as Manimudi
 * Jai Ganesh in a guest appearance

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. In early 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in India, a version of "Ammana Summa Illada" with rewritten lyrics spreading awareness about COVID-19, became viral.

Reception
P. S. S. of Kalki praised the performances of Karthik and other actors and Ilayaraja's music but felt the director heavily messed up the climax.