The early Tamil movies had a right mix of movies. There were masala action as there were socio-political movies, there were fairy tales as there were historical fictions. I think one of the most entertaining of all were the stories based on Hindu Gods and mythical characters. Don’t rate the yesteryear mythical classics with the new age graphical so called “Godly” movies. The way the modern movie directors showing Gods is something they should be ashamed of.

Thiruvilayadal (1965)

The first movie that comes to any one’s mind when thinking about mythical movies is Thiruvilayadal. Thiruvilayadal is an excerpt of 4 stories from the 64 stories, which tells the greatness of the Hindu God Shiva. Lord Shiva according to South Indian beliefs has two sons, Vinayagar ( Ganesh in North India) and Muruga (lesser known in the North with the name Karthik). Murugan fights with his parents as they give the divine fruit to the clever elder son and Murugan goes to the Palani Hills relinquishing all his virtues and luxuries. Different people try to convince him and atlast his mother Parvathy explains the various godly miracles of his father Lord Shiva.

The four episodes include the encounter with Nakkeeran, the poet in the Pandya Kingdom, the rift between Patvathi and Sivan – Parvathi being born as a fisher woman. The story of the over-proud singer and Sivan teaching him a lesson as a wood cutter.

Sivaji Ganesan, Savithri, Muthuraman, Nagesh, Manorama, TS Balaiah were few of the huge star cast it had. The music was composed by the legendary KV Mahadevan and the movie was directed by AP Nagarajan.

Why it’s so special?

I think this is the best mythical movie ever to be made in Tamil. I don’t think somebody could make a better one than this. Even AP Nagarajan tried to emulate it and never succeeded in the process.

The movie had everything to make it as the best myth movie. The grandeur, scintillating music, perfect portrayals of actors (right casting) and the choice of the episodes.

The dharumi character of Nagesh, his encounter with Sivaji Ganesan as Lord Shiva is arguably one of the best comic scenes to be made in Tamil Cinema. I never understood the fact of how all the mythical characters and historical characters suit Sivaji so well. He fits in to the role of Lord Siva lika a perfect T.

The most important reason for the success of the movie was the music. Pazham Neeyappa by KB Sundarambal, Oru Naal Pothuma by Balamurali Krishna, Isai Tamil nee Seitha Arut Sadanai and Paatum Naane by TM Soundarajan are fantastic renderings still ringing in the ears of music buffs. The flawless screen play by AP Nagarajan makes this movie a must watch.

Why it makes to the list?

1.Myth is the part and parcel of life in India. Movies are not an exception. I could not think a better movie than this to list in this genre.

2.Do I need one more reason?

Trivia

1. The Dharumi character was not present in the movie originally. Nagesh was so very popular in those years that it was a crime not having in the movie. The director had to create a character to accomodate Nagesh in to the movie. It was said that the Dharumi character was based on a person called Krishnaswamy iyer.  It seems he was found in the banks of Mylapore Tank repenting about his poverty.

2. Krishnangoyal Venkatachalam Bhagavathar Mahadevan aka KV Mahadevan was born in Nagarcoil in 1917. He was working with HMV for few years and later turned towards music composing. His first movie was Avan Amaran and he was one of the most sought after music directors in his prime. His famous hits include Sankarabharanam, Konjum Salangai, Vasantha Maligai along with Thiruvilayadal. He had composed more than 600 movies in different Indian. A legendary music director. How can we forget Singaravelane Vaarai and Yaarukaga…

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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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Madras to Pondicherry ( 1966)

Somehow if I take some cult classics of 50s and 60s, I always hit upon with the names of Krishnan-Panju… In fact two more movies in my list are directed by them. So I had made a small juggle in the list to avoid repetition.

When do you think the first road movie came in Tamil? Truly, there are only a handful of road movies of which only a few are hits.I could not even think of one now except for the latest Kadhalna Summa Illa.

A road movie is defined as a story which happens during a journey from one place to another. The best example would be Motorcycle Diaries, which tells the transformation of Che Guevara. But the first Tamil road movie is an absolute light hearted comedy entwined with a small mystery, Madras to Pondicherry and that too in 1966 !

The story moves along with the bus journey of a host of interesting characters from Madras to Pondicherry. An ever fighting couple with a son, who has an insatiable appetite for pakoras, a old lady with her grand daughter, a respectable family, a road side vendor, a snake charmer and above all the conductor – driver duo. But the main story revolves around a girl (Kalpana), who escapes from the clutches of two cheats and her love story with a young man in the bus (Ravichandran).She first escapes from her family, who wanted her to be married to their choice of groom and gets in to the hands of two cheats. They promise her to get a role for her in movies. Due to greed one (SV Ramadoss) of them kills the other. Kalpana becomes the witness to the murder and runs for her life, eventually ending up in the bus with others. The journey continues and all’s well that ends well…

..

What so special about the movie?

The excellent screenplay of the movie with every scene filled with comic moments and the interesting characters along with apt casting. Nagesh as the conductor and A.Karunanidhi (not our CM) as the driver are memorable. Karunanidhi was one of the underrated comedians, his expressions are simply superb in the movie.

Khader as the Pakora eating son, earned him the name “Pakora Khader” and Veerapan as his irritating father are excellent portrayals. Angamuthu as the road side vendor and her chicken becomes the reason one of the best slapstick comedy sequence. You should watch it to enjoy the fun.

The movie was directed by another director duo of Thirumalai-Mahalingam, produced by MS Adhi Narayanan of Sun Beam Productions and Music by TK Ramamoorthy. I think the dialogues should have been penned by Veerappan, a friend of Nagesh who wrote numerous comedy sequences for him.

Why it’s in the list?

Just because it was one of the pioneers in the genre.I have not seen a better road movie idea in Tamil for years. Even in Hindi, they have failed to impress (Daud, Honeymoon Travels, Road).

The critics of Tamil movies always maintained that there are no good representations of genres in Tamil. Madras to Pondicherry is one of those movies, which can be quoted as an instance of difference in Tamil movies. Although half of the movie was made inside the studio due to the technical limitations of those times, the movie has to be hailed for the thought process.

You will be startled to see most of the comic scenes being copied in different formats. Like the snake sequence, the chicken chase sequence and it’s pathetic to see how people are so shameless to copy.

Madras to Pondicherry, a must watch road movie and light hearted comedy.

Trivia

1. Madras to Pondicherry was remade in Hindi with Amitabh and Aruna Irani with Mehmood doing the Nagesh role. It was called Bombay to Goa and it was a super hit. It was said that Mehmood wanted Rajiv Gandhi to do the role of Amitabh.

2. Mehmood, a fan of Nagesh has done some memorable (some not so memorable) remakes of Nagesh movies in Hindi.(Lakhon Mein Ek – Ethir Neechal, Do Phool – Anubavi Raja Anubavi, Mein Sunder Hoon – Server Sundaram and the list goes on)

3. Veerappan continued to write comedy portions for the movies. In fact most of the comedy sequences of Goundamani-Senthil duo were written by him. Yes, you are right, the master piece Vazhappazha (Banana) comedy of Karagattakaran was written by him only.

4. Thirumalai-Mahalingam later went on to direct some successful comedies like Saadhu Mirandal and Soapu Seepu Kannadi with Nagesh.

5. TK Ramamoorthy later joined hands with MS Viswanathan and the as they say ‘the rest is history’. I could not plot the first movie which they were together. They were called as the “Mellisai Mannargal” (Melody Kings).

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Everyone will have a list of favorite movies. Mine will start with Andha Naal, one of the earliest Rashoman like thriller. The second place goes to a movie called “Server Sundaram”. I saw it for the first time when I was a small kid in Shanthi Theatre in Pudukottai along with my cousins. I could only laugh at the lighter moments in the movie at that age. I started remembering the actor as the person who holds about 7 coffee cups in both the hands.

During my teens when I started serious movie watching, I saw it again in TV. That’s when I started understanding the character of that server sundaram, who falls in love with his friend’s fiancée and becomes a big actor, loses his mother and eventually lose his love of life too.

The movie is slightly based on Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. I was startled to see the actor’s prowess and subtlety in emotions. Those were the days, where Tamil Cinema was full of over acting (over reacting) actors. This guy would have been the first actor, who can show natural emotions on screen.

His name is Nagesh.Born as Gundu Rao, started his career as a drama artist and slowly rose to stardom. Although known for his famous comedy portrayals like the Tharumi of Thiruvilayadal, his association with Balachander and Kamal provided him with some memorable roles. “Maadi Veetu Maadhu” in “ethir neechal”, Baama Vijayam,Major Chandrakanth, Neerkumizhi, Nawab Narkali, the stammering satiristic guy in Navagraham are some roles that can be named. If KB got one side of Nagesh on screen, Kamal excellently portrayed the other side. He got him to do the Villain in his master piece Aboorva Sagotharargal. Wow, Nagesh was so good that the role made so much impact. Another memorable villain role made by him in his early days was the Vaithi of Thillana Mohanambal, a sadisitic pimp role that he enacted with panache. Avinashi of Michael Madana Kamarajan, Joseph in Avvai Shanmughi, Professor in Nammavar were some of the roles given by Kamal gave him accolades.

A self-made actor went in to exile due to financial losses during the 80s. His revival of sorts came through Kamal. He left his mark in whatever role he did.

But somehow I remember him for his personal life more than anything else. After earning so much money, he bought a imported car and with lots of money, he went to see his mother. And the misery is he could see only her last rites being done and he never had the chance to rejoice his sucess with his loving mother.
I lost my mom when I was in 12th standard. She never had the chance to see even my small successes in life.

Whenever I finish a quiz and people congratulate me, I am always left with the lump in the throat when I think my mom is not there to be proud about me. Somehow I could relate to Nagesh, because he was a man who was not happy when he made us laugh..

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