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

#46 kochu kochu santhOshangaL
(Malayalam)

Classic! Musical and with fantastic dance choreography!

It has enough dose of emotional moments - and interestingly, with no person who is malicious

Great combination of one of my favorite directors (Sathyan Anthikkad - whose movies, especially the fun / comedy part I loved and enjoyed) joining hands with IR, to create one all-time-great album and movie!

No IRF should miss watching this movie - lot of fun, emotion combined with music and dance!

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

#47 ente sooryaputhrikku / kaRpoora mullai
(Malayalam / Thamizh simultaneous)

Possibly the first Fazil Malayalam movie to have IR's music - though this had the simultaneous Thamizh release of the movie as well, with prominent TF artist Amala in the lead role. (That she had later married a Telugu hero and settled in Telugu dEsam is a different matter An Irish-Bengali girl who later spent a lot of time in Chennai to learn dance, became a star in Thamizh...quite a national artist!).

Well, it's a musical and has some nice emotional moments. However, the most interesting parts were those mischiefs by the college-girl character, which were quite novel for that time.

AlApanam / poonkAviyam - one of the greatest songs of IR ever!

Possibly the best movie of Amala (my room mate of 1990 was a big fan - being an artist himself, he did a fantastic pencil sketch of her and that is still vivid in my mind! Very talented artist who happened to share the screen with Kamal in one of the GOAT songs of TF, vaLaiyOsai kalakalakalavena)

ente sooryapputhrikku :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTZcdRNLAZg



kaRpoora mullai:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLxIktza-qY

#48 arangEtRa vELai
(Thanizh, remake of Malayalam "Ramji Rao speaking")

While this does not measure up to the standards of other Fazil movies that we've listed so far in this thread (may be comparable to varusham 16 but way below others), this should still be listed for some fantastic scenes / songs / BGM etc. Of course, far less funny / engaging than the original Malayalam movie "Ramji Rao speaking").

Revathy, as always, did very well in this film and so did VKR. Prabhu was tolerable (especially since there were no unnecessary stunt / macho scenes & he got presented somewhat normal).

Had they trimmed a bit and made it below 2 hours, this would have become a timeless classic - but still a tolerable one-time-watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6NhS7TrJZ8

#49 rettai vAl kuruvi
(Thamizh, possibly remade or dubbed in Telugu)

Another A padam by Balu Mahendra (possibly included some of his own personal experiences).

Fun movie, decent comedy. That is, though I watched this 35 years after release, it still made me laugh in many scenes

BTW, one has to watch in the "not current but old classic" mode. (The movie was made in a time when most people didn't even have phones, no email or internet etc. Those who are used to "sharing location / find my iPhone" etc. should switch to that mode to understand the movie )

Of course, even people of current gen can possibly recognize 'rAja rAja chOzhan nAn' song - the song being popular to this day (or 'kaNNan vanthu pAdukinRan') - that is the staying power of IR's music!

BTW, two things I noticed when watching the movie :

1. The title music is heavily inspired from 'alla figaro' of Paul Mauriat. It's almost like IR talking to PM and telling, "Hey, look at my variation of your track and how I did arrange like you"

2. The fun song 'sudhanthiraiththai vAngipputtOm' - not as much known as the other two super hits - has first pallavi line almost similar to 'pattaNam thAn pOgalAmadi pombaLa' (an old comedy song).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY6m5u3VMtA



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXUiYw0gRJE

#50 sathi leelAvathi
(Thamizh, remade in other languages)

Kamal had this not-so-nice habit of using old movie names  

BTW, sathi leelAvathi was the name of the first MGR movie (not sure what kind of role he played in it, not much known to the public about that movie anyways).

This is a fantastic comedy - one can watch portions of it a number of times and can laugh their heart out (Of course, adult subject, very similar to the 'rettai vAl kuruvi' in the last post, by the same director - but updated for 90's).

While the music is average (or below average by Ilayaraja standards, IMVSO), the movie is a worthy watch! Especially interesting is Kamal's role (also dialogs / being paired with a comedy actress Kovai Sarala etc.)

Big thumbs up to this movie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ufiOgCcyFs