Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989 film)


Apoorva Sagodharargal is a 1989 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. The film features an ensemble cast including Kamal Haasan, Jaishankar, Nagesh, Gautami, Rupini, Manorama, Srividya, Janagaraj, Moulee, Delhi Ganesh and Nassar. It revolves around twins Raju and Appu who were separated during childhood and grew up in different localities, and Appu's quest for revenge upon learning that his father was killed by four criminals.
Apoorva Sagodharargal was produced by Haasan and his brother Chandra Haasan under the production company Raaj Kamal Films International. The film's story was written by Panchu Arunachalam, while Kamal Haasan and Crazy Mohan wrote the screenplay and dialogues respectively. B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan handled editing respectively, while the cinematography was handled by P. C. Sriram. The music for the film was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics written by Vaali.
Apoorva Sagodharargal premiered at the International Film Festival of India. The film was released on 14 April 1989, was a box office success and completed a 200-day run in theatres. It won the Filmfare Award for Best Film – Tamil, and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards: Best Actor and Best Lyricist. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Vichithra Sodarulu and into Hindi as Appu Raja in 1990.

Plot

Sethupathi is an honest and upright police officer. When he arrests four bigwigs – Dharmaraj, Francis Anbarasu, Nallasivam and Satyamoorthy – they escape justice easily and return to take revenge. They kill him and poison his pregnant wife Kaveri. However, she manages to escape. She gives birth to twins with the help of another woman named Muniyamma, but the babies are separated due to circumstances. One of the twins, Raja, grows up as a mechanic with Muniyamma, while the other, Appu, a dwarf, grows up in the circus with his mother.
Appu falls in love with Mano, the daughter of the circus owner, mistakenly thinking that she was asking him to elope with her, but she actually had asked him to be a witness to her marriage with her fiancé, which was not approved by her father. Heartbroken over this and insecure about his height, he attempts suicide but is prevented by his mother, who then reveals that his dwarfism might have been because of the poison force-fed to her when she was pregnant. This leads Appu to learn about his father's murder and decides to avenge him. Meanwhile, Raja falls in love with Janaki, who happens to be Satyamoorthy's daughter. As Raja resembles Sethupathi, Satyamoorthy and his three friends gain interest in him.
Appu uses two of his circus Indian Spitz puppies to lure Francis to an abandoned building, and kills him using a Rube Goldbergian contraption; Francis's corpse falls in a lorry covered with hay. Raja and Janaki have car trouble and hitchhike a ride in the same lorry, oblivious to the corpse. The lorry driver discovers the corpse when he reaches his destination and calls the police. The inspector in charge of the case suspects Raja by tracing the car number given by the lorry driver.
Appu kills Nallasivam in a golf course using a tiger from his circus, but Nallasivam's caddie sees Appu's face, and the tiger's tail from afar. This leads the inspector to Raja again, who, coincidentally, is wearing a tiger costume while performing a song at a festival in his street. Janaki becomes enraged when she learns that Raja has killed his father's friends and breaks up with him. Raja is released from custody as the postmortem examination has revealed real tiger wounds that could not be inflicted by Raja's costume.
Raja goes over to Janaki's house to smooth things over with the inspector following him covertly. When he is talking to her, Appu tricks Satyamoorthy into killing himself with a circus handgun that shoots backwards. Appu escapes, but Raja and Janaki enter Satyamoorthy's room, hearing the gunshot a few moments before the inspector arrives. Janaki faints when she sees her father dead, and the inspector now believes that Raja shot Satyamoorthy. Raja too escapes and is on the run, now a fugitive. When he is spotted by some people in a market, in an attempt to evade capture, Raja threatens to kill the nearest woman he gets hold of. When the crowd backs down, he releases Kaveri and escapes, oblivious to her identity. Kaveri realises that Raja is her first son and seeks out Muniyamma. They both realise that the murders are committed by Appu, and Raja is mistaken as Appu, who overhears this.
Dharmaraj believes that it is Raja avenging his father's death and that he is the next target, and decides to seek out Raja's mother, and is shocked to see Kaveri, whom he believed to be dead, also present there. Nonetheless, he kidnaps both women and threatens to kill them unless Raja surrenders to him. Appu escapes, helps Raja evade the police, and tells him everything. They both collaborate and go to the circus where their mothers are held captive. Appu and Raja overpower the goons, Dharmaraj ends up hanging by a rope, and with silent approval of Kaveri, Appu shoots that rope, causing Dharmaraj to fall and be eaten by circus lions. Appu surrenders to the police, while Raja and Janaki reunite.

Cast

Development

The idea of Apoorva Sagodharargal was inspired from a scene of the film Saagar in which Kamal Haasan starred. Singeetam Srinivasa Rao said that in the initial version of the story, there was only one Haasan: the dwarf character. After getting rejected by a couple of girls, he would be seen walking into desert with his circus troupe in the climax. Singeetham later dropped it as this idea was not feasible; he then created another character for Haasan to add entertainment and drama and added a revenge angle to make it more commercially viable. Panchu Arunachalam suggested the dwarf has to be the main hero and also insisted that Haasan portray a double role.
Haasan rewrote the script after listening to an alternate take on the film. According to him, the script was originally written for his mentor K. Balachander, who refused the film citing that it is "too complicated". The film was the second script after the first one was discarded by Haasan and this itself was greatly toned down for violence, because Ilaiyaraaaja and Arunachalam did not approve of the amount of violence there initially was. One of the writers Dinesh Shailendra was discussing the concept of the film, Haasan initially suggested Man Behind the Iron Mask, Dinesh said that it would be nice if one the characters is a dwarf. Haasan approached Crazy Mohan to write dialogues for the film. Haasan decided to produce the film himself since no producers were willing to do the film. Cinematography was handled by P. C. Sriram and editing by B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan.

Casting

Haasan was featured in three distinct roles; a police officer, a dwarf and a mechanic. For the character looks, he wore tight fitted pants, unbuttoned Denim shirts with sport shoes for the character of Raja, whereas for Appu, he wore only clown-like costumes besides regular clothes. Ganthimathi was originally cast as Appu's foster mother, but due to changes in the script, she was replaced by Manorama. Ravikanth who debuted in Manathil Uruthi Vendum did a small role as Haasan's friend, but his portion was deleted from the final cut. Stage actor Suppuni was offered a role in the film, but he declined. Prem Nazir was the initial choice for the character of Sethupathi; because he was unwell at the time, Haasan himself played the role. Lakshmi was offered to play Sethupathi's wife but did not accept, resulting in Srividya being cast. Haasan had included a character for Krishnamachari Srikkanth, but the character was later removed.

Filming and post-production

A scientist from Bangalore was invited and he came up with a whole lot of sketches he had worked out on how the dwarf would be created. He spent a year researching his role, spending 200,000 in the process. He even went to Hollywood scouting for special effects, but opted out as there was little expertise or footage available as even Hollywood had not had much success with the dwarf. He consulted electronic engineers to make possible gadgets and in desperation talked to a magician. Haasan's shoes in the film were created by D. J. S. Kumar.
Singeetham said that the dwarf look was done in different angles and innovative ideas had been adopted for each angle. A pair of special shoes was prepared to be attached to the folded knees of the actor for the straight angle shots. The legs had been taken care of and the mannerism adopted by Haasan by holding his arms in a particular way jelled with his "dwarf" legs. For the side angle shots, a trench was dug up just to cover up the actor's legs from the feet to knees, with special shoes attached at the knee level. Singeetham noted the dwarf's character would lend "attention and sympathy from the audience" and he made sure normal looking Haasan "got equal attention and sympathy".
S. T. Venky made his debut as visual effects designer for this film and also became the first person to use digital technology in visual effects. Animals used in the films were trained by Ravindra Sherpad Deval. The circus portions in the film were filmed at Gemini Circus. The song "Raja Kaiya Vachchaa" had many scenes inspired from Grease, including the transformation of the old car into a new one, and the dramatically-changing costumes of the dancers. The song "Amma Aatha Kaalai Thottu Kumbidanum" was initially dumped after the script was doctored by Haasan, but after many days of running successfully in theatres, it was re-included as an added attraction.

Themes and influences

The title Apoorva Sagodharargal was taken from 1949 Tamil film of the same name, an adaptation of the novella The Corsican Brothers by Alexandre Dumas. The idea of brothers coming together to avenge the death of their father is the common thread running between both the films. V. Ramji of Hindu Tamil Thisai felt the names of the villains – Dharmaraj, Satyamoorthy, Nallasivam and Francis Anbarasu – were in contrast to their personalities. Haasan compared the film to Yaadon Ki Baaraat because it features the concept of "a family being destroyed by the villain, brothers being separated and reunited".

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. All the songs were written by Vaali, while Prem Dhawan and Rajashri wrote the lyrics for Hindi and Telugu versions. Regarding the song "Pudhu Mappillaiku", Haasan said that he wanted a tune similar to that which is sung in the Academy Awards function, whereas Ilaiyaraaja said that Haasan wanted a tune reminiscent of the song "Naan Paarthathile" from Anbe Vaa. The song "Unna Nenachen" was rewritten by Vaali multiple times and Haasan was still unhappy with it; only at his sixth attempt, he became successful in delivering what Haasan wanted. Elements of "Annatha Aadurar" were used in the song "Saroja Saman Nikalo" from Chennai 600028.
The song "Raja Kaiya Vachchaa" has two versions, one by Haasan, which was used in the film and in the audio cassette, this version started with the dialogue between Haasan and Manorama and another sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, which was included in the Audio LP and Cassettes.

Release and reception

Apoorva Sagodharargal released on 14 April 1989, Puthandu. Ananda Vikatan, in its review dated 30 April 1989, mentioned that though there were three Haasans, Haasan was stunning in his performance as the dwarf. The reviewer said his acting was equivalent to the Eiffel Tower, and the good old revenge story was presented with payasam by Haasan. Despite facing competition from other Puthandu releases such as Pudhea Paadhai, En Rathathin Rathame and Pillaikkaga, the film became a major commercial success; it became the first in Tamil to run for 100 days in five theatres in Bangalore, and overall completed a theatrical run of 200 days. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Vichithra Sodarulu, and into Hindi as Appu Raja in 1990.

Awards

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards
Filmfare Awards South
Behindwoods included Appu's character in their list "Top 10 Avatars of Kamal" and wrote "one of Kamal's landmark makeovers in cinema". In the list "Mesmerising Masked Men" from the same website mentioned that "as a tragic character that had to wear a clown's mask to show a cheerful face to the world though he himself is angst ridden and weeping inside more often than not". The Times of India in their list "Kamal Haasan's Top 10 mindblowing avatars" wrote that Haasan "created history by playing a dwarf who was almost half his original height". In 2010, Rediff wrote: "Under Singeetham's very able direction, the movie blended mainstream cinema and emotion very well, and marked the beginning of what was to be a long career, for Kamal Haasan, in getting more into the skin of his character, and setting higher standards for himself with the aid of superior make-up and body language". On Haasan's birthday, 7 November 2015, Latha Srinivasan of Daily News and Analysis considered Apoorva Sagodharargal to be one of the "films you must watch to grasp the breadth of Kamal Haasan's repertoire".
The Hindu included "Unna Nenachen" among lyricist Vaali's best songs in their collection, "Best of Vaali: From 1964 – 2013". The film was also included by Rediff in their list titled "10 Best films of Kamal Haasan". Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu noted that Haasan's commitment to playing a dwarf in Apoorva Sagotharargal "helped him scale heights, not many can reach". Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu stated in his review of I that the film reminds of "Apoorva Sagotharargal". Director Vinayan said the idea of his Malayalam film Athbhutha Dweepu was inspired from Apoorva Sagodharargal. On Haasan's 60th birthday, an agency named Minimal Kollywood Posters designed posters of Haasan's films, One of the posters depicted the two minions with one of them being a dwarf reminiscent of the characters from the film. Rangan compared Mersal to Apoorva Sagodharargal, saying that in both films, "A father is brutally murdered. A son takes revenge. The other son is thought to be the killer."

In popular culture

The 1990 film Raja Kaiya Vacha was named after the song from Apoorva Sagodharargal. The sad theme music from the film was parodically remixed as the "Gopi Bat Theme" from Chennai 600028 II. In Periya Marudhu, Sodalai imagines himself as a dwarf similar to Appu and dances to the song "Pudhu Mappillaiku". The scene where Appu uses a Rube Goldberg machine to kill Francis Anbarasu was parodied in Thamizh Padam, with Delhi Ganesh reprising his role.