Andha Naal
Andha Naal . Andha Naal (That Day) is a 1954 Indian Tamil-language mystery-thriller film, produced by A. V. Meiyappan and directed by S. Balachander (pictured). It is the first film noir in Tamil cinema, and the first Tamil film made without songs, dancing, or stunt sequences. It is set in Madras during World War II; after a radio engineer Rajan (Sivaji Ganesan) is killed, each suspect's account points to a new suspect. The film developed from a play script that Balachander wrote, adapting the narrative style of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. The screenplay was written by Javar Seetharaman, and cinematography was handled by S. Maruti Rao. Released on 13 April 1954, the eve of Tamil New Year, the film was initially a commercial failure, but it was re-released after winning a Certificate of Merit in 1955 at the National Film Awards and became a box-office success. In 2013, Andha Naal was included in CNN-News18's list of the "100 Greatest Indian Films of All Time".