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

Romantic Comedies are a rarity in Tamil Cinema. I believe a perfect Romantic Comedy should have the right proportions of both. How many Tamil movies you have seen with both of these coming in right proportions. I have decided to showcase two romantic comedies in the 40s-70s era which were trend setters for the future. Theses two movies have been diligently (shamelessly) reproduced by some of the later directors with some changes and still became superhits.

Rom Coms can be made in two different ways – one which will have only two lead characters, the story traverses through them and the situations they encounter. And the other type of story, depict more than one couple, their problems and the inter twining of situations etc. The first movie which I am going to show case is of the first genre.

Anbe Vaa (1966)

Anbe Vaa was the start of all those romantic movies where the boy meets girl. They start fighting. Fall in love but never want to express. Relationship ends with a rift. Atlast they reconcile and love triumphs.

I am not kidding but i think 99% of the love stories in Tamil Cinema followed this trend and most of them succeeded. The latest one being Siva Manasula Sakthi, which was a hit too.

Anbe Vaa was loosely based on 1961 Hollywood Comedy “Come September”. JB (MGR) is a very successful businessman fed up and stressed out with his monotonous life wants to take a break in his summer bungalow in Shimla. When he arrives, he finds that his manager’s brother in law (Nagesh) had made the place in to a summer resort and making Money from tourists. He meets Latha (Saroja Devi) and finds her attractive so he joins the band of tourists for a rent in his house. Only his manager’s daughter (Manorama) knows that he is the owner but he silences her to have fun. JB acts as a Balu, a normal salaried guy.

JB and Latha gets in to small cat fights each trying to pull others leg with practical jokes. They eventually fall in love but never want to express each other. Latha thinks even JB’s love is a practical joke. Enters Asokan, a Pilot, Maternal uncle of Latha and a long time friend of JB. He alsi joins the bandwagon of JB’s acting. Tired of JBs practical jokes, Latha decides to marry her uncle. But he finds the love between her and JB, unites them. When JB reveals his true identity before the marriage, Latha thinks it’s yet another practical joke from JB but all end’s well in the climax.

The cast includes MG Ramachandran, Saroja Devi, Asokan, Nagesh, Manorama, TR Ramachandran and so on. The movie was directed by AC Thirulogachander, produced by AVM and music by MS Viswanathan.

What’s so special about the Movie?

1. The story in itself. Nobody even thought of having a 3 Hr movie with only two lead characters fighting at each other would make a good screen play. The screen play was so wonderful that it never lagged a bit.

2. The music – I think this movie’s album was one of the best ever to come in Tamil Cinema. The dream combo of MS Viswanathan – Vaali was nothing short of greatness. Pudhiya Vaanam Pudhiya Bhoomi, Rajavin Paarvai, Love Birds Love Birds, Anbe Vaa, a western based Nadodi (was it a copy?), Once a papa met a Mama (Baila) and above all Naan Parthathile Aval Oruthiyaithan Were memorable hits. (Actually once when I sang Naan Parthathile in my college, I had a roaring applause at the start of the song – that’s the level it had reached even in the hearts of younger generation)

3. MGR was a action hero and he was known for his complete masala entertainers. He was courageous enough to take such a role and the producers were brave enough to cast him.

Why it is in the list?

1. Simply because it was a trend setter. Nobody can count the number of movies inspired by Anbe Vaa. It gave the directors and producers the confidence that rom coms can make money too (Not just money but big money)

2. For the music, screen play and MGRs acting. Anyways the producers did compromise something for MGR, they had to add a fight sequence as they didn’t want to take MGR movie without a fight. They were prudent enough because few producers had lost quite some money by not compromising for MGRs star power.

Trivia

1. AVM had this wonderful team of in house script writers who can turn any language movie in to a Tamil script. As Anbe Vaa was a rehash of Come September, the other movies from their production house were mostly based on other language movies. Jaavert Seetharaman was considered to be a expert in converting scripts to suit the Tamil audiences.

2. Anbe Vaa was the first script made by AVM to suit a star actor. They usually choose the actor based on the script made.

3. Although the story takes place in Shimla, 95% of the movie was shot in Ooty. Only the introductory song of MGR was shot in Shimla to authenticate that the movie takes place in Shimla.

4.Anbe Vaa was the first complete color movie produced by AVM

5.Naan Parthathile was one of the few songs shot in outdoor with MGR as he avoids the public shooting due to the huge fan following he had and he never used to learn dance in front of the public in order to maintain his image.

6. During those days, the release of the lyrics as a book was popular. AVM released the Anbe Vaa lyric book like a LB Record, which was even sold in black for higher prices.

7. Anbe Vaa ran for 23 weeks and it’s one of the biggest blockbusters for AVM. MGR demanded a salary of 3.25 Lakhs for the movie ( do your inflation calculations)

PS: All the trivia about AVM are credited to the book by M.Saravanan, “AVM 60 Cinema”

– Post From My iPhone