return to normalcy. She understands the changed scenario of her life, including the death of her child and divorce, and reconciles to live alone. She takes up a job and refuses to collect further alimony from Ganesh. Rukmini is kidnapped by Kandappan, who previously worked as Jayanthi's driver and had fallen in love with her. Ananthu had implicated Kandappan in a false case and got him arrested to keep him away from Jayanthi. Exploiting Kandappan's absence, he got Jayanthi married to Ganesh. To take revenge, Kandappan has kidnapped Rukmini and demands that Jayanthi have sex with him for getting her child back. Jayanthi reaches his place and prays for her escape with the child. At the same time, Gayathri, who learns about the kidnapping from her mother-in-law, reaches the spot. She recognises Kandappan as the murderer. After becoming possessed by goddess Bhadrakali, she fights Kandappan who ultimately dies after being impaled. Gayathri, who was also injured, succumbs in Ganesh's arms after having saved his daughter. Cast Sivakumar as Ganesh Rani Chandra as Gayathri Major Sundarrajan as Gayathri's father Rajasekaran as Kandappan Thengai Srinivasan as Ananthu Manorama as Parameshwari Bhavani as Jayanthi Sukumari as Ganesh's mother S. R. Sivakami as Gayathri's mother Production Tirulokchandar decided to produce and direct a film based on Bhadrakali, a 1976 novel by Maharishi. Tirulokchandar produced the film under his home production company Cine Bharath and wrote the screenplay, while Aaroor Dass wrote the dialogues. Tirulokchandar chose Sivakumar as the male lead and while looking for a new face to cast as the female lead, they chose Rani Chandra, a Malayali actress, and planned to introduce her to the Tamil audience under the name "Gayathri". Prior to acting in this film, Rani Chandra had acted in about 60 films in Malayalam apart from Porchilai (1969) and Then Sindhudhe Vaanam (1975) in Tamil. Bhadrakali was considered her first major role in Tamil as she played minor roles in her earlier films in the language. During the final stages of filming, Rani Chandra along with her mother and sisters went to Dubai to take part in a cultural programme. When they were on a return from Bombay to Madras on 11 October 1976, their plane caught fire and crashed near the airport, killing all the passengers. By then, 60% of filming was complete. As a result of Rani Chandra's death, a few unfinished portions of her were shot