''Cheran Pandian'' is a 1991 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

action drama film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as ...

written and directed by

K. S. Ravikumar K. S. Ravikumar (born 30 May 1958) is an Indian film director, film producer, screenwriter and actor who primarily works in Tamil cinema and few Telugu films. He is one of the most commercially successful directors of Indian cinema. He has won m ...

, from a story by

Erode Soundar Erode Soundar (c. 1957 – 5 December 2020) was an Indian film writer and director, who primarily worked on Tamil language films. Career In the 1990s, Erode Soundar regularly collaborated with director K. S. Ravikumar on village action films i ...

. The film stars Vijayakumar,

Sarathkumar Ramanathan Sarathkumar (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician and former bodybuilder who works predominantly in Tamil cinema in addition to Telugu cinema, Telugu, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam, Kannada cinema, Kannada and Hindi cinema ...

Anand Babu Anand Babu is an Indian actor who is known for his works in Tamil films. He is the son of comedy actor Nagesh Nageshwaran Rao (born Cheyur Krishnarao Nageshwaran; (27 September 1933 – 31 January 2009) was an Indian actor and comedian mo ...

and

Sreeja Sreeja is an Indian actress who was active in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam films from 1989 to 1994. Her lead roles in ''Indrajaalam'' (1990) as Mohanlal's heroine and ''Cheriya Lokavum Valiya Manushyarum'' (1990) are well noted. She had acted o ...

. It was released on 31 May 1991, emerged a box office success and won several

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Governmen ...

. The film was remade in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

as '' Balarama Krishnulu'' (1992), and in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

in as '' Sautela'' (1999).

Plot

Manicheran Gounder or Periya Gounder is the rich head of the Muthupalayam village in

Coimbatore District Coimbatore District is one of the 38 districts in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. Coimbatore is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is one of the most industrialized districts and a major textile, industrial, commercial, educa ...

. He lives with his wife Paarvathi and daughter Vennila, and strictly adheres to the caste system. Rajapaandi Gounder or Chinna Gounder is Periya Gounder's half brother and also a rich landlord in the same village, and Parimalam is his sister. Since Rajapaandi's mother was from a suppressed caste, Periya Gounder stays aloof from him and always ignores and berates Rajapaandi and Parimalam. Manicheran had split his share of ancestral properties and went separate at age 18, when his father Bunglow Gounder married Rajapaandi's mother. Still Bunglow Gounder, before dying, had divided his entire self-earned property, including the house, equally between the two brothers, and they live on either side of the bungalow house, split by a wall in the middle. Yet, Periya Gounder's family gets first respect in the village and at the local temple, and he refuses to yield any privilege to Rajapaandi. Chandran, a first cousin of Rajapaandi through his maternal uncle, comes to meet and work under him in the village since his parents are dead, and he could not find a job in

Tirupur Tiruppur or Tirupur ( ), is a city and municipal corporation in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the banks of the Noyyal river in Western Tamil Nadu, it is the fourth largest city in the state. It is the administrative capital of T ...

. He falls in love with Vennila. Periya Gounder is furious when he learns of this and tries to get Vennila married to his brother-in-law, and after being rebuked by him, he makes arrangements for Vennila's marriage with a womanising thug, son of a devious village elder, since he belongs to his own, supposedly higher caste. After a serious turn of events, Periya Gounder has a change of heart with some heartfelt advice from Paarvathi, renounces his caste-centric mindset and accepts Rajapaandi as his equal sibling and Chandran and Vennila end up getting married.

Cast

Production

''Cheran Pandian'' is

's second film as director. Producer R. B. Choudary had previously stated he would finance Ravikumar's second directorial film, regardless of how well his first (''

Puriyaadha Pudhir ''Puriyaadha Puthir'' () is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language mystery thriller film written and directed by K. S. Ravikumar in his directorial debut. It is a remake of the 1989 Kannada film '' Tarka'' which was based on Agatha Christie's 1958 play, ...

'') performed at the box office.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Soundaryan, who also wrote the lyrics. Ravikumar rewrote the screenplay according to some of the songs after hearing them. The song "Kadhal Kaditham" is set in

Mohanam Mohanam is a raga in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an ''audava'' rāga (or ''owdava'' rāga, meaning pentatonic scale). It is usually described as a ''janya'' rāga of Harikamboji (28th Melakartha Raga). ...

raga.

Release and reception

''Cheran Pandian'' was released on 31 May 1991. C. R. K. of ''

Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...

'' appreciated the songs, but criticised their abundance. He also criticised Ravikumar's direction and writing. ''Cheran Pandian'' won the

for Special Prize for Best Film, Best Story Writer (

) and Best Sound Recording (Sampath). Vijayakumar won the Cinema Express Award for Best Character Actor.

References

External links

* * {{K. S. Ravikumar 1990s Indian films 1990s Tamil-language films 1991 action drama films 1991 films Films directed by K. S. Ravikumar Films scored by Soundaryan Films with screenplays by K. S. Ravikumar Indian action drama films Super Good Films films Tamil films remade in other languages Tamil-language action drama films Tamil-language Indian films