Punnagai Mannan
Punnagai Mannan () is a 1986 Indian Tamil-language musical romantic drama film written and directed by K. Balachander. The film stars Kamal Haasan and Revathi, with Srividya, Rekha, Delhi Ganesh, Sudarshan and Sundar Krishna Urs in supporting roles. It revolves around a dance instructor whose student falls in love with him. Haasan initially pitched a sequel of "Ek Duuje Ke Liye" (1981) to Balachander. While the project was not made, Balachander used the plot details narrated to make a new film titled "Punnagai Mannan". It was released on 1 November 1986, Diwali day, and ran for over 25  weeks in theatres, becoming a silver jubilee hit. Plot. Lovers Sethu and Ranjani arrive at a cliff where they plan to commit suicide due to the pressure put up by Ranjani's parents against their marriage. Sethu, the son of an ordinary drunkard cook, was not accepted as groom for Ranjani by her parents; they threatened Ranjani that either they would kill Sethu or commit suicide. Both jump from the cliff; Sethu gets trapped in a tree and survives while Ranjani dies. Despite the attempts made by Ranjani's father to jail Sethu by framing a fake case that Sethu  killed Ranjani, no strong evidence is there to prove it. Sethu is arrested for having attempted suicide. A year later, Sethu is released. His aunt Padmini, who owns a dance school, provides him a job of dance master as he is a former student. Sethu visits the cliff regularly as a remembrance of his love. On his way he sees a girl who attempts suicide for her failure in examination and stops her. He again meets the girl in a gallery. The girl introduces herself to him as Malini but he ignores her. Malini again meets Sethu at a tourist  spot where she clicks photographs of him without his knowledge, but Sethu realises this and destroys her camera. Malini chases him to his school as his student. Sethu repeatedly insults her but Malini develops love for him. Malini coincidentally meets Sethu's uncle "Chaplin" Chellapa, who dresses like Charlie Chaplin and makes people laugh. She learns of Sethu's failed love from him, which increases her affection towards Sethu. Chellapa helps her to win Sethu's heart. Malini is a Sinhalese girl, because of which she faces trouble from her classmate many times and is every time rescued by Sethu . Though Sethu humiliates her all the time, he develops a soft corner in his mind. Sethu realises that he has started to love her but gets confused what to do as he is a failed one. Sethu's repeated attempts to prevent himself loving Malini fails and he takes a sign of blessing for his new love from Ranjani at the cliff side. He finally confesses his love for her and proposes to her. Malini continues to spend time with Chellapa as she enjoys his sense of humour. This makes Sethu jealous, so he attempts to mimic Chellapa's mannerisms , but ends up injured. Sethu finds that Chellapa is a failed lover who, to forget his past, has worn a mask of Chaplin. Sethu and Malini unite Chellapa and Padmini who is a spinster. Sethu again faces pressure from Malini's father as Malini is Sinhalese and Sethu is a Tamilian. Both of them struggle hard to win in their love. Malini goes to the extent of escaping from Sri Lanka to Tamil Nadu to join with Sethu. Understanding the tight bond between Malini and Sethu, Malini's father approves their marriage. Ranjani's father, who hears about Sethu's  marriage, wants to take "revenge" for his daughter's death. On the day of Sethu's engagement, he gives a basket full of apples which has a time bomb in it to Sethu's father, pretending to be his gift for his son. Sethu's father, who does not know about the bomb, keeps the basket in Chellapa's car. Sethu and Malini leave to visit Sethu's love cliff in Chellapa's car which has the bomb. Sethu's father and Chellapa learn about the bomb and try to stop Sethu and Malini, to no avail; the ensuing detonation  kills Sethu and Malini. Chellapa later showers flowers in the place of their death. Ramesh Aravind was cast as Malini's lover in flashbacks, but his scenes did not make the final cut. Production. Development. After the success of "Ek Duuje Ke Liye" (1981), its lead actor Kamal Haasan pitched a sequel to the director K. Balachander. The sequel would begin from the predecessor's climax, but take a detour from the suicides of the lead characters; only the female would die and the male's suicide attempt botched. While the sequel was ultimately not made, Balachander used these plot  details for a new film titled "Punnagai Mannan". Balachander described it as a contrast to "Ek Duuje Ke Liye" as it "was in response to people who argued why lovers should commit suicide." Casting and filming. Haasan was cast in two roles: Sethu, and his uncle "Chaplin" Chellappa. Revathi was cast as Malini, a Sinhalese girl, and her voice was dubbed by actress Sulakshana. Rekha's character was named Ranjani, after the Carnatic raga of the same name. G. M. Sundar made his feature film debut as a dance student. Many scenes of "Punnagai Mannan" were shot at Athirappilly Falls , Kerala. The film featured a kissing scene between Haasan and Rekha, who was 16 years old at the time. In a 2019 interview, Rekha stated that before the shooting of the scene, she was not told of the kiss. During the shooting, Haasan suddenly grabbed and kissed on her lips. After the shoot, Rekha protested and asked to remove the scene, but the crew did not comply. Balachander suggested Kala as a dance choreographer to fill in for the busy Raghuram, her brother-in-law. Suresh Krissna, who worked as an assistant director, said that regarding the picturisation of the  song "Mamavukku", Haasan came up with the novel idea of lip sync being perfect while dance movements are fast. Krissna later used this idea in one of the song sequences in his film "Annaamalai" (1992). Stills Ravi worked as a still photographer for the film. Soundtrack. The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics by Vairamuthu. This was the final film where they worked together. A. R. Rahman (then known as Dileep), who then worked in Ilaiyaraaja's troupe, handled synthesizer for the album. "Punnagai Mannan" was one of the earliest Tamil films to use a sequencer. Ilaiyaraaja's son  Karthik Raja recalled that CX5M system was used around the time of the making of the film. The song "Yedhedho Ennam Valarthen" is set in the raga known as Pahadi, "Singalathu Chinnakuyile" is set in Bageshri, "Enna Satham" is in Sindhu Bhairavi, and "Kavithai Kelungal" is in Savithri. Vairamuthu praised Balachander for "Enna Satham", stating that he had the guts to insert a song in a sequence where two lovers were going to die. In May 2015, the FM radio station, Radio City, commemorated Ilaiyaraaja's 72nd birthday by broadcasting the composer's songs in a special show titled  Raja Rajathan for 91 days. "Enna Satham" was one of the most requested songs on the show. Nandini Ramnath, writing for "Scroll.in", described it as a "love song, lullaby and dirge rolled into one." Release and reception. "Punnagai Mannan" was released on 1 November 1986, Diwali day. On 14 November 1986, "The Indian Express" wrote, "though the film was captivating, it did not seem to have much value as a thing of the past, as memory. And that is because both the plot and character are one-dimensional." Jayamanmadhan of "Kalki" negatively reviewed the film, particularly for the climax, comparing  it unfavourably to Balachander's earlier films. Despite facing competition from other Diwali releases including "Maaveeran", "Palaivana Rojakkal", "Aruvadai Naal", and "Kannukku Mai Ezhuthu", it emerged a silver jubilee hit, running in theatres for over 25 weeks. On the film's 25th week celebrations, Haasan was given the title "Puratchi Mannan" (Revolutionary King) by Balachander. Other versions. The film was later dubbed into Telugu as "Dance Master" and into Hindi as "Chacha Charlie".