Sigappu Rojakkal — 50 Tamil Movies to watch before you Die — 18
By: Sylvian Patrick
Tags: Movies, Kamal Hassan, 50 Best Tamil Movies, Best Tamil Movies, Tamil Movies

Bharathiraja doesn’t like criticisms. But, when the media rubbed him in the wrong side early in his career, he answered in the way he could. So what was the criticism? His first two movies (16 Vayadhinile, Kizhakke Pogum Rail) were village-based, and he was branded as a director who can only give rurally based movies. Sigappu Rojakkal was an act of revenge that he took on his critics and it became another trendsetter.

Sigappu Rojakkal (1978)

Sigappu Rojakkal is a thriller with Kamal Hassan and Sridevi in the lead with an unknown (at that time) supporting cast of Bhagyaraj, Vadivukkarasi, etc., Ilaiyaraaja scored the movie’s music with the cinematography of PS Nivas. The film was written and directed by Bharathiraja.

Sigappu Rojakkal is about a young man Dileep (Kamal) who kills women in the city after seducing them. He buries them in his bungalow garden below rose bushes with the help of his stepfather and a loyal servant. He falls in love with Sarada (Sridevi), who is a poor girl trying to live her life by working as a sales girl in a textile shop. Much against his wishes of his stepfather, he marries her. When she enters the bungalow, strange things happen and slowly she uncovers the truth about her husband. Sarada realises that Dileep is a victim of child abuse by various women and had transformed into a psychopathic killer. In the end, he tries to kill Sarada as she finds the truth but ends up in a mental asylum after a freak encounter with police.

Why is it so special?

Sigappu Rojakkal is the first psychopath murderer story of Tamil movies and one of the best thrillers to have been made in Tamil cinema. Wonderfully crafted writing in which both the lead characters had the space to showcase their talent. Kamal as Dileep — a charming businessman with the other side showed why he is gonna become the benchmark for actors in the future — the “nothing scene” is one instance whereas Sridevi as the innocent Sarada steals your heart and you just want her to escape from the clutches of Dileep. Ilaiyaraaja was in the second year of his career. If the songs like Ninaivo Oru Paravai and Miniminikku were classics, the background score was brilliant. The Dileep theme gives you a mixed feeling of sympathy and eeriness to the situations. The final scenes were his forte where he runs riot with his western classical based score. The reason why I am reiterating the fact that it’s one of the well-written movies is that because the movie is an open-ended thriller. The audience knows that the hero is the killer and he may attempt to kill the heroine. The reason for the murders is unknown, and the suspense is sustained throughout the movie. You are compelled to see the other side of the killer and be sympathetic to it. The screenplay is deft, but there are a few tiny mistakes in the movie, but the wonderful casting and direction overcome them.

The “Nothing” scene of Sigappu Rojakkal

Why is it on the list?

For the sheer guts of Bharthiraaja, who had an anti-hero as his lead protagonist and pulled off such performances from the lead actors. A trendsetter — gave the confidence to other directors to move from their comfort zones and make different movies. I think any psychopathic story can’t go without the shades of Sigappu Rojakkal. The first original thriller in Tamil Cinema as all the previous attempts were based on Hollywood flicks.

Trivia

Bharathiraaja never knew how to write English dialogues for this movie, and he had to pull off some English words which he hears in daily life (told by him during a promo program for Nadunisi Naaygal) The movie was initially offered to Sivakumar (!!!), but he refused the role as it would not suit him. (Anecdote from Idhu Rajapaattai Alla — an autobiography by Sivakumar) The movie was remade as “Red Rose (1980)” in Hindi with Rajesh Khanna and Poonam Dhillon. Although critically acclaimed, the movie was a box office loss. Bharathiraaja is probably will be the director who introduced the most number of lead actors and actresses to Tamil cinema. The list includes the “R” actresses — Revathi, Radhika, Radha, Ranjita, Rekha, Riya Sen, Rati Agnihotri, Rohini and other beautiful actors like Napolean, Raja, Suganya, Bhagyaraj, Goundamani and Vijayashanti.The famed assistant directors from Bharathiraja became successful directors. The people who started their career with Bharathiraja include Bhagyaraj, Manivannan and Manobala. A strong supporter of Tamil Eelam cause, Bharathiraja returned his Padmashree in order to show his protest against the inaction by the govt. Vadivukkarasi was born in Ranipettai, Vellore. Although she is a daughter of a farmer,, Shanmugam, her family had cinema connections. Her father Shanmugam did tiny roles in many Devar Films movies of MGR and her uncle was AP Nagarajan. Due to the loss in farming and AP Nagarajan’s death, the family moved to Chennai and Vadivukkarasi had to give up her studies to work. She worked as an occasional presenter in Kanmani Poonga in Doordarshan and also worked in maintenance supervisor in Taj Connemara. She auditioned for the role of Radhika in Kizhakke Pogum Rail (1978) but was rejected because of her stylish looks and tall stature. Bharathiraaja had her in his mind and wanted her to play the small role of receptionist in Sigappu Rojakkal. She reminisces in an interview that she didn’t inform her family about the movie (as they wouldn’t approve) and was thrashed by her father when he knew about it. But the small role catapulted her into fame and she had many offers including the lead role in Kanni Paruvathile (1979). She was never concerned about playing the lead so she played interesting roles in movies like Metti (1982), Nizhal Thedum Nenjangal (1982) and Bhagavathipuram Railway Gate (1983). The pinnacle of her performance came in Mudhal Mariyathai, in which she acted as the wife of Sivaji Ganesan. She was just 26 when she played almost a 50 year old. But this made people to cast her in old roles but she shined in vile, negative roles than any other actress of her times. Her best roles include Varusham Padhinaaru (1989), En Uyir Thozhan (1990) and Sundara Purushan (1996) etc., Vadivukkarasi continued to act in many movies as mother and grand mother but also shined in TV serials. Her best role of her career became unlucky one too as they never gave her a chance to do younger roles. Bonus Trivia: She was named as Vadivukkarasi after Vadivukku Valaikappu, the first movie of AP Nagarajan as director. [5] Ninaivo Oru Paravai was the first song rendered by Kamal Hassan for Ilaiyaraaja. The same day he recorded Paneer Pushpangale (Aval Appadithan). In fact, the first hit song for Kamal as a singer. He already had sung a song in Tamil (Nyayaru Oli Mazhayil, in Andharangam) and couple of songs in Malayalam. Bhagyaraj wrote the dialogues for the movie but he hasn't been credited in the movie. It was a bit of possessiveness of Bhagyaraj that triggered the rift between him and Bharathiraja. There was a new Asst.Director Ramu, who took up Bhagyaraj’s place when he left for a small holiday. Bhagyaraj was miffed that Bharathiraja got closer to Ramu in a short period and left the sets of the shoot. KRG (producer and friend), convinced both and Bhagyaraj continued to work in the movie. But Ramu made sure his name wasn’t there in the final credits. Bhagyaraj was dejected by the entire episode and left the crew. But later, he was convinced by mutual friends and worked in the screenplay of Puthiya Vaarpugal and Bharathiraja made him the hero of the movie. [2] Ilaiyaraaja has recalled that it took only 4 call sheets (or recording time periods) to score the original soundtrack for the movie. He had used only 5 musicians for the first 3 and used only 12 Violins and 2 Cellos for the last one. When Bharathiraja remade the movie as Red Rose in Hindi, he opted for RD Burman. RD Burman was baffled by the score created by Ilaiyaraaja and he asked how he did it. The Hindi producers wanted to use some tracks from the Tamil movie but Ilaiyaraaja refused to provide the tracks because he wasn’t happy that Bharathiraja chose to go with RD Burman instead of him. [3] Ananda Vikatan gave a whopping 53/100 for the movie and called it an Hollywood Thriller in Tamil. [4] One of the promotional posters of the movie was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho’s promotional poster

Sigappu Rojakkal Promotion Poster Inspired by Psycho.

Read the entire list from this link

https://medium.com/sylvianism/50tamilmovies/home

References