''Simmarasi'' () is a 1998 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed and written by

Erode Soundar Erode () is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Erode is the seventh largest urban agglomeration in the state, after Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Tiruppur and Salem. It is also the administrative headquarters of the Er ...

. The film stars

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 Awards S ...

and

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 ...

. Kanaka, Manorama,

Anandaraj Anandaraj (born May 15, 1959) is an Indian actor. He has acted in villain roles in several Tamil films and has appeared in over a two hundred films in different languages including Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. Career Anandaraj was bor ...

and

Vineeth Vineeth Radhakrishnan (born 23 August 1969) is an Indian actor, classical dancer, voice artist and choreographer who primarily works in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. He has also starred in a few Kannada and Bollywood films. He h ...

play supporting roles. The film was one among 1998 Deepavali releases and opened in October to positive reviews. It was a huge successful film. Sarathkumar bagged the

Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor The Tamil State Film Awards for Best Actor is given by the state government as part of its annual Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for Tamil (Kollywood) films. List of winners {, class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" , - ! colspan="5" , Lis ...

. A sub- plot of the movie went on to be used in the Telugu movie ''

Siva Rama Raju ''Siva Rama Raju'' is a 2002 Indian Telugu-language action drama film, produced by R. B. Choudary under Super Good Films and directed by V. Samudra and. It stars Nandamuri Harikrishna, Jagapathi Babu, Venkat, Sivaji, Monica and music composed b ...

'' and the Kannada movie ''

Paramashiva Parashiva (or Paramashiva, Paramshiva, or Parmshiva, among other spellings; Sanskrit: परशिव, IAST: Paraśiva) is the highest aspect of Shiva in Shaiva Siddhanta and in Kashmir Shaivism. Below him are the primordial Shiva with the Pa ...

'' - both of which were remakes of another Sarathkumar movie ''

Samudhiram ''Samuthiram'' () is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language drama film written by Erode Soundar and directed by K. S. Ravikumar. The film stars an ensemble cast of Sarath Kumar, Murali, Manoj Bharathiraja, Kaveri, Abhirami, Sindhu Menon and Monal. The ...

''.

Plot

A man named Manickavasagam (

) happens to stop a caste fight in a village. The villagers ask him to remain and help with their conflicts, thus inciting the wrath of Maragatham (

). Maragatham is the biggest badman in the village, and he even killed his own brother for marrying into a different caste. Lakshmi's ( Kanaka) son Kathir (

) wants to build a factory, which Manickavasagam will not allow. This makes Kathir ally with Maragatham. Finally Manickavasagam kills Maragatham.

Cast

as Manickavasagam *

as Sivagami, Manickavasagam's wife * Kanaka as Lakshmi * Manorama as Manickavasagam's mother *

as Maragatham *

as Kathir, Lakshmi's son * Ponnambalam as Police Inspector *

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), ...

as Lakshmi's husband *

Fathima Babu Fathima Babu is a South Indian actress, former newsreader and socialite based out of Chennai who hails from Puducherry. Born in a Muslim family, Fathima began her public career as a newsreader for more than 25 years with DD Podhigai, the Tamil ...

as Maragatham's wife *

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 ...

as Rasathi *

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 ...

* R. Sundarrajan *

Bala Singh Bala Singh (7 May 195227 November 2019) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil language films. After making his debut in Nassar's '' Avatharam'' (1995), he appeared as the antagonist in over a hundred films. Early life and career Bala Sing ...

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 ...

Thalapathy Dinesh Thalapathy Dinesh (also spelled Thalapathi Dinesh) is an Indian action choreographer who works mainly in Tamil cinema. He started his career in the cinema as an extra fighter in '' Naan Sigappu Manithan'' and later he became as a stunt master and ...

Production

Kanaka replaced

Gautami Gautami Tadimalla (born 2 July 1969), known mononymously as Gautami, is an Indian actress and politician who has worked mainly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films in addition to Hindi, and Kannada films. She was one of the leading South India ...

in the film during July 1998.

Nagma Nagma Arvind Morarji (born Nandita Arvind Morarji on 25 December 1974) is an Indian politician and former actress. She was a popular lead actress in the 1990s. She made her cinematic debut in the film '' Baaghi'' opposite Salman Khan in 1990. ...

had earlier been selected for the role but was left out after her relationship with

ended.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack and background score was composed by musician,

S. A. Rajkumar S. A. Rajkumar is an Indian composer and lyricist. He has made music for all South Indian language films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada. Early life Rajkumar's father was a vocalist performing in stage shows conducted by popular mu ...

Reception

A critic from ''

Dinakaran Dinakaran is a Tamil daily newspaper distributed in Tamil Nadu, India. It was founded by K. P. Kandasamy in 1977 and is currently owned by media conglomerate Sun Group's- Sun Network.''Dinakaran'' is the second largest circulated Tamil daily ...

'' noted that "some of the scenes have come out good. But there is very, very long flash back scenes that among them some of the scenes really don't have that much relevance to the story line". Kala Krishnan-Ramesh of ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by K. N. Guruswamy, a liquor businessman from Ballari and was launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printe ...

'' wrote "''Simmarasi'' deserves a response because its themes, its emotions, its sounds and colours are grander than those we are accustomed to."

References

1998 films Films scored by S. A. Rajkumar 1990s Tamil-language films Super Good Films films {{1990s-Tamil-film-stub