All Indian movies are musicals. We are one of the few movie makers in the world who love to express the situations of the movies through songs, dance and music. This is one of the main reasons why Indian movies are loved abroad and sometimes a few movies are really extravagant with music and dance. The next movie in my list is one such.

Thillana Mohanambal (1968)

Thillana Mohanambal is a story of two egoistic geniuses falling in love head over heels but never had the mettle to express each other. Too simplistic? A simple one-liner can become a classic with a superb screenplay and wonderful acting. This movie is an epitome of what I am talking about. Thillana Mohanambal is a novel by Kothamangalam Subbu and adapted by AP Nagarajan. Sikkal Shanmugasundaram (Sivaji Ganesan) is a renowned Nagaswaram maestro and egoistic about his talent meets the Bharathanatyam genius Mohanambal (Padmini) and they fall in love instantly because of mutual admiration towards their talents. Her mother (CK Saraswathi) wants her to get married to a wealthy man in-order to get a luxurious life. She tries to patch Mohana with different people through the help of Vaithi (Nagesh – at his Villainy best) but fails at every instant due to the determination of Mohana. Shanmugasundaram misunderstands Mohana and gets in to a depressed state but through the help of friends their love travels to an happy ending.

Why it’s so special?

1. The ensemble cast and brilliant acting. Sivaji and Padmini are fabulous. If you take the 10 best pairs in Tamil Cinema, they will rank right at the top, simply because of the chemistry and the way they try to overpower each other whenever they act together. Thillana Mohanambal provides the right premise for both the actors to shine.

2. The supporting cast of AVM Rajan, Balayya, SV Sahasranamam, TR Ramachandran, Thangavelu, CK Saraswathi and apt cameos from Balaji, Nambiyar make the movie perfect. You would be amazed at the screenplay and how each actor is provided with scenes where they can shine in their own way. For instance, the train scene where Balayya steals the show completely from the lead characters.

3. There are two actors without who Thillana Mohanambal would be half baked. Vaithi played by Nagesh and Jil Jill Ramamani by Manorama. Vaithi is the real villain of the story and Nagesh cakewalks the role. His saguni like villainy will make you laugh and hate him at the same time. Nobody other than Nagesh could have pulled it off. Jill Jill Ramamani on the other hand is the darling of the movie. Manorama’s portrayal is splendid with the unique gait and voice modulation. Even sometimes you feel that Sivaji let her to overshadow him. Don’t miss the folk dance performance from Manorama.

4. The music and dance. This is one of the movies whose soundtrack should be preserved in any Tamil music buff’s collection. Maraindhirunthu Parkum, Nalamthana and Pandiyan Naanirukka are instant classics. The musical pieces at various points of time performed by the Nagaswaram Troupe especially the western score done through traditional instruments are out of the world. the music was composed by KV Mahadevan. If music was perfect, the dance sequences are overwhelming. Padmini was at her best through the choreography of PS Gopalakrishnan. The Thillana contest between Nagaswaram and Bharathanatyam is a sequence not to be missed.

5. It’s one of the perfect screenplays as it was adapted from a 3 volume novel and wonderfully directed too.

Why it’s in our list?

1.One of the best novel adaptations and I could not find a better musical than this.

2.Perfectly casted, perfectly acted, perfectly composed (song and dance), perfectly written and perfectly directed

3.One of the few movies in Tamil which will not bore you even if you see it innumerable times and enjoy the movie from any point

Trivia

1.The nagaswaram played by Sivaji and AVM Rajan was played offline by MPN Sethuraman and MPN Ponnusami.

2.The western notes that’s played by Sivaji’s troupe during the western band standoff scene was composed by Harikesnallur Muthaiah Bagavathar for Madurai Mani Iyer. It was used by KV Mahadevan for the movie

3.The 3 volume novel written by Kothamangalam Subbu was published as a series in Ananda Vikatan 25 years before the movie was made. Interestingly, Vaithi’s caricature made by Gopu (artist) was very similar to Nagesh.

4.It was widely rumored that Padmini wanted to marry Sivaji. It was because of the screen chemistry shared by both the actors. She got married to an US based Physician Dr. Ramachandran and instituted her own dance school in New Jersey

5.The story is based out of the Kaveri delta area of Tanjore and adjacent places. Sikkal is a small village in Nagapattinam district and known for Singaravelan Temple. But the whole movie was shot in sets except for few scenes in Railway stations

Useless Trivia:

Tanjore Railway station makes a small cameo. (Giving credit to my native :P)

Click here to see the other movies in this 50 Tamil Movies to watch before you die list. You will love the list if you like this article.

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?

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…

A few things before I go to the next movie.

1. Sorry for the infrequent posts and short hiatus, there are some DNS server problems with my blog. My hosting guy is working on it. I hope he gives me a good solution. And I lost two of the posts with my iPhone crash. I do my blogposts during my daily travel and my phone wonderfully crashed on Friday night and my backup is in Macbook, which is also not working currently. Aww, that’s life.

2. I hope some of my readers would be thinking why I am running around 50s and 60s in the movie list and not with the later years. The first set of movies (may be 15-16) will be till 1969, the next set will be from 1970 – 1989 and the last set will be 1990 – current running period. So wait for some more nice movies to come.

Now for the next movie in line.

Parasakthi (1952)

Krishnan – Panju, the most successful director duo have made some wonderful movies which are blockbuster hits and at the same time critically well received. But they were never spoken in the breadth of other famous directors of those times (like CV Sridhar). In fact, I have 3 of their movies in my list. The most obvious reason I could see is that the lead actors have become more famous than the director duo in those movies. If it was MR Radha in Rattha Kaneer, Parasakthi announced the arrival of greatest Tamil actor of all times, Sivaji Ganesan ( the third one is more prolific and loved of all the three according to me).

Parasakthi was one of the most controversial movies of those times. Those days were full of historical movies and commercial entertainers, even the elusive social genre movies had cliched characters and political correctness. Parasakthi was the first movie to break the shackles and tried to talk about social problems openly in main stream cinema.

The story had a backdrop of World War II. Three rich brothers from war torn Rangoon, travel to India to meet their widowed sister. Fate plays the game, separating the family. Gunasekaran, one of the brothers becomes a protector to his sister (Kalyani) without knowing the original identity while she is struggling to save herself and her child from hunger. All the men including a priest ask her body as a price for helping her. She gets dejected and eventually tries to kill herself with the child. All end up in court and the family is reunited.

Parasakthi was directed by Krishnan – Panju and produced by National Pictures. The music was composed by Sudarsanam and Maruthi Rao wielded the camera. The cast included Sivaji Ganesan, SS Rajendran, SV Sahasaranamam, Sri Ranjani and Pandari Bai. The most important of all which became the prime reason for success of the movie were the dialogues of the movie written by M.Karunanidhi ( the present CM of Tamil Nadu)

What so special about the movie?

1. The wonderfully written dialogues. Karunanidhi was part of the newly formed DMK party which had Dravidian ideologies in the roots. He used the characters of the movie as the mouth pieces of propagating dravidian thoughts. The movie had fiery monologues shunning the social problems of those times like casteism, cheating through religion, black marketing, poverty, women abuse and the rich-poor divide.

2. The acting and mainly the dialogue delivery of Sivaji. Nobody expected a new comer to perform so well and the long monologues were new to Tamil Cinema. He became a instant hit and the final court scene is still considered to be a master piece.

3. The wonderful performances of the supporting cast. Sri Ranjani, Pandari Bai, the evil priest and SS Rajendran especially were aptly casted characters.

Why it makes to the list?

1. The first movie to openly talk about the social problems and created a big impact showing that movies can be used as an social medium too ( and succeed in it).

2. The movie which brought the dialogue culture and showed the might of pen. The dialogues were so successful that the producers released Gramaphone records and books after the movie’s success. The dialogues were considered to be so provocative that there was a special censor board to censor the movie before release.

3. I have only one word for the third reason which will speak volumes – Sivaji

Trivia:

1. Although an old trivia – the name Sivaji was given by the Dravidian leader EVR Periyar after watching his portrayal of Maratha leader Sivaji, in a stage play.

2. Sri Ranjani or Sri Ranjani Jr was a Telegu actress who started her career in Bhishma in 1941. She made some memorable portrayals in Tamil including of forlorn wife of MR Radha in Rattha Kaneer. She also did the role of blind girl in the remake of City Lights – Raj en Kanmani. She passed away in 1970.

3. The songs of Parasakthi were based on some famous Hindi film songs of those times . Sudarsanam rehashed the tunes of Sunehre Din (1949), Babul (1950), Dopatta (1951) and even a Urdu song by legendary Ghulam Haidet from a Pakistani movie , Akeli (1952).

4. Although the movie was said to be produced by National Pictures, it’s a partnership production between AVM & National Pictures. AV Meyappa Chettiar, was involved in the script discussion and publicity of the movie. The movie was completely shot in the AVM Studios. A memorial has been erected for Sivajai in the AVM Studios, where he shot the first scene. The first dialogue he spoke was “Success”.

5. Incidentally, Sivaji’s grand son was launched as Junior Sivaji in a movie by the name ‘Success’. The movie was a disaster and of course the grand son too..

6. I will reserve the trivia about Krishnan-Panju for their next movie in the list.

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