16 Vayathinile

Mayil is sixteen and lives in a village. Two people are secretly in love with her: Chappani, her cousin, who walks with a limp, and Parattai, the village tough. Mayil, for her part, is taken with a doctor who has come from the city. He uses her and then leaves. In time she comes to see how much Chappani loves her. Parattai is still after her. The film tells the relations of power in the village and how few choices a woman has. The account shows the village’s own rules and what those rules cost Mayil. Sridevi, Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth appear in Bharathiraja’s hundred and thirty nine minute Indian film, completed in 1977.