The film is made within the parallel cinema genre of India. The realism in this film is blended with a certain amount of melodrama to help reach a larger audience. The highlight of this film is however the songs set to the brilliant poems of the famous Tamil poet called Subramania Bharati. Even today the music and songs composed by the renowned music director called L.Vaidynathan are remembered as the best compositions of the poet. The director of the film is a student of the FTII pune and has made several films and TV serials of social relevance. He is also a a visiting faculty at the University of Pennsyalvania in the South Asia Regional Studies deptt. When the film was released in 1982 it was part of a massive rennaisance in Tamil cinema along with illustrious debutants like Bharatiraja, Mahendran, Bhagyaraja and Balu Mahendra. The film won the national award for the best Tamil film and went on to participate at Moscow and London.