I just saw Surya's Ayan a couple of days back and noticed something....something i just haaaad to blog about !
Assuming you're from Tamil Nadu and you grew up in the 90's, Prabhu's Chinna Thambi is one of those movies you Prabhubly (!) saw multiple times. I still remember the boys in my locality fighting over who had seen that movie the most (and I'm sure some of the claims touched 6 figures)...
Jokes apart, Prabhu Ganesan, the son the legendary Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan is a household name in South India, thanks to a career that has spanned over 30 years, with him playing the male lead in innumerable blockbusters. Some of his most unforgettable performances were in the the early 90's... as the disturbed ex-con in Mani Ratnam's 'Anjali'... as the village simpleton in 'Chinna Thambi'...as the Prince in search of his perfect bride in Pratap Pothan's 'My Dear Marthandan'... as the problematic prisoner in Priyadarshan's 'Sirai Chaalai' (released in Hindi as Kaala Paani)..
In the early later 90's and early 2000's Prabhu's career seemed to take a downturn.. I mean.. he was getting older... and he seemed to be putting on a lot of weight. There were a string of flops and a few very unmention-worthy movies...Budget Padhmanabhan, Middle Class Madhavan, Banda Paramasivam...etc etc..These movies were crass, funny and entertaining, yes... but not the kind of movies you would expect someone of Prabhu's calibre to take up.
The upturn however came with the hilarious Charlie Chaplain in 2002, for which Prabhu bagged a TN State Award.
In 2004, Prabhu shared the screen with Kamal Hassan in Vasool Raja MBBS, a remake of Raj Kumar Hirani's Munnabhai MBBS. His rendition of Vaddi (a character made famous by Arshad Warsi in the Hindi Original) left the audience in splits.
I believe it was with this movie that Prabhu began to appear in a string of supporting roles..small, but powerful, dignified and effortlessly rendered. His role as SenthilNathan in Rajnikanth's Chandramukhi featured Prabhu in the now immortal "enna koduma saravanan idhu (Eng: What kind of torment is this?)" sequence. This sequence has been the subject of several Tamil Internet Memes and Jokes. Here's one such specimen (featuring Vijayakanth!!!)
Several of his recent movies have done reaaaaaaly well ... 'Something Something Unakkum Enakkum' where Prabhu plays the brother of the heroine (Trisha Krishnan), Billa, Silambattam (2009) and more recently, Ayan.
Coming to think of it. All the most eagerly awaited movies of this year and the next have Prabhu in supporting roles ... Vikram's Kandhasamy, Ajith's Asal and Mani Ratnam's Ashokavanam....
Now isnt that something to keep you ticking !!!
How could u forgetr to mention 'Arangetra VeLai', 'Guru Sishyan', and 'Duet', the first two for the comic roles, and the third for the role of a love-lorn "loser"?
ReplyDeletehe couldnt match up to arshad warsi of munnabhai in vasool, still with crazy mohan lines (neenga dhane adikadidi phone panna sonninga sort of ) prabhu was cool in that.
ReplyDeleteI don't know Imann, but Prabhu I defy kno :P
ReplyDelete..quite funny in vasulraja..also had some good lines in chandramukhi.. hope to see more of him in the future !!
Also u forgot about the movie Agni Natchathiram(Prabhu acting will be good and amala was jil jil :)). I always wonder about the actor Karthick rather than prabhu. He is not even doing a supporting role like prabhu. He is totally gone!!. If u see the movie Mouna raagam, the 10 - 20 min sequence of karthick is the heart of the movie(His acting was so natural and funny in that movie). And also there is lot of good movies of karthick like Gopura Vasalile,Ninaivellam nithya etc. Kushboo is heroine of 1980's, she told in one interview that her favorite actor was karthick (even now). He is a versatile actor but he is no where now. Raghav next blog is about karthick!!:)
ReplyDeleteprabhu's comedy with koundamani (as idea mani) in my dear marthanda is a memorable one.
ReplyDeletePrabu's performance in "Raja Kaiya Vecha" as Ashok Leyland manager ... where he speaks in English about the vehicles is a cool scene. It brings out the class of Prabhu. I think this movie has been left out in Wiki.
Another classic is "Uthama Purusan" which stars Amala and Revathi is also good. Prabhu as the play boy who becomes a murder suspect is also good.
May be some one can present a list of classic songs that his movie have. That will be some information. "Raja Kaiya Vecha" has this song mazhai varudhu mazhai varudhu kudai kondu vaa" its a classic.
Thanks all for the nice comments..
ReplyDelete@Shilpa - Nice to know you could recognize the personality in focus this time !
@ Dhayalan - Machi, yes.. karthik is an awesome and versatile actor. will see if i can get enough information to put a post about him
@ Others - Thanks for pointing out nice movies featuring Prabhu
ya he is realy a great actor no doubt in it,his acting in somethig somethig unakum enakum & in ayan was awesome. unfortunatly im not able to watch the movie chinna thambi
ReplyDelete@ Teny: Thanks for commenting, Chinna Thambi was one of those rare gems during that time.. What began as a sleeper hit became a statewide frenzy... everythng attributed to Prabhu's perfect casting as the lead character
ReplyDelete