Poikkal Kudhirai (1983)

Poikkal Kudhirai, named after the dummy-horse dance of Tamil folk performance, is a 1983 Tamil drama written and directed by K. Balachander, one of the most influential film-makers in Tamil cinema. True to his style, it is a character-driven story about ordinary people, their vanity and the face they show the world, told with satire and sympathy rather than spectacle. Viji has a central role and Kamal Haasan, a frequent Balachander collaborator, also appears. It belongs to the director's productive early-1980s period, when he moved freely between social drama, comedy and experiment.