The Golden Era of Dr.IR and Dr.SPB

[genesis]

#317 ராத்திரி நேரத்தில்
(அஞ்சலி, 1990 )

"Kattukkulle" from "Idhayaththai Thirudadhe" (Geetanjali in Telugu) sounds very similar to this song... Well both are MR/IR movies.

After Nayagan and Agni Natchaththiram I had become devoted MR fan... I bought cassette in the first week of release, watched the movie at the first available chance. Anjali was one good movie by MR - He was really good till Alai Payudhe and Kannaththil Muththamittal. Everything started going south after his first Tamil-Hindi venture Yuva.

Shamili became an instant star after this movie. Some "C" center directors milked her popularity by casting her as the main star. (There was one movie by Ramanarayan featuring Shamili, where a friendly snake knew typing... we in college used joke in the next movie the snake would have passed "Higher" and type faster)

[groucho070]

He & his kids had dark features (perhaps that was the reason for his love for coal / steam engine).

enna logic ithu. They are still in KL?

[app_engine]

enna logic ithu. They are still in KL?

adhu chchummAnga

Yes, they're in KL (Shoranur)

[V_S]

Yes, App, Anjali is a trendsetter that time. Never heard anything like that. When we bought the casette, we were totally surprised by the quality in singing with just kids and as you mentioned the new electronic sounds and orchestration. Still those songs are fresh like a morning dew. MR's image as director went leaps and bounds after Nayagan and AN. With lot of expectations, we went to the movie. Even though this one was not like his earlier three movies, still it was a multiple-watch for me and my friends, mainly for the songs, Prabhu and VKR. I can't watch this movie hereafter, thanks to some overacting by kids and Revathi, two word typical dialogues and even the film looked bland now, having watched it recently.

[PARAMASHIVAN]

Raghuvaran was awesome in the movie so was the kid ! This is the Film in which SPB strained his voice and had to undergo throat operation, which opened the door for (you know who) !

[app_engine]

MR's image as director went leaps and bounds after Nayagan and AN. With lot of expectations, we went to the movie. Even though this one was not like his earlier three movies, still it was a multiple-watch for me and my friends, mainly for the songs, Prabhu and VKR.

Like I mentioned before somewhere in the hub, I haven't watched AN until recently and I couldn't stand that movie Song scenes are a torture, comedy big irritant and the otherwise story too just about average and the climax a big masAlA comedy...

Still, AN is the ALL_TIME_TOP album for any MR movie, closely followed by AP / TT (both by ARR) and then Anjali.

As a movie, Anjali is still very close to me Possibly the best of MR, IMO (though I don't like the 'rAthiri nEraththil' song on screen and similar comedy graphics here and there in that movie...the E.T. imitation in vEgham vEgham for e.g....interestingly, Shankar did very similar cheap grafix in chikku bukku rayilu a couple of years later and got so much praise as India's Spielberg )

...mounarAgam & nAyakan come very close, the later because of the awesome KH (I'm not weak-hearted but not a big fan of violence / blood on-screen)...

thaLabathi comes next, again thanks to awesome Rajini.

(BTW, pagal nilavu forgotten, idhayakkOil never seen, idhayaththai thirudAthE not worth discussion)

I've watched only AP & Bombay among MR's non-IR works...loved AP, absolutely irritated with Mumbai...

The lovable ones of MR are simply too high above the output of most directors of TF -close to Mahendran levels- but he has his share of irritable ones as well.

All said, he is one awesome (possibly the best) talent in extracting stuff from both IR & ARR

If anything, I'd be extraordinarily thrilled if IR gets to work with MR again, even if for a non-commerical project

[San_K]

Raghuvaran was awesome in the movie so was the kid ! This is the Film in which SPB strained his voice and had to undergo throat operation, which opened the door for (you know who) !

appO intha auto-tune kanravi ellam illa pola

[app_engine]

I was criticizing the portrayal of kids in Anjali when arrived (too-smart-to-be-real). However, that was based on my-childhood-level-understanding and not the current situation.

I've taken a 180 deg shift on that opinion, after raising two kids

[PARAMASHIVAN]

App anna

I thought Mouna Ragam would have been your best MR movie,

Mr Chandr mouli - vOnly Karthik Possible

[PARAMASHIVAN]

appO intha auto-tune kanravi ellam illa pola

Ileeng, appo apadi oru kanraviyum illa, SPB was hospitalised for months and was not able to sing for a very long time, this is where Mano picked up