Mangaiyar Thilakam

The story starts with the special birthday celebration of a girl. An unusual ceremony is performed, where the child goes to perform pooja (worship) at the samadhi (memorial site) built over a cremation site, and which is usually built at the place where a pativratha or great lady has performed Sati. A friend asks about the story of the sati, and Vasudevan Sivaji Ganesan narrates the story after telling that this not an ordinary Sati, but an Aajeeva Sati whose whole life was a sacrifice pleasing to God, and who died not actually as a Sati but as a Muttaida/Suhagan in the lifetime of her husband after dedicating her life to family. Vasudevan begins to narrate the story.

Karunakaran (S. V. Subbaiah) and Vasudevan (Master Baji) are brothers whose parents had died. They are very much loving and close to each other but Vasudevan longs for mother's love. Yielding to the relatives persuasion, Karunakaran accepts to marry Sulochana (Padmini). Vasudevan gets upset as he is afraid of what will happen with new person and he only has got one brother, no mother no father. He sets off to the bride's house to see her and he likes her at the first glimpse because she is very nice to him.

The wedding takes place and Sulochana becomes a loving wife and the perfect home-maker because she is very traditional and she builds the family including all the mother's love for Vasudevan. The house was like "house for ghosts" because there was no wife and mother until now, but now Sulochana starts everything perfectly, regular pooja, Tulsi, rangoli, toranam above door, keeping two cows, cooking proper food at proper time, lunchbox for Vasudevan, waiting for each other to come home, celebrating all the small and big festivals, keeping all the Nomu (Vrath) with fasting and feasting, and everything like that. For Vasudevan, she is the only mother he ever knew and he fully accepts her as his own mother. Sulochana gets pregnant and delivers a baby boy, but the delivery is very difficult and the baby boy is born dead. The doctor tells Karunakaran that Sulochana will not have any more children because the delivery was complicated and he had to cut some organ to save her life. When Sulochana hears of this, she is very sad, but noble lady, and she says, "God gave me one sweet son. Why I should ask more?" and she pats Vasudevan lovingly on the head.

Time rolls on and Vasudevan becomes as an adult and becomes a college professor, but unfortunately, Karunakaran and Sulochana was not blessed with children. Vasudevan presents Sulochana gold bangles from his first pay. Vasudevan was arranged to marry Rao Bahadur Ponnambalam's (K. Sarangkapani) and Akilam's (K. N. Kamalam) daughter Prabha (M. N. Rajam).

Comic relief was presented in a moral story of Ponnambalam's family. Ponnambalam listens too much to and often quarrels with Akilam. This drives Ponnambalam's son Kalamani (K. A. Thangavelu) and his wife Neela (Ragini) to hatch a drama in order for Ponnambalam and Akilam to be united and respect each other. Kalamani and Neela succeed in this.

Prabha's character was the opposite of Sulochana's, but the latter hardly bothers about this and carries on her daily good deeds. Prabha gets pregnant and delivers a baby boy, Ravi (Master Ravi), but she does not care much for him. Sulochana picks up the tasks and takes care of Ravi as a mother should. As Ravi grows, Prabha does not like this and forbids Sulochana from raising Ravi.

Ravi falls ill due to the separation and Sulochana takes care of him day and night, not bothering about her meals and health. Ravi becomes very serious for a month, till the doctor who treats him loses hope. Sulochana takes Ravi to a temple and pleads to Lord Shiva to take her life instead and spare Ravi's life. Prabha apologises to Sulochana, but the latter says that it was by the God's grace before collapsing due to being too weak. Even on her death bed, Sulochana enquires about Ravi's health. After thanking Karunakaran and Vasudevan for a good life as a daughter-in-law in the house and says that she would be reborn in this house, Sulochana dies.

Sulochana's body was cremated, but Karunakaran and Vasudevan were surprised to see the gold bangles were not damaged during the process. A baby girl was born on the exact day after a year and she was accepted by the whole family as Sulochana reborn. The gold bangles would be worn to her on every birthday, thus the special occasion.

• Padmini as Sulochana
• Sivaji Ganesan as Vasu / Vasudevan
• M. N. Rajam as Prabha
• S. V. Subbaiah as Karunakaran
• K. A. Thangavelu as Kalamani
• Ragini as Neela
• K. Sarangkapani as Rao Bahadur Ponnambalam
• K. N. Kamalam as Akilam
• Master Baji as Young Vasudevan
• Master Ravi as Ravi (Vasudevan Son)

Actor Sripadha Shankar ventured into film production with Mangayar Thilakam being one of his ventures. Since he was not financially strong, he sought the help of an enterprising bank clerk, A. C. Pillai, who helped complete the film providing funds.[2] This film was based on the Marathi film Vahininjiya Pangkadiya. Valampuri Somanathan, G. Ramakrishnan and D. Nagarajan wrote the screenplay.[2]

Soundtrack was composed by S. Dakshinamurthi, while The lyrics were by Udumalai Narayana Kavi, Kannadasan, A. Maruthakasi and Puratchidasan. Playback singers are S. C. Krishnan, M. Sathyam, R. Balasaraswathi Devi, P. Leela, Jikki, K. Jamuna Rani, A. G. Rathnamala, T. V. Rathinam, T. Kamala, Vadivambal, K. R. Sellamuthu, S. V. Ponnusamy & S. J. Kantha.[3]

The album was released under the label Saregama.[4] The song Neelavanna Kannaa Vaadaa by R. Balasaraswathi Devi was well received. According to Randor Guy, the song Ketta Penmani by T. V. Rathinam took a dig at modern woman.[2]

The film was released on 26 August 1955 with a length of 17461 feet.[5] Randor Guy of The Hindu wrote that the film is remembered for "highlighting family values and the performances of Padmini, Sivaji Ganesan, Rajam and Subbaiah".[2]

• Mangaiyar Thilakam on IMDb
• Mangaiyar Thilakam Titles on YouTube