Prabhu Ganesan - Charismatic, Affable and Underrated.

1987

Chinna Thambi Periya Thambi

Manivannan was back with the same successful combination of Prabhu and Sathyaraj. Nadhiya who was at the peak of her career was the heroine. This again had the village mileu and as the Tamil cinema norm would be, both the brothers were uneducated, innocent and mother loving sons. Nadhiya their rich cousin [muraipen]would be in Chennai and by a sudden turn of events she would become poor and move to the village. Both the brothers would love her but she receiprocates it towards Chinna Thambi leading to misunderstanding and complications. How it all gets resolved formed the remaining part.

Prabhu as the innocent Chinna Thambi was fluent and his portrayal won him accolades. The movie was a big commercial success and it celebrated 100 days. There was a debate on who stole the show and I remeber reading an aptly summarised answer to this in a film magazine and it was like this.

படத்தலைப்பில் யார் பெயரை மணிவண்ணன் முதலில் போட்டிருக்கிறாரோ அவர்தான்.

Megam Karuthirukku

A different movie by Rama. Narayanan. A rich educated girl forced to marry a village pumpkin looking dark and ugly, trying to move away from him, posing as if she is not married which in turn gets her into real trouble and the soft suffering hubby trying to be of help to her by taking up a watchman's job in the women's hostel where she would be staying and which makes her more repulsive towards him formed the crux of the story. Ofcourse the story cannot go against Panpaadu and so truth realised repenting wife asking for forgiveness and the magnanimous husband taking her back formed the climax.

But this was again a very good performance from Prabhu. Though the story had traces of Padithaal Mattum Pothumaa, Prabhu would have underplayed the role neatly. The insults and heart pricks he suffers in silence was well brought out. The dark coloured makeup [though a bit artificial] was also a different attempt. Rekha was fresh from her Kadalora Kavithaigal and Punnagai Mannan roles but here she was found wanting.

This movie also did commercially well but I am not sure whether this was a 100 day movie.

Chinna Poove Mella Pesu

This was the movie of the year for Prabhu. The love failed liquor addict character was like a perfect T for him and he simply swept everybody off their feet. The ஏ பிள்ளை கருப்பாயி song and picturisation had become such a hit that S.A.Rajkumar who made his musical debut with the film overnight become a much sought after person. This was also the debut movie for Ramki, Sabitha Anand [in Tamil] and the heroine.

Robert Rajasekar after the phenomenal success of Paalaivana Cholai had fallen down from grace and this was again the turning point in their directorial careers. Released for the Tamil New Year in 1987, this was a grand success with more than a 100 days run.

Kaavalan Avan Kovalan

As I said earlier after 1986, Prabhu started to work with different directors in different genres. So when Visu who was riding on the success wave of Samsaram Adhu Minsaaram joined hands with Prabhu, that raised a lot of expectations. This time it was comedy and Prabhu did a dula role and yes the mistaken identity was the base knot.

For one of his roles, Prabhu took the mannerisms of director Sridhar especially his gait, posture and nail biting habits, which he brought out pretty well on screen. Rekha and Madhuri were the two heroines. Visu as usual had his share of dialogue obsession in this movie also.

Not a great shaker in BO, it did average business. But one thing I still remember about this movie is the review put up by Indian Express. While writing about Prabhu, the paper said "if this trend of choosing and enacting different roles continue, nothing can stop Prabhu from becoming the sheet anchor of Tamil cinema".

Regards

1987 - to be continued.

Budget padhmanaban by TP Gajendhiran - very poor story .... very very bad writing.... very very very bad direction ... but still prabhu shoulders movie with his great acting skills :clap: :clap:
Vivek, Manivannan and Kovai sarala were not really bad in a worst movie :)

Superb writeup, Murali-sar. I am ever so grateful for your contribution here. Thank you.

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Originally Posted by Sarna

Budget padhmanaban by TP Gajendhiran - very poor story .... very very bad writing.... very very very bad direction ... but still prabhu shoulders movie with his great acting skills :clap: :clap:

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:? I felt Prabhu was dull and uninteresting. I enjoyed the comedy on the other hand namely, the "oru discovery channel-e ingga kedakkuthu" scene :lol: and Vivek adapting Malayalee parents.

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Originally Posted by groucho070

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Originally Posted by Sarna

Budget padhmanaban by TP Gajendhiran - very poor story .... very very bad writing.... very very very bad direction ... but still prabhu shoulders movie with his great acting skills :clap: :clap:

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:? I felt Prabhu was dull and uninteresting.

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no :) even his dance in "pakkaavaa poduvaan padhamnaaban budjut'tu" was enjoyable for me :D

I liked Prabhu even in Kandha kadamba kadhirvela, where actually, unofficially Vadivelu was the lead actor :P by Rama Narayanan where MGR's graphics dances 8-)

KKK is another uninteresting performance from Prabhu, but I suppose my grouse is with the quality of script and stuff, what else can Prabhu do. Yes, VV is the hero of that film, in fact.

1987 - Contd

Vairaagiyam

Balaajee the closest family friend and the most successful producer of NT films, this time cast Prabhu as the lead in his movie, though it must be remembered that Prabhu played an important role in Balaajee's Neethipathi. But Balajee never changed his habits. Yes, this was a remake from a successful Telugu movie.

The rich M-I- Law and her arrogant ways and S-I-Law from a working class background taming her had been beaten to death in our films but this was one more attempt with Sowcar Janaki playing the M-I-Law. Not much of a straining for Prabhu and he was adequate.

Radha paired with Prabhu in this film which was directed by one of Balajee's asthana directors K.Vijayan, the other being Billa Krishnamoorthy.

A Commercial pot boiler, this catered to the target audience and distributors didn't burn their hands.

Poo Poovaa Poothirukku

Erich Segal's Man Woman and Child had attracted so many persons both in it's novel and movie forms and our directors were no exceptions. While Balu Mahendra adapted it as Olangal in Malayalam, Vendhanpatti Alagappan made Poo Poova ----.

Here Prabhu was a family man with kids and he having another relationship in another place and the resultant complications formed the story. Saritha was the wife and Amala acted as the other woman. Normally [and quite strangely] ladies have a fascination for such subjects and no wonder this movie also got the favourable response from them and did good business.

Prabhu as the man torn in between had done a neat job. Even his different look with the specs and the combed hair style gave a suave look to him.

Ivargal Varungaala Thoongal

Writer Director Venkat like Visu was one who came from the stage and it always used to reflect in his movies and IVT was no exception. Here he tried to deal socially relevant issues but the result was not to the liking to the people but it did decently in spite of having to compete with Nayagan and Manidhan.

Prabhu played an inspector role and Ambika was his pair. Raghuvaran also had an important role. The stage play writers who come to cinema would always try to show off their writing skills little realising that these dialogues would only be appreciated by urban middle class and it will not have any impact outside the city. One classic example is the scene in this movie is when a wayward girl student in the college is being advised by the professor [Jai Sankar?] to mend her ways. The girl obviously not in a listening mood wants to get away and says

சார், எனக்கு பீரியட்-க்கு டைம் ஆயிடுச்சு.

For which the professor replies

நீ பீரியட்ஸை மிஸ் பண்ணக் கூடாதுன்னுதாமா நானும் சொல்றேன்.

Anand

This was one movie that many were eagerly expecting. Sivaji Productions surprisingly started a fresh movie immediately after their previous one [Aruvadai Naal] celebrated 100 days.

They brought the rights of Telugu super hit Majnu which with Nagarjuna in lead was a runaway hit in Andhra. The old warhorse C.V.Rajendran was put in charge of the megaphone. Radha was the heroine. The telugu movie had liberally taken the scenes from Thalavattam [the Malayalam movie which would later be remade by Prabhu] and Tamil also had the same quota.

The songs were great with Lata Mangeshkar crooning for the melodious Aarraaro aarraaro. But somehow this Andhara meals was not suited to the taste of our audience and it ended up as an avaerage.

But Prabhu had put in a very good performance. Another notable feature was Cho after a very long time did a full fledged role in ths movie as Prabhu's father.

Muperum Deviyar

I don't have much of a recollect here except that it was a puranical film directed by K.Shankar amd had music by MSV.

It came at a very wrong time in the sense, it was in the middle of December 1987 and 10 days later Tamilnadu would see it's most charismatic leader pass away. And this film nothing much to boast about sank.

Regards

first let me introduce my self, i am kumareshan prabhu president Karnataka State prabhu fans in Bangalore. nobody can criticise my prabhu, you people know him only as an actor, he is a supreb human being, i call him as ahuman god
please donot crticise him please this is my humble request to you guys :) 8-) :D

Vaangga kumareshanprabhu. Welcome :)

thank you

please help me how to add image plese