The movie is called Nenjil Or Aalayam (a temple in the heart). An iconic tamil movie in every way. Remade in hindi too (sadly named Dil Ek Mandir, The heart is a temple - completely losing the beauty of the tamil name). It was one of the earliest tamil movies to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival!
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcRlNPP22I4
It's a timeless story, and rivals Casablanca many times over in simplicity and beauty. Kannadasan's lyrics, Shridhar's dialogue, Kalyan's dignity, Muthuraman's authenticity, Devika's grace - each of these are iconic in it's own class and I have spent many many days lost in the lyrics and the music and have cried over the movie many times over.
Plot in 1 Para: Sita and Murali are in love with each other. Due to extenuating circumstance she marries Venu (Note: Murali and Venu both refer to flute!). Sita is an Indian woman of the 60s and believes that her husband is everything for her and has forced herself to move on and forget Murali altogether. But her husband contracts lung cancer and come to Dr. Murali for surgery. During his stay in the hospital he comes to know that his wife used to be Murali's lover and is shocked. But he realizes that she truly worships her husband and he greatly admires the doctor (who refuses to marry anyone in her memory). So he requests him to remarry her if he dies. But shockingly he survives and the doctor dies (whether of over-work or of a broken heart that finally gave out is anybody's guess).
The only thing difficult to swallow is the overlaying of the Indian value system in what is otherwise a beautiful movie. But that somehow adds to rather than detract from the beauty of the movie.
The best bits are here:
1) "Ninaithathellam nadanthu vittal, theivam yethum illai,
Nadanthathaye ninaithirunthal, amaithi yendrum illai"
If everything you thought happened, there is no need for God,
If you keep thinking about everything that happened, there is no peace ever!
2) The scene where she asks for the her picture with the Dr. to be destroyed. The doctor says it is the only thing that keeps him alive. And she says that she didn't want to be thought of as less than deserving of the highest respect. She also says that she had reconciled herself to the placing her husband as idol in the temple of her heart. Each dialogue builds on the other until you can completely respect each of their thought process and logic.
3) The dr. sees the mistake in his lingering thoughts of her. He realized through her actions that he needs to move on. Realizes that while he cannot control his thoughts, he can control his actions, that instead of indulging his thoughts, he should focus on what he can do with his life. He tells his mother that he agrees to get married.
4) When her husband asks her to marry the doctor if something happens to her, he talks about her life after his death, in societal terms. What happens to her, and how he cares for her just as a brother would. She turns it around in her song as "In someone else's arms, who who who, me?". By personalizing the issue she explains to him how his thought process is fully unacceptable to her.
5) Ultimately when the Dr. saves her husband's life, he rushes to let her know. And then it sinks in him that with this, she is out of his life completely. As if his mind cannot accept the fact, he tells her and dies of a heart attack. (the one piece I would change in the movie was for her to support him as he falls to his death. Here again she strictly follows the honor code of not touching him and let's him die on the floor. This I couldn't stomach. Didn't she owe him anything???) As if proving a quote that "Pure love for a fellow being is death".
Anyways - it's a must watch movie.
