Vertigo, a Hollywood movie often found on the favourites list of Alfred Hitchcock thriller fans, tells the story of detective John Scotty in San Francisco who develops acrophobia after a work-related incident. It renders him unable to climb tall structures. As a result, he plans to retire from his job.
Based on Hitchcock’s 1958 film, the Tamil movie Kalangarai Vilakkam was adapted and released in 1965, achieving tremendous success. It was derived from a story by Ma. Lakshmanan, featuring MG Ramachandran and Saroja Devi. The film completed 58 years of release on Monday.
In Kalangarai Vilakkam, Lawyer Ravi (MGR) visits Mamallapuram to see his friend Dr Gopal (Gopalakrishnan). He encounters a girl (Saroja Devi) dancing in the street, who rushes towards the lighthouse and tries to end her life, claiming to be going to Narasimha Pallavan. Ravi intervenes and saves her. She identifies herself as Sivakami and believes Ravi is Narasimha Pallava. The girl is Neela and is revealed to be mentally challenged. In an attempt to help Neela recover, Ravi follows the advice of his friend Gopal and stays at their house.
Siddappa Nagarajan (Nambiar), a man from Neela’s life, has sinister plans: to eliminate Neela and her brother and seize their property. Neela’s condition improves over time, but tragically, she eventually takes her own life. Her father also dies after consuming sleeping pills. Ravi, mourning Neela’s death, crosses paths with Mallika, a woman resembling Neela, during an event. This raises suspicions for Ravi as he becomes intrigued by the similarities between the two.
MSV’s rendition of catchy songs like Kattru Vaanga, and Ponnezhil Pootadu added to the charm of the film. Directed by K Shankar, the movie adeptly blended elements of love, action and thriller. It’s a must-watch for cinephiles, showcasing how a foreign-language film can be skillfully adapted to Tamil.
Director VC Guhanathan, who contributed to the screenplay of the film, shared some insights about the project. He mentioned that he was around 18 to 19 years old when he worked on it. Collaborating with his mentor G Balasubramanian, they came across this story and he was involved in its development. Notably, during the time of this film’s release, two other films, Idayak Kamalam and Nee, were also released. A common thread among these three movies is that all feature heroines in dual roles. Saroja Devi had a dual role in this film, while KR Vijaya appeared in Ithayak Kamalam, and Jayalalithaa took on dual roles in Nee, as per Guhanathan.
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