''Sankarlal'' is a 1981 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

-language action film, written, directed and produced by

T. N. Balu T. N. Balu (died 1981) was an Indian writer, director and producer who worked in Tamil cinema. He was active in the second half of the 1900s, and shared a close association with the former chief ministers of Tamil Nadu Karunanidhi. Film caree ...

. It stars

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali f ...

in dual lead roles as father and son. Balu died half-way during production, and the film was eventually completed with N. K. Viswanathan as director. The film was simultaneously shot in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

-language as ''Andagaadu'' () with Allu Rama Lingaiah and Rao Gopal Rao.

Plot

The film begins with an ordinary man Dharmalingam vacationing in Ooty with his family where he is framed for murder by a criminal Chelladurai. Dharmalingam is jailed while his wife, son Mohan and daughter Seetha all end up split from each other. After several years, the vengeful Dharmalingam returns to confront Chelladurai as the secretive Sankarlal and also desperately is on the lookout for his lost family. Chelladurai has meanwhile kidnapped a girl named Hema for ransom and Mohan is deputed by Hema's father to rescue her. This results in Dharmalingam and Mohan locking horns in their fight against their common enemy Chelladurai.

Cast

as Dharmalingam (Sankarlal) amodaram in Teluguand Mohan *

Sridevi Shree Amma Yanger Ayyappan (13 August 1963 – 24 February 2018), professionally credited with her stage name Sridevi, was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films. Cited as the "First Femal ...

as Hema *

Seema Seema may refer to: Films * ''Seema'' (1955 film), a Hindi film * ''Seema'' (1971 film), a Hindi film People * Lehlohonolo Seema (born 1980), football (soccer) player from Lesotho *Seema (actress) (born 1957), Indian film actress * Seema Aissen We ...

as Seetha/Baabi, Dharmalingam's daughter. *

P. R. Varalakshmi P. R. Varalakshmi is an Indian actress. She was active in movies during the 1970s and 1980s. She was a prominent lead actress during the 1980s in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu films. She has acted around 600 movies in all major south ...

as Dhanalakshmi, Dharmalingam's wife & Mohan's Mother. *

Suruli Rajan Suruli Rajan was a Tamil film comedian/character artiste. He was a recipient of Tamil Nadu State Government's Best Comedian Award for the year 1981–82. Biography Suruli Rajan was born in 1938 in Periyakulam, near Theni. His father ''Ponna ...

as Kanthasamy Pillai, Hema's father. **

Allu Rama Lingaiah Allu Ramalingaiah (1 October 1922 – 31 July 2004) was an Indian character actor, comedian, and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema. In 1990, He was honoured with the Padma Shri for his contribution to Indian cinema. In 1998, he re ...

as Hema's father (Telugu version). *

R. S. Manohar Rasipuram Subramaniyan Iyer Manohar was an Indian actor who performed roles ranging from hero to villain to comedic characters. He was born at Namakkal in 1925. He acted in over 200 films. He is known for his versatility and dominating personal ...

as Selladurai **

Rao Gopal Rao Raavu Gopala Rao (14 January 1937 – 13 August 1994) was an Indian actor and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. In a film career spanning more than twenty five years, Rao starred in over four hundred feature fil ...

(Telugu version) *

S. A. Ashokan S. A. Ashokan, born as Antony and often spelled Asokan, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema and theatre. He was popular mainly for playing negative roles but was also a successful character actor. Early life Ashokan was b ...

as Natarajan (Guest appearance) * V. Gopalakrishnan as Maari, Natarajan servant. *

Vennira Aadai Moorthy Vennira Aadai Moorthy (born 25 July 1936) is an Indian actor and comedian in Tamil cinema. He has starred in many Tamil films and television serials as a comedian and also played supporting roles. He is a lawyer by education, and holds a B.L. ...

as Hotel server (Guest appearance) * Hema * Baby Babeetha * Baby Vanthana

Production

Balu died half-way during production, and the film was eventually completed with Viswanathan as director.

Sripriya Sripriya is an Indian actress, film director and politician from Tamil Nadu. She has acted in over 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi languages. She has also directed films in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu languages, includi ...

was considered for the leading female role, before Sridevi was finalised.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one o ...

(only Elankiliyae) and

Gangai Amaran Gangai Amaran is an Indian music composer, singer, lyricist, writer, film director and actor in Tamil films. Personal life Gangai Amaran was born in Pannaipuram in Theni district, Tamil Nadu in December 1947, as the youngest son of Daniel R ...

. ;Tamil version

Reception

Nalini Sastry of ''

Kalki Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exis ...

'' praised the acting of Sridevi and Seema, Viswanathan's cinematography but felt the film lacks pace and Ilaiyaraaja and Gangai Amaran's music offers nothing new and concluded Kamal who is stepping up in recent times has taken rest in this film.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 0186821, Andagaadu 1981 action films 1980s multilingual films 1980s Tamil-language films 1980s Telugu-language films 1981 films Films scored by Gangai Amaran Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Indian action films Indian multilingual films