Thangam () is a Tamil soap opera that was broadcast on Sun TV. The show's main cast includes Ramya Krishnan, Vijayakumar, Seema, and Manju Bhargavi. The show premiered on 29 June 2009, This serial was produced by Vision Time India Private Limited and Srinivasa Visuals Private Limited, This serial was directed by B. Nakkeeran.
The plot is centred around a woman and the challenges she faces among her family members and society.
Plot
Raja Ramachandra Raghunath (Vijayakumar), known as Ayyaa, is the head of the Ayyakudi village. Ayyaa has two wives, Naachiyar (Seema) and Subbulakshmi (Manju Bhargavi), with whom he has two sons and three daughters.
Ayyaa's younger sister Mutharasi (Anuradha) is married to Kulasekharan (G.K.), the main antagonist and Naachiyar's elder brother. Mutharasi and Kulasekharan have two children, Jayachandran and Ilavanji (Kaveri).
Ganga is married to Selvakannan (former: Krishna Kumar, present: Sai Kiran), a well-known and respected IAS district collector. Also an IAS graduate, Ganga works with her husband as a sub-collector.
Kulasekharan hates Subbulakshmi because she shares her spouse with Naachiyar (his sister). Ilavanji and her husband, Ayyaa's son Karthik, support him. Since Kulasekharan only wants Ayyaa to be Naachiyar's husband and no one else's, he tries to get rid of Subbulakshmi, Ganga, Ramaa, and Charu, and banish them from the village. He tries to kill Selvakannan, separate Ramaa and Jayachandran, and cheat Subbulakshmi into letting him out of jail. Some of his attempts succeed, while others fail miserably and end up backfiring. Naachiyar does not give in to Kulasekharan's wishes because she loves Subbulakshmi like her own sister.
Selvakannan has an aunt, Rasammah, who lives with him and his parents. Rasammah has a niece named Manimegalai, whom she wanted Selvakannan to marry. Manimegalai also loves Selvakannan very much, but seeing his insistence on marrying Ganga and knowing Ganga to be a perfect person; she sacrifices her love for their happiness. However, Rasammah does not like that Ganga has married Selvakannan, and tries her best to poison Selvakannan's mother to try to compel Selvakannan to break his bond with Ganga. Eventually, she takes a liking to Ganga, and forgets about separating them. Karpagam initially gives in to Rasammah's talk, but she too begins to love and respect Ganga and her family.
Ilavanji is a sensitive woman who does not like Subbulakshmi's family. She is always in support of her father, whom she loves very much. Slowly, she starts to get along with Subbulakshmi's family, but does not forget her hatred towards them. Ilavanji is jealous of Ramaa because Ramaa is married to her brother, and because everyone in the family, with the exception of her husband Karthik and Kulasekharan, loves Subbulakshmi's family. Ilavanji and Vadivu, who are both Ayyaa's daughters-in-law, never get along and always fight. In this matter, Ilavanji is supported by Mangai, who is friends with Ilavanji and Ganga, and is Vishwanathan's mother. On the other hand, Vadivu is a brilliant girl who loves Subbulakshmi's family. She always finds out about Ilavanji's mischief and makes their mother-in-law punish Ilavanji and Mangai.
Ganga becomes pregnant, but her child is aborted because she is hit while trying to protect her husband from a raging bull released by Kulasekharan during Vadivu's wedding with Saravanan. Ramaa also becomes pregnant.
Selvakannan has a P.A. named Vandana, a mysterious and evil girl, who knows that Selvakannan has had a brain tumor for a very long time. Vandana does not inform Selvakannan's family members about the tumor until the condition worsens and Selvakannan is on his deathbed. Every doctor gives up on him and tells the family that Selvakannan will die in nine days, and his death is unpreventable. Ganga believes that her husband can be cured through God's grace. In those nine days, she observes nine different types of penances in the name of Goddess Amman. Her family members also do their part by going to Palani and carrying milk pots. Miraculously, her paralysed husband can move, and he is immediately operated on and cured. Everyone in the family hates Vandana for hiding Selvakannan's sickness from them, as well as for her false allegations against Selvakannan that he had married Vandana before marrying Ganga.
To clear Selvakannan from Vandana's allegations, the family decides to meet up with the villagers at the Ellaiyamman temple on the outskirts of the village. It is believed that when ground chili paste is rubbed on the Goddess residing in the temple, the Goddess will punish the person at fault by setting them on fire. When Selvakannan and Vandana rub chili paste on Goddess Ellaiyamman, to their shock, neither Selvakannan nor Vandana feel their bodies burning. The priest realises that there is some mischief going on, so he invokes the Goddess and tells everyone through the Goddess's words that this matter will be resolved in 60 days. Following this incident, Vandana becomes even more evil and mysterious. Everyone in Ganga's family is annoyed that Vandana is staying at Ganga's house until very late in the night, and she is brutally chased out by Mutharasi, Ilavanji, Charu, and Mangai.
Subbulakshmi's pet cow, Lakshmi, gives birth to a beautiful baby calf, and Naachiyar gives Lakshmi's mother to Subbulakshmi as a wedding gift. The same day, Ganga is tested pregnant. The whole family rejoices and the women in the family crowd into Ellaiyamman temple to make Pongal for the Goddess. Suddenly, winds are blowing and the brick stoves do not catch fire as they are supposed to. The women begin to do the Kummi Adi, a folk dance done in a circle by Tamil village women, to appease the Goddess. During the dance, the idol of the Goddess falls flat on the floor. Horrified, the people at the temple try to put the idol back in place, but they notice that the idol is unusually light and hollow. Selvakannan and Ganga realise that the idol had been changed into a fake one and the real idol is elsewhere. They now understand that this was the reason that the Goddess did not punish Vandana when she rubbed chili paste on the Goddess. Everyone suspects that Vandana was the one who had changed the idol. Eventually, the real idol of the Goddess is found dumped in an available temple tank. After some investigation by the police, through Ilavanji, Kulasekharan is found guilty of changing the idol.
During Ayyaa and his two wives's 60th marriage anniversary ceremony, it is discovered that Ayya married Subbulakshmi because of a dark secret that only Ayya, Naachiyar, and Subbulakshmi know about. Kulasekharan is aware of this, and he tries to find out the secret by filing a case against Subbulakshmi, citing that she is not Ayyaa's legal wife. The case is resolved after Ayyaa explains to the judge in private why he married Subbulakshmi, and he wins the case. Angry and humiliated, Kulasekharan ponders over Ayyaa and Subbulakshmi's secret.
Previously, Kulasekharan's father, Thavasi, had remarried because he lost his first wife. This was under the decision of the Ayyaa (village head) of the time, Ramachandra Raghunath's father, considering that Kulasekharan and Naachiyar were motherless. The stepmother, Bhagyalakshmi, was a kind and loving woman who never harboured any hatred towards Kulasekharan, but Kulasekharan felt that with his stepmother and her newborn baby, Naachiyar and Thavasi were not the same as before. On the other hand, Naachiyar loved her stepmother and stepsister. Feeling like an outcast, Kulasekharan never let Bhagyalakshmi's baby lie in Naachiyar's cradle and refused to let Bhagyalakshmi touch him. At one point, he tried to kill her and her baby using a gas spray. Seeing that things were going out of hand, Ayyaa called for arbitration and stated that Kulasekharan should stay with him until Bhagyalakshmi's child had grown up. However, Bhagyalakshmi refused this judgement, saying that the family did not need to be separate because of her, and she would go far away from them due to the never-ending hatred. She left and was never seen again.
Kulasekharan thinks that Bhagyalakshmi's daughter could be Subbulakshmi since she and Naachiyar are very close, like sisters. This is unusual because if two women were to share the same husband, there would likely be a lot of jealousy and enmity among the wives. Kulasekharan questions Naachiyar about this. Later, he asks Subbulakshmi about who she is. She faints, and Kulasekharan takes her to the hospital. After Subbulakshmi wakes up, Ayyaa tells Kulasekharan the dark secret behind his marriage.
Kulasekharan poisons Subbulakshmi's food, which she eats. Her doctor realises she is poisoned but only tells Selvakannan. He goes to get the cure, which is a rare herb in the forest. Despite some difficulties, Selvakannan gets the cure, and Subbulakshmi is saved.
Ayyaa's brother's children, Santhanapandi, Seenipandi, and Virumandi, return to the village. They had been banished from the village 30 years ago for committing a crime. They try to do things against Ayyaa, such as surrounding the public well with a wall so people cannot get water to drink. They also have plans to destroy Ayya's family to take his place.
After receiving medicine from her son-in-law Selvakannan, Subbulakshmi is cured. Her youngest daughter Charu gets a proposal, but there is a conflict between the groom's side and the bride's side. The groom's side is accepting of the proposal, but they are not satisfied because Kulasekharan threatens to have the marriage not take place, causing the family to be depressed and upset. Charu refuses to talk to Aravindan due to the problems they are facing. Aravindan is in love with Charu and plans to get her at any cost, so he joins with Kulasekharan for help. Kulasekharan gives him the idea to rape Charu. One night, when no one is at home except Charu, Aravindan rapes her, and she faints. Subbulakshmi sees this, grabs a knife, and stabs Aravindan. However, both Subbulakshmi and Aravindan manage to escape. The next day, the people in the village find Aravindan's dead body lying in the middle of a path and inform the police and Ayyaa. The groom's side thinks that Ayyaa's side killed their son. They keep searching for Subbulakshmi, but she is nowhere to be found, and they plan to publish this in the newspaper.
Ganga is pregnant with twins, and she learns about how her mother went missing. She eventually finds out where her mother is and gets injured by a gang. The person who is threatening Ganga is Vandana, who is trying to destroy Ganga. Ganga is taken to the hospital by Selvakannan, as he was searching for her and had found her on the ground with life-threatening injuries. The doctors request Selvakannan for the operation to save Ganga and their children, and everyone survives. However, Vandana hires a nurse to kill the twin babies without anyone noticing. The doctor tells the bad news to Selvakannan, but not Ganga.
Selvakannan is upset and wants to save his wife from depression, but he does not know what to do. He runs into his old classmate Kokila and tells her what happened. She feels sorry for him and gives him her youngest child, who had been born recently. They promise to not leak the secret as Kokila is very poor due to her husband's drinking habits. Selvakannan decides to pay for Kokila's children's education to help. Selvakannan takes the baby to the hospital and puts it where the twins were. Ganga regains consciousness and is happy to see the baby, but is sad that her other baby died. She thinks that the baby is hers, as Selvakannan wants her to think. Vandana is suspicious of this and tries to find out. Ganga comes home with the baby, and Charu gets pregnant with Aravindan's baby. None of Ganga's family members tells her about Charu and what happened to her.