Iru Kodugal is a Tamil language

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 film directed by the veteran director K. Balachander and released in 1969. The film starred lead actors in the Tamil industry: Gemini Ganesan

Gemini Ganesan

Ramaswami Ganesan , popularly known as Gemini Ganesan , was an Indian actor. He was nicknamed "Kadhal Mannan" of Tamil cinema for the romantic roles he played in movies....

, Sowcar Janaki

Sowcar Janaki

Sankaramanchi Janaki , popularly known as Shaukar Janaki , is a south-Indian actress who has acted in over 385 Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam films. She also performed on stage in over 300 shows, and performed for TANA all over the United States in 2 Telugu plays created by actor...

, Jayanthi

Jayanthi (actress)

Jayanthi is an Indian actress. She has appeared in over 500 films, including films in the Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Hindi and Marathi languages. In Kannada movies, she was honored with the title Abhinaya Sharade....

, Nagesh

Nagesh (actor)

Nagesh , was a Tamil film actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian during the 1960s. He is regarded as one of the most prolific comedians in Tamil cinema....

, V.S. Raghavan

V.S. Raghavan

V.S. Raghavan is a Tamil actor, who acts in both Tamil films as well as television, who started his career as a dramatist and stage actor and went on act as a character actor in films, starting with Vairamali and over 1000 films in all, he has also acted in numerous television series.-Early life...

 and others.

It's a complete family drama of two women who married to one man.

Plot

Gemini Ganesan fall in love with Sowcar and they got married in Kasi

Kasi

KASI or Kasi may refer to:* Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, South Korea* Kingdom of Kashi, or Kasi, an ancient kingdom with Varanasi as its capital* 1430KASI, a radio station licensed to serve Ames, Iowa...

. The marriage was not accepted by their family members and the situation made Gemini Ganesan move to south India, where he later married Jayanthi by hiding his previous marriage life. Sowcar's father, V.S. Raghavan, took a challenge and made her as collector and there comes the taciturn Gemini working as a clerk in the collector's office. They were all expecting the new collector's arrival and the collector arrived and that is Sowcar Janaki. After which they tend to work together and Nagesh spread rumour across stating that there is some affair between Sowcar and Gemini and this rumour moved to Jayanthi where she stayed with her father and three children and she was completely disturbed. How they tackled the family and how they lead their life in the society after that which was clearly portrayed in the latter part of the film by K. Balachander.

Music

Music was scored by V. Kumar and Punnagai mannan poovizhi mannan rukmanikaga, the famous number from the film, is still popular.

Reception

Sowcar Janaki performance was acclaimed and received a lot of positive reviews. She made a stupendous performance in this film and at the same time, Jayanthi was extraordinary in her role. The film remains in many people's heart and mind and bagged the National Award for the Best Regional Film category.