''Aanazhagan'' is a 1995 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-language

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Thiagarajan Thiagarajan Sivanandam (born 21 June 1946) is an Indian actor, film director and film producer in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil, he has acted in several Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films. He is the father of Tamil actor Prashanth, son- ...

and produced by S. Balaji. The film stars

Prashanth Prashanth Thiagarajan (born 6 April 1973), known professionally as Prashanth, is an Indian actor, businessman, playback singer and film producer known for his works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, he has also appeared in f ...

, newcomer Suneha,

Vadivelu Kumaravadivel Natarajan (born 12 September 1960) known professionally as Vadivelu, is an Indian actor, comedian and occasional playback singer, having acted mainly in Tamil cinema. He has at least 290 credits to his name. He was a recipient of ...

Charle Velmurugan Thangasamy Manohar (born 6 March 1960), professionally credited as Charle, is an Indian actor who works in Tamil cinema. He has acted in more than 800 Tamil films as a comedian and supporting actor. He was named after the English co ...

, and

Chinni Jayanth Chinni Jayanth is an Indian film director, producer, comedian, actor and mimicry artist who has appeared in many main, character and supporting roles in Tamil films. He is also a popular television personality having hosted hit shows like ''S ...

, while

K. R. Vijaya Deivanayaki, better known by her stage name K. R. Vijaya, is an Indian actress who has featured in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films. She started her career in 1963 and has been acting for more than six decades in South Indian cinema. ...

Gandhimathi Gandhimathi (30 August 1940 – 9 September 2011) was an Indian stage and film actress. She acted in over 500 films. Early life Kanthimathi was born in Manamadurai in what was then the Ramanathapuram district of India. She started acting in ...

, and Vaishnavi play supporting roles. It is a remake of the Telugu film '' Chitram Bhalare Vichitram'' (1992), which itself is based on Sailesh Dey's Bengali play ''Joymakali Boarding''. The music was composed by

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, multi-instrumentalist, lyricist and playback singer popular for his works in Indian cinema, predominately in Tamil cinema, Tamil in addition ...

. In the film, Prashanth disguises himself as a woman in order to convince the landlady.

Plot

Raja, Sudhakar, Raghava and Marudhu are good friends who stay together as tenants at a rented house. After being thrown out, they start searching for a new house on rent, but no one is willing to give their house for bachelors. Finally, they come to know a landlady in search of a family as her tenants. A plot is hatched by, and all four bachelors dress up to be a family man (Sudhakar), his retarded brother (Raghava), his uncle (Marudhu), and his wife Lakshmi (Raja). Now, Raja's lady love Priya (Suneha) happens to be the landlady's daughter. At one point of time by mistake, the friends inform the landlady that Lakshmi is pregnant. The landlady arranges for Valaikaapu function, followed by a doctor checkup. This bursts into a series of rumbled conflicts, and all hell breaks loose.

Cast

Production

T. R. Rajendran was initially supposed to direct this film; since he fell down and got hit hard and he was in very busy schedule with four films, he was replaced by Thiagarajan. Prashanth appeared in drag role in ''Aanazhagan'' and noted the most daunting aspects of the role were the "waxing, the threading, the works" as well as "wearing a sari in summer, doing a bharatanatya sequence in a woman's costume, and getting the nuances and variations right were the other challenges", revealing his mother had assisted him. The actor was also involved in the production of the film. The voice for Prashanth's female character Rajalakshmi was given by the famous dubbing artiste Anuradha. The film became the first project to have scenes shot in the newly created JJ Studios in 1995.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

and lyrics were written by Vaali.

Release

The film performed average at the box office. Soon after the film's release, Thiagarajan and Prashanth began working on another project titled ''Padagotti Babu'', which eventually did not develop. Likewise, another production by his father during the period, ''Pulithevan'' co-starring

Manisha Koirala Manisha Koirala (; born 16 August 1970) is a Nepali people, Nepalese actress who works in Cinema of India, Indian films, predominantly in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil. Born to the politically prominent Koirala family, she is the daughter of ...

and

Sangita Sangita (Devanagari: , IAST: ), also spelled Samgita or Sangeeta, refers to "music and associated performance arts" in the Indian traditions. According to Guy Beck, the root "saṃ-" implies "combining, coming together, convergent wholesome ble ...

, was also stalled.

References

External links

* * {{Thiagarajan 1990s Indian films 1990s Tamil-language films 1995 comedy films 1995 films Cross-dressing in Indian films Films about landlords Films based on Joymakali Boarding by Sadan Sarkar Films directed by Thiagarajan Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Films with screenplays by Thiagarajan Indian comedy films Indian films based on plays Tamil remakes of Telugu films Tamil-language comedy films Tamil-language Indian films