A fine movie relavent even today . Its about a bunch of families living as tenents in a building . Each one has their story . Amala is the back bone of this movie . She is intelligent , sacrificing , sensible , independent but also accepts her fate in the end . Raghuvaran is a jobless youth at the butt of his brother's snide remarks . Y Vijaya the young pretty wife next door has her eyes set on him . her own husband is short and fat though kind hearted . She tries all ways to get close to Raghuvaran . In the end she realises her mistake and commits suicide out of shame . Equally poignant is the story of Kutti Padmini who develops loose morals because of her lust for rich and independent life . Her own father has questionable character . One day both father and daughter meet each other in embarasing circumstances. She elopes with Raghuvaran's elder brother for good and leaves town unable to face her father after this . Sarita is a bitter young woman who gets rejected for dowry time and again . Amala and Raghu love each other but their union keeps getting delayed. Finally Raghu gets married to his boss Charu Hasan's daughter Ilavarasi . She shines in her small role of a rich arrogant girl. Amala remains a loser till her end. Finally she gives in to her avaracious mother's demands of becoming an actress . Chandrashekar is her silent lover , he ends up marrying Sarita at her mother's insistence as she finds him honest and hard working though lower in status . A lot of struggles and sufferings of the middle class is shown here .