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Manithan
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	S. P. Muthuraman
Screenplay by	Panchu Arunachalam
Story by	V. C. Guhanathan
Produced by	M. Saravanan M. Balasubramaniam
Starring	Rajinikanth Rupini Raghuvaran
Cinematography	T. S. Vinayagam
Edited by	R. Vittal S. B. Mohan
Music by	Chandrabose
Production company	AVM Productions
Release date	21 October 1987 (1987-10-21)
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Box office	₹7.5 Crore

Manithan (transl. Human) is a 1987 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by S. P. Muthuraman, starring Rajinikanth, Rupini and Raghuvaran, with Senthil, Delhi Ganesh and Srividya. It was released on 21 October 1987, and became a silver jubilee industry hit.

Plot

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The story revolves around Raja, who grows up in juvenile detention due to hitting his teacher with a table weight for falsely calling him a thief because he was born on a No Moon Day. He was born to a superstitious father who believes that a person born on a No Moon Day will surely turn into a criminal. When his imprisonment years are over, he joins the People Welfare Organisation in a local community and helps needy people. In due course, he gets enemies due to his good deeds. The rest of the story forms on how Raja succeeds over his enemies and disproves the false claims on him and the superstitions and prejudice that surrounded him.

Cast

• Rajinikanth as Raja
• Rupini as Rooba
• Raghuvaran as Kumaravelu
• Srividya as Lakshmi
• Jai Ganesh as Inspector Sridhar
• Madhuri as Inthira
• Vinu Chakravarthy as Rathnavelu
• Cho Ramaswamy as Ponnambalam
• Senthil as Arivu
• G. Srinivasan as Chinnaya
• Delhi Ganesh as Marimuthu

Production

V. C. Guhanathan developed a story named Amavasayil Pirandha Oruvanin Kadhai (transl. The story of a man born on Amavasya) which Panchu Arunachalam expanded into a screenplay. With Rajinikanth cast in the lead role, AVM titled the film Manithan (transl. Human) as they felt Rajinikanth was a fantastic human. Distributors objected to the title as there was previously a play of the same name staged by TKS Brothers, but AVM refused to change the title of their film. Rupini accepted to star in Manithan after another film she was doing, Sir I Love You, was shelved.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by Chandrabose. Lyrics for this film were written by Vairamuthu. The title song was not originally intended to be added in the film as the film did not have right situation for this song to be placed; however Rajinikanth who was impressed with this song wanted to have this song in the film so it was picturised and placed in title credits.

Release and reception

Manithan was released 21 October 1987, Diwali day. Despite facing competition from Nayakan, released on the same day, Tamil version became more successful, and a silver jubilee industry hit. N. Krishnaswamy of The Indian Express wrote, "It is a no-holds-barred commercial film, but the formula works." Jayamanmadhan of Kalki, however, reviewed the film more negatively for being too formulaic. The film's silver jubilee function was held at Rajeshwari Marriage Hall in late April 1988. Chandrabose won the award for Best Music Director at the 8th Cinema Express Awards.

Legacy

Manithan was screened alongside other films of Rajinikanth like Murattu Kaalai, Pokkiri Raja, Paayum Puli at Albert theatre, on the occasion of his birthday on 12 December 2012. The film's title inspired that of a 2016 film.

Notes

1. In his column for Hindu Tamil Thisai, Cinema Eduthu Paar, Muthuraman said the event was held on 20 April 1988. However, in his memoir AVM Thandha SPM, he said it was celebrated on 24 April and erroneously mentioned 1998 as the year.

References

1. ^ ஜெயமன்மதன் (6 December 1987). "மனிதன்". Kalki (in Tamil). p. 2. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
2. Saravanan 2013, pp. 308–309.
3. Saravanan 2013, pp. 309–310.
4. NSK (20 August 1988). "How Roopini graduated to stardom". The Indian Express. p. 18. Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022 – via Google News Archive.
5. "Manithan (1987)". Raaga.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
6. "Manithan Tamil Film LP Vinyl Record by Chandrabose". Mossymart. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
7. Muthuraman 2017, pp. 315–316.
8. முத்துராமன், எஸ்.பி. (12 October 2016). "சினிமா எடுத்துப் பார் 79: எவன்தான் மனிதன்?". Hindu Tamil Thisai (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
9. "Aruna Guhan on how 'Manithan Manithan' became title track of Rajini's superhit film". The New Indian Express. ANI. 27 August 2022. Archived from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
10. "Before Annaatthe, five successful Deepavali releases of Rajinikanth". The Times of India. 3 November 2021. Archived from the original on 3 November 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
11. "Mani Ratnam reacts to Rajinikanth's Manithan beating Kamal Haasan's Nayakan at box office". The Indian Express. 2 June 2022. Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
12. "Rajinikanth donates eyes". The Indian Express. 25 April 1988. p. 3. Archived from the original on 24 May 2024. Retrieved 24 May 2024 – via Google News Archive.
13. Krishnaswamy, N. (30 October 1987). "Formula works". The Indian Express. p. 5. Retrieved 20 January 2021 – via Google News Archive.
14. முத்துராமன், எஸ்.பி. (26 October 2016). "சினிமா எடுத்துப் பார் 81: கண் தானத்தை ஊக்குவித்த ரஜினி". Hindu Tamil Thisai (in Tamil). Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
15. Muthuraman 2017, p. 318.
16. Joseph, Angela (22 April 1988). "'Nayakan' and 'Kamal' are now part of history". Screen. p. 32. Archived from the original on 21 September 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
17. "Rajini fans watch their matinee idol's films". The Hindu. 14 December 2013. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2020.
18. Rangan, Baradwaj (29 April 2016). "Manithan: Court of the day". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2020.

Bibliography

• Saravanan, M. (2013) . AVM 60 Cinema (in Tamil) (3rd ed.). Rajarajan Pathippagam. OCLC 1158347612.
• Muthuraman, S. P. (2017) . AVM Thandha SPM (in Tamil) (3rd ed.). Vikatan. OCLC 607342391.

External links

• Manithan at IMDb
• Manithan at Rotten Tomatoes

• 1987 films
• 1980s Indian films
• 1980s masala films
• 1980s Tamil-language films
• AVM Productions films
• Films about superstition
• Films directed by S. P. Muthuraman
• Films scored by Chandrabose (composer)
• Films with screenplays by Panchu Arunachalam
• Tamil-language Indian films