''Maharasan'' is a 1993 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 ...
produced, directed and co-written by
G. N. Rangarajan. The film stars
Kamal Haasan
Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...
and
Bhanupriya
Bhanupriya (born Manga Bhanu; 15 January 1967) is an Indian actress and dancer. In a four decade old career, she has appeared in 155 feature films, predominantly in Telugu cinema, Telugu and Tamil cinema, Tamil, and a few in Malayalam cinema, M ...
, while
Ramesh Aravind
Ramesh Aravind (born 10 September 1964), known mononymously as Ramesh, is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter and television presenter. Ramesh has predominantly worked in Kannada and Tamil films along with a few Telugu and Hindi films.
He ...
,
Chandrasekhar,
Goundamani
Subramaniyan Karuppaiya (born 25 May 1939), known by his stage name Goundamani, is an Indian actor and comedian who works in Tamil cinema. He is known for his comic duo partnership in Tamil language, Tamil films with fellow actor Senthil. The p ...
,
Senthil
Senthil (born 23 March 1951) is an Indian comedy actor who works in Tamil cinema. He is famous for his comedian roles along with fellow actor Goundamani. The pair dominated the Tamil industry as comedians in the 1980s and 90s.[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 ...]
,
V. K. Ramasamy, Raghavi and
Vadivukkarasi
Vadivukkarasi is an Indian actress. She made her acting debut in the Tamil-language film ''Sigappu Rojakkal'' (1978) and has acted in more than 350 films in Tamil, Telugu language, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam and 40 television serials in Tamil ...
play supporting roles. It was released on 5 March 1993. Haasan acted in the film without any payment, to help his friend Rangarajan come out of his financial crisis. The film ran successfully in theatres, thereby becoming a profitable venture and helped Rangarajan recover from his earlier debts.
Plot
Vadivelu, a butcher, lives with his 16-year-old sister Rani in a slum. His neighbour Selvi is in love with Vadivelu and considers marrying him. Irritated with her first, he starts to like Selvi but he said he will only marry her if Rani gets married first but she is too young for marriage. However, Rani is in love with Ramesh and told Selvi. Selvi then disguise as a boy who is in love with Rani so that Ramesh could compete with the 'boy' Selvi to win Rani. Ramesh and Rani end up falling in love and Selvi revealed to Ramesh that she is a girl and that she wanted him and Rani to marry so that she can marry Vadivelu. However, Ramesh knows that his family would not accept their relationship because of their class difference.
Meanwhile, Ramesh's father Paramasivan and his driver Govindan encounter Selvi's father who is an alcoholic and broke his carriage where he irons shirt. This causes Vadivelu to get involved and have a dispute with Paramasivan. Paramasivan tries to amend their relationship with Vadivelu by bribing him to vote for Paramasivan in the election but Vadivelu revealed that he would do it only if they build bathrooms at their place. Paramasivan refuses and replace the concept with school so Vadivelu became petty and voted for Paramasivan's opposite party as he was bribed as well.
Things take a turn when Paramasivan's wife Vadivu keeps hinting that she cheated on him which Paramasivan keeps ignoring that till when he asked her in the car with Govindan, she revealed that one of their children is not his. This causes Govindan to crash and Vadivu fell out of the car and became comatose. Paramasivan desperately wants to know which child is not his biological son and whom his wife had an affair with, so he waits till his wife reaches out of the coma. He also asks Govidan not to tell everyone, which Govidan blackmails him in order to have a pay rise. Ramesh and Rani marry and he introduced his father to Rani which he does not accept as she is poor and locks Ramesh in his room. Selvi revealed to Vadivelu about Rani's marriage which enraged him that she did this behind his back. Rani revealed to Vadivelu that her in-laws do not accept her marriage. Vadivelu comes into Paramsivan's house and tries to convince him to accept his sister as his daughter-in-law. To everyone's surprise, Ramesh's older brother Sekar is revealed to be married and has a son who is also called Paramasivan. Sekar's father-in-law revealed everything to Paramasivan which he blurted out that either Sekar or Ramesh might not be his son. This causes the family to have debate and turn this into a competition to win their father's affection. Govindan suggested that which son cares about their father the most is definitely Paramasivan's biological son.
From having a fake genetic mole to feeding their father and taking care of Vadivu, things have failed. Sekar's father-in-law noticed that Paramasivan would give the will to his biological son, so he attempts to kill Paramasivan and put the blame on Ramesh for poisoning his father. That failed so he attempts to kill Vadivu because it would be more of the chance that she would reveal that Sekar is not Paramasivan's son. He got interrupted by Vadivelu who was praying for Vadivu and starts to fight him. Paramasivan caught him and Vadivu down the stairs that he sends him out. Vadivu regains her consciousness.
She finally reveals that their first child was a baby girl and she knew that Paramasivan would not accept a daughter otherwise he would leave her. So her father bribed one of the family in the delivery room who had a baby boy to swap babies. Hence it's revealed that Sekar (who was the eldest) is adopted. Vadivelu later comes to the realisation that Selvi is none other than Paramasivan and Vadivu's daughter because Selvi has the same pendant as Vadivu which she wore growing up. Sekar accepted that he was adopted and reconciled with Selvi's adopted father.
While they were doing a Pooja festival, Sekar's father-in-law disliked the fact that Sekar is adopted and wants the will for his family so he plants a bomb on each of the basket that the family was carrying. Vadivelu comes to realise and he saves the whole family. He learns that Sekar's father-in-law is behind this and fights him off.
The film ends with him Sekar's father-in-law being arrested and Vadivelu asking Paramasivan for Selvi's hand in marriage, which he accepts.
Cast
Production
Kamal Haasan worked again with director
G. N. Rangarajan for the fifth and last time after a twelve-year break following three previous collaborations in ''
Kalyanaraman'' (1979), ''
Ellam Inba Mayyam
''Ellam Inba Mayyam'' () is a 1981 Indian Tamil-language film directed by G. N. Rangarajan and written by Panchu Arunachalam. The film stars Kamal Haasan, Jaishankar, Suman, Madhavi and Surekha. It was released on 5 December 1981.
Plot
...
'' (1981), ''
Kadal Meengal
''Kadal Meengal'' () is a 1981 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by G. N. Rangarajan, starring Kamal Haasan, Sujatha, Nagesh and Swapna. It is a remake of the 1980 Malayalam film ''Meen'', and also draws inspiration from the Hindi fi ...
'' (1981) and ''
Meendum Kokila'' (1981). Haasan did this film only to bail out Rangarajan from financial problems.
He sported a
handlebar moustache
A handlebar moustache is a moustache with particularly lengthy and upwardly curved extremities. These moustache styles are named for their resemblance to the handlebars of a bicycle. It is also known as a spaghetti moustache, because of its ste ...
for his role. This was Rangarajan's final film as a director.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack 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 ...
and the lyrics were written by
Vaali. It was released under the label AVM Audio.
The movie was dubbed into Telugu as Rowdy Bullodu and lyrics were written by Vennelakanti
Reception
''Maharasan'' was released on 5 March 1993. Ayyappa Prasad of ''
The Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...
'' wrote that the film "has may entertaining portions and would do well commercially. Gopu Babu's dialogues are straight for the front-benches".
K. Vijiyan of ''
New Straits Times
The ''New Straits Times'' is an English-language newspaper published in Malaysia. It is Malaysia's oldest newspaper still in print (though not the first), having been founded as a local offshoot of Singapore-based ''The Straits Ti ...
'' wrote, "You are going to be disappointed if you go to see this movie expecting something excellent like ''
Devar Magan
''Thevar Magan'' ( or ) is a 1992 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by Bharathan, and written and produced by Kamal Haasan. It stars Sivaji Ganesan, Haasan, Revathi, Gautami and Nassar; with Kallapart Natarajan, Kaka Radhakrishna ...
''. Go and see it if you are a big fan of Kamal and in the mood for some light-hearted comedy."
R. P. R. 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 ...
'' praised Ilaiyaraaja's music and the humorous dialogues of Gopu-Babu but questioned why the makers needed Haasan for a role which is usually done by comedians.
Box office
As per Rangarajan's interview published in ''
Dina Thanthi
''Dina Thanthi'' (, ; known as Daily Thanthi in English) is a Tamil language daily newspaper. It was founded by S. P. Adithanar in Madurai in 1942. ''Dina Thanthi'' is India's largest daily printed in the Tamil language and the ninth largest ...
''s ''Varalaatru Chuvadugal'' (Thiraippada Varalaaru 951), ''Maharasan'' was a very profitable venture for him and helped him recover from his debts. Earlier, the director had mortgaged his property after the failure of his previous film. From the revenue earned through ''Maharasan'', he was able to pay off his debts and repurchase his home. In gratitude, Rangarajan named his house as "Kamal Illam".
References
External links
*
{{G. N. Rangarajan
1990s Indian films
1990s Tamil-language films
1993 comedy films
1993 films
Films directed by G. N. Rangarajan
Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja
Indian comedy films
Tamil-language Indian films