Moondram Pirai is a 1982 Indian Tamil film written and directed by Balu Mahendra

Balu Mahendra

Balanathan "Balu" Mahendran is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, and cinematographer widely regarded as part of the first in a wave of directors and screenwriters from the Chennai film industry who revitalised Tamil cinema...

, starring Sridevi, Kamal Haasan

Kamal Haasan

Kamal Haasan is an Indian film actor, screenwriter and director, considered to be one of the leading method actors of Indian cinema. He is widely acclaimed as an actor and is well known for his versatility in acting...

, Poornam Vishwanathan

Poornam Vishwanathan

Poornam Viswanathan was a theater artist and film actor in the Tamil film industry. He started performing on stage at age 18. He worked as a reader for All India Radio. He acted in movies such as Chithram, Varusham 16, Thillu Mullu, Keladi Kanmani, Moondram Pirai, Aasai, Mahanadi' and Varumaiyin...

 and Silk Smitha

Silk Smitha

Silk Smitha was an Indian film actress. She became a movie extra and subsequently the most wanted heroine of the early 80s. The sobriquet "Silk" came in 1979, with her first Tamil film Vandi Chakkaram, in which she played a bar girl named Silk...

. Ilaiyaraaja

Ilaiyaraaja

Ilaiyaraaja is an Indian film composer, singer, and lyricist mainly in the Tamil film Industry. He is regarded as one of the finest music composers in India. Ilaiyaraaja is also an instrumentalist, conductor, and a songwriter...

 composed the music. Kamal Haasan won the National Film Award for Best Actor

National Film Award for Best Actor

The National Film Award for Best Actor is an honor presented annually at the National Film Awards of India to an actor who has delivered the best performance in a leading role within the Indian film industry.-Background:The Directorate of Film Festivals makes awards annually in several categories...

 for his role as Srinivas. Balu Mahendra did the cinematography as well for which he won the National Film Award for Best Cinematography

National Film Award for Best Cinematography

The National Film Award for Best Cinematography are given annually. The only female who has won this award is Anjuli Shukla, who won the award for her debut film, Kutty Srank . The most time winners are Santosh Sivan & K.K. Mahajan - 4 awards each for best cinematography category....

.

The film was dubbed in Telugu

Telugu cinema

The Cinema of Andhra Pradesh, also referred to as Telugu Cinema or Tollywood, is the Telugu film industry in India. The Telugu language film industry is known for being one of the three largest in terms of no.of films produced yearly in India. The Prasads IMAX theatre in Hyderabad is one of the...

 under the title Vasantha Kokila and was released on the same day (19 February 1982). The film was remade the following year as the Hindi film Sadma

Sadma

Sadma is a 1983 Indian film directed by Balu Mahendra which stars Kamal Haasan and Sridevi with music composed by Ilayaraaja. The picture tells the story of Nehalata , a young woman who regresses to childhood after suffering a head injury in a car crash...

, with much of the cast and crew from the original reprising their roles.

Plot

Bhagyalakshmi (Sridevi) is a young, modern girl who meets with an accident that leaves her with the memory and intelligence of a seven year old. Circumstances lead her into prostitution, and in the brothel she meets Srinivas (Kamal Haasan). He realizes that she has been tricked into the trade. He rescues her and takes her to his home in Ooty and begins to take care of her like his own. He knows Bhagyalakshmi as Viji, which was the pseudonym given for her at the brothel. Viji reciprocates Srinivas's care as they spend several months together sharing an amazing and innocent relationship that treads the tender line between affection and love. The sub plot of the film follows the wife of Srinivas' boss who is attracted to Srinivas, though Srinivas doesn't reciprocate her feelings. It depicts how the outside world succumbs to human feelings of lust and desire which are totally missing between Srinivas and Viji. Srinivas takes Viji to a village medical practitioner who cures her of her mental illness and brings her back to sanity as she recovers her memory up to the point of her accident a few months back. But when Srinivas comes to meet Viji later that day, she is now not able to identify him or remember him. Despite all his efforts to make her understand that he was the one who had taken care of her for several months, she is indifferent to him and leaves Ooty to go back to her hometown, thus abandoning Srinivas and the life and relationship that she once had with him.

Cast

• Kamal Haasan
  Kamal Haasan
  Kamal Haasan is an Indian film actor, screenwriter and director, considered to be one of the leading method actors of Indian cinema. He is widely acclaimed as an actor and is well known for his versatility in acting...
  
   - Srinivas / Seenu
• Sridevi - Bhagyalaksmi / Vijaya / Viji
• Silk Smitha
  Silk Smitha
  Silk Smitha was an Indian film actress. She became a movie extra and subsequently the most wanted heroine of the early 80s. The sobriquet "Silk" came in 1979, with her first Tamil film Vandi Chakkaram, in which she played a bar girl named Silk...
  
   - Headmaster's Wife
• Poornam Vishwanathan
  Poornam Vishwanathan
  Poornam Viswanathan was a theater artist and film actor in the Tamil film industry. He started performing on stage at age 18. He worked as a reader for All India Radio. He acted in movies such as Chithram, Varusham 16, Thillu Mullu, Keladi Kanmani, Moondram Pirai, Aasai, Mahanadi' and Varumaiyin...
  
   - Headmaster
• Y. Gee. Mahendra
  Y. Gee. Mahendra
  Yechan Gunja Mahendran , popularly known as Y. G. Mahendran or Y. Gee. Mahendra, is an Indian dramatist, actor, singer playwright and comedian from the state of Tamil Nadu. He has acted in a number of plays and films. He is the son of Y. G...
  
   - Srinivas's friend

National Film Awards

Winners:

• Silver Lotus Award - Best Actor - Kamal Haasan
  Kamal Haasan
  Kamal Haasan is an Indian film actor, screenwriter and director, considered to be one of the leading method actors of Indian cinema. He is widely acclaimed as an actor and is well known for his versatility in acting...
  
  
• Silver Lotus Award - Best Cinematography - Balu Mahendra
  Balu Mahendra
  Balanathan "Balu" Mahendran is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, and cinematographer widely regarded as part of the first in a wave of directors and screenwriters from the Chennai film industry who revitalised Tamil cinema...
  
  

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

• Best Actor
  Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor
  The Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor is given by the state government as part of its annual Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Tamil films.-The list:Here is a list of the award winners and the films for which they won....
  
   for Kamal Haasan
• Best Actress
  Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress
  The Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress is given by the state government as part of its annual Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Tamil films.-The list:Here is a list of the award winners and the films for which they won....
  
   for Sridevi

Soundtrack

External links

• Moondram Pirai Soundtrack at Oosai