Naalaiya Theerpu

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Mahalakshmi endures abuse from her husband, Arun Mehta, who is unfaithful to her with multiple women. Despite this, Mahalakshmi independently raises her son Vijay. As Vijay grows up, he seeks revenge for his father's wrongdoings.

Vijay made his debut as a leading actor with the film, aged eighteen.^[1] A fan of Rajinikanth, he told Chandrasekhar that he wanted to headline a film. Vijay enacted a scene from Annaamalai (1992), the one in which the title character (Rajinikanth) challenges Ashok (Sarath Babu). Chandrasekhar recalled, "He did it exactly the way it was in the film [...] That's when I realised that he had talent, a fierce passion".^[2]

The music was composed by M. M. Srilekha, under the name of Manimekalai at the age of 12.^[3] The film featured lyrics written by Pulamaipithan, P. R. C. Balu and Bharani. The latter went on to become a popular music composer.^[4]The audio rights were acquired by Pyramid Music and Phoenix Music.^[5]

Naalaiya Theerpu was released on 4 December 1992.^[6] Ayyappa Prasad of The Indian Express wrote, "Many tongue-in-cheek remarks on the prevailing political and economic climate makes the film worth watching".^[7] However, other reviews were mostly negative,^[8] including the magazine Kumudam which wrote, "Should we pay to see this face in theaters?"^[9] Despite Chandrasekhar's confidence, Naalaiya Theerpu became a box-office bomb. Chandrasekhar recalled in 2018, "To be honest, I shouldn’t have made that film for him especially when he was just 18 [...] I thought now that my son is also becoming an actor, I could continue to practise my style of filmmaking and pass on socially relevant messages to the audience through him. Maybe the timing wasn't right".^[2] Despite the film's failure, Vijay won the Cinema Express Award for Best New Face Actor.^[10]