Apoorva Sagodharargal

I am dierhard Kamal fan and this is my fav kamal movie. This is how movie should be made. Spectacular performances from Jangaraj, Manorama, Nagesh. Superhit evergreen songs by Maestro.

Kamal Haasan,the person who I regard as the best actor in Indian cinema ever,added another great to his list.The story is a cliché that we all know,but the screenplay and execution is simply seamless and mind boggling.The first thing I had all my praises on was the cinematography by PC Sriram,simply eye catching and beautiful.The use of color and tone is unbelievable considering the year of release of which was 1989.The camera angles made the movie look very grand and high budgeted.Hats off to him.The second thing that pulled me in was the timeless music of maestro Illayaraja.The music in the film was not everywhere,but it was present in the important scenes.The use of music in the suspense and the comedy scenes were the best.The songs in this film were amazing and the sets of the were really realistic which was a big bonus for the film.The use of modern music at the time was fully utilized by Illayaraja and turned out to be an impressive piece of work at the end.The other two people that full credits has to given is B Lenin and VT Vijayan.Their editing for this film was absolutely amazing and matching the screenplay of the film.Coming to the cut and throat of this film,the Universal Hero,Kamal Haasan.His performance in this was excellent.He played three characters in this film,and the probably the toughest he has done by far is the dwarf character who is Appu.A century has changed,yet nobody can find out the secret of the making of this character.It is no doubt that a any character can be created by CGI with today's technology,but this character that was formed in that time frame was a shock to whole cinema industry in India.The making of this character is well kept secret till today by the makers of the film.Putting aside the concerns of the making,Kamal Haasan completely transformed himself into the character,I could feel this character's emotions,feeling and sentiments throughout this film.The other two characters was the normal Kamal Haasan that we can see,but he shows a variation of the Tamil dialects used by three different characters in the film which is a huge task to pull off.Other than Kamal Haasan,Nagesh did well in a unusual character despite given a less screen space.The other standout performer was Janagaraj in another unusual character for him.His comical timing in this film made the film more fun and enjoyable within the serious tone of this film.This had to go down to the dialogue writer Crazy Mohan.He really understood the screenplay of the film and set dialogues with good timing and counters.Hats off.The screenplay which was also written by Kamal Haasan shows why he is regarded as one the best actors ever.The screenplay of the movie was smooth as an unpolluted river and the structure of a scene is so well set that the movement of the scenes were not felt by the audience.No review of a good movie is complete without complimenting the efforts of the off screen hero,the director.Singeetam Srinivasa Rao did an excellent job narrating Kamal Haasan's story in a interesting way.Overall,this film would be a great treat for movie lovers just because of its amazing narration.This is definitely not Kamal Haasan's best,but still one of the best Indian movie's ever created.Magnificent!

A different entertainer from the haasan stable. Everyone thinks that the dwarf character was introduced by kamal in this film, but he truth is he had appeared as a dwarf in a scene in the KB starrer "Punnagai Mannan" released a few months earlier.

The cast was an unusual one with Nagesh playing a villain (Probably for the 1st time in his career). Dialogues by Crazy & lyrics & music were a BIG PLUS for the film.

Uptil the release of this film, kamal had a string of flops & his career was sliding, but he took a huge risk in producing a film of his kind.

Initially, the script of the film was different & even a few scenes were shot but later, it was modified to give more weightage to the dwarf character.

It ran houseful for 100 days (all shows) in Devi Paradise theatre in chennai.

It is from this film onwards that Kamal started experimenting with challenging roles.

I can still remember I watched on tv when I was 5years old something .. That time I am so into rajini sir film bcz every children fan of him(still we are fan) .. But kamal movies all was matured content, childrens can't understand... But this movie was my favourites,you know he was acted as small man ..tricky with funny murder scene made us so much joy even that time .. I really hope every tamil peoples need to watch this ...

Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989) : Brief Review -

A film which confirmed that Kamal Haasan was No Ordinary Legend, but a Special One. A film which proved that Lost & Found formula with Revenge Tale could be Exclusive. Bollywood and Indian Cinema have seen like hundreds of Revenge dramas with Lost & Found formula. While the early films strike hard due to freshness, the later ones, mostly after 80s looked cliched. People were actually bored to see same stuff again but because of proper branding of Stardom, hit songs and other spicy elements those films worked even in 80s. Or should i say got lucky. Then finally by god's grace, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao brought a change in formula filmmaking with Apoorva Sagodharargal. The experient of physical disability turned out to be the best use of twin brothers lost & found formula ever done in Indian Cinema. Appu and Raja are twins who were separated at birth, grow up in different localities. Appu's quest for revenge begins upon learning that his father was killed by four criminals and then expectedly he crosses path with his brother occasionally. It's highly predictable but still very enjoyable because this dwarf character was new for audience and it is used very intelligently. The same intelligence goes missing at the end when he surrenders so one can find dumb as i did but rest assured, the film gives you no other chance to point a finger at it. What Kamal Haasan has done as Appu & Raja is unbelievable and unmatchable. It's been 30 years already and I haven't seen any actor doing something like this except Kamal Haasan himself in some of later films. The theme of of masala entertainer was becoming outdated thing in late 80s but Apoorva Sagodharargal came to rescue them with fresh ideas and brilliantly justified experiment in commercial potboiler genre. In short, A Timeless Classic!

RATING - 8/10*

By - #samthebestest.