Palaivana Solai (1981)

A love story of five boys for each other, using the death of a girl to confirm their mutual affections. The successful film was made by a group of Film Institute students seeking to inaugurate a new formula of ensemble playing using the conventional story of male youths using a pretty woman as a lightning conductor for the sexual undertones of their devotion to each other. Young Geeta (Suhasini), suffering from a heart disease, moves into a house on a street where five bosom buddies hang out: Shekhar (Chandrasekar), Senthil, Vasu, Siva and Kumar. Attracted to the laddish boys, she falls for Shekhar, but he marries Vasu’s sister. Nevertheless, they all remain very devoted friends, though the two lead characters are rendered somewhat melancholic by their unconsummated friendship. When Geeta dies, the five friends bond together even more tightly.