Apoorva Sagodharargal

Apoorva Sahodharargal (Tamil)
Directed by	Singeetham Srinivasa Rao
Produced by	Kamal Hassan
Written by	Kamal Hassan (screenplay) Panju Arunachalam (story) Crazy Mohan (dialogues) Manohar Shyam Joshi (dialogues - Hindi version)
Starring	Kamal Haasan Gouthami Rupini Srividya Nagesh Jaishankar Nassar Delhi Ganesh
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	P. C. Sriram
Distributed by	Raajkamal Film International
Release date(s)	May 22, 1989 (1989-05-22) (Tamil) June 3, 1990 (1990-06-03) (Hindi)
Running time	150 minutes
Country	‹See Tfd› India
Language	Tamil

Apoorva Sahodharargal (Tamil: அபூர்வ சகோதரர்கள்) is a 1989 Tamil feature film directed by Singeetham Srinivasa Rao. It starred Kamal Hassan in triple roles, as a mechanic, a circus clown who is a dwarf and a police officer, along with Gouthami, Srividya, Manorama, Nagesh, Jaishankar, Nassar in main roles. Due to its mega success in the south, the film was dubbed into Hindi as Appu Raja (Hindi: अप्पू राजा) in 1990 and like the original, it was also successful to become one of the cult classics. It was dubbed into Telugu as 'Vichithra Sodarulu' (Telugu: విచిత్ర సోదరులు) .

Plot

Sethupathy (Kamal Hassan) is an honest and upright police officer. When he arrests four bigwigs Dharmaraj (Nagesh), Francis Anbarasu ('Delhi' Ganesh), Nallasivam (Nasser) and Satyamoorthy (Jaishankar), they escape justice easily and return to take revenge. They kill him and poison his wife (Srividya). She escapes and gives birth to twins with the help of another woman (Manorama) but the babies are separated and each woman believes that the other is dead because of the events happening next to birth. Raja (Kamal Hassan) grows up as a mechanic with Muniyamma(Manorama) while Appu (Kamal Hassan), a Dwarf, grows up in the circus with his mother (SriVidya).

Appu falls in love with the daughter (Rupini) of the circus owner mistakenly thinking that she was asking him to elope with her. But she actually had asked him to be witness to her marriage with her fiancé, which was not approved by her father. Heartbroken over this and insecurity over his height, he tries to commit suicide but is prevented by his mother, who then reveals the reason that his dwarfism might have been because of the poison force-fed to her when she was pregnant with the twins. This leads Appu to learn about his father’s murder and he decides to avenge by killing the four murderers.

Meanwhile, Raja falls in love with Janaki (Gautami) who happens to be Satyamoorthy's daughter. As Raja resembles Sethupathy, Sathyamoorthy and his 3 friends gain interest in Raja.

Francis is fishing in a lake. Appu uses one of his well trained circus Pomeranian puppy to lure Francis Anbarasu to an abandoned building and reveals his identity to him. Francis Anbarasu smirks when he sees that Appu is a dwarf and cannot hurt him due to his bigger size. But Appu uses a Rube Goldbergian contraption to kill him and the dead body falls in a truck covered with hay. Raja and Janaki have car trouble and hitchhike a ride in the same truck but are oblivious to the dead body. The truck driver discovers the body when he reaches his destination and calls the police. The inspector (Janakaraj) in charge of the case, suspects Raja by tracing the car number given by the truck driver.

Appu kills Nallasivam in a golf course using a tiger from his circus but Nallasivam's caddy sees Appu’s face and the tigers tail from afar. This leads the inspector to Raja again who, coincidentally is wearing a tiger costume while performing a song at a festival in his street. Janaki becomes enraged when she learns that Raja has killed his father’s friends and breaks up with him.

Raja is released from custody as the postmortem examination has revealed real tiger wounds that could not be inflicted by Raja’s costume. He goes over to Janaki’s house to smooth things over with the inspector following him covertly. When he is talking to her, Appu tricks Sathyamoorthy into killing himself with a circus hand gun that shoots backwards. Appu escapes but Raja and Janaki enter Sathyamoorthy's room hearing the gunshot a few moments before the inspector arrives. Janaki faints when she sees her dad dead and the inspector now believes that Raja had shot Sathyamoorthy. Raja too escapes and is on the run while the police had released a sketch of his face to the public. An exhausted Raja is spotted by some people in a market and they try to catch him. Raja, in an attempt to evade capture threatens to kill the nearest woman he gets hold of. When the crowd back down, he releases the woman and escapes. The woman, who incidentally happens to be Srividhya, realizes that Raja is the other twin and seeks out Manorama. They both realize that the murders are committed by Appu and Raja is mistaken as Appu, who overhears this. Dharmaraj believes that it is Raja avenging his father’s death and that he is the next target, and decides to seek out Raja’s mother and is shocked to see Srividhya, whom he believed to be dead, also present there. Nonetheless, he kidnaps both women and threatens to kill them unless Raja surrenders to him. Appu escapes and helps Raja evade the police and tells him everything. They both collaborate and go to the circus where their mothers are held captive. With the help of well trained circus animals, Appu and Raja overpower the goons. Ignoring his mothers call to stop, Appu shoots Dharmaraj,he falls down and eaten by circus lions. Appu surrenders to the police and Raja is set free.

The dance sequence of Raja Kaiya Vechcha, borrows a few sequences from the English musical "Grease", which featured John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Especially the sequence where the old car transforms into a brand new one and the costumes of the cast changes dramatically.

The film is noted for the character of Appu, who is a dwarf played by Kamal Hassan. This film was shot on 14 March 1988 until July 31, 1989.

Charlie Chaplin Inspiration

The little episode of Appu in love with the daughter of circus owner, is a very much inspired from the Charlie Chaplin silent film The Circus (1928). In the Chaplin version too, Chaplin initially assumes the daughter of the circus owner Merna Kennedy is in love with him. He even buys a ring for her. Later he is heart broken when he finds her in love with someone else. Finally he helps her marry her lover.

Cast

• Kamal Hassan: Sedhupathy (Raghupathy in Hindi version), Appu, Raja
• Srividya: Mother of Appu & Raja
• Gouthami: Janaki
• Janakaraj: The Inspector
• Rupini: Appu's girlfriend
• Manorama: Muniamma
• Nagesh: Dharmaraj
• Delhi Ganesh: Francis Anbarasu
• Nassar: Nallasivam
• Jaishankar: Satyamoorthy

Track listing

Tamil

1. "Raja Kaiya Vachchaa": Kamal Hassan
2. "Puthu Maappillaikku": S. P. Balasubramaniam, S. P. Sailaja
3. "Onna Nenachche Paattu": S. P. Balasubramaniam
4. "Vaalibaththin Kaathalukku Jey": S. P. Balasubramaniam, S. Janaki
5. "Annaaththe Aaduraar": S. P. Balasubramaniam

Hindi

1. "Raja Naam Mera": Kamal Hassan
2. "Woh To Bana Apna": S. P. Balasubramaniam, Asha Bhosle
3. "Tune Saathi Paya Apna Jag Mein": S. P. Balasubramaniam
4. "Matwale Yaar Teri Jai": S. P. Balasubramaniam, Asha Bhosle
5. "Aaya Hai Raja": S. P. Balasubramaniam

Box office

• It played for 400 days in Madurai and Pondicherry and 370 days in Chennai and 175 days in Mumbai.^{[citation needed]} it had silver jubilee run in all regional and Hindi states, it has become a cult movie even today no one can ascertain how kamal became dwarf.

External links

• Apoorva Sahodharargal at the Internet Movie Database