''Cheran Pandian'' is a 1991 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

action 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-gen ...

written and directed by

K. S. Ravikumar K. S. Ravikumar (born 30 May 1958) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, primarily working in Tamil films. Career 1990–1997 Ravikumar worked as co-director on R. B. Choudary's production ''Pudhu Vasantham'' direct ...

, from a story 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 Vijayakumar,

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 ...

Anand Babu Anand Babu is an Indian actor who was known for his works in Tamil films. He is the son of legendary comedy actor Nagesh. Career He first entered the film industry with Tamil films and also played leading roles in Telugu as well as supporting ...

and Sreeja. The film, released on 31 May 1991, emerged a box office success and won several

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The aw ...

Plot

Manicheran Gounder or Periya Gounder, the rich head of the village with his wife Paarvathi and daughter Vennila, is a person who strictly adheres to the caste system. Rajapaandi or Chinna Gounder is Periya Gounder's half brother and also a rich landlord in the same village, and Parimalam is his sister. Since Rajapaandi's mother was from a suppressed caste, Periya Gounder stays aloof from him and always ignores and berates Rajapaandi and Parimalam. Their father, before dying, had divided his entire property, including the house, equally between the two brothers, and they live on either side of the house, split by a wall. Yet, Periya Gounder's family gets first respect within the village and the local temple, and he refuses to yield any privilege to Rajapaandi. Chandran, a young relative of Rajapaandi, comes to meet and work under him in the village and falls in love with Vennila. Periya Gounder is furious when he learns of this and tries to get Vennila married to his brother-in-law, and after being rebuked by him, he makes arrangements for Vennila's marriage with a womanising thug, son of a devious village elder, since he belongs to his own caste. After a serious turn of events, Periya Gounder has a change of heart with some heartfelt advice from Paarvathi, renounces his casteist mindset and accepts Rajapaandi as his equal sibling and Chandran and Vennila end up getting married.

Cast

Production

''Cheran Pandian'' is

's second film as director. Producer

R. B. Choudary Ratanlal Bhagatram Choudary is an Indian film producer who has worked in several film industries, predominantly in Tamil language, Tamil and Telugu language, Telugu along with a few films in Malayalam language, Malayalam and Hindi language, Hind ...

had previously stated he would finance Ravikumar's second directorial film, regardless of how well his first ('' Puriyaadha Pudhir'') performed at the box office.

Soundtrack

The music composed by Soundaryan, who also wrote the lyrics. The song "Kadhal Kaditham" is set in

Mohanam Mohanam is a rāga in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is an ''audava'' rāga (or ''owdava'' rāga, meaning pentatonic scale). It is usually described as a ''janya'' rāga of Harikamboji (28th Melakartha Raga). ...

raga.

Reception

C. R. K. 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 ...

'' appreciated the songs, but criticised their abundance. He also criticised Ravikumar's direction and writing. ''Cheran Pandian'' won the

for Special Prize for Best Film, Best Story Writer (

) and Best Sound Recording (Sampath). Vijayakumar won the Cinema Express Award for Best Character Actor. After the film's success, Ravikumar regularly collaborated with Sarathkumar, in films like ''

Nattamai ''Nattamai'' () is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by K. S. Ravikumar. It starred Sarathkumar, Meena and Khushbu. The film was released on 2 November 1994, during Diwali, and completed a 175-day run at the box office. It is co ...

'' (1994), ''

Natpukkaga ''Natpukkaga'' () is a 1998 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by K. S. Ravikumar, starring R. Sarathkumar, Simran, Vijayakumar and Sujatha. It became a blockbuster upon release. The film won two Filmfare Awards South and Tamil Nadu St ...

'' (1998), ''

Paattali ''Paattali'' () is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed by K. S. Ravikumar. The film stars Sarath Kumar, Ramya Krishnan and Devayani. The film's score and soundtrack are composed by S. A. Rajkumar. The film released on 17 Decembe ...

'' (1999) and ''

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 ...

'' (2001) after which he became a highly sought-after filmmaker in the Tamil film industry.

Remakes

''Cheran Pandian'' was remade in

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 ...

as ''

Balarama Krishnulu ''Balarama Krishnulu'' is a 1992 Telugu-language drama film, produced by Sunkara Madhu Murali under the Vineela Art Productions banner, presented by Sri Sravanthi Movies and directed by Ravi Raja Pinisetty. The film stars Shobhan Babu, Rajashek ...

'' (1992), and 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 ...

in as ''

Sautela ''Sautela'' is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language action drama film directed by T. Rama Rao, starring Mithun Chakraborty in the lead role. The film, a remake of Tamil-language film ''Cheran Pandiyan'' also introduced 3 South Indian Heroines, Priya Ra ...

'' (1999).

References

External links

* {{K. S. Ravikumar 1990s action drama films 1990s Tamil-language films 1991 films Films directed by K. S. Ravikumar Indian action drama films Tamil films remade in other languages Super Good Films films