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Amman Kovil Kizhakale (அம்மன் கோயில் கிழக்காலே)

Amman Kovil Kizhakale (அம்மன் கோயில் கிழக்காலே; transl. Released in 1986, Amman Kovil Kizhakale (Tamil for "east of the Amman temple") is an Indian romance drama in Tamil, scripted and helmed by R. Sundarrajan with Vijayakanth and Radha playing the main parts.¹^•² It was released on 24 April 1986 and became a commercial success.²

Key fact	Detail
Release	24 April 1986 (India), Tamil language¹
Director and writer	R. Sundarrajan (story, screenplay, and dialogue)³^•⁴
Lead cast	Vijayakanth as Chinnamani, Radha as Kanmani³
Music	Ilaiyaraaja; all songs were hits¹^•⁵
Runtime	2 hours 21 minutes (141 minutes)⁶
Production	V. N. S. Productions; producers Peter Selvakumar and S. P. Pazhaniappan³
Box-office run	Over 150 days in cities such as Chennai and over 200 days in 20 theaters⁵^•⁷

Spoilers

Plot

Kanmani, a wealthy girl, decides to teach Chinnamani a lesson by pretending to be in love with him. Things take an ugly turn when Chinnamani marries her in a fit of rage.⁶ Rotten Tomatoes summarizes the setup the same way: a rich woman learns music from an arrogant man and pretends to fall in love with him to embarrass him in front of the whole village.³

Cast and crew

Vijayakanth plays Chinnamani and Radha plays Kanmani. Ravichandran appears as Kanmani's father and Srividya as her mother; Senthil plays Kathavarayan.³ The supporting cast also includes Radha Ravi, Vinu Chakravarthy, T. K. S. Chandran, Suriyakanth, and Nalinikanth.⁶

R. Sundarrajan handled story, screenplay, and dialogue in addition to directing.⁴ Cinematography is credited to Raja Rajan, and editing to Srinivas and Krishnaa.⁷ The film was shot in color at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.⁴

Music

Ilaiyaraaja composed the songs, and the Hindu Tamil reports that all of them became hits, including "Namma Kadai Veethi Kalakalakkum", "Chinnamanikuyile", "Un Paarvayil Ooraayiram", "Kaalai Nerap Poonguyil", "Poovai Eduthu Oru Maalai Thoduthu Vaichene", and "Oru Moonu Mudichale".⁵ A lyrics database lists seven songs for the film.⁸

Title

The title was taken from the line "Amman Kovil Kizhakale" in a song from the 1982 film Sakalakala Vallavan.⁷

Reception and legacy

The film celebrated a silver jubilee and ran beyond 150 days even in cities such as Chennai, and beyond 70 days in smaller towns such as Karaikudi; Vijayakanth and R. Sundarrajan attended celebrations in town after town.⁵ The tamilar.wiki entry adds that it ran beyond 200 days in 20 theaters.⁷ The same account places the film within Vijayakanth's strong 1986, a year in which he acted in ten films and, according to the Hindu Tamil, none of his films that year lost money for producers or distributors.⁵

Vijayakanth won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Tamil for the film.² It was remade in Telugu as Khaidi No. 786 (1988) and in Kannada as Nammoora Hammera (1990).² Later Tamil and Telugu films, Oru Kal Oru Kannadi and Ok Ok, reference it.⁴ On IMDb the film holds a 6.6/10 rating from 129 votes.⁶

Release notes

Most sources give the theatrical release date as 24 April 1986,¹^•⁶ while Moviebuff lists a wide theatrical release in India on 1 January 1986.⁴ The film later became available for streaming, with Rotten Tomatoes listing a streaming release date of 5 November 2020.³

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Tamil films before 2000 › Released 1952 to 1991

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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