Irumbu Thirai (1960 film)

The story revolves around two brothers Manikam and Saravanan and their mill owner.

In 1959, S. S. Vasan, the proprietor of Gemini Studios, began working on a film built around capital-labour relations.^[1] The film, which was the Tamil remake of his own Hindi film Paigham,^[2] was untitled, and the creative team of Gemini could not come up with a convincing title. Vasan invited his employees to suggest a title for the under-production film, and he received an abundance of entries; one office boy submitted as many as 2500 entries. After examining one by one, Vasan chose the title Irumbu Thirai (transl. Iron Curtain). He also hosted a reception to honour the boy who suggested the title and rewarded him with some prize money.^[1] Besides producing, Vasan also directed the film.^[3]

The female cast of Paigham – Vyjayanthimala, B. Saroja Devi and Pandari Bai – returned to star in Irumbu Thirai,^[4][5] while Sivaji Ganesan reprised the role originally played by Dilip Kumar. It was a "coup of sorts" for Vasan to cast Ganesan since the latter had earlier been rejected by the former for a role in Chandralekha (1948), an incident which created a permanent rift between them.^[2][6] Vyjayanthimala's mother Vasundhara Devi played her screen mother as well, having done the same in Paigham.^[2][7] The final length of the film was 18396 feet.^[5]

Irumbu Thirai focuses on capital-labour relations,^[1] and the conditions of working-class people.^[8]

The soundtrack was composed by S. V. Venkatraman. The album had Kothamangalam Subbu, Papanasam Sivan and Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram as the lyricists.^[9] The song "Nenjil Kudiyirukkum" is set in the carnatic raga known as Shanmukhapriya,^[10] while the classical-themed "Enna Seidhaalum" is set in Kharaharapriya.^[11][12]

Irumbu Thirai was released on 14 January 1960.^[3] Kanthan of Kalki wrote ^{[clarification needed]}.^[13] The film was a commercial success, running for over 175 days in theatres and thereby becoming silver jubilee film.^[14][15]