Punnagai (1971 film)

Punnagai புன்னகை
Film Cover
Directed by	K. Balachander
Produced by	R. Venkatraman K. Arumugam, H. Nagaraja Rao S. S. Nachammai
Written by	K. Balachander
Starring	Gemini Ganesan R. Muthuraman Nagesh, M. R. R. Vasu Jayanthi
Music by	M. S. Viswanathan
Cinematography	N. Balakrishnan
Edited by	N. R. Kittu
Production company	Vahini Studios
Distributed by	Amutham Pictures
Release date	5 November 1971
Running time	154 Mins
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Punnagai (தமிழ்: புன்னகை, English: Smile) is a 1971 Tamil Social - Drama film was directed and written by K. Balachander. The film produced by R. Venkatraman, K. Arumugam, H. Nagaraja Rao and S. S. Nachammai under Amutham Pictures. Music by M. S. Viswanathan assets to the film. It stars Gemini Ganesan, R. Muthuraman, Nagesh, M. R. R. Vasu played lead with S. V. Ramadoss, Jayanthi, Sahasranamam and V. S. Raghavan played pivotal role. The film remake of Hindi film as Satyakam in 1969.

The story of Punnagai concerns a group of college friends Sathya(Gemini Ganesan), Rajan(R. Muthuraman), Nagesh, M. R. R. Vasu and Haniff(V. Gopalakrishnan), who all graduate from the same College. In order to celebrate it, they go on a drive around Madras city in Haniff's(V. Gopalakrishnan) car singing about the then ideals in life. But sadly, the car meets with an accident and Haniff dies leaving his friends in a state of shock. Sathya(Gemini Ganesan) who a righteous young man, who remains unaware in this ideals even in the face of adversity. Mean while his friends, Rajan, M. R. R. Vasu and others change their values to suit their convenience. Sathya meets a young women Kanchana(Jayanthi), who has been seduced, raped, impregnated and abandoned by a Playboy(S. V. Ramadoss). She begets a son, Sathya marries her, knowing about her history and raises the son as her own. S. V. Ramadoss meanwhile, leaves his wealth to his illegitimate son, but Kanchana rejects it. In the meantime, Sathya kidneys are affected and all of his friends walk away when the doctor asks them of any of them would donate their kidneys for their friend. In the end Sathya dies, his wife realises that she has successfully up held the values that her husband had taught her. The story is narrated by Nagesh, a writer who wants to write a book and requests his rich friend to get it published. All these sequences are narrated by him and acted by the artiste as chapter of the book. Finally, Sathya's friend realise their folly and bring out the book with the title as Punnagai