Recommending "watchable" movies in IR's music - all languages.

#21 puthiya vArppugaL
(Thamizh, remade in other languages)

First movie of K Bagyaraj as hero.

3 fantastic songs and phenomenal BGM by IR power the movie. It was still 70's but IR had already established himself as the innovator. The "humming-based-theme-music" with terrific sounds had became his signature by this time! That love theme for the hero-heroine makes the initial scenes so pleasant to watch!

Of course the movie is 45 years old, should be viewed in the "classic watching mode" - meaning understanding the 70's TN village setting and not today's. Once that mindset is applied, this can even feel like a "refreshing" experience Actually, when the movie came out, people were stunned with all the novelties. With nice dialog by Bagyaraj, the humor is quite enjoyable!

For people who thought TF field imported Punjabi girls only in 90's, this movie should come as a correction - as BR brought Rathi back in 70's itself, who didn't know a single Thamizh word (and it shows in the ways of her lip movements for the songs )

Also, for even some IRF's it may be news that the other girl in the movie is Usha T Rajendar (or Simbu's mom) - one who acts as social worker.

As mentioned in the post for payaNangaL mudivadhillai, Goundamani was doing somewhat negative roles until R Sundarrajan clearly identified him as fantastic comedian!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiBi_XgHY2s

#22 poovE poochchooda vA
(Thamizh, remake from Malayalam 'nOkkeththA dhooraththu kaNNum nattu")

What a lovely, pleasant, fresh movie!

Fazil's 1st in Thamizh. Though this was a super hit in Malayalam earlier with a different MD - Jerry Amaldev - (1st for Nadhiya and it had Mohanlal as well), the director and the team picked Ilayaraja as MD for the Thamizh remake. If we dig in the threads of this forum, we can find Fazil's interview on his experiences with this film & IR.

Fantastic songs and phenomenal BGM made the lovely movie more memorable! And thus started a long journey for both Fazil and Nadhiya in the Thamizh film field, a spectacularly successful one.

What's more, it also brought back Padmini after a long break, in an interesting role. (I still recall the vividh bharathi advertisement for this movie during my college hostel days! )

No IRF should miss watching this, IMVSO!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BES-RLYVXJU

#23 nooRAvadhu nAL
(Thamizh, dubbed / remade in other languages)

While the movie was a "thazhuval" from western movies, the presentation / localization was quite impressive by director Manivannan.

Of course, "A" padam

BTW, while the movie had thrilling scenes, twists and turns that contributed to the massive success, one cannot deny the excellent role of BGM & how it created the impact for the thriller! IR was at his best here. Also, the songs (one of them remake of a hugely popular Kannada classic by IR himself) were quite enjoyable.

Another interesting role for Vijayakanth - quite different from what he was doing prior.

Enjoyed this movie thoroughly during college days - and despite the "kAdhula poo suththal" of a concept, it is quite interesting to watch even now - thanks to the presentation skills of the team!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWn4tx0aMpI

#24 sindhu bhairvi
(Thamizh, dubbed or remade in other languages)

Fantastic musical!  

Interestingly, it is not only classical music that it held high but the success was primarily due to elevating folk music in the eyes of  high society people

To this day, 'pAdaRiyEn padippaRiyEn' is held high among all TFM songs - at the same elevated pedestal as some of the acclaimed classical / semi-classical songs from various movies!

Not just that, a dappAnguththu song too found its deserved place in an album that had focus on classical music / life of a classical singer - and enjoyed immense popularity - 'thaNNiththotti thEdi vandha kannukkutty nAn' - and it served also to drive home some strong points related to lives of musicians

One of the best performances of Sivakumar - in his very long film career.  Suhasini was quite good and got awards and accolades. Sulakshana did a nice job as well!

First of the few movies that KB had IR as music director. He could not have asked for anything better, obviously!

Of course, there is also some nice comedy

Sample:

Wife of classical singer asks:
ஏங்க லதா மங்கேஷ்கருக்கு என்ன வயசிருக்கும்?
அவுங்களுக்குக் கல்யாணம் ஆயிருச்சா?

இந்த ஜடத்துக்கு வேறென்ன தெரியும்?

Singer:
இது ஜடமா?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVXAbNIcWJg

#25 mundhAnai mudichchu
(Thamizh - dubbed or remade in other languages)

Perhaps the biggest hit of director / actor Bagyaraj's career. At the time this movie came out and became a blockbuster, his act+direct kind of movies could be sold as much as Kamal / Rajini big budget movies. And this one was perhaps a record-setting BO hit at that time.

Urvashi's first movie and she definitely excelled. Both comedy / serious scenes had dramatic connect with audience. (They are still enjoyable). If one excludes the "fight" scenes (and some song scenes), the movie is thoroughly enjoyable even now. Of course, great songs and BGM. One should look for IR's great work with various kinds of drums in this album - it was a sheer delight with variety of rhythm instruments, with so much variations going on all the time. (All IRF's should pay close attention to a masAlA song like 'vA vA vAththiyArE vA' for the sheer variety of drum sounds and the way in which they keep changing. Phenomenal).

Unfortunate that this movie is remembered by later generations only for 'murungaikkAi' and not the other great cinematic / dramatic moments it has that are quite rare in TF history

In any case, definitely worth a watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY0zBfbMBro

#26 thooRal ninnu pOchchu
(Thamizh, dubbed / remade in other languages)

This album was IR's first big hit for a Bagyaraj directed movie.
(He did a couple others, inRu pOy nALai vA / vidiyum varai kAthiru - both average albums compared to TNP or MM).

Village musical with absolutely enjoyable comedy! KBR's dialogs and settings are definitely enjoyable when humor gets priority.  Phenomenal songs and lovely BGM for love scenes

If one discounts some of the "fight" scenes and the "En sOgakkathaiyakkELu" song scenes, it is an absolutely enjoyable movie. Especially the first half is hilarious and without parallels!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6TJpNNpj6E

#27 rAja pArvai
(Thamizh, dubbed into other languages)

With my first name having 4 N's,  I need to use the name of the heroine of this movie 4 times on phone each time I spell it out

Nancy

Well, what a lovely movie by Singeetham / Kamal combo (I think their first). Quite intelligent, treating viewers as sensible individuals with absolutely no-nonsense approach (except for some silly stuff by YGM here and there).

And, a terrific musical! Both songs and BGM (including that fantastic panthurvaraLi track) are awesome and evergreen.

While one can understand why it didn't have a huge BO success at the time of release (most movies with a blind person in the lead didn't have much success in TF anyways), it still baffles me that people chose to brand Madhavi as "ராசி இல்லாத நடிகை" due to the commercial outcome of this movie

That too despite the fact that she was the heroine for one of the biggest hits of Rajini, thillu mullu and also was part of the first Hindi hits of both Kamal & Rajini - Ek dujE kE liyE & andhA kAnoon.  The film field is a dangerous place!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CovKbuMbSwk

#28 thambikku entha ooru
(Thamizh)

It is funny that the same "ராசி இல்லாத நடிகை" got featured as the lead in the so-called "come back movie" of super star during 80's

Yes, there was a lean period for Rajini when some of his big budget movies didn't do as expected (though his fans were claiming that even those did reasonable commercial business, 25 day run is ok for his movie to become profitable, "யானை படுத்தாலும் குதிரை மட்டம்" etc.).

And that phase got over with the phenomenal success of this comedy movie. Though it had an irritable first 15 minutes, it took off much better after that. Also, the usual fight scenes and such nonsense are there to some degree. However, those are to be ignored or FF-ed in an otherwise  interesting & enjoyable movie.

Especially the "kAdhalin deepam onRu" song and the settings around it! Thoroughly enjoyable! (Also, the situation in which IR composed it  is now legendary).

Though this is in a lesser grade than most movies we have documented in this thread so far,  this is still in the "watchable" category and I got reminded thanks to the Madhavi connection and want to record it at this time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT16aaiOoSM

#29 malaiyur mambattiyAn
(Thamizh, dubbed / remade in other languages)

Got reminded of this trend setter from 80's when I saw the name of director Rajasekar in the thambikku entha ooru movie.

While he was extremely successful doing masAlAs later on (kAkki chattai, padikkAthavan, vikram), the movie that brought him to the limelight and made him so popular was this mambattiyAn.

While Thiagarajan could not act (facial muscles could not co-operate), this role called for no such histrionic talents and thus he passed off successful. Saritha was there to support / bring emotional angle, along with Ilayaraja and the brilliant screenplay made the movie a blockbuster. Based on its success, Thiagarajan became a star and there were many movies made with similar style later on (not sure if any one of those clicked in BO though  - kombEri mookan / karimEdu karuvAyan etc.)

Remake of this movie in Hindi had Rajini doing the lead role and it was a big success per my memory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XiYYmjV_hI

#30 AN pAvam
(Thamizh, dubbed / remade elsewhere, in multiple languages)

What a lovely comedy entertainer which had enough emotional quotient as well! Pandiarajan proved to be a perfect sishyan for his guru (Bagyaraj) is getting all the ingredients pucca!

IR blessed the movie with lovely songs as well as fantastic BGM!

Nice entertainer & evergreen  - even now the jokes work nicely :

பாட்டி :
பொண்ணு கருப்புத்தோலா வெள்ளத்தோலா ?

வி கே ஆர் :
புலித்தோலு  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnnMBmn__lo

#31 uNaroo
(Malayalam)

Watched this movie for the first time today and it has beautifully captured the 70's / 80's political landscape of Kerala, while nicely intertwining some beautiful human relationships.

It has also documented some complicated human nature, with beautiful backing of Ilayaraja score.

Of course, not a typical Maniratnam movie of later years - more influenced by the writer possibly and he probably didn't have a 100% say in the overall product - but he probably made sure that there were not much silly stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2u9KEQeI0o



Our friend Plum had written about this in the Malayalam film thread of the Indian Films section of this forum.

plum wrote:
Overall, quite worth a watch for Raja, Lal and though many of you may not be familiar with the Malayalam actors, trust me, these are solid actors who you will remember for a long time. And of course, if you are a Mani fan, you have to watch Mani shaping his raw craft with the help of the awesome Mallu script writers, Raja and the brilliant acting talent available in Kerala. You can see shades of how some of Mani's later films might have germinated here, and enjoy the early blooming of his flourishes.

Please read his detailed post, AFTER you watch the movie (as it has the complete story / scenes etc) :


https://ilayaraja.forumms.net/t36p50-malayalam-films-music-thread#3196

#32 mouna rAgam
(Thamizh, remade in other languages)

Perfect album - 2 SJ solos/ 2 SPB solos and one SJ-SPB duet! All fantastic songs and popular to this day!

Excellent BGM, with nice theme etc. The movie got best contribution from IR. Quite enjoyable storyline (some portions inspired by nenjathai kiLLAthE - but treated very differently and enjoyably).

Nice performances by the lead actors (Revathy / Mohan / Karthik).

Maniratnam got all his acts together in this fantastic movie - after some flashes of brilliance in his previous movies - this was perhaps the first "100% MR movie" with not many compromises

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMaHhaiBwMo



BTW, while the songs were top favorites when they arrived, I've  never watched this movie in theater.

Saw it only years later on DVD - but have seen it multiple times afterwards on TV / internet etc.

ரேவதி:
இதுக்கு மேலேயும் ஏதாவது சொல்ல விரும்புறீங்களா?

மோகன் :
எனக்கு உன்னைய ரொம்பப் பிடிச்சுருக்கு!

#33 nAyakan
(Thamizh - dubbed / remade in other languages)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVWgOMAVT08



This movie needs no introduction or commentary from an ordinary viewer like me - who was so moved by watching it when it came out and watched again in theater and elsewhere many times (though the violence is quite high and often makes me FF some of the scenes while watching on electronic media...)

One of the best by Manirathnam. Of course, one of the best performances of Kamal as well. Ilayaraja thoroughly enjoyed composing special BGM and songs for this film, without a doubt!


வாப்பா இது பாவம் இல்ல

நாலு பேருக்கு உதவும்னா எதுவுமே பாவம் இல்ல

Movie excelled in many other departments as well (award winning cinematography / nice art etc.)

#34 anjali
(Thamizh - dubbed / remade in other languages)

Career best performance of Revathy / Raghuvaran / Maniratnam & many others!

What a movie!

Each time I watch this, I weep in many scenes (minimum thoNdai adaikkal / kaNNeer & maximum more than that - out loud crying)!

And an inimitable score and set of songs by Maestro!

I get the same amount of emotions as the first time in a Palakkad theater in 1990, each time I watch this movie!

Fantastic / phenomenal / top among TF movies ever (despite those inspirations from Hollywood movies / some not-so-enjoyable visuals / technology shortcomings etc.)

I can keep writing and adding superlatives for this movie - hopefully most IRF's will agree with me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3CmswVqhPI

#35 apoorva sahOdharargaL
(Thamizh - dubbed / remade in other languages)

People often talk about "commercial movies" "box office" etc. paying little attention to class.

Here is one movie where no compromise on classiness while retaining all the masAlA elements of BO intact! (Including multiple villains / revenge formula etc. with the rare exception that there were 4 and not 3 as in most movies )

Of course, a musical - fantastic songs and phenomenal BGM (the appu theme is used in multiple formats in the new millennium by variety of TV programs / movies etc.  satire / sarcasm / meme whatever).

All 3 Kamal characters excelled with appu being exceptional! The Kamal-Singeetham combo created all kinds of magic with this movie and there was nothing stopping BO success across the country (people often talk about "pan-indian" stuff nowadays but this one did all that in the late 80's itself).

There seems to be no YT link for the movie (not even paid one).

However, there are other video links, like this one:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3lfc84

Someone calls this dubbed song "official Dancing anthem of Maharashtra" in the comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJiE6X4xF6I

#36 Michael madana kAma rAjan
(Thamizh, dubbed in Telugu)

Much has already been written about this film in forums over the years!

Though there are some portions that I'm not fond of (car-repair scene / climax length etc.) this is one of the "most-re-watched-movies" of all time for me

Some portions are so fantastic that they are memorized but still give me laughter each time I watch the film!

Brilliantly made - kudos to Singeetham / Kamal / the whole team!

IR gave memorable songs and enjoyable BGM.

pEr vachchAlum is one of the best picturized songs of all time in TF history!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVvNqjiOvmU

#37 karagAttakkAran
(Thamizh)

Though this is inspired from an earlier classic "thillAnA mOganAmbAL", the background / characterizations / presentation / comedy / dialogs and above all, music made this a very memorable film!

Gangai Amaran got them all right in this product as the director and he had the fantastic support of his elder brother in giving evergreen super hit songs and phenomenal background musical snippets (some of them are used in a variety of shows / here and there for decades).

The movie had the memorable comedy by Goundamani / Senthil combo that is legendary!

Multiple watches possible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmwF5UBy_PI

#38 pin nilAvu
(Malayalam)

Definition of an "average movie" by 80's MF standards.

Not a musical but has a couple of sweet songs (melodies of which also made into different other language movies by IR) & quite an average BGM.

However, I would like to add this to the list of movies in this thread for a couple of reasons.

1. Some interesting negative shades in the characters played by M & M who became extremely famous in the coming years in Malayalam (and other) field(s).
2. One of the best sequences in Indian movies that show the precious relationship between uncle (ammAvan / mother's brother) & niece. Quite rare and enjoyable!

Everyone plays his / her role(s) nicely (Madhu / Poornima / Mammootty / Srividhya / Mohanlal).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJcytqN8Jqg

#39 varusham 16
(Thamizh, remake of a Malayalam move by same director)

I've mentioned in many posts about this movie that I love the original Malayalam movie 'ennennum kaNNEttande' (music not by IR) more than this remake.

However, this had better music and songs, obviously! IR had made a fantastic album with evergreen songs for his special partner, Fazil!

The stupid "flash back" and "climax" possibly enabled the movie to be a super hit in Thamizh, while the original Malayalam movie was more sensible / sensitive to me personally (though not a big commercial hit).

However, the movie is evergreen and definitely watchable on its own merit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkedltUH8fE

#40 en bommukkutty ammAvukku
(Thamizh, remade from Malayalam)

அழு அழுன்னு அழாம இந்தப்படத்த என்னால் பார்க்க முடியாது.

என்றாலும், எத்தனை முறை பார்த்தாலும் அலுக்காத, மனநிறைவு தருகின்ற ஒரு சினிமா!

What a lovely movie - that IR (and his brothers) decided to remake in Thamizh!

As a bonus, they've also made it a fantastic musical (unlike the Malayalam original, that introduced "Baby" Shalini to the film world, who later became a seasoned actress, paired with top heroes in Thamizh / Malayalam before marrying Ajith / quitting cine field).

I can never sing the song "bommukkutty ammAvukku" without thoNdai adaikkal - such an emotional number that IR had crafted!

It's a proof that film field personnel are "kal nenjargaL" (otherwise how could have Yesudass sung that number beautifully, without any pisiRu - a normal human with flesh and blood can never sing it well, one has to have "paththar dhil" to do that!)

Phenomenal movie - the career best for Suhasini & Sathyaraj. The actress has done exceptionally well in almost all scenes, especially excelled in the climax!

Kudos to Fazil!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8lWtNp2HfE

#41 mahA nadhi
(Thamizh)

The film needs no intro. Very strong content and fantastic scenes that got elevated by BGM (& some songs).

I cannot watch many scenes again - so refrained from watching this movie a second time. However, the one time watch is enough to write about the greatness of the movie.

After watching 'yAthra' (Mal) only recently, I felt that the shock of some of the jail scenes of mahAnadhi would have been relatively less had I watched the Balu Mahendra movie back in 80's itself. (There were also some strong scenes in the Joshi movie New Delhi for Mammootty but those movies had different main theme).

Obviously the Kolkota scenes and the aftermath are too difficult to watch (though they are the "highlight" of this movie, unfortunately). That part and the associated main theme makes this an unique (first-time-I-think) movie / experience.

Whichever way one looks at it, tremendous movie. Kudos to Kamal / Santhanabharathi...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjaKrPc0K_o

#42 kOzhi koovudhu
(Thamizh

Musical, produced by IR's family and 1st directorial effort of GA.

There are portions dated but the movie had a number of interesting things that it can definitely be included in the "watchable" list. Especially for the settings around "EdhO mOgam" song and the variety of ways the BGM plays around the song's theme and movements!

Even for a poignant situation later on, the song gets played without change and it fits nicely - so, it's not just a romantic erotic number but can serve for a variety of movie situations! No wonder stalwarts like Paul Mauriat and R D Burman got mesmerized by this sweet classic!

One thing we need to contrast here between IR's & MSV's families (not just MSV's son but the industry in general) in dealing with Silk. She had generally been exploited badly - to the extent that she talked bad about mellisai mannar (committed suicide in the end, sadly). In contrast, pAvalar brothers had given her probably the rarest of "respectable roles" in their movies (alaigaL Oyvathillai & kOzhi koovudhu). The classic "poovE iLaiya poovE" has Silk in saree in the picturization, just imagine! (A song popular to this day, even gets plagiarized in big hits of the new millennium).

Viji's  debut - pAvam character, sadly, that way also in life

Well, "veerayyA veerayyA" was way ahead of its times in orch (and appreciated for that aspect by very few people like me  )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtPEO0SZGAU

#43 azhagi
(Thamizh)

பசிக்கலம்மா - இந்தச்சாப்பாடு எனக்கு வேண்டாம்!

கதறிக் கதறி அழ வைத்து விட்டான் அந்தச்சிறுவன்.

பாசமலர் என்றெல்லாம் பழங்காலத்தில் சொல்லுவார்களே - அந்த அளவுக்குச் சிறப்பான ஆனால் அதைவிட மிகமிக இயல்பான காவியம் தான் இந்த அழகி!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bay49pq6klg



One of the best ever movies of IR - in the sense how the songs got picturized! Thangar Bachan has to get a great award for just this aspect!

Phenomenal -  both songs and their picturizations! Of course, "un kuththamA" should get the 1st prize!

No IRF should miss this fantastic movie by "oLi Oviyar"

#44 sEthu
(Thamizh, possibly remade in other languages after its success)

The movie that made both Bala and Vikram big names to reckon with - in TF industry for years to come.

Of course, powered by extremely emotional couple of songs in IR's voice (engE sellum indhappAdhai and vArththai thavaRi vittAy) - the movie starts off like an average T Rajendar movie for almost an hour - not boring but mostly irritating - except some fun by Sivakumar and his wife character.

(One gets reminded of uyiruLLavarai ushA where the hero "threatens" to win the love of the girl )

Well, the last one hour is altogether a different movie - as good as ANY classic the world had seen (western movies or Mahendran / BM / BR / MR / Kamal kind of classics that defined TF in 70s/80s or the fantastic Malayalam movies of 80's featuring M & M, including the phenomenal ones such as kireedam etc. ).

We now know that the director is perhaps a sadist (going by the way he finishes his other popular movies that came after the first one - (nandhA / pithAmagan / nAn kadavuL / thArai thappattai - every one of them is too gory and extremely tragic to finish - the fellow has some strong emotional issues, may be even மனப்பிறழ்வு  or possibly substance abuse or whatever).

Well, he claims to have learnt the trade from Balu Mahendra (whom I personally rate as a child-abuser / maniac, despite all his fantastic talents and association with IR) - so, one need not be surprised that he lived / lives like this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u_4ZnNCSHY

#45 pithAmagan
(Thamizh)

Very violent movie (of course, "A" padam).

Those who've watched the prior 2 movies of the director would have by this time got some idea of what to expect in his movies thereafter, so should have been prepared for the horrors unfolding on-screen. (Those watching on electronic media definitely have the advantage of FF-ing scenes that they cannot stomach).

While keeping that part as one major (expected) negative, the other not so nice part of the movie is the length (more than 2 and 1/2 hours). They could have easily trimmed quite a bit to make it a lot better.

However, despite those two major negatives, this movie should be cataloged here as an important movie in the list of those that had IR as MD for multiple reasons.

- Very rare main character & the story around him (little bit inspired from the Jayakanthan short story that some of us had in +2 non-detailed text, "நந்தவனத்தில் ஓர் ஆண்டி"). Siththan is one of a kind in TF history!

- Unusual but very real other characters, many crafted based on விளிம்பு நிலை மக்கள் hitherto unseen on screen

- Superior standards of movie making techniques / acting etc. Judicious mix of dialogs and tons of scenes that do not need any dialog but powerful visuals

- iLangAththu veesuthE / piRaiyE picturizations and the chilling BGM overall

Altogether a very very rare movie indeed in Indian film history!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVM9rJbAnFQ