Ulagam Sirikirathu (The World is Laughing; 1959)
I bumped into this movie quite by chance. It is one of those films which is heavy on dialogue and cynical on the behaviour of people in general. Its main character is the legendary actor MR Radha. This brand of sarcastic humour is typical of this player's social comedies. He tried to ridicule the average man's somewhat irrational practices, blind faith and herd mentality. It may not be your forte if Tamil is not your mother tongue as one has to understand the subtlety and the delicate nuances of the language to appreciate his brand of comedy.
Even though the main story is a sort of a social drama telling the message of the evils of gambling, specifically horse-racing, MR Radha's antics of a social critic and a cynic takes the limelight over the main characters of Prem Nazeer and Sowkar Janaki. He pokes fun at people's frantic chase for money, exemplified by another character, a moneylender, played by VK Ramasamy. Then there is the man who poses as a holy man because he lost his job as a stage actor. And another scene of a lunatic talking philosophy; and he makes more sense than when he was sane!
There is also an attack on the economic structure of the society. The rich thinks that he owns the working class because he pays them while the poor thinks that he is indispensable, even though he is entirely dependent on the wealthy for survival. And there is a sarcasm of society's expectations on morality. An excellent watch.
I bumped into this movie quite by chance. It is one of those films which is heavy on dialogue and cynical on the behaviour of people in general. Its main character is the legendary actor MR Radha. This brand of sarcastic humour is typical of this player's social comedies. He tried to ridicule the average man's somewhat irrational practices, blind faith and herd mentality. It may not be your forte if Tamil is not your mother tongue as one has to understand the subtlety and the delicate nuances of the language to appreciate his brand of comedy.
Even though the main story is a sort of a social drama telling the message of the evils of gambling, specifically horse-racing, MR Radha's antics of a social critic and a cynic takes the limelight over the main characters of Prem Nazeer and Sowkar Janaki. He pokes fun at people's frantic chase for money, exemplified by another character, a moneylender, played by VK Ramasamy. Then there is the man who poses as a holy man because he lost his job as a stage actor. And another scene of a lunatic talking philosophy; and he makes more sense than when he was sane!
There is also an attack on the economic structure of the society. The rich thinks that he owns the working class because he pays them while the poor thinks that he is indispensable, even though he is entirely dependent on the wealthy for survival. And there is a sarcasm of society's expectations on morality. An excellent watch.
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