Vinyl ("LP" record) covers speak about IR (Pictures & Details) - Thamizh

Metti was mahendran's take on 'pride and prejudice'
with central theme of finding a suitable grooms for
girls of a family without a father figure. it is one of
those offbeat movies which you appreciated only when
a lesser director mauls the story years later.
The culprit happened to be rajeev menon.

A Karthik-Radha movie with the name 'kaNNE rAdhA'

Directed by Rama Narayanan - was probably his first movie with rAsA. (I think he did one more with rAsA, 'manaivi sollE mandhiram'. Being budget-conscious, he was otherwise regular with Shankar-Ganesh and other less expensive talents available).

EchO records trying to use newer pictures of rAsA

Another movie which is known for rAsA songs than anything else today.

manjaL nilA, starring Suresh & Ranjani. Well, not the mudhal mariyAdhai / Chithram Ranjani from Singapore.

This one is a Keralite. ( Well, her sister is more famous - Oorvashi (the thiruttu / thirippu sundhari) Another sister who acted in a couple of popular movies is "pushti" Kalpana (chinna veedu / sathileelAvathi) )

Another IR movie with "panneer pushpangaL" Suresh - 'maganE maganE'. (I don't know whether this got released at all ; don't even remember seeing any poster). A couple of sweet songs, however!

I love 'madhu malargaLE dhinam malarndhadhu' by MV/SJ !

As inippu as the madhu from malar!

I'm not familiar with this movie at all until the web era - kavidhai malar.

Never heard the songs prior to hearing them in thiraippAdal. From the vinyl it looks like Madhavi was the heroini...

The last one we have for this run of the year 1982:

nizhal thEdum nenjangaL!

Two songs used to be personal favourites those days - pookkaL sindhungaL & idhu kanavukaL - frequently heard on radio (& friend's player in the hostel). rAsA did some synth tricks and some scintillating stuff in the 'pookkaL sindhungaL' song. (The sandham arrangement is quite similar for IR's nAn thAn toppu meedhiyellAm dooppu that came in the same year for thanikkAttu rAjA & ARR's 'mAyA machcheendrA machcham pAkka vandheerA').

Well, here are the vinyl pics...the back cover has a fancy rAsA pic

Magane magane cover - is that Karate mani with kOdAli?

groucho070 wrote:Magane magane cover - is that Karate mani with kOdAli?

Looks like that, but the movie's wiki pages talk about Srikanth (and no mention of the black belt)...

I think Karate Mani was a real life Police officer before his indulgence into TF...

This news that talks about his son becoming an actor calls him "late" Is he no more?

Moving on to 1983 albums...

Anandhakkummi was produced by IR directly (and not under "Pavalar Creations" that had his brother RD Baskar as the producer).

Excellent album, Bombay recording for great sound quality (thAmaraikkodi plays in my mind as I write this)! Except the dappAnguththus (machchAn mAttikkittAru & aNNanmArE thambimArE) all songs written by "Kavingar" Vairamuthu. This is perhaps the first cover that I see with that adaimozhi / title.

Obviously a huge IR pic on the back...that's all the thripthi he could get as the film was a BO disaster!

The film that got advertised as IR's 200th film

Ayiram nilavE vA (by pErAsiriyar A S Prakasam) starring Karthik & Sulakshana...

Few nice songs there...(PS has a sweet gangai ARRil)

This 1983 deepavaLi is a famous one for IR - he had movies starring all the three top stars (Sivaji / Kamal / Rajini) and all had great songs, hit songs, movies hit etc! Not many MDs have done it afterwards! (It's very much possible that MSV / KVM had similar successes in the past but none seemed to have that kind of a stronghold after IR!) It calls for both market leadership AND prolificity which none has today. Moreover, it's impossible to find the kind of variety that IR provided in one single day's release with many MDs in their whole career!

Enough of my IR-purANam Now, the pics - first NT movie (double acttu...with Prabhu, Ambika, Radha as well).

veLLai rOjA (sOlaippoovil mAlaiththenRal / O mAnE mAnE mAnE / dEvanin kOyililE / nagooru pakkaththula)

Looks like both the nicer songs (SPB-SJ duets) got penned by veterans (Muthulingam / nA Kamarasan)...

Kamal's thoongAthE thambi thoongAthE was a dual role movie too (with Sulakshana and Radha romancing with each). AVM decided to have Vali write all the songs as in the case of their prior year success SKV. Success, yes, but not SKV proportions!

'vAnam keezhE vandhAl enna' is the magnum opus track...varudhu varudhu is rocking too! 'nAnAga nAnillai thAyE' is evergreen

thangamagan - Rajinikanth Poornima movie.

The lyricists' list is quite interesting here...

rAththiriyil pooththirukkum : Pulamaippiththan (experience writing for MGR)

machchAnappAradee : VM (typical GA-style song, proves VM is quite versatile)

vA vA pakkam vA : Muthulingam

poomAlai : Valee

adukku malligai : nA Kamarasan (must be the A Jagannathan connection / Sathya movies / MGR influence etc)

Three more Rajini biggies with IR music came out this year (though songs were great in all of them, unfortunately, none of the movies earned good name...possibly commercial successes but not remembered favourably anymore)!

agara varisaippadi, first comes aduththa vArisu (Asai nooRu vagai, pEsakkoodAthu, kAviriyE kavikkuyilE, vAzhga rANi, vA rAsA vandhu pAru)...

The next one is pAyum puli (Rajini with Radha)

AVM production with the Appakkada annakkiLi / poththukkittu ooththudhadi vAnam / Adi mAsa kAththadikka songs...

Then there was this kavidhAlayam produced 'pudhukkavidhai' (vA vA vasanthamE & veLLaippuRA onRu)

The heroine was Jothi (introduced by T Rajendar I think)...they made a big issue of karuppukkalar of Rajini in this movie IIRC (karuppukkannam thottu ittukkoL neRRippottu...)

It was possibly an unwritten rule those days that if KB directed a movie, Saritha must be the heroine if possible. If not, she has to at least act in an important role! And, if he produced one, she should at least act in some role in that too...(so, she is in pudhukkavidhai).

I think this continued right from thappuththALangaL / marO charithrA time period until Suhasini broke it in Sindhubhairavi...(no Saritha in thillumullu but her sister acts in that)

Karate mani passed away? The article did say "late".

The cassette cover of Toonggathe Thambi Toonggathe (the one that made me a Kamal fan back then) was totally different. And that kimono Kamal is wearing, I recall an interview by Suhasini, saying that she once went to meet him, bringing her college friends and he appeared in that short kimono, was very embarassed.

groucho070 wrote:Karate mani passed away? The article did say "late".

Me too expressed the same doubttu...unfortunately, not much web resources on this person to check and confirm

One of the finest albums crafted by IR - sAgara sangamam in Telugu - got a TF version called 'salangai oli'

Kamal - Jayapradha - Sarathbabu - SP Shailaja - Dance...

Many of BR's assistants made it big in TF. (KBR the best example - not only as director but also as hero / writer etc).

Manivannan was one among them. IIRC, he wrote kadhai vasanam for nizhalgaL (BR's first big flop). With that, he possibly had to exit BR's koodAram and fend for himself.

Well, he made his mark within a short time - by a moderately successful 'gOpurangaL sAyvathillai', his first directorial venture. Suhaisini's arukkANi role, with that thEL kodukku pinnal, got decent media attention. Mohan-Radha acted in that too.

IR's songs were decent hits (2 songs by Krishna Chandar)

It was big time for Kovai area fellows at TF then. The prior year saw Kovaiththambi / R Sundarrjan combo succeed with payaNangaL mudivadhillai, while KBR was on a roll.

Now Manivannan.

When Motherland pictures launched their second project, iLamaikkAlangaL, IR gave them laddoos. (I kept posting every now and then that R Sundarrajan was possibly the director when songs got composed and then ran away. The same had also been mentioned in a blog by a KH fan...world movies fan or something like that).

Either way, this disk cover does not mention any director, while listing a bunch of Kovai area film personalities, like Sirumugai Ravi etc. It was after the songs becoming huge hits that Manivannan was brought in, to build a story around it and release as a movie. And the movie was a moderate hit...

Another significant album of the year 1983 - the second one after alaigaL Oyvathillai for the 'pAvalar brothers' production - kOzhi koovuthu!

This one was the directorial debut for Gangai Amaran - and the movie was a big success.

The music album was a greater success. R D Burman reportedly told that IR was 10 years ahead of others, after hearing kOzhi koovuthu. IR himself showcased the EdhO mOgam song to Paul Mauriat during their meeting (which was greatly appreciated by PM as per reports).

Viji was an intro in that film - she went on to do many movies in quick succession. Unfortunately, after a few years, she reportedly became disabled due to some error during a medical procedure...not sure what's her present condition is

Silukku acted as Prabhu's jOdi...

Because the kOzhi koovuthu song 'aNNE aNNE' was such a big hit, TF fellows immediately launched a movie 'aNNE aNNE' and released it shortly. Mouli was the director. His prior movies had Shyam as MD but he managed to work with IR for this movie.

Karthik & "sangarAbharaNam" Rajalakshmi in a movie named "Bagavathipuram Railway Gate"...

Bharathi-Vasu continued as pair after the success of panneer pushpangaL. BR produced one of the movies directed by them and it was Banupriya's debut (in TF).

mellappEsungaL - the movie with that sweet 'sevvanthippookkaLil seydha veedu' song!