Gnana Oli (1972)

The golden-hearted ex-criminal Anthony (Ganesan) works with the Rev. Adaikalam (Gokulnath) who has raised him. When his daughter Mary (Sharada) is impregnated and abandoned by her lover Bhaskar (Srikanth), Anthony kills Bhaskar and gets a life sentence. He escapes, with the priest’s assistance, and becomes the millionaire philanthropist Arun, wearing a black eyepatch and white gloves as a disguise. Inspector Lawrence, who has pursued his former schoolfriend Anthony for years, eventually arrests his prey at the wedding of Anthony’s granddaughter (Jaya Kausalya) with the cop’s son. Loosely based on Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables (cf. Ezhai Padum Padu, 1950), the film was shot around the Church of the Immaculate Lady at Poondi near Thanjavur and was released on the anniversary of St Thomas’s arrival in India, an important Christian festival in India. Anthony’s song, Devene Ennai parungal, sung by T.M. Soundararajan, was the hit of the year.