By Srinivasan Sundar

Quentin Tarantino is unabashedly vital of the Hollywood of the eighties (‘..f*ing wasteland of a decade..’, Cinema Hypothesis). Kollywood was no much less. Although the last decade was so very central to the historical past of Tamil cinema – meteoric rise of the Celebrity, peaking of geniuses like Bharathiraja and Ilayaraja, finish days of masters like Ok.Balachander and BaluMahendra, the Mani Ratnam phenomenon and extra simply occurred in these ten years – the predominant output was mass masala movies that centred across the theme of private revenge. Generally, males avenging a homicide or a rape or typically each. Manufacturing values had been non-existent as the identical duplex bungalow with inside white stairways was omnipresent; Make-up meant giving a vibrant white coat on the face and purple lipstick; Stunt scenes had been entertaining however foolish;The movies believed within the 5-song-5-fight format. All of them had a contented ending.Nicely, one may argue that a few of these markers may very well be used for the Tamil cinema of the brand new millennium too. However that could be a story for another day. Right here is my prime recall as I reminisce of the Kollywood of the eighties.

Guru Sishyan (1988, directed by S.P.Muthuraman)-Evidently a two-hero package deal, with Prabhu having a near-equal display screen presence with Rajinikanth, this pucca industrial movie comes with an additional enjoyable dose of comedy. With a stable line-up that features the likes of Cho, Vinu Chakravarthy, Manorama and Radha Ravi, Guru Shishyan is Gautami’s Tamil debut. Humourous tackle the way in which English is spoken by frequent males who shouldn’t have grounding in English grammar is a assure hit materials in Kollywood even to today. Critically-acclaimed Vetrimaran too had used it with Dhanush to an excellent outcome. Simply, Rajinikanth’s antics with the language on this movie comes on the prime of the‘English comedy in Tamil movies’ class. The episode of ABC officers conducting a raid remains to be fulfilling with all three lead actors delivering laughs so naturally.Being in a jail was such a cool factor within the pre-Mahanadi days, and sticking to the norms Guru Shisyan too has a pleasant, political and humorous track set inside a jail. Broadly, the songs of the movie are satisfactory. The movie is a remake of a Hindi movie; and the title of the movie was reused in a 2010 movie that introduced disrespect to the legacy of the unique. Yesskis me!

My Pricey Kuttichathan (3D, 1984, JijoPunnoose) – Kuttichathan continues to be a landmark movie within the historical past of Indian cinema. What’s so good in regards to the movie is that regardless that there was such an pleasure across the movie, being the primary 3D movie of India, the makers didn’t take the viewers without any consideration; they made a genuinely good movie with an added leisure of 3D viewing. The movie was not simply an association of breathtaking 3D expertise that relegated cinema to the background. It was cinema first, expertise subsequent. Whereas the film had a whole lot of enjoyable half for youths like a purple cherry from an ice-cream cone popping onto your face, balloons flying all around the cinema corridor and a very made track with youngsters strolling up the aspect partitions and ceilings just like the Spiderman, there have been additionally equally terrifying moments that gave you shudders. Each the songs of the film are stunning. Kuttichathan was a movie with a deep emotional join. It labored nicely along with your coronary heart as nicely mind.

Punnagai Mannan (1986, Ok.Balachander) – This can be a basic. An ultra-tragedy. One of many final gems of the legendary KB who had by then accomplished twenty years as a filmmaker. A tail-end masterpiece of the KB-Ilayaraja inventive powerhouse. A two heroine (or is it three?) the movie is about dropping love and discovering it once more; and dropping all of it. The movie preserves a streak of the director’s personal Ek Duuje Ke Liye, once more starring Kamal. Surprisingly this appears to be the one movie of KB, who made practically 100 movies as a director/author, that includes a double function; Kamalas Chaplin Chellappa eased up the in any other case a coronary heart wrenching movie. Kamal went on to do extra iconic one+ function movies within the following years, Apoorva Sagodharargal (3 roles)and Michael Madana Kama Rajan, (4 roles);He appears to have finished with indulging (Dasavathaaram, 9 roles).And the way can one overlook the Punnagai Mannan theme music!

Poovizhi Vasalile(1987, Fazil)– This movie offers a chill down the backbone even to today. Set in an evergreen premise – a protagonist with no objective getting a random likelihood to redeem himself – Poovizhi Vasalile is among the many greatest thrillers of Tamil cinema. With extraordinary performances by Sathyaraj, Sujitha (performing as a boy with listening to and speech disabilities) and Raghuvaran (he was turning into a pressure to reckon with), the film has nice cinematic moments. Ilayaraja’s background rating of the movie can function a guiding lesson to composing music for a thriller; it additionally has two stunning songs by Ok.J. Yesudas.  Poovizhi Vasalile is a remake of Fazil’s personal Malayalam movie and the director went on to remake extra of his Malayalam movies into Tamil with tremendous success.

Puthiya Vaanam (1988, R.V.Udhayakumar) – I had watched this movie a number of instances in theatre and all I bear in mind about that is – within the climax Sathyaraj, carrying a black interior banian and standing in an open Gypsy, with some type of a machine gun spluttering continuous, offers severe insecurities to even John Wick in a killing contest. This is likely one of the early cop movies of Sathyaraj who by then was establishing himself as a hero materials. He was already a roaring success as an indomitable villain, enjoying reverse to the best stars of the day like Rajinikanth (Mr.Bharath) and Kamal Haasan (Vikram). Identical to in his earlier outing Jallikattu, in Puthiya Vaanam too Sathyaraj teamed up with Sivaji Ganesan. This was the time when Sivaji had began doing supporting roles to the highest hero of the day (Padikkadavan, 1985; Viduthalai, 1986) and stopped enjoying the lead roles. Apparently, within the movie Sathyaraj performs a personality MGR. Puthiya Vaanam is the second movie of director R.V. Udhayakumar and it’s distinctly totally different from his different profitable works that typically contain delight and honour in a rural setting. Puthiya Vaanam is a Hindi movie remake.

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