''Athisaya Piravi'' () is a 1990 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, nativ ...

-language

fantasy comedy Fantasy comedy or comic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is primarily humorous in intent and tone. Typically set in imaginary worlds, fantasy comedy often involves puns on and parodies of other works of fantasy. Literature The subgenre rose ...

film directed by S. P. Muthuraman and written by

Panchu Arunachalam Panchanathan Arunachalam (22 March 1941 – 9 August 2016) was an Indian writer, director, producer and lyricist who worked in Tamil cinema. He was mentored by poet Kannadasan who was his uncle. He also worked as a lyricist in the Tamil cin ...

. It is a remake of the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

film '' Yamudiki Mogudu'' (1988). The film stars Rajinikanth, Kanaka, and

Sheeba Akashdeep Sheeba is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Hindi language films. Life and career Sheeba has acted in Hindi films primarily. She married filmmaker Akashdeep in 1996; he directed her in films like ''Ghaath'' and ''Miss 420''. She ...

, while

Nagesh Nagesh (born Cheyur Krishnarao Nageshwaran; (27 September 1933 – 31 January 2009) was an Indian actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian in Tamil films during the 1960s. Nagesh was born in Dharapuram. He acted in over 1,000 fil ...

Jaiganesh Jai Ganesh (1946 – 11 February 2001) was an Indian Tamil film actor. He had supporting roles in the films '' Aval Oru Thodar Kathai'' and ''Attukara Alamelu'', among others. His most popular roles have been as a supporting actor or as a vill ...

Chinni Jayanth Chinni Jayanth (born Krishnamurthy Narayanan on 26 July 1960) is an Indian film director, producer, comedian, actor and mimicry artist who has appeared in many main, character and supporting roles in Tamil films. He is also a popular television ...

, Cho Ramaswamy, and

Vinu Chakravarthy Vinu Chakravarthy (15 December 1945 – 27 April 2017) was an Indian actor, screenwriter and director who is known for acting in more than 1000 movies in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Badaga and Malayalam mostly as a comedian, supporting actor or i ...

, among others, play supporting roles. It was released on 15 June 1990, and became a box office failure.

Plot

Kaalaiyan lives a poor lifestyle with his widowed mother. He falls in love with a girl called Sumathi, but because of his poor background, Sumathi's wealthy father Murukesh is not ready to accept him. Kaalaiyan also gets into hot water with Murukesh as he opposes his men who were planning to demolish some huts. Murukesh and his partner devise a plan to kill Kaalaiyan by tricking him into believing that he was going to marry him to Sumathi. The plan works, and they eventually succeed in killing him. Kaalaiyan's spirit goes to the underworld and meets the Lord of Death himself,

Yama Yama (Devanagari: यम) or Yamarāja (यमराज), is a deity of death, dharma, the south direction, and the underworld who predominantly features in Hindu and Buddhist religion, belonging to an early stratum of Rigvedic Hindu deities. ...

. Kaalaiyan explains to Yama the whole ordeal and that his death was a mistake, so Yama transports him back to an identical body of a mild-mannered villager, Balu, whose life is threatened by his paternal uncle and aunt, who are trying to kill him. Reborn as Balu, he soon adapts to his new life, along with his new widowed mother and a sweetheart, Gauri. He also sets out to teach his uncle, Chinnasamy, aunt, and cousin Periyasaamy a lesson for their ill-treatment to him and his (new) mother. Life goes on, and he has no memories of his old life until one day Murukesh, who was an old friend of Chinnasamy, comes to visit them. Seeing him, Balu remembers his previous life and immediately goes to his previous place, where he finds Murukesh's goons attacking the area. Upon seeing him alive, they all are astounded and flee from the place. He then explains to his biological mother and Sumathi the whole story of how he was killed and reincarnated. Meanwhile, Gauri comes searching for Balu to Chennai, and hilarity ensues as Balu/Kaalaiyan struggles to manage both lovers. Balu, with help of

Chitragupta Chitragupta (Sanskrit: चित्रगुप्त, 'rich in secrets' or 'hidden picture') is a Hindu deity assigned with the task of keeping complete records of the actions of human beings and punishing or rewarding them according to their ...

, plans his revenge on Murukesh and his partner by outdoing him in wealth and humiliate them, but when Balu's relatives also arrive to Chennai, the whole confusion is revealed, and Murukesh captures both the families of Kaalaiyan and Balu and tries to kill him, but Balu/Kaalaiyan thwarts his plans and ultimately succeeds in his revenge.

Cast

* Rajinikanth as Kaalaiyan and Balu * Kanaka as Gauri *

as Sumathi *

as Murukesh *

as Murukesh's partner *

Vijayalalitha Vijayalalitha or Vijaya Lalitha was an Indian actress who appeared in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films in the 1960s and 1970s. She is best known for her appearances in '' Rani Mera Naam'' (1972), ''Baazigar'' (1972) and '' Saa ...

Achamillai Gopi Gopalakrishnan (born 9 May 1955), known professionally as Achamillai Gopi, is an Indian actor, singer, dramatist, and a voice over & dubbing artist. He has acted in a number of films and TV serials and has also given his voice for various cine ...

Sudhakar Sudhakar is an Indian name and may refer to: * Sudhakar (actor) (born 1959), Indian actor * Patel Sudhakar Reddy (died 2009), member of the central committee of the Communist Party of India * Sudhakar Chaturvedi (born 1897), Vedic scholar in Banga ...

as Jaiganesh's son *

Senthamarai Senthamarai may refer to: * Senthamarai (actor) Senthamarai was an Indian actor who acted in Tamil cinema and theatre. Career Senthamarai was born on 13 April 1935 at Kancheepuram. His family included his father Thiruvenkadam, his mother Vedamm ...

as Chinnasaamy *

as Periyasaamy * Cho Ramaswamy as Vichitra Gupta *

* V. K. Ramasamy as

Kamala Kamesh Kamala Kamesh is an Indian actress in Tamil movies. She was one of the prominent supporting actress in late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in Tamil movies. She has acted nearly 480 movies in Tamil. She is often seen in all of Visu's movies. Biography ...

as Balu's mother * Madhavi as Rambha (Guest appearance) * S. N. Parvathy as Kaalaiyan's mother *

King Kong King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...

as Kaalaiyan's friend *

Omakuchi Narasimhan Narasimhan (c. 1936 - 12 March 2009), popularly known as Omakuchi, was an Indian stage and film actor. He acted in over 1,500 films in 14 Indian languages, predominantly in Tamil. Early life Born in Kumbakonam in 1936, Narasimhan made his ...

as jai ganesh's servant * S. V. Ranga Rao as Balu's father (portrait)

Soundtrack

The soundtrack has six songs composed by Ilaiyaraaja.

Reception

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...

'' wrote, "Directed by S. P. Muthuraman, who keeps the action from sagging, Panju Arunachalam redoes his '' Kalyanaraman'' idea and provides the dialogues, even as Cho keeps lighting crackers with dialogues loaded with political innuendo." P. S. S. of ''

Kalki Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exist ...

'' wrote that whenever doubt arises whether such things happen, Rajinikanth turns around and says he is there, is that not enough. According to Muthuraman, ''Athisaya Piravi'' underperformed at the box office, in contrast to the Telugu original, as the concept of life after death and reincarnation did not go down well with Tamil audiences.

Legacy

Many years after the release of the film, a

viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...

entitled "

Little Superstar ''Little Superstar'' is a video uploaded on YouTube, which is a clip from the 1990 Tamil film '' Adhisaya Piravi'', starring Rajinikanth. The clip features the Tamil actor King Kong (not to be confused with Thavakalai), and another Indian dwar ...

" became very popular on the internet. The clip features the scene with Rajinikanth watching

dwarf Dwarf or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a being from Germanic mythology and folklore * Dwarf, a person or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid ...

Indian actor

dancing to "

Holiday Rap "Holiday Rap" is a song by Dutch musical duo MC Miker G & DJ Sven. The debut single of the duo, it was released in most European countries in 1986 and achieved success, topping the charts of the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, a ...

" by

MC Miker G & DJ Sven MC Miker G & DJ Sven were a hip hop duo from the Netherlands. The duo consisted of Lucien Witteveen and Sven van Veen (DJ Sven). The 1980s saw the two launch "Holiday Rap" to international success. The song is a remixed version of Madonna's hi ...

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{S. P. Muthuraman 1990 comedy films 1990 films 1990s fantasy comedy films 1990s Tamil-language films Films directed by S. P. Muthuraman Films scored by Ilaiyaraaja Films with screenplays by Panchu Arunachalam Indian fantasy comedy films Indian religious comedy films Tamil remakes of Telugu films Yama in popular culture