While performing a dual role in a film itself is tough for an actor, our Tamil actors have beautifully done triple roles and walked away with honours. From black and white era to the present times, stars of various generations have played three different characters in movies.
This week, as part of its Friday Special Articles series, Mykollywood.com throws light on a bunch of films that had actors in three contrasting roles.
MANGAYARKARASI
‘Mangayarkarasi’ is a 1949 film directed by Jiten Banerjee. It was produced by F Nagoor and S N.Ahamed, and stars P U Chinnappa, P Kannamba and Anjali Devi.
It was remake of Telugu film ‘Gollabhama’ which was released in 1947 and Anjali Devi reprised her role. Chinnappa, a top star of that era, played the roles of king, prince and the grandson of Mangayarkarasi.
THIRISOOLAM
Sivaji Ganesan played triple role in a number of films including ‘Bale Pandiya’ and ‘Deiva Magan’, and ‘Thirisoolam’ is one among them. It is a 1979 film directed by K Vijayan.
It had Sivaji Ganesan playing triple roles as father and sons and was promoted as his 200th film in a lead role. The movie was Sivaji’s last all-time blockbuster selling 1 crore tickets and completed a 200-day run at the box office. The film is a remake of the Kannada film ‘Shankar Guru’ (1978), that starred Rajkumar, who also appeared in the triple role.
MOONDRU MUGAM
‘Moondru Mugam’ is a 1982 film directed by A Jagannathan. The film stars Rajinikanth in three distinct roles as Alex Pandian, Arun and John. The film was a blockbuster and ran for 175 days in theaters. It received the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize in 1982.
The film was remade in Hindi as ‘John Jani Janardhan’ with Rajinikanth again reprising his roles, in Telugu as ‘Mugguru Monagallu’ with Sobhan Babu, and in Kannada as ‘Gedda Maga’ with Shankar Nag.
APOORVA SAGOTHARARGAL
‘Apoorva Sagodharargal’ is a 1989 film directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao. The film features an ensemble cast including Kamal Haasan, Jaishankar, Nagesh, Gautami, Rupini, Manorama, Srividya, Janagaraj, Moulee, Delhi Ganesh and Nassar. It features Kamal Haasan in three different roles.
It revolves around twins Raju and Appu who were separated during childhood and grew up in different localities, and Appu’s quest for revenge upon learning that his father was killed by four criminals.
‘Apoorva Sagodharargal’ was produced by Kamal Haasan and his brother Chandra Haasan under the production company Raaj Kamal Films International. The film’s story was written by Panchu Arunachalam, while Kamal Haasan and Crazy Mohan wrote the screenplay and dialogues respectively. B Lenin and V T Vijayan handled editing respectively, while the cinematography was handled by P C Sriram. The music for the film was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics written by Vaali.
VARALARU
‘Varalaru’ is a 2006 film written and directed by K S Ravikumar, and produced by S S Chakravarthy under the production house NIC Arts. The film stars Ajith Kumar in a triple role as a father and his two sons, alongside Asin and Kanika as the female leads; whilst Ramesh Khanna, Suman Setty, Sujatha and M S Baskar play other supporting roles.
The film’s soundtrack and background score were composed by A R Rahman. It ran for 175 days. Prior to release, the film was known by its original title Godfather, but following the Government of Tamil Nadu’s motion to exempt tax on films titled in Tamil in 2006, the film’s title was changed. After two years of production, the film released on 20 October 2006 during the eve of Deepavali, and emerged as the biggest grosser of the year.
MERSAL
‘Mersal’ is a 2017 film directed by Atlee and co-written by Atlee, K V Vijayendra Prasad and S Ramana Girivasan, in charge of the dialogues, and produced by Thenandal Studio Limited, thus becoming their 100th production. The film stars Vijay in a triple role, Kajal, Samantha, and Nithya Menen.
The story revolves around two twin brothers in which one is a magician avenging for his father’s death and medical crimes. The other one is a reputed doctor who charges meagre amounts from his patients.
The film’s principal photography commenced on 1 February 2017, at Chennai, and filming took place on Gdańsk, Poland and Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. The background score and soundtrack album were composed by A R Rahman, while the cinematography was done by G K Vishnu and edited by Ruben.
By Naveen
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