Mattukkara Velan (1969)

Classic MGR double role where he plays the title role of the cowherd Velan and the urbane lawyer Raghu. Their lovers (Jayalalitha and Lakshmi respectively) mistake the men for each other, providing the cowherd with an opportunity to help locate a murderer in a case that has baffled the lawyer, and also to claim the rich heiress whose father had earlier thrown him out of his house. The MGR political formula, which M.S.S. Pandian (1992) describes as ‘the hero’s use of literacy as a weapon of struggle against oppression [c]ontrasted with its use as a weapon of oppression in the hands of the elite’ (cf. Padakotti, 1964; Enga Veetu Pillai, 1965) is most typically demonstrated in this film. It was remade as cinematographer turned director Ravikant Nagaich’s Jigri Dost (1969) starring Jeetendra.