Netizens Celebrate 19 Years Of Iyarkai - Director SP Jananathan’s Adaptation Of Dostoevsky’s White Nights

Every week, Tamil cinema has been telling many types of love stories like love at first sight, love without even seeing each other, online love, school love, college love, office love. The list goes on. In the list, the brilliantly made film Iyarkai directed by SP Jananathan has completed 19 years. The film still holds its majesty even today. Even if it's been a hundred years, we can never forget the extra-ordinary film. It is adapted from the novel White Nights by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. The story has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Late director SP Jananathan, one of the communal minded directors, pulled off brilliant performances from all the characters in the film. Actors also did a fantastic job such as Sham as Maruthu, Kutty Radhika as Nancy, Arun Vijay as the missing ship captain, Pasupathi as the priest and Karunas. This is the first film for SP Jananathan and he has directed it very elegantly. Vidyasagar's songs, background music, especially the climax scene has taken us to another level.

Usually we have seen films where the protagonist has more than one love interest. But the film was a complete new one for Tamil cinema, with the character of a woman stuck between two loves and unable to make a decision. A young man Maruthu who works on a ship arriving at Rameshwaram harbor falls in love with Nancy who sells goods to the people arriving there.

But Nancy falls in love with Arun Vijay, the captain of the ship who has just arrived and waits for her. As the story goes, Arun Vijay will come back at the end when Kutty Radhika falls in love with Sham and wants to marry him. He would have concluded in a beautiful poetic way what the result would be.

In this film, the hero will show his love for the heroine everywhere and will not force her anywhere. Likewise, the heroine does not transgress when she does not consent. In the end, he will leave the girl where the old love will be found again. In this way, the film-maker easily conveyed to the fans that a woman is not something to be owned by a man.

The impact has added Iyarkai to the list of films that 90s kids can't forget even today. The film also won the National Award for Best Film. It is noteworthy that actor Surya was the first choice of the film crew to play the character of Sham in the film.