I didn’t like Aadhavan and I gave a critical review of the movie. The critical review started immediately after the movie and my friends were crticising me that I am expecting too much from a masala movie.

Chinmaya, my friend asked over a Chicken in KFC, “So tell me which is a perfect masala”. I immediately sprung up and said ” Enga Veetu Pillai”. He snubbed and said ” the MGR movie? That’s a old one man”. I just smiled and said ” Absolutely no. Take any double action movie in any language barring a few exceptions like Vaali, you will have the same storyline as that movie. Even the re-runs of “Enga Veetu Pillai” made more money than the so called masalas of recent times”

I don’t hate masala movies in fact I love them because it depicts the true Indian movie style. A perfect masala should be enjoyable and should not be boring at any point of time. Glorifying Heroes – perfectly fine as long as the hero is Rajini and not Vishal. So here comes the mother of all masala Tamil movie of all times – “Enga Veetu Pillai”

Enga Veetu Pillai (1965)

Enga Veetu Pillai is a remake of Ramadu Bheemadu, a Telegu Movie starring NT Ramarao (Doh, why a remake in the list? There is a difference). Nagi Reddy, the famous Telugu film producer and the owner of Vijaya Productions makes this movie in Telugu and as it became a good hit, he remade this movie with minor changes to suit MG Ramachandran’s image in Tamil. It became a blockbuster in Tamil and still remembered.

Incidentally, the original is not a original too as it borrowed the storyline from Alexander Dumas’ Corsican Brothers. The story is about twin brothers Ramu and Ilango (MGR) separated in birth due to a family problem. Ramu, grown as innocent and spineless by his uncle, Narendran (MN Nambiar), who is also his Sister’s (Pandari Bai) husband. Narendran is waiting for Ramu’s 25th birthday in order to swindle the family property as written in the will of Ramu’s father. Ilango on the other hand is a spendthrift and happy go-lucky guy lives with his step-mom ( later revealed).

Leela ( Saroja Devi) initially chosen as the bride for Ramu dislikes him as she finds him cowardly but later meets Ilango, mistakes him to be Ramu and unknowingly helps him to swap places with Ramu in Narendran’s house. Ilango realizing the plight of people inthe house, stays there and teaches a lesson to Narendran. Ramu on the other hand lives peacefully at Ilango’s house and falls in love with a village girl. The confusions and mix-ups dominate the movie unroll everyone finds the past and all ends well.

The movie was directed by Tapi Chanakya with Music from MS Viswanathan – Ramamurthy and produced by Nagi Reddy under Vijaya Productions Banner. The cast includes MGR, Saroja Devi, Pandari Bai, MN Nambiar, SV Rangarao, Nagesh and Thangavelu.

Why it is so Special?

1. As I said it’s the perfect masala movie with all the aspects of Indian movie style rightly placed in the right measure in a perfect way. Glorious music, hilarious comic scenes, well-made action sequences with the right dose of sentimental scenes

2. The music of the movie is still revered. Kumari Pennin Ullathile, Naan Maan Thoppil are classics and of course the best hero worship ever made “Naan Aanai Ittal”. The song is so perfectly choreographed for the lyrics of Vaali. The picture of MGR with the whip and hands spread is a long lasting image of Tamil Cinema

3. The comic scenes of Thangavelu, Nagesh, SV Rangarao and MGR. Nagesh, as stammering assistant of MGR was in his own self and Thangavelu as the assistant of Nambiar were equally hilarious. The facial expression of Thangavelu when Ilango hits Narendran for the first time shows it all

4. If the supporting cast especially Saroja Devi and Pandari Bai were awesome, Nambiar as the evil uncle was fantabulous. I always believe that Villain has to be strong, because the people will love it only when the Hero prevails over the strongest evil. I think Nambiar would have been the most hated villain of all times.In this movie, he even hits MGR with the whip during the  initial scenes and I dunno how people would have reacted in Theatres

5. MGR, the man. In fact this movie also gave him space to act, as the cowardly Ramu he scores full marks and Ilango is his usual charactersation which you see in most of his movies. I can only reiterate one fact – he is the best brand manager I have ever known. He knew how to engineer success and follow it up with huge success in political life too

Watch the video from 16.55 Minute for “Naan Aanaiyittal Song”

Why this is in the list?

1. One of the biggest trend setters in Tamil Movies. I can’t count the number of movies taken with the same story line. From the trash copy called Vani Rani (which even has a similar whipping scene like the one in Enga Veetu Pillai) to one of the recent hits of Surya – Vel, all the double action movies have been made with Enga Veetu Pillai in mind.

2. One of the biggest blockbusters in Tamil cinema and continues to be a hit even on reruns.

3. As I said, the perfect masala movie of all times which has all the ingredients rightly mixed in apt proportions

Trivia

1. Ramadu Bheemadu was released in 1964 and there was a Hindi remake of the same movie called Ram Aur Shyam with Dilip Kumar (!!! I dunno how he would suited such a storyline). It didn’t do well at the box office. All the movies were directed and produced by the same team of Tapi and Nagi Reddy

2. “Naan Aanaiyittal” was originally written as ” Naan Arasan Yendral, Naan Aandu vittal” but MGR made Vaali to change the lyrics to the current version as he felt it would the sentiments of DMK leaders. Eventually he came out of DMK to start ADMK and as they say the rest is history. Even ADMK uses the song for every election campaign

3. The song became so famous that there was a movie released as Naan Aanaiyital in 1966 with MGR in the lead.

– Post From My iPhone

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The Tamil history is full of legends, interesting anecdotes and wonderful heroic stories. But the number of historical movies and Historical fictions is very minimal. The ones which came are either skewed or executed in the worst possible way. I think there will be only two movies in this genre.in my list. The one which I consider the perfect movie in Tamil, didn’t do well in the box office  too.. (it will be featured in the later part of the series)

During the 50s and 60s, there were lot of historicals featuring the freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu. Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Sivagangai Seemai, Raja Desingu were some of them and worst of all came in 1973 – Raja Raja Chozhan. The problem with all the historical movies were it gives you an skewed perspective and not the true history. All movies tried to glorify the lead characters rather than giving out the true to life depictions. I think that’s were Chinese and Hollywood movies score a point.

Kappalotiya Thamizhan

One historical which came close to be a true depiction was Kappalotiya Thamizhan, a biopic depicting the life V.O. Chidambaram, who fought an economic and business based war against the British. I said came close, because they had a lot of extra fictitious characters who may or may not have lived.

V.O.Chidambaram Pillai aka VOC ( Sivaji Ganesan) is an ardent nationalist and owner of a salt factory. On seeing that, Indians are discriminated in the ports and not allowed to export through ships, he starts the Swadeshi  Steam Navigation Company ( and hence the name Kappalotiya Thamizhan). As the British see the economic war, more dangerous than the ahimsa war, they confiscate VOC’s company and put him in jail. The movie depicts the struggle VOC went through in the jail and he writing his autobiography etc.

The movie not only focuses on VOC but also his interactions with the revolutionary Tamil poets Bharathiyar (a memorable performance by SV Subbaiah), Subramania Siva (TS Shanmugam) and other national leaders. It also depicts the other important moments of independence happened at that time, like the Vanchinathan – Collector Ash incident (K.Balaji as Vanchinathan was fantastic).

I could not understand the characterizations of Madasami and his wife ( Gemini Ganesh and Savithri) because there are no references of them in the history. They get a considerable screen presence and I think they were included to provide the lighter moments of a very tight serious drama. Madasami acts as the only link between Vanchinathan and VOC, who otherwise had not met in the history. Most of the websites claim that Gemini Ganesh was Vanchinathan and of course it is not true.

The movie was directed by BR Panthulu with Sivaji Ganesan, Rukmini, Gemini Ganesh, Savithri, SV Subbaiah, TS Shanmugam, K. Balaji as actors. The music was done by G Ramanathan and produced by Padmini Pictures.

Why it is so Special?

1. The memorable acting of Sivaji. Although people remember him as Kattabomman and Karnan, he himself loves VOC more than anything else. In every interview, he claims that this was the toughest and the most favorite of all. And you will know it only when you see it.

2. The supporting cast was equally awesome too. The court scene were SV Subbaiah counters the British lawyer and the collector office scene of TS Shanmugam bears testimony to their talent. Although subdued, Rukmini as VOC’s wife was wonderful.

3. The music and the lyrics. All the songs in the movie was from Bharathiyar’s poems. Only a few movies have all the songs written by Bharathi. The other two that I can remember now – Ezhavathu Manithan and Bharathi ( the autobiography). It was G.Ramanathan’s best (Kaatru Veliyidai Kannamma and Yendru Thaniyum indha Sudandhira Thagam are masterpieces still remembered)

4. A true biographical account well taken and rightly screen played.

Why it is in the list?

1. The historical movies of those times were totally skewed. Veera Pandiya Kattabomman ( incidentally made by BR Pantulu) and Sivagangai Seemai were one of the most skewed historical depictions. Although this movie had a lot of extra characters added, it was true to life when it came to VOC. They even skip the few years before his death, because they could not get enough information about that part of his life.

2. One of the best when it comes to historical biographies in Tamil Movies.

3. For Sivaji Ganesan – once again.

Trivia

1. Although a good movie, it ran only for a week when it was released for the first time even after giving a tax exemption. It did well in the sub-sequent reruns.

2. VOC is the most favourite role of Sivaji Ganesan and he reportedly said that he had difficult time doing it.

3. SS Gallia and SS Lawoe are the two ships bought by VOC to start his Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company

4. Padmini Pictures was the production company of BR Panthulu and produced famous blockbusters like Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Karnan, Kalyanam Panniyum Brahmachari. The last recorded movie produced by them was  Rahasiya Police 115 in 1968.

For more info about VOC and the movie peek in to the following link. This link has wonderful info about famous Tamils.

http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/voc.htm

PS: Its pity that his family is in road side now. Do we really respect the families which sacrificed for our country?

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The definition of Anti-Heroism has been misinterpreted in many places referring it to those lead characters which have some Grey shades too. But according to me and even movie analysts, anti-hero is the one differs from the normal notions of an hero. A hero in Tamil movies is usually physically smart, has sharp features, strong, intelligent, suave, stylish, compassionate, girls fall for him naturally and he never does a mistake. The norms were never broken and actors like MGR were very successful proponents of this model.

But every one of these norms were broken in to pieces when a great actor entered this movie world. His name was Nagesh and the movie was Server Sundaram.

Server Sundaram (1964)

Server Sundaram was only the 5th movie of Nagesh. He was just a budding actor with only one hit in Nenjil Oru Aalayam and that too as a comedian. Server Sundaram is an adaptation of the play by the same name written by K.Balachander ( he is going to come again and again in this list), produced by AVM Pictures with music by MS Viswanathan – Ramamoorthy and directed by Krishnan – Panju.

The story is about a young wanna be actor (Sundaram) who comes to Madras to make it big in movies and ends up in a restaurant as a waiter. He meets his friend in the same hotel and his friend paves a way for him to get a big break in movies. In between Sundaram falls in love with the daughter of the restaurant owner, he works for without knowing that she is the bride to be of his friend. Sundaram becomes a star believing that making himself rich and famous will help him to get her. But eventually comes to know about his friend’s love and sacrifices his love for his friend’s sake. Finally, his mother’s demise teaches him the reality of life.

The movie is said to be semi-autobiographical of Nagesh as it traces the life of an actor, his rise and fall.

What’s so special about it?

1. If there are 100 reasons for this movie to be special, all the 100 reasons would be Nagesh. He makes you to laugh, cry, sad, think, retrospect and share the character’s emotions. I have not known any other movie which can make a normal person to relate to a character so much. In one scene where he goes to the heroine to express his love with a bouquet and she rejects his proposal. He asks for a gift from her. She asks “what you want?” He says ” Nothing much, I just want the dust bin you have. Because my heart would pain if you throw my bouquet in to the dust bin”… Nagesh gives an helpless expression at that moment which no actor would have matched. He was special…

2. The perfect supporting cast with Muthuraman as his friend Raghavan and KR Vijaya. Major Sunder Rajan as his restaurant owner and above all SN Lakshmi as Nagesh’ mother made to look the mother-son relationship so believable.

3. The witty one line dialogues which were KB’s trademark made it’s way to the big screen. I think Krishnan-Panju would have made a record being the only directors to be part of a film which had longest monologues and also be a part of movie which had short oneliners ( I can’t say shortest because later came Mani Ratnam, whose dialogues were mostly single words)

4. The movie has scenes which gave the inside view of the cinema world. How do they make sets, rain sequences etc. It was said that few producers showed their concerns for showing the cinema secrets to AVM. But AVM went on to make these sequences, which gave great impetus to the success of the movie.

5. The songs and music composition were at it’s best. Kannadasan and MSV were at their peak form. Songs like Avalukku Yenna (it even shows the live recording of the song) are still considered to be classics.. People never knew Nagesh could dance so well.

Why it makes to the list?

1. The critics, some directors and movie buffs are talking about movies which depict the reality of life. But I think Server Sundaram started it all. It broke the norms of Tamil Movies. I bet there would be no producer to take such a movie at this moment and that too with a 4 movie old comedian in the lead.

2. It also paved the way for demise of long monologues (it made a comeback with actors like Vijayakanth !!). Short, witty, powerful one -liners became the order of the day.

3. It brought two of the greats in Tamil Cinema in forefront, KB & Nagesh. They went to make a lot of meaningful movies together. Nagesh was casted in almost all the movies after 1964. He became a must have in a movie. There were times were directors were forced to include characters which will suit Nagesh. KB of course became one of the prolific film makers of Tamil and introduced the 2 Superstars – Rajini & Kamal.

4. It gave the concept of Anti -Heroism to Tamil Cinema. It changed the way people look at heroes. They started to relate to Sundaram like characters more because he was like just another person on the road.

5. It’s a complete package of a movie with the right doses of romance, comedy, sentiments with excellent music and classic acting.

Trivia

1. Although the play was directed by KB, the producers AVM opted for their successful director duo Krishnan-Panju. KB later made couple of successful movies for AVM.

2. The sequences were Nagesh does mono acting with a coin on the road and pining for his lady love were influenced by Chaplin’s City Lights.

3. Krishnan – Panju the ever successful director duo made 55 Movies together which include blockbuster hits like Rattha Kaneer, Parasakthi, Kuzhandhiyum Deivamum, Uyarntha Manithan and of course Server Sundaram.

4. Server Sundaram was remade in Hindi with Mehmood in the lead by the same directors and AVM as Main Sundar Hoon in 1970. Although it was not a blockbuster hit, it was a decent hit in Hindi.

5. The first picture in this article was taken originally as a promo pic but there was no such scene in the original movie. After seeing the first copy, AV Meyyappa Chettiar insisted on such a scene to make the promo shots authentic. He was vehemently against making fake promo shots without having it in the movie. But this picture eventually became a classic  photo for Nagesh

PS 2: I wrote a Tribute to Nagesh on his demise earlier this year.. Someone who i admired, loved and shared few coincidents..

PS3: In final moment of the scene which i have posted above, Sundaram says  “Love is a game of chance, I lost it in the finals” ( Hail KB for the Dialogue) – I lost one in finals too…

– Post From My iPhone.

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