RIP Visu Sir – Tribute to a man who made family oriented films interesting

Posted on by meetramz

As the Corona Virus started its carnage on the human race, one of the legends of Tamil cinema managed to evade the virus’s onslaught but nevertheless decided to leave the mortal world. Visu sir passed away on 22-Mar-2020 at the age of 75. An extra-ordinary personality, he carved out his own inimitable style in different aspects of the visual medium over the last 5 decades. Starting off as a theatre personality, he donned multiple roles as a Screenplay writer, Director, Actor who created and thrived on a specific genre of films which were highly successful in the 80s and 90s. As his film career waned, he re-invented himself as a talk show host and performed with aplomb in programs like Visuvin Makkal Arangam and Arattai Arangam. As was his screen persona, he had a strong personality that rubbed off on his films as well as the talk show programs. He had a way with words in Tamil and albeit stereotypical, it would make for interesting and engaging dialogues with dollops of humour. In his later years, he used to spend some time in his daughter’s apartment which was in a complex adjoining mine and I once ran into him during an evening walk and had the fortune of conversing with him once for about 15 minutes. While his physical body had withered down with age, his intellect remained as sharp as ever.

As a writer, Visu had contributed to several milestone movies in Tamil Cinema like Thillu Mullu, Netrikkan, Keezh Vaanum Sivakkum, Simla Special, Nallavanaku Nallavan. However, in my view, his biggest contribution was a director of movies which had the family as its fulcrum. As a Gen Xer who grew up in the 80s, I have enjoyed several of his films and here is my take on how he created this genre his very own. His biggest success both in terms of box office and top-of-the mind recall remains the 1986 blockbuster “Samsaram Adhu Minsaram“. The success of the movie and its rhyming title created a trend that Visu would use to his advantage for the next few years. The influence of his mentor K. Balachander was extremely evident in his films as the films would have an interesting story line, strong characters (especially women), number of simple but interesting twists, clever word plays and clean humour. Another unique aspect of his movie used to be the names of the characters in his movies. His pivotal woman character was always named “Uma”. In one of his interviews, Visu clarified on why was this the case. Apparently a teacher called Uma was the one who encouraged his desire to get into show biz and this was his way of being grateful to that lady. To that extent, he even started addressing his real-life wife as Uma. Even other characters would have unique names, especially his own character.

Several of these firms would follow a specific pattern. It would be a set in a family which was typical of the 80s Indian middle class. There would be a middle-aged couple who could have 3 or 4 children each of whom would be in their twenties and beset with their own problems. Visu would play either the father role or an external well-intentioned person who would enter this household and solve their problems with subtle twists and turns. While some of these twists and turns would be highly cinematic, the movie would keep re-emphasizing the value of joint families and the need of the individual to straddle above his/her selfish yearnings for the common good of the family. In addition, his movies would never have a dominating hero as the main character. As he would always say, the story was the hero of his films. Thereby he did steer clear of the top hero-based movies that has been a hallmark of Tamil Film Industry and created his own trend

He would often use the same actors/actresses in his films and has extracted memorable performances from several of them. Some of these include S.Ve Shekhar, Kamala Kamesh, the evergreen Manorama, Dilip, Chandrasekar, his own brother Kishmu, Pandian, Delhi Ganesh and several others.

Kudumbam Oru Kadmbam (1980)
This movie was not directed by Visu, but he did write the story and the screenplay and also starred in it. It was an indication of things to come in the later years including the rhyming title. This movie showcased the happenings in a house where multiple families lived and their challenges, several of which were reflective of the India of the early 80s.

Manal Kayiru (1982)
Starring one his close aides, S.Ve Shekhar, this hilarious film addressed the male dominated whims and fancies that were prevalent in the 80s especially when it came to marriage. An eligible bachelor Kittumani (S.Ve Shekhar) has a set of conditions that his prospective wife should satisfy and seeks the help of his uncle Naradar Naidu (played by Visu). Naradar Naidu had been a similar personality in his younger days and had seen a tragedy occur because of these unfair demands. He pulls all strings to get Kittumani married at all costs to a girl Uma (played by Shanthi Krishna) who is a wonderful girl but who satisfied none of the conditions. The whole screenplay had dollops of humour and tackled this complex issue in a remarkably interesting and simple way. Even today, it remains highly entertaining. S.Ve Shekhar made a sequel to this in 2016 with his son as the hero and even casted Visu in the role of Naradar Naidu but it unfortunately well flat.

Dowry Kalyanam (1983)
The evil of Dowry was quite prevalent in the 1980s and this was one of the finest movies that addressed this issue in a very clever and humorous way. It tracks the challenges faced by Ganesan (played by Visu) and his wife Uma (played by Srividya), a middle class couple as they try to get Visu’s sister Gowry (played by Viji) married to a wealthy groom Mangupathy (played by S.Ve Shekhar). The movie also starred the future superstar Vijayakanth in an important role. Although sprinkled with humour, the movie brought out the significant challenges that the system of Dowry wreaked upon the middle class and still continues today albeit in a toned-down form.

Aval Sumangalithan (1985)
This was a bit of feel-good family film with a tragic end and certainly not a usual Visu film. Starring Karthik and Illavarasi as a happily married couple, the film for a majority of its duration tracks their life with plenty of feel good moments. The inevitable twist happens when Karthik is detected with blood cancer and is informed that he has very little time to live. Visu and KR Vijaya play the parents of Illavarasi and who adore their son-in-law. The film is enjoyable for the feel-good moments but the actions of the characters, post the blood cancer detection, seemed very convoluted and artificial. It seemed like Visu did not apply his usual self fully throughout the script and thereby lost the plot mid-way. This was the time that Karthik was establishing himself as the charming boy-next-door “Navarasa Nayagan” and this was probably a dress rehearsal for the evergreen character of Manohar that he would play in Mani Ratnam‘s “Mouna Ragam“, the following year.

Chidambara Rahasiyam (1985)
This again was not a typical visu film and possibly his attempt at attempting other genres. Again starring S.Ve Shekhar as a bumbling village simpleton, it was Visu’s attempt at trying his hands at a murder mystery. A series of circumstances make Chidambaram (played by SV Sekar), the primary suspect in a murder case. Visu stars as a CBI official who helps in solving the mystery. Although there were several twists and turns, the story in itself did not have sufficient coherence and the overall plot turns out to be one of those things that can only happen in a film. Nevertheless, he extracted a wonderful performance from S.Ve Shekhar and also cast Delhi Ganesh in the unlikely role of an international criminal villain called “Black Cat”

Samsaram Adhu Minsaram (1986)
“Failure is the stepping stone to success”. And so was it with Visu as the sub-par performances of the previous films made him create this masterpiece with AVM films. It turned out to be an exceptional blockbuster and to date remains the classic Visu signature film. It tracks the story of Ammayappa Mudaliar (played with aplomb by Visu) whose family is split because of the selfish actions of his son Chidambaram (again played with aplomb by Raghuvaran). It also tracks the sincere efforts of Uma (played brilliantly by Lakshmi), Chidambaram’s wife to re-unite the family. And the icing on the cake was the brilliant twist in the climax which emphasized the need for joint families to not break the inherent trust and how this trust, once broken is almost impossible to rebuild. This film won several awards and was a box office success. The movie had brilliant performances by several artists including Godavari (played by Kamala Kamesh), Kannamma (played outstandingly by Manorama), Albert Fernades (played by Kishmu) amongst others. The real hero of the movie was the House which was built on the AVM studios premises that was as much as key to the story as the characters. This interview by Visu on the 33rd anniversary of this movie reveals a lot of interesting aspects of this fantastic movie. It remains a favourite choice of viewers on television whenever it is telecast. Further it set the trend for future movies with rhyming titles.

Others
Over the next few years, Visu made several similar movies including

Pretty much all of them followed a similar formula to Samsaram Adhu Minsaram and were well liked by the audiences in those times. Most of them were also very successful at the box office. However, as the years went by, audiences got used to Visu’s style of movie making and with changing times, slowly but surely, these movies went out of style. This phase is also reflective of the times that the joint family systems started getting dismantled and with population control, there were fewer large families.

Neenga Nallla Irukkanum (1992)
Another off-beat movie directed by Visu and which interestingly was also Jayalalitha’s last movie (where she played herself). This movie was a box office dud but won national award and was taken to highlight the challenges due to alcoholism. It was probably one of the few bright spots of Jayalalitha’s first tenure as Chief Minister.

Sigamani Ramamani (2001)
This was Visu’s last movie as a director and co-incidentally starred S.Ve Shekhar again as a middle class man handling multiple difficulties. While it was not a signature visu film, it still made for decent watching and had wonderful performances from S.Ve Shekhar, Urvashi, Manorama and Visu.

Talk Show Host
Visu was quick to realize that he needed to reinvent himself and turned over a new avatar as a talk show host and hosted 2 major shows, Visuvin Makkal Arangam and Arrattai Arrangam for several years. At that time, they were quite unique in their construct and content. Visu would visit several towns and villages and pick a topic and would ask people to debate on the topic whilst being the arbitrator. These programs were widely popular and several mainstream personalities came to public attention through these shows. However the incessant travel and the nature of the shows took a toll on Visu’s health. He mentioned this to me during my only meeting with him which I had referred to earlier.

Later years
Even in his later years, Visu remained quite sharp at his intellectual prowess despite poor physical health. Recently, he had also mentioned that he had a script ready for Samsram Adhu Minsaram 2 and wanted some talented director to pick it up and make it into a movie. Although he mentioned that he had developed it to keep in tune with modern times, there were no takers. Maybe one of the newer directors may want to take a stab at it.

Visu sir was indeed a legend of his times and was a good reflection of somebody who had a Teachable Point of View. His scripts were based on his own experiences of having been in a joint family living in Triplicane in the 1950s and 1960s. That combined with his extraordinary intellect and sense of humour created a highly appreciated genre, which were not just commercially successful but keep constantly reminding us of the need to stick to family values. Visu’s death during the lockdown meant that several people could not pay homage to him appropriately. But he will definitely live in the memories of those like me who have had the fortune of growing up, watching his films and who do appreciate them for their values.

RIP Visu Sir. You will always live through your films !!!!

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