THALAPATHI

Mani Ratnam | Rajnikanth, Mammooty, Aravind Swamy | 1991 | Crime Drama

Thalapathi – one of the classics of Tamil cinema, 1991 Diwali blockbuster starring Rajinikanth, Mammootty, Aravind Swamy, Jaishankar, Amrish Puri, Srividya, Banupriya, Shobana and Geetha was a small thread from the epic Mahabaratham depicting the friendship between Duryodhanan and Karnan in the modern times, i.e., 1991 back then. Thalapathi has evolved as one of the cults that Tamil cinema has ever produced and has been an inspiration for many successful filmmakers who chose cinema as their profession. The film was reportedly the most expensive film in the industry with a budget of 1.3 Crores (1991) and also was the first collaboration of Maniratnam – Rajinikanth, which created further hype and expectations. 

Story plot is a modern approach of the Karnan’s life wherein Srividya, a 14-year-old girl gives birth to a boy baby, abandons him, places him in a goods train unwillingly to face the cruel society, similar to how Kunti Devi abandons Karnan. Later the child grows up as Surya (Rajinikanth) and meets the local gangster Deva (Mammootty), wherein he learns justifying their misdeeds and then encounter Arjun (Aravind Swamy), Surya’s brother. Exactly dealing the base plot in from Mahabaratham, portrayal and relevance to the current time was the key for this cult. The film showed various dimensions of all characters and established the depth of the characters for the audience with a commercial angle without losing the story’s value and essence. The story had modern version problems addressed like poverty, love and lust, castism, and widow remarriage with a stylish subtle Maniratnam touch in all of it. The core concept behind Friendship and its effective portray is what sustains the film as one of the cult examples in the industry. Spinning stories around epic characters or real-life incidents has been one of Maniratnam’s play areas and he incredibly excelled in it. 

The film had almost all top stars behind the backing of Rajinikanth and Mammootty and their first collaboration with the classy director Maniratnam showed the audience softer, subtler yet stronger actors in them. Rajinikanth had stated in an interview that he found it difficult to work with Maniratnam as he was from completely different school compared to his previous directors; in fact, he was asked to emote the feelings in stunt sequence to bring the intensity of the character to the audience. Since the characters were drawn from Mahabaratham, the scope for the actors to show their versions is limited and with this constraint they have pulled off a good show. Especially the emotional angles of Srividya whenever her first son’s thoughts hazed over her mind, clean love angles between Shobana and Rajinikanth, cute and innocent conversations between Banupriya’s daughter and Rajinikanth and finally the trust and friendship with Mammootty. The film has also shown varied emotions of characters confronting the same problem. Clear writing, character portrayals and apt execution by the actors are definitely appreciable. 

Technical perfection helped the director pull off his vision on screen with all the constrains back in 1991. Ilayaraja’s music has been the strongest support for the film in terms of intense background score and super hit evergreen songs. Thalapathi’s cinematography has been of the standing examples for light usage and storytelling through cinematography. As per the Mahabaratham – Karnan – Surya Bhagavan, cinematographer Santosh Sivan has creatively used sunlight and sun backed ‘Silhouette shots’ which have stood across years and are classic examples of how to picture a Rajinikanth film. Artwork and locations stick to the originality of the story’s setting and established the story really well. Thalapathi – Maniratnam’s Cult.