Niram Maaratha Pookkal

Niram Maaratha Pookkal
LP Vinyl Records Cover
Directed by	P. Bharathiraja
Produced by	Lena Productions
Written by	Panchu Arunachalam (dialogues)
Screenplay by	P. Bharathiraja
Story by	K. Bhagyaraj
Starring	Sudhakar Raadhika Sarathkumar Vijayan Rati Agnihotri
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	P. S. Nivas
Edited by	R. Bhaskaran
Production company	Lena Productions
Release date	31 August 1979
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Niram Maaratha Pookkal (English : Flowers that don't change colors) is a 1979 Tamil language feature film directed by P. Bharathiraja. It stars Sudhakar, Raadhika Sarathkumar and Vijayan in the lead roles with Rati Agnihotri in a supporting role and was released on 31 August 1979.

All characters in the movie were named after the original names of the actors. Sudhakar (Sudhakar) is a poor young man desperately looking for work. One day he has a skirmish with Radhika (Raadhika Sarathkumar), a rich girl and lone daughter of a businessman Selladurai, in a telephone booth. Radhika finds out that Sudhakar is searching for a job from his diary that he leaves at the booth. She employs him in her father's firm as a manager and soon they mutually fall in love. Radhika's class-conscious father initially opposes but later reluctantly agrees to have them married. However things take a turn when his business friend Sivaraman, to whom he owes a lot of favours, visits him and reminds him of his old promise to get Radhika married to Sivaraman's son Vijayan. And soon after Sudhakar goes missing with five lakhs of the office cash on his way to Bombay and is presumed to have absconded. Radhika is heart-broken and her father takes her to Sivaraman's estate in Ooty to relax for a while.

In Ooty, Radhika and her father are introduced to Sivaraman's son Vijayan who shockingly seems to be a severely despondent alcoholic. He is often seen standing near the shore of the river listening to his tape recorder playing a lone melodious song, sung by a woman. After a few days in the estate and several interactions, Vijayan and Radhika get acquainted and friendly with each other and he opens up about his erstwhile lover Rathi (Rati Agnihotri). Vijayan had fallen in love with the beautiful Rathi at first sight and pursues her relentlessly till she finally reciprocates. Rathi often playfully cheats Vijayan about not knowing stuff like horse riding and car driving when she actually could. And on an April fool's day when she claims she doesn't know how to swim, Vijayan thinks she's fooling him again and playfully pushes her into the river but to his horror she drowns and dies. The incident left Vijayan as a suicidal wreck who carries poison in his coat but doesn't consume it just for his father's sake. Rather he has chosen the slow poison of alcohol. When Vijayan learns Radhika too has a past forlorn love affair, he feels closer to her since they both seem to be in the same boat.