Vietnam Veedu (1970)

Traditionalist melodrama focusing on the traumas of retirement and generational change (a suitable transition towards ‘mature’ roles for the ageing producer and star Ganesan). The dignified old company executive known as Prestige Padmanabha Iyer (Ganesan) is forced to retire and experiences hostility and indifference in his new life at the head of a family including his wife Savitri (Padmini), two sons (Nagesh,Srikanth) and a daughter. He devoted the best years of his life to pay for the children’s upbringing, only to end up in a lonely and complicated retirement. The film’s high points are the subtly erotic relationship between the ageing couple (e.g. the song Pallakattu pakathile, sung by T.M. Soundararajan and P. Susheela), some big dance numbers intended to show the generation gap as college girls prance around in miniskirts, and the montage sequences when the old man is in hospital. Originally a play staged by Ganesan’s troupe, the film opens with the patriarch introducing all the characters. The action is set inside the old man’s ancestral house, named Vietnam Veedu (Vietnam House) because of the constant fighting and arguing in the family.