Nalla Perai [Nam Naadu] 🎶

Thunaivan released to box-office triumph and ran for over a hundred days. The success of the film opened the floodgates for Sridevi. She had barely turned six and was sharing screen space with the biggest names in Tamil Cinema. Her next release Nam Naadu (1969) saw her rubbing shoulders with two future chief ministers of the state - the legendary MGR and the iconic Jayalalithaa. Playing a boy again, as MGR's nephew, Raja, Sridevi's role in Nam Naadu is restricted to the song 'Nalla Perai'. Most of her films around this time would offer her little more than cavorting around musical tracks. But it was these early melodies that provided the training for Sridevi to be moulded into a brilliant song-acting performer that would make her so unique. 'Nalla Perai' plays out in happy and sad versions in Nam Naadu and it is astounding to see the child star nail both emotions. If her wide-eyed euphoria in the former warms your heart, her perfect lip-sync in the latter brings a lump to your throat.