''Pokkiri Raja'' () is a 1982 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 comedy film Action comedy is a genre that combines aspects of action and comedy. The genre is most prevalent in film with action comedy films, though several TV series fit this genre. Film The action comedy film is a film genre that combines aspects of acti ...

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 ...

. A remake of the Telugu film ''

Chuttalunnaru Jagratha ''Chuttalunnaru Jagratha'' () is a 1980 Indian Telugu-language masala film directed by B. V. Prasad. The film stars Krishna and Sridevi. It revolves around a man who was framed for murder, and a lookalike who aids him in finding the true kill ...

'' (1980), it stars Rajinikanth, Sridevi and

Raadhika Raadhika Sarathkumar is an Indian actress, entrepreneur, producer and politician who works predominantly in Tamil cinema along with Telugu cinema as well as a few Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada films. She is the founder and CP of the Radaan Media ...

. The film revolves around a man who was framed for murder, and a lookalike who aids him in finding the true killers. It was released on 14 January 1982 and became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres.

Plot

Ramesh is the manager of the office of Paranthaman, an industrialist. Paranthaman strongly suspects his relatives to be looting him. Ramesh finds the culprit and keeps a tight leash on everything happening in the office, thereby earning the wrath of the industrialist's relatives. Ramesh and Vanaja (Paranthaman's daughter) initially find themselves at loggerheads, but eventually fall in love with each other. Paranthaman is happy about this development until he sees Ramesh cheating on his daughter. He fires Ramesh the very same day. Paranthaman is murdered and Vanaja also sees Ramesh in her house that same night. Ramesh is dragged to court and, based on Vanaja's testimony, declared guilty and arrested, though he realises she was threatened into committing perjury. A month into prison, Ramesh meets Raja, a soon-to-be-released convict who looks exactly like him. Raja is a petty thief who had been arrested for breaking into Paranthaman's house, and was mistaken by Vanaja to be Ramesh. Together, Ramesh and Raja plan to bring the culprits to book. With Raja's permission, Ramesh masquerades as him for three days. Venkatachalam initially attempts to have him arrested for escaping, but fails after Raja's lover Rakkayi identifies him as Raja, and takes him. Venkatachalam approaches "Raja", not knowing it is Ramesh, and tells him about Vanaja's impending marriage to Chandran. Ramesh rescues Vanaja from her forced marriage, tells her about Raja, how she and her father mistook him for Ramesh, and keeps her safe at his mother's house. Venkatachalam and Chandran suspect Vanaja. Ramesh marries Vanaja at his mother's request. At the end of three days, he returns to prison and switches places with Raja, who reunites with Rakkayi and tells her about Ramesh taking his place. Ramesh eventually attains bail, courtesy Vanaja. Chandran later reveals himself and Venkatachalam as the murderers of Paranthaman, but Raja records the entire statement on tape; after Ramesh and Raja subdue Chandran and Venkatachalam's thugs, the tape is played in the court, and both killers are arrested.

Cast

* Rajinikanth as Ramesh and Raja * Sridevi as Vanaja *

as Rakkayi *

R. Muthuraman Muthuraman Radhakrishnan (4 July 1929 – 16 October 1981) was an Indian actor who predominantly appeared in Tamil language films. He was a leading actor during the 1960s and 1970s and was fondly called as ''Navarasa Thilagam''. He had paired w ...

as Venkatachalam * Manorama as Venkatachalam's wife * Y. G. Mahendran as Chandran

Production

''Pokkiri Raja'' is a remake of the Telugu film ''

'' (1980), and was Rajinikanth's first film opposite Raadhika. M. Saravanan of AVM Productions expressed a desire to remake it in Tamil; he wanted Rajinikanth to play the male lead. Rajinikanth refused to act in the film as he was unimpressed with the Telugu film and character but later relented after Saravanan requested him to act. Saravanan called

Visu Meenakshisundaram Ramasamy Viswanathan (1 July 1945 – 22 March 2020), best known by his stage name Visu, was an Indian writer, director, stage, film and television actor and talk-show host. Visu initially worked as an assistant to director ...

who, after watching the film, said it could be remade well with minor changes and further developed Raadhika's character. The film was colourised using

Eastmancolor Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was on ...

. It was Muthuraman's final film as actor and he portrayed a negative role. The crew brought in a dubbing artist to imitate his voice.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, with lyrics by

Kannadasan Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was an Indian philosopher, poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. Freq ...

and Gangai Amaran.

Release and reception

''Pokkiri Raja'' was released on 14 January 1982,

Pongal Pongal may refer to: * Pongal (festival), an annual Tamil festival * Pongal (dish) Pongal, also known as pongali or huggi, is an Indian rice dish. In Tamil, "pongal" means "boil" or "bubbling up". The two varieties of pongal are ''chakarai pong ...

day. The film became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres. Along with '' Murattu Kaalai'' (1980), it was responsible for establishing Rajinikanth as a full-fledged

action hero An action hero (sometimes action heroine for women) is the protagonist of an action film or other form of entertainment which portrays action, adventure, and often violence. Other media in which such heroes appear include swashbuckler films, Wes ...

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* {{AVM Productions 1980s action comedy films 1980s masala films 1980s Tamil-language films 1982 films AVM Productions films Films about miscarriage of justice Films directed by S. P. Muthuraman Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films with screenplays by Panchu Arunachalam Indian action comedy films Tamil remakes of Telugu films