Avalum Penn Thaane (1974)

Durai’s first film tells of Seeta (Sumithra), a prostitute, and her attempt to quit the trade. Muthu (Muthuraman), a young businessman from a mofussil town finds her in a Madras brothel and proposes marriage but her pimp (Vasu) ruins her chances and she commits suicide. A strident camera and editing, heavy symbolism, two songs and a comic subplot help maintain the narrative momentum of the melodrama. In contrast to Tamil cinema’s archetypes, the film offers some well-drawn characters with distinct caste identities, speaking with pronounced regional accents: the Chettiar money lender and his young wife interested in pornography, Kanagu the vegetable vendor and Sambandham the bicycle mechanic.