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Manithan (1987 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Manithan' is a 1987 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by S. P. Muthuraman, starring Rajinikanth, Rupini and Raghuvaran, with Senthil, Delhi Ganesh and Srividya. It was released 21 October 1987, and emerged a silver jubilee hit.
Plot
The story revolves around Raja, who grows up in juvenile detention due to hitting his teacher by a table weight for falsely calling him a thief due to the only reason he was born on a No Moon Day. He was born to a superstitious father who believes that a person born on a New Moon Day will surely turn criminal. When his imprisonment years are over, he joins People Welfare Organization in a local community and helps the needy people. In due course, he gets enemies due to his good deeds. The rest of the story forms on how Raja succeeds over his enemies and disproves the false claims on him and the superstitions and prejudice that surrounded him.
Cast
* Rajinikanth as Raja
* Rupini as Ruba
* Raghuvaran as Kumaravelu
* Srividya as Lakshmi, Raja's elder sister
* Jai Ganesh as Sridhar
* Madhuri as Indra
* Vinu Chakravarthy as Rathnavelu
* Cho Ramaswamy as Ponnambalam
* Senthil as Arivu
*G. Srinivasan as Chinnaya
* Delhi Ganesh as Marimuthu
Production
V. C. Guhanathan developed a story named 'Amavasayil Pirandha Oruvanin Kadhai', which Panchu Arunachalam developed into a screenplay. With Rajinikanth cast in the lead role, AVM titled the film 'Manithan' as they felt Rajinikanth was a fantastic man. Distributors objected to the title as there was previously a play of the same name staged by TKS Brothers, but AVM refused to change the title of their film. Rupini accepted to star in 'Manithan' after another film she was doing, 'Sir I Love You', was shelved.
Soundtrack
The music was composed by Chandrabose. Lyrics for this film were written by Vairamuthu.
Release and reception
'Manithan' was released 21 October 1987, Diwali day. Despite facing competition from 'Nayakan', released on the same day, it emerged more successful, and a silver jubilee hit. N. Krishnaswamy of 'The Indian Express' wrote, "It is a no-holds-barred commercial film, but the formula works." Jayamanmadhan of 'Kalki', however, reviewed the film more negatively for being too formulaic.
Legacy
'Manithan' was screened alongside other films of Rajinikanth like 'Murattu Kaalai', 'Pokkiri Raja', 'Paayum Puli' at Albert theatre, on the occasion of his birthday on 12 December 2012. The film's title inspired that of a 2016 film.
References
Bibliography
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