A remake of the 1951 Hindi film, Deedar , Neengatha Ninaivu was directed by the well-known cinematographer, W. R. Subba Rao and released in 1963. While the Hindi version was immensely successful, the Tamil version didn’t fare as well.
The story is about two young children (‘Master’ Mohan and ‘Baby’ Savithri), hailing from different economic backgrounds. The girl’s affluent father, who does not like her friendship with the poor boy, blames him for pushing his daughter off a horse and forbids them from meeting each other.
Years pass by, and the boy is now a young man named Kumar (SSR), who still remembers his childhood friend.
Kumar lives in a poor farmer’s house, and a farmer’s daughter (Vijayakumari) is in love with him. Unfortunately, he loses his eyesight in an accident, and years later, as he makes a living by singing in the streets along with his lover, he meets a famous eye surgeon (Kalyankumar), who restores his sight. Kumar tells the doctor about his childhood love and his desire to marry her. The surgeon tells Kumar that he will also not marry until Kumar gets married to his sweetheart. When Kumar utters the name of his sweetheart—Mala—the doctor is stunned as the name of the girl he is in love with is the same.
When Kumar realises that the doctor is in love with her too, he blinds himselfand goes back to making his living by singing in the streets.
The success of the Hindi version was due to the spellbinding music composed by music maestro Naushad. K.V. Mahadevan, the composer for the Tamil version, retained the tune of the popular ‘Bachpan ke dhin’ to great reception, but the other songs did not do as well..
Remembered for: The performances of S.S. Rajendran and Kalyankumar.
