ராசா இசையமைத்த வணிக வெற்றிப்படங்கள் (கடந்த பதிப்பு: #41 விடியும் வரை காத்திரு)

"வணிக வெற்றி முக்கியமல்ல" என்று அறவே தள்ளிக்களையும் அளவுக்கு விவரங்கெட்டவர்கள் அல்லர் ராசா விசிறிகள்.

இசையின் உயர்வுக்கு முதலிடமும், இசையின் வெற்றிக்கு இரண்டாமிடமும் கொடுக்கும் அதே நேரத்தில் "பணம் செலவு செய்த மஞ்சப்பைக்காரர் நல்லா இருக்கணும்" என்ற நல்லெண்ணம் இல்லாத அக்கறையற்ற கும்பல் அல்ல ராசாவை ரசிப்பவர்கள்.

"ராசாவால் ஏழையாகி அவதிப்பட்டார்" என்று தமிழிலோ மற்ற மொழிகளிலோ யாரையும் பற்றி இதுவரை செய்தி படித்ததில்லை.

அதே நேரத்தில், வெறுமென அவரை மட்டும் நம்பி, திரையுலகுக்கு வந்து கரையேறினவர்கள் கதைகள் கேட்டிருக்கிறோம்.

இந்த இழையில் தயாரிப்பாளர் / விநியோகம் செய்தவர் / திரையிட்டவர்  போன்றோருக்கு நல்ல வருமானம் கொடுத்த படங்களை மட்டும் பட்டியலிடுவோம்.

வசூல் கணக்கெல்லாம் வேண்டாம், லாபமா என்று மட்டும்.

அல்லாமல், வேறு ஏதாவது சுவையான, அறியாத தகவல் இருந்தால் பகிரலாம்.

யூகங்கள் வேண்டாம்.

#1 annakkiLi (1976)
B&W movie made in small bud, Sivakumar-Sujatha both not mega stars but known faces, Devaraj-Mohan unknown directors, otherwise too very low profile movie.
 
Film almost had to leave the theater as per first week response. Then people heard the songs and it went on to create huge vasool / profits to the producer. More importantly, the success made rAsA famous and started off a flying career for him!

From his very first film, rAsA started the job of giving a major hand to the "thEr izhukkal"!

#2 badhrakALi (1976)
Another B&W Sivakumar film with new actress Rani Chandra (who died in air crash before movie got completed). Director ACT was a known name in 60's (anbE vA) but not particularly active in this time period. It was more of a hit-songs-propelled-victory for the movie at BO. (silver jubilee I think, with low bud production).

With two huge BO hits having rAsA music - right in his debut year, he made sure that big names / banners etc will start looking at him in the coming years...

I guess these two movies got remade / dubbed in Telugu also, don't know what happened to those ones @BO...

Air crash death eh? Didn't know. Watch this long time ago...I believe they featured her funeral or something...or was it another movie with another late actress?

groucho070 wrote:Air crash death eh? Didn't know.

Rani Chandra's wiki page says she was "Miss Kerala 1972" and acted in the famous movie "nellu" (Balu Mahendra's debut as cinematographer).

The wiki page also talks about the crash.

It is not that EVERY movie that rAsA did music were BO hits, in the early days too.

Though the songs were hits (possibly vinyls too got sold decently plus the producer got whatever royalty that radio stations used to pay those days - namely, र 1 per each broadcast ), there were always movies that failed at BO.

1976 had 2 such cases, which we'll just document here - pAlootti vaLartha kiLi & uRavAdum nenjam.

BTW, for this thread's purpose, we'll use the "MOVIE RELEASE DATE" and not the album release date.

#1976Done
#TwoBOhits

#3 deepam (1977)
This was possibly the first "big budget" movie that IR happened to work with. Mainly because it was a NT starrer (need I say more?)...Also, I see the producer as Balaji (rich enough in later years to get his daughter married to the MF icon Mohan Lal).

Also, seeing the Balaji / Vijayan (director) kind of names makes me think the movie to be a possible remake of some indhi hit movie of that time period. NT experts please confirm.

In any case, it was a huge commercial success.

Obviously not because of IR but he did a neat job with those poovizhil vAsalil & andhappuraththil oru maharANi songs (that are evergreen) and another couple of TMS numbers that were radio-hits those days, as in the case of many NT movies.

#4 Bhuvana oru kELvikkuRi (1977)

The movie of the evergreen 'vizhiyilE malarndhadhu' song! Per wiki , this was the first movie where Rajini had a major +ve role. (He was doing either very small roles or negative ones until this one got him moving in the other direction).

No need to say that the movie was a big hit and was possibly a turning point in Rajini's career.

Produced by Panju Arunachalam directed by SPM. Sivakumar did the negative role
(Fortunately, never seen this movie).

#5 16 VayadhinilE (1977)

Do we really need to talk about this movie (to establish that it was a commercial hit)?

All three actors who played major characters of this movie went on to become icons in Indian cinema. (Kamal, Sridevi, Rajini).

The director, Bharathiraja, too went on to make many successful movies / became a rich producer etc.

BTW, this was the movie in which rAsA started singing "title song"

Which has become a "cine field sentimenttu" during later years...so much so that, one song goes like this:

"படத்தில் முதல் பாடலைப் பாட வைத்து அது நல்ல ராசி என்றார்கள்"

I'm not sure about the BO success levels of the other movies that got released in 1977 - and don't want to throw in bogus claims.

In any case, most of them had one or more hit songs - some of which are popular even now!

Let me just list those movie names ; if someone has any BO info, they are welcome to share here.

-ALukkoru Asai
-avar enakkE sondham
-DurgA dEvi
-Gayathri
-kavikkuyil
-Odi viLaiyAdu thAththA
-peN jenmam
-sAyndhAdammA sAyndhAdu
-thuNai iruppAL meenAtchi

Will post tomorrow about some movies that made it big / huge in 1978 at BO...

app_engine wrote:Per wiki , this was the first movie where Rajini had a major +ve role. (He was doing either very small roles or negative ones until this one got him moving in the other direction).

Interesting! I remember in a weekly programme in RAJ TV about Rajini (in the late 90's),  K. Nadaraj (Rajini's close friend) mentioned that the movie was initially offered to A.C. thirulogachandar. He refused and said audience would not accept sivakumar as villan and Rajini as hero.

app_engine wrote:#4 Bhuvana oru kELvikkuRi (1977)

The movie of the evergreen 'vizhiyilE malarndhadhu' song! Per wiki , this was the first movie where Rajini had a major +ve role. (He was doing either very small roles or negative ones until this one got him moving in the other direction).

No need to say that the movie was a big hit and was possibly a turning point in Rajini's career.

Produced by Panju Arunachalam directed by SPM. Sivakumar did the negative role
(Fortunately, never seen this movie).

Maharishi yin kadhai.... kadhai paditha asaiyil.. IR music il kaeta. vizhiyilae malarndhadhu and poonthendralae nalla neram
paatukaga padam parka asai pattu padam parthen...

Chinna Nostalgia...... during my 9th std.. next day.. monthly test...... mudhal naal... 2nd show.. veetil ellarum ponanga.. nanum kuda ponen.. veetu vasalil. potta kallil.. kalai vittu vitten.. (street light kedaiyadhu ) . kaalil nalla suluku.. romba vali.. kashtathai sollavilai. valiyudanae theatre ku nadandhu ponen....... padamum parthen... kaal vali ipodhu adhigam agi vittadhu.
nanraga veengi ponadhu.......valiyudan parthen padathai.... kadhai.. Rajini.... IR's BGM (apadi ellam apodhu solla theriyadhu.
elllam rasithen........)

padathil.. Ponthendralae paatuku prelude irundhadhu. kashta pattu adhai manapadam seidhu konden...  veetil vandhu share seidhu kolla....
padam mudindhadhu. nadaka mudiyavillai... unmaiyai sollum padiyaga anadhu... ammavai kai pidithu kondu.. adi adiyaga kaal vaithu veedu vandhu serndhen........

ipadi kashta pattu partha padam.. idhai patri ipodhu ezhudhum neram.. ipodhum kaalil Sprain.... keezhae vizhundha vinai....
Ninathu konden......... indha padathai patri ezhudhum podhum.. ipadi endru.......  

Usha wrote: idhai patri ipodhu ezhudhum neram.. ipodhum kaalil Sprain.... keezhae vizhundha vinai....

விசித்திரம் தான்!

பாத்து, சூதானமா இருந்துக்குங்க!



Interesting nostalgia, nanRi for sharing akkA!

1978 seems to have a ton of huge hits / silver jubilee kinds!

Let me start with one by Bharathi Raja (I remember seeing 300th day advertisement in dinathanthi those days)...

#6 kizhakkE pOgum rayil (1978)
I haven't watched the movie during release or even during college days. Only a few years back had a chance to watch on DVD and wasn't very comfortable watching with family

Sudhakar / Radhika / poovarasam poo / mAnjOlaikkiLi dhAno...

rAsA definitely did some "propelled by music" thingy for the success of this movie!

#7 thyAgam (1978)

I kind of knew that this movie was a hit - just wanted to confirm and googled, only to land on pazhaiya veedu

Look at some of the comments there by HCNTFs:

Murali Srinivas sir :

வருடம் - 1978
1. இந்த வருடம் நடிகர் திலகத்திற்கு மீண்டும் ஒரு மிகப் பெரிய சாதனை வருடமாக மாறியது.
2. இந்த வருடம் வெளியான படங்கள் - 7
இதில் வெள்ளி விழா படங்கள் - 2
தியாகம்
...
...
வெள்ளி விழா கொண்டாடிய தியாகம் அந்த வருடத்தின் மிகப் பெரிய வெற்றிப்படமாக மாறி Highest grosser of the year என்ற பெருமையையும் பெற்றது.

Reply by one taccinema

I am yet to see what is so special with Thiyagam? Of course, it is a decent entertainer, but I always wonder why it had such a monster run. One of my cousins used to proudly claim that he saw this movie over 25 times during the first release itself. One thing I must admit that the movie has got beautiful songs, tuned by Illayaraja.

Then our groucho's comment :

Another great list of records, Murali-sar.

Tac, I am a fan of Thyagam. Yes, the music played a part. But its NTs role...something that many can relate to. Misunderstood individual...someone grounded, earthy, with ordinary vices, and lives an empty life rejected by the love of his life. I think many of fans can relate to that....we all have gone through that phase one, some more than once. Well narrated role...and the supporting cast were good too (comedy somehow misfired).

Finally, NT fan club head's post :

Raghavendra wrote:
Dear tac,
Thyagam was based on Uttam Kumar's Amanush. And after Deepam, K Vijayan proved his identity in remakes and Thyagam was one step further. The approach between CVRajendran and KVijayan in remakes were different. A very good businessman K. Balaji, brought in new comer Ilaiyaraaja from the film Deepam which proved he was right in his approach. In fact as I told somewhere else, if at all Ilaiyaraaja-TMS-Kannadasan combo had given more numbers it would have definitely taken TFM to great heights.
Raghavendran.

So, as I guessed correctly, that "deepam" was a remake and so was this thyAgam (once again by Balaji / Vijayan combo) and they reaped good harvest

'vasantha kAlakkOlangaL' is among my all-time-fav songs!

#8 iLamai oonjalAdukiRadhu (1978)

Another veLLi vizhAppadam. Of course, this was a Kamal-Rajini combo movie, handling "mukkONakkAdhal" that the director (Sridhar) was known for.

While the Sridhar name was quite big in the previous decade, he was kind of struggling in mid 70's if one reads about his financial dire straits situation with vaira nenjam and having to "change-camps" (from Sivaji to MGR) for money's sake and do urimaikkural.

This vaira nenjam reference is NOT to belittle Sridhar or somehow enhance the contribution of IR to the success of the movie.

Because, most people who lived in that time period were / are aware of the HUGE UNPRECEDENTED REACH of the album - that gave the movie such humongous success (much like 'hum kisi sE kum naheen' of indhi and such musicals) and also helped push the market value of Kamal / Rajini, up in the Y direction.

#9 Bhairavi (1978)
First movie for Rajini as hero. True to the "Rajini style", the producer of that movie is still regarded and respected by the star. This is one of the many places on web that one will find that relationship thingy :
http://m.vikatan.com/tiny/index.php?module=news&aid=5465

முதன்முதலா 'பைரவி' படத்தை தயாரிச்சேன், அதுக்கு படத்துக்கு பைனான்ஸ் உதவி செஞ்சவர், தேவர். ஒருநாள் 'ஏண்டா நீ தயாரிக்குற படத்துக்கு ஹீரோ யாருடா..?' என்று தேவர் கேட்டார்.

'ரஜினிகாந்த்...' என்றேன்.

' வில்லனா நடிக்கிற ஆளை ஹீரோவா போடுறியே. தப்பான முடிவா தெரியுது...'

' ரஜினியை 'ஆறு புஷ்பங்கள்' படத்துல பக்கத்துல இருந்து பார்த்தவன் நான்.. நீங்க வேணா பாருங்க, அவர் நிச்சயமா பெரிய நடிகரா ஜெயிப்பார்'னு அவர்கிட்டே சொன்னடோட நிற்கலை.. என்னோட முடிவுல இருந்தும் நான் மாறலை. 1978 ஜனவரி மாசம்  'பைரவி' படத்துக்கு பூஜை போட்டேன். தேவர் தலைமை தாங்க, சிவாஜி குத்துவிளக்கு ஏற்றினார். ஒருவழியா 'பைரவி' படம் ரிலீஸாச்சு.

முதல்நாள் மேட்னி ஷோ ராஜகுமாரி தியேட்டர்ல 'பைரவி'யை நானும் தேவரும் பார்த்தோம். வெள்ளித்திரையில ரஜினி காட்டுன விதவிதமான ஸ்டைலுக்கு, ஜனங்ககிட்டே இருந்து பயங்கர கைத்தட்டல். முக்கியமா ரஜினியும், பாம்பும் சேர்ந்து நடிக்கிற சீனுக்கு ஏகோபித்த வரவேற்பு.

அதன்பின், ரஜினியும் பாம்பும் சேர்ந்து நடிச்சா சென்டிமென்ட்டா படம் சக்ஸஸ். அப்புறமா வெளிவந்த 'தம்பிக்கு எந்த ஊரு' 'அண்ணாமலை' 'படையப்பா' இப்படி ஏகப்பட்ட உதாரணங்கள் இருக்கு.

That pAmbu thingy is

In any case, I didn't even know those days that it was IR's music (thought it was S-G). The TMS songs were patti-thotti hit. And so was the movie - it was very popular even in rural areas, much like MGR-Sivaji movies those days.

#10 sigappu rOjAkkaL (1978)

Another BR silver jubilee movie in the same year, with Kamal-Sridevi-KBR making significant contributions. Of course, IR's contribution to the success goes without saying. (BR tried the same movie in indhi with RDB and miserably failed - both in quality & result).

Ask ANY MD to do the variety of movies that we are listing for this one single year 1978, in their whole lifetime / career and succeed as IR! OPEN CHALLENGE!

Well, 1978 is still not done, more to come!

#11 sattam en kaiyil (1978)

masAlA directed by T N Balu. Supposedly the first "dual role" movie of Hero Kamal. (The kutti Kamal did dual role in pArththAl pasi theerum).

Another kosuru info - Sathyaraj debut film (as adiyAL).

100 days hit I think. As in the case of any masAlA movie, songs had to do their propeller job - sorgam madhuvilE / kadaiththEngAyO were patti-thotti hit songs.

#12 muLLum malarum (1978)

Director Mahendran's first. BM camera. Rajini / Shobha aNNan thangachchi.

The Kali character that Rajini played is so fondly remembered by many TF fans.

Likewise, many fondly remember the BGM that's classy! Songs are evergreen, of course!

Isn't this another case of 'rAsA singing title song'? (mAninamE) ...

Well, difficult to watch the initial few minutes (including the song) without kaN kalangal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRBZiCprjFY



Yes, the movie was a big BO hit as well

App, nice listing.

Regarding Badrakali, you had written:

Director ACT was a known name in 60's (anbE vA) but not particularly active in this time period.

I beg to differ. ACT was busy throughout the 70s, delivering some very good movies. Some of his 70s movies (up to the time of Badrakali) that I can recall off-hand:


1. Enga Mama- 1970
2. Engirundho vandhaal- 1970
3.Babu- 1971
4. Idho Endhan Deivam- 1972
5. Dharmam Enge- 1972
6. Sondham- 1973
7. Bharatha Vilas- 1973
8. Dheergasumangali-1974
9. Anbe Aaruyire-1975
10. Avanthaan Manithan-1975
11. Doctor Siva- 1975
12. Nee Indri Naan Illai- 1976

Yes, the songs were excellent and contributed to the film's success. Having said that, the engrossing off-beat story by Maharishi excellently adapted by Aroordas and brilliant performance by Ranichandra were also major factors. Further, the sympathy generated by her tragic demise was another factor that drove the crowds to the halls.

Rakesh, it was Shobha whose funeral was screened along with her award-winning Pasi.

Also App, it is unfortunate that you have not watched Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri. It ranks high in my list of favorite Rajini movies. Wonderful, wonderful performance!!
Excellently adapted story, lovely songs, the heartwarming twist in the climax....

Regarding Ilamai Oonjadalaadigirathu, it was more a rectangle than a triangle, with Jayachitra adding the 4th dimension.

Again, Sridhar was not in dire straits at all at the time, he had just delivered a box-office hit, albeit with MGR just the previous year- Meenava Nanban. He then embarked upon Ilamai Oonjaladugirathu with a youthful cast and went to IR for the score. The movie was a big hit, with great songs and spectacular performances by the 4 lead actors.

Thank you very much, Saravanan sir - for the corrections!

I went a little too over enthu in rAjA agenda for BhathrakALi & IO

Yes, I stand corrected!

Please continue to provide us such authentic information and enrich the discussions!