Ask The Experts

[saradhaa_sn]

there's guru datchanai with ondrE ondru ulagam ondru ulagil deivam ondru - padmini as teacher.

Yes! The male Bioscope operator in the movie is a secondary character, but gets a song, "Paaru Paaru Nalla Paaru". I found the song on Cool Toad just now.

Thank you!

'குருதட்சனைதான்'.

பயாஸ்கோப் ஓட்டுபவர் நகைச்சுவைத்தென்றல் 'டனால்' கே.ஏ.தங்கவேலு.

[ilekani]

What other movies did Poornima of Thoorathu Idi Muzhakkum do?

When I search online, the results are about Poornima who married Bhagyaraj but this looks like a different person.

[RC]

That pUrnima did only few films.

sattam oru iruttaRai
nIru pUththa neruppu ( I think)

[ilekani]

That pUrnima did only few films.

sattam oru iruttaRai
nIru pUththa neruppu ( I think)

Thanks -- did she make movies in other languages?

[ilekani]

(nevemind, answered)

[hattori_hanzo]

Groucho, here's some info on thrillers made by the Genius S.Balachandar - I read these reviews when they appeared on The Hindu supplement few months back.

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article2462010.ece

Avana Ivan 1962



One of the sensational American murder cases during the first decade of the 20th Century was the Gillette Murder Case. A young man, the nephew of a garment factory owner in New York State, was carrying on an affair with an attractive young woman working in the factory whom he seduced under the promise of marriage. The poor girl fell for him and looked forward to the happy day when they would exchange ‘I do'. However, the ambitious young man had no such intention and hoped to marry a rich woman. Soon the factory girl was pregnant, and he decided to kill her. One fateful day he took her on a boat ride in a well-known summer resort in New York State and the poor girl had no idea of what lay in store for her. During the boat ride, he suddenly crept up behind her and smashed her with the oar, killing her instantly. He pushed the body into the river and jumped out of the boat trying to fake his death. But he swam to safety …

The police were informed. Soon the young woman's body was found, but not the man's! Digging into the murder of the woman, they found out all about the young man and arrested him. The case and trial created a sensation and he was sentenced to death.

One of the greatest writers of America, Theodore Dreiser saw it as a shocking example of degradation of values in American society, and he wrote a king-sized novel running to hundreds of pages, called ‘An American Tragedy.' It turned out to be a bestseller and classic work of fiction which was made into a movie by the talented cinematographer-director George Stevens (Giant, I Remember Mama and Shane) under the title A Place In The Sun (1951) featuring Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, and Shelley Winters as the murdered woman. This film was a major hit and enjoyed a successful run in India. S. Balachandar was drawn to the film and he adapted it in Tamil, turning producer in the process. The film was Avanaa Ivan and he called his company S. B. Creations, the first time the word ‘Creations' was used in south India for a motion picture production company, revealing his inventive genius.

The movie closely followed the Hollywood movie. Balachandar played the antihero who kills his wife (Lakshmirajam) to marry the other woman (Vaasanthi).
Some children go on a picnicduring which the murder takes place. Two of them (‘Kutti' Padmini and ‘Master' Sridhar) watch the killing of the woman and finally expose the killer. The film was brilliantly narrated onscreen by the multi-faceted Balachandar.

Vaasanthi, a Telugu actor, played the female lead, while Lakshmirajam, who passed away recently at the age of 91, was the wife.

Besides the excellent direction and interesting storyline, the film had melodious music composed by Balachandar. There were five songs in the movie — one of them ‘Kalyana Ponnu Kalangaathey Kannu' was a hit. ‘Vaaranamayiram', a pasuram, was rendered by Radha of the Radha-Jayalakshmi duo of classical musicians. Jayalakshmi sang off-screen during that period, and this was another novelty introduced by SB.

A group song, ‘Manamvittu', was used in a novel way by SB. He used the background instrumentation of the song as title music and brought out a 78rpm gramophone record of it, again an innovation for the day.

In the last shot while the killer is taken away by the cops, he winks at the kids and says “Tata” — a fine touch by the creative filmmaker!
A piece of trivia — Balachandar sent blank cheques to his cast and crew, requesting them to fill the amount according to their wish and inform his office!
He also introduced interesting publicity materials. One was a larger-than-life cut-out of the hero which was erected in the Mount Road area opposite a popular non-vegetarian restaurant. There was also a cut-out of the dark glasses the hero wears; on one lens was written ‘Avanaa', and on the other ‘Ivan'! These attracted enormous attention, building up pre-release publicity.

In spite of expectations, Avanaa Ivan did not fare well at the box office.

Cast: S. Balachandar, Vaasanthi, ‘Javert' Seetharaman, Lakshmirajam Sadan, ‘Kutti' Padmini, ‘Master' Sridhar

Remembered for the fine music and excellent onscreen narration.
Keywords: Tamil cinema, Nostalgia, Experimental, Avant garde

Blast from the Past - Bommai 1964

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article2579729.ece



S. Balachandar, V. S. Raghavan, L. Vijayalakshmi, V. Gopalakrishnan, Ramesh, Sadan, Srinivasan, S. N. Lakshmi, Lakshmirajam and Maali

Alfred Hitchcock, described as ‘the Merchant of Menace', an icon of World Cinema and the maestro of the suspense genre, created many unsurpassed classics both in the United Kingdom, where he began his career as a filmmaker, and later in Hollywood. He made successful films most of which became classics such as Psycho, North By Northwest, Vertigo, Strangers On A Train and The Man Who Knew Too Much. One of the early masterpieces he made in England was Sabotage (1936), which is watched today not only by his fans but also suspense movie buffs around the world.

Hitchcock has been a source of inspiration to many filmmakers in several parts of the world, including India. Influenced by his style of filmmaking and onscreen narration, S. Balachandar, the multifaceted Tamil filmmaker, adapted Sabotage in Tamil, suitably changing the storyline for the local market. His movie was titled Bommai, the reason being that, as in the original British movie, the central character is a baby doll which a terrorist uses to plant a bomb and sends it through a boy. The boy travels by bus unaware of the content and, like most boys, wanders around attracted by the sideshows on the road. Finally the bomb explodes inside the bus, and the passengers, including the boy, are killed.

For the Tamil audiences, Balachandar had a walking baby doll in which the bomb was concealed. It was taken in a car and exploded, killing all the villains and saving the hero (Balachandar), for whom the bomb was intended.

Balachandar wrote the story and screenplay, while the dialogue and lyrics were written by his close associate Vidwan Ve. Lakshmanan. Of course, the music was composed by Balachandar.

Veteran stage and screen actor V. S. Raghavan plays the main role of the person who is anxious to get rid of the hero, along with his followers such as Sadan, Maali, Lakshmirajam, Gopalakrishnan and Srinivasan, who pretend to be the hero's friends. L. Vijayalakshmi, an attractive classical dancer who had had a brief career in movies, plays the heroine and does a few dance numbers.

Expectedly, the movie had quite a few song sequences though it was a suspense thriller. Songs such as ‘Thatthi thatthi nadandhu varum chella paapa' (Voice: L. R. Easwari) became a big hit. An interesting feature is the multilingual singer K. J. Jesudas took his bow as an off-screen singer in Tamil Cinema with the song ‘Neeyum bommai naanumbommai', which was filmed on an old roadside beggar.

Balachandar as the protagonist was excellent, underplaying his role like a Hollywood star (James Cagney was his favourite star). There were many newcomers in the film such as Ramesh and Srinivasan. Much was expected of these actors but they faded away. Srinivasan who played a key role in Bommai is totally forgotten today.

Though the film was completed in 1963 and censored, it was released only in 1964 for many reasons. Balachandar faced some problems in marketing it because of the new faces and lesser-known artists doing major roles. However, Bommai turned out to be a box office hit, scoring the much-coveted hundred-day run in many cinemas, winning critical appreciation. Today it is treated as a classic in the rare genre of suspense movies in Tamil.

Balachandar searched high and low for the appropriate baby doll, which is in fact the hero of the movie, and much to his surprise found it in one of the local shops.

Remembered for the interesting storyline, excellent onscreen narration and performances by Balachandar, V. S. Raghavan and the doll. And also the melodious music, some of the tunes becoming hits and fondly remembered after nearly five decades.

[hattori_hanzo]

I have a question for the classic experts here

I watched a couple of movies by director Sridhar 1. Ilamai oonjalaadigiradhu, 2. Avalukenru oru Manam.
I thought director Sridhar was wonderful in both these films with his direction. I am not sure about who the screenplay writer was, but they both had the essence of anticipation of whats going to happen next. Ofcourse there were lot of twists in the end that made the movie work.
Do you know more about Sridhar.. is there any thread started for him ? is it really true that he has directed about 100 movies ?

Sridhar is one of TFI's top directors & his biggest hit is the memorable Kadhalikka Neramillai starring Ravichandran, Muthuraman & Nagesh. Other major hits are Ooty Varai Uravu, Nenjam Marappadhillai (horror/thriller), Nenjirukkum Varai and Nenjil Oru Aalayam. You can find a lot more info on him in the hub pages. One of his last movies was Nanum Oru Thozhilali starring Kamal.

[hattori_hanzo]

Here is my question to the Experts.

I saw this comedy scene several years back in Vijay TV but never got a chance to find out which movie it is from. It features Cho Ramaswamy in a dual role with VKR. Cho1 is VKR's son-in-law, who has a twin brother. His wife finds it difficult to differentiate them and decides to shave off Cho1's hair to make things simpler. Now Cho2 too tonsures his head, which causes further trouble.

Now this is the best part. To differentiate one mottai from another, VKR comes up with a plan. He gives Cho1 a Gulla, which looks strikingly similar to the one worn by MG Ramachandran, in real life(This is a color movie and it must have been made after MGR started wearing the famous Gulla). When VKR gives him the Gulla, Cho gets shocked and says 'Ayyayyo, indha thoppi enakku vendaam' and throws it to Cho2. Cho2 throws it back and says, 'Ayyo, andha thoppi enakkum vendaam"

Which movie is this from? Was it during the same time that Cho did movies with MGR?

[groucho070]

h_h, thank you. That's some find you got there. And a thread I started years ago, wow...

[Murali Srinivas]

h_h,

The movie you are talking about is Rojavin Raja. The hero was NT and heroine was Vanishree. This movie started in 1973 got delayed and finally hit the screens by 25th December, 1976. By this time Cho was not in MGR movies and IIRC his last film with MGR was Rickshakaran [1971].

BTW, was it not three Cho s?

Regards