when Bhagyalakshmi recovers her memory and forgets him, Cheenu is hesitant to come back to his quiet existence, realising that in reality, dreams feel like its antithesis. Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu considers the usage of a railway station in the climax scene to reflect the Tamil cinema trope of "Turning points, crucial interludes and significant twists" taking place in such places. According to S. Shiva Kumar of The Hindu, the climax of the film was a clear allusion to Mahendra's then wife Shoba's death. Thyagarajan denied this, saying Mahendra narrated the story to him much before, and Shoba's death occurred only once the project was being finalised. Music The music of the film was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The soundtrack was released through the record label Agi Music. The number "Kannae Kalaimane", which is based on the Kapi raga, was written by Kannadasan in "about two minutes" time, after listening to the film's story and the situation for the song. According to his daughter Kalaiselvi, the song was written with his wife in mind. Kannadasan was present at the recording session of the song, which took place in September 1981. It was the last recorded song which Kannadasan wrote before his death in October 1981. "Poongatru" was based on the Sindhu Bhairavi raga. Release Moondram Pirai was given an "A" (adults only) certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification. According to Anand Mathew of The Quint, this was done so because of Smitha who "saunters into the film now and then striking Khajuraho inspired poses with Kamal." When the film was screened to distributors at AVM Mena Hall, they were not happy about the film; however one distributor remarked that the film affected him emotionally, giving confidence to the filmmakers. The film was released on 19 February 1982, in 45 theatres in the state of Tamil Nadu. Due to Haasan's popularity, the crowd came in during the first day of the release; however since it was "a slow-moving film", business on the second day was "only OK. The third day was better. Monday was also just OK". The later picked up due to positive word-of-mouth, it became a "silver jubilee hit in many centres" and ran for more than a year in Subam theatre in Madras. According to Sathya Jyothi Films, Moondram Pirai received its highest distributor share in Madras and Coimbatore. The film was also screened at FILCA,