''Mahaprabhu'' is a 1996 Indian Tamil-language

masala film Masala films of Indian cinema mix multiple genres into one work. Masala films emerged in the 1970s and are still created as of the 2020s. Typically these films freely mix action, comedy, romance, and drama or melodrama. They also tend to be ...

directed by A. Venkatesh, making his directorial debut. The film stars

R. Sarathkumar Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Award ...

, Sukanya and

Vineetha Vineetha is a former Indian actress, who appeared predominantly in Tamil films and Malayalam films. She has also acted in some Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films. She made her debut through the Tamil film ''Chinna Jameen ''Chinna Jameen'' () i ...

. It was released on 26 January 1996.

Plot

Dhamodaran sells black cinema tickets alongside his friends Sedhu and Vicky. Dhamodaran is known to be an angry man thus he promises to his mother Vellaiyamma to avoid violence. Jothi, Dhamodaran's cousin, is deeply in love with Dhamodaran. Shanmugavel, a corrupt politician, is an influential man and even the police cannot arrest him for his crimes. His son Bhaskar spreads terror among the college students. Eswarapandiyan, an honest police officer, is determined to arrest Shanmugavel. Later, Uma, Eswarapandiyan 's wife, is killed by Shanmugavel and Eswarapandian is left for dead. Thereafter, Mahalakshmi moves into the house opposite to Dhamodaran's house. Mahalakshmi is an orphan and becomes a college lecturer. Dhamodaran falls in love with her but Mahalakshmi advises him to first become a decent man. Dhamodaran then becomes a mechanic and he also changes his behaviour. In the meantime, Bhaskar loses the college's chairman election mainly due to Mahalakshmi, who supported the other contestant. After seeing Mahalakshmi and Dhamodaran's love, Jothi sacrifices her love and she decides to marry another man. Soon, Dhamodaran clashes with Bhaskar's henchmen to save his lover Mahalakshmi. When Bhaskar tries to undress Mahalakshmi, Vellaiyamma interferes and she is pushed into a sewer. Mahalakshmi then sets herself on fire. Dhamodaran comes too late and discovers their dead bodies. He then turns berserk and kills Bhaskar. Dhamodaran is later arrested by the police and Shanmugavel challenges Dhamodaran to kill him. Eswarapandiyan then saves Dhamodaran from the police. What transpires later forms the crux of the story.

Cast

as Dhamodaran aka Dhamu * Sukanya as Mahalakshmi *

as Jothi * Manorama as Vellaiyamma, Dhamodaran's mother *

Sarath Babu Sathyam Babu Dixithulu (born 31 July 1951), known by his stage name Sarath Babu, is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Tamil and Telugu cinema. He has worked in more than 200 films. He has appeared in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and ...

as Eswarapandiyan (police inspector) *

Goundamani Subramaniyan Karuppaiya (born 25 May 1939), known by his stage name Goundamani, is an Indian actor and comedian who works in Tamil cinema. He is known for his comic duo partnership in Tamil films with fellow actor Senthil. The pair dominated t ...

as Sedhu *

Senthil Senthil (born 23 March 1951) is an Indian comedy actor who works in Tamil cinema. He is famous for his comedian roles along with fellow actor Goundamani. The pair dominated the Tamil industry as comedians in the 1980s and 90s.Rajan P. Dev Rajan P. Dev (20 May 1951 – 29 July 2009) was an Indian film and stage actor. He was born in Cherthala in the Alappuzha district of the former state Thiru-Kochi (present day Kerala). He had acted in over 500 films in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu ...

as Shanmugavel * Vaishnavi as Uma, Eswarapandiyan's wife * Vishal as Bhaskar *

Ennatha Kannaiya Ennathe Kannaiah (1925 - 7 August 2012) was a comedian who appeared in Tamil-language films. In the Ravichandran-Jayalalita starrer Naan, as he spoke his dialogues, he frequently used the word Ennathe and this became his nickname. Decades later, ...

as Mahalakshmi's father *

Ajay Rathnam Ajay Rathnam is an Indian actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil language, Tamil films and serials. He is known for his supporting and negative roles and has acted in over 300 movies. Standing at 6 ft 4 in (193 cm), Rathnam is one of the t ...

as police inspector *Raviraj *Krishnamoorthy *K. K. Soundar as Jothi's father *

Kumarimuthu Kumarimuthu (20 December 1940 – 28 February 2016) was a Tamil film character actor, comedian and politician of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). He was known for his unique comical laugh. Career Kumarimuthu starred in 728 films in his car ...

as Gnana Kannan *Judge Rajagopal *

Kovai Senthil Kumarasamy, known by his stage name, Kovai Senthil, was a Tamil film character artist who appeared in Tamil films starting with Bhagyaraj's ''Oru Kai Osai''. He appeared in over 400 Tamil films. Career During his career, Kovai Senthil made ...

Master Mahendran Mahendran is an Indian actor who works in Tamil and Telugu language films. He started acting at the age of 3 and has appeared in over 100 films in six languages as a child actor, a record in India. He is a recipient of two Nandi Awards and two ...

Nellai Siva Tirunelveli (, ta, திருநெல்வேலி, translit=Tirunelveli) also known as Nellai ( ta, நெல்லை, translit=Nellai) and historically (during British rule) as Tinnevelly, is a major city in the Indian state of Tami ...

as Local politician *

Vikram Krishna Vikram Krishna Reddy, credited in films as Ajay, is an Indian film producer and former actor in Tamil cinema Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Ta ...

(cameo)

Soundtrack

The film score and the soundtrack were composed 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 ...

. The soundtrack, released in 1996, features six tracks with lyrics written by Vaali.

Legacy

The film's success established Venkatesh as a film director and he went on to direct more films while he again collaborated with Sarathkumar in films like ''Aai'' (2004), ''Chanakya'' (2005) and ''Sandamarutham'' (2015). Senthil's dialogue "No Comments Simbly Waste" entered Tamil vernacular, often used by people when tired of responding to questions.

References

{{A. Venkatesh (director) 1996 films 1990s masala films Indian films about revenge Films scored by Deva (composer) 1990s Tamil-language films 1996 directorial debut films Films directed by A. Venkatesh (director)