Moondrezhuthu

The film revolves around a chest filled with valuable items and a handful of people competing for it. One character is a greedy old man Rajarathnam Pillai, whose daughter is Selvi. A manager Meganathan is trusted with the chest which needs to be handed over to its legitimate claimants (Pankajam and her suffering family). In his efforts to deliver the box to the rightful owners, he is forced to murder and is sent to jail. His son Maran, to whom he narrates the events, buries the treasure in a village and writes down the clues to find it on three different pieces of paper, with three different Tamil letters, தி (Thi) மு (Mu) and க (Ka).

After many twists and turns, the three villains decipher that the Tamil letters are a clue to the name of the village where the box is buried and they end up going there. Now, the land is in the possession of a factory coming up in its place, and another villain Karmegam also goes after the treasure by killing the others with heavy equipment. How the hero assisted by Nagesh deals with this forms the rest of the story. At the end, the villains are exposed and the box is handed over to its rightful owners. The lovers, Selvi and Maran, are united too.

{{Cast listing|* Ravichandran as Maran

• Jayalalithaa as Selvi
• Srividya as Malathi
• Sheela as Suguna/Meera
• Major Sundarrajan as Meganathan
• Sedhupathy as Ramapathran
• Sriranjani Jr. as Pankajam
• Ennathe Kannaiah as Sukadiya Sett
• C. L. Anandan as Muthu
• R. S. Manohar as Tiger
• S. A. Ashokan as Rajarathnam Pillai
• Gandhimathi as Selvi's mother
• O. A. K. Thevar as Somasundaram
• Nagesh as Appu
• Thengai Srinivasan as Kumar/Sankaran Kutti
• Suruli Rajan as Venkateswara Rao
• Master Prabhakar as Ramapathran's son
• Vasanthi
• Kalavathi}}

Music was composed by T. K. Ramamoorthy and lyrics were written by Kannadasan.{{Cite web |title=Moondrezhuthu |url=https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/moondrezhuthu/BWuxGz9HS70_ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019052957/https://www.jiosaavn.com/album/moondrezhuthu/BWuxGz9HS70_ |archive-date=19 October 2020 |access-date=15 October 2020 |website=JioSaavn|date=31 December 1968 }}{{Cite web |title=Moondrezhuthu (1968) |url=https://mio.to/album/TK.+Ramamoorthy/Moondrezhuthu+(1972) |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302084100/https://mio.to/album/TK.+Ramamoorthy/Moondrezhuthu+%281972%29 |archive-date=2 March 2021 |access-date=31 March 2021 |website=Music India Online}}

Kalki criticised the film for its outdated storyline and lack of originality.{{Cite magazine |date=26 May 1968 |title=மூன்றெழுத்து |url=https://archive.org/details/kalki1968-05-26/page/n21/mode/2up |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230616091124/https://archive.org/details/kalki1968-05-26/page/n21/mode/2up |archive-date=16 June 2023 |access-date=11 July 2022 |magazine=Kalki |pages=20–21 |language=ta |via=Internet Archive}} Despite this, it became a success.{{Cite news |last=Guy |first=Randor |author-link=Randor Guy |date=21 January 2017 |title=Moondrezhuthu (1968) TAMIL |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/Moondrezhuthu-1968-TAMIL/article17074002.ece |url-status=live |access-date=23 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210610051412/https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/Moondrezhuthu-1968-TAMIL/article17074002.ece |archive-date=10 June 2021}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|id=0290772}}

{{T. R. Ramanna}}

Category:1960s Indian films

Category:1960s Tamil-language films

Category:1968 crime films

Category:1968 films

Category:Films directed by T. R. Ramanna

Category:Films scored by T. K. Ramamoorthy

Category:Indian crime films

Category:Tamil-language Indian films