''Guru Paarvai'' is a 1998 Indian

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

written and directed by

Manoj Kumar Harikrishan Goswami (born 24 July 1937), better known by his screen name Manoj Kumar, is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, lyricist and editor who worked in Hindi cinema. He is known for acting and making films with patriotic theme ...

, who earlier directed '' Vandicholai Chinnarasu'' starring

Sathyaraj Rangaraj Subbiah (born 3 October 1954), professionally known as Sathyaraj, is an Indian actor, producer, director and a media personality who has predominantly appeares in Tamil cinema and Telugu cinema, Telugu Cinema. His 240 films also includ ...

. The film stars

Prakash Raj Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, and Malayalam-language films, he is the recipient of several ...

Khushbu Khushbu Sundar (born Nakhat Khan; 29 September 1970) is an Indian actress, politician, film producer and television presenter. She is known for her works predominantly in Tamil, besides Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada films. She is a rec ...

and

Anju Aravind Anju Aravind is an Indian actress who has acted in Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada films. In early 2000's she shifted her focus to Malayalam TV serials and shows. Personal life Anju Aravind is born to Aravindan and Kanchana on 23 July 1978. Sh ...

, while

Thalaivasal Vijay Thalaivasal Vijay is an Indian actor and dubbing artist. He was born on 4 August 1962 in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India. He has acted predominantly in numerous Tamil and Malayalam films. Career Vijay's debut film was '' Thalaivaasal'' (1992), ...

Manivannan S. Manivannan Rajagopal (31 July 1953 – 15 June 2013), better known by his mononym Manivannan, was an Indian film director, actor and activist who worked mainly in Tamil cinema and also worked in a few Telugu & Malayalam films. In a care ...

Easwari Rao Easwari Rao is an Indian actress who has worked in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada cinema. She played the lead roles from 1990 to 1999. She started to play supporting and character roles from 2000 onwards. Personal life She married di ...

and

Ramesh Khanna Ramesh Khanna (also spelt as Ramesh Kanna) is an Indian actor and film director who has worked in Tamil cinema. He has acted in a number of supporting and comedian roles. Early life Khanna was born on 12 June 1954 in Chennai and third child to ...

play the supporting roles. The film, produced by

and N. J. Mothy, had musical score by

Deva Deva may refer to: Entertainment * ''Deva'' (1989 film), a 1989 Kannada film * ''Deva'' (1995 film), a 1995 Tamil film * ''Deva'' (2002 film), a 2002 Bengali film * Deva (2007 Telugu film) * ''Deva'' (2017 film), a 2017 Marathi film * Deva ...

and was released on 13 November 1998 with positive reviews and became Super-Hit. The film was dubbed in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

as ''Naya Natwarlal'' and was remade in Telugu as ''Veedu Samanyudu Kadhu'' with Prakash Raj reprising his role from the original, and in Hindi as ''Bhairav'' with

Mithun Chakraborty Mithun Chakraborty (born Gouranga Chakraborty; 16 June 1950) is an Indian actor, producer and politician who predominantly worked in Hindi and Bengali language films. He is a former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. He is the recipient of three ...

Plot

The film begins with Guru Moorthi (

) who follows Pooja (

) like a mental. Guru Moorthi claims to be Mahendra Boopathi in his past life and he was in love with Alamelu. According to him, Pooja looks like his lover Alamelu and Guru Moorthi finally seduces her. They decide to get married but the day before their wedding, he foists prostitution charges on her and she is arrested. Guru Moorthi, in fact, is a mechanic living in both

Vishakhapatnam , image_alt = , image_caption = From top, left to right: Visakhapatnam aerial view, Vizag seaport, Simhachalam Temple, Aerial view of Rushikonda Beach, Beach road, Novotel Visakhapatnam, INS Kursura submarine museum, ...

and

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. Shanti (

), a petty thief, steals money to bring up her two nephews. She befriends Guru Moorthi and he accommodates her in his house. They both fall in love and Shanti is renamed Sonali by Guru Moorthi. They get married at the register office and Shanti signs under the name Sonali. One day, Guru Moorthi cancels the wedding of a woman named Sonali (Madhu Sharma) and he claims to be her husband, to prove it, he shows his marriage certificate. His wife Shanti doesn't understand why he behaves like a sadist and she was ready to leave him. Guru Moorthi ultimately tells her about his bitter past. In the past, Mahendra Boopathi, despite being a young gold-medalist graduate, was unable to find a work. He lived with his mother, his sister Kalyani and his maternal uncle Nagarajan (

). His neighbour Priya (

) fell in love with him and she decided to live in his house without getting married. Boopathi had a chance to get a job in a bank if he passed an exam. On the day of the exam, he inadvertently lost his hall-ticket. In the meantime, Pooja, Sonali and Indhu (Indhu) were attacked by the rowdy Kaali (

) and they killed his younger brother accidentally. The police pressured them to tell the truth, they then found Boopathi's hall-ticket at the crime scene and they blamed him for killing Kaali's younger brother. Guru Moorthi was immediately arrested. Later, Kaali's elder brother Vijay (

) killed Guru Moorthi's entire family and his lover Priya. Guru Moorthi was sent in jail for seven years and Kaali fled to

Ooty Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

. Kaali changed his appearance, his name and he became a successful businessman. Hence, only Guru Moorthi and his uncle Nagarajan were the people to survive the attack on his family. Back to the present, Shanti feels sorry for her innocent husband and decides to help him in seeking his revenge and calming himself. Guru Moorthi thus now searches for Kaali and Indhu. Kaali is now married to Indhu and they have a girl. In the end, Guru Moorthi tricks Indhu into shooting Kaali to death for which she gets arrested and Guru ends up adopting Indhu's daughter as his own.

Cast

as Guru Moorthi alias Mahendra Boopathi *

as Shanthi, Mahendra's wife *

as Priya, Guru Moorthi's deceased lover *

as Pooja * Madhu Sharma as Sonali *Indhu as Indhu *

as Kaali alias Vijay, the main antagonist *

as Nagarajan, Guru Moorthi's maternal uncle *

Santhana Bharathi Santhana Bharathi is an Indian film director and actor who has primarily worked in Tamil cinema. Career Santhana Bharathi originally wanted to be a director but didn't get the right opportunity, even after working for a well known director ...

as Priya's father *

Mohan V. Ram Mohan Raman, also known as Mohan V. Ram (born 3 April 1956), is an Indian actor and writer. In 2017 and 2019, he was a Jury member for the National Film Award for Best Writing on Cinema. Raman is a film historian and writes for ''The Hindu''. He ...

as Pooja's father *Baby Akshaya as Akshaya *

as Lingam *

Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...

as Joseph *

Pandu In the Hindu epic ''Mahabharata'', Pandu ( sa, पाण्डु, Pāṇḍu, pale) was a king of the Kuru Kingdom. He was the foster-father of the five Pandava brothers, who were the boons bestowed upon his wife Kunti by a number of deities ...

as Vignesh *

Singamuthu Singamuthu (born 8 December 1958) is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil language films as a comedian. Career Singamuthu has primarily appeared in comedy roles in films as a supporting actor debuting in ''Neram Nalla Irukku'' (1987). He ...

as a tea vendor * T. P. Gajendran as a comic inspector *

Sriman Sriman () is an epithet of the Hindu deity Vishnu. It refers to the deity being the possessor of Sri, both referring to his consort Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, as well as the material and non material aspects of fortune. Literature Sri ...

in a guest appearance * S. Ve. Shekher in a guest appearance

Soundtrack

The film score and the soundtrack were composed by

. The soundtrack, released in 1998, features 6 tracks with lyrics written by Vaali, R. V. Udayakumar, Arivumathi and Vaasan.

Reception

''Indolink'' wrote "A suspense filled story-line keeps the viewers guessing about the motives of the vengeful hero, played to perfection by Prakashraj". ''BBthots'' wrote "An entertaining crime-thriller elevating Prakash Raj to the ranks of hero." ''Deccan Herald'' wrote "All in all, a bad film that drags and leaves you with a heavy feeling."

References

{{reflist 1998 films Indian thriller films 1998 thriller films Tamil films remade in other languages Films scored by Deva (composer) 1990s Tamil-language films Indian films about revenge