Uyarndha Manidhan

Uyarndha Manidhan (1968)

உயர்ந்த மனிதன்

Raju, a rich man gets along even with the poor unlike his father. He falls in love with Parvathi, a poor girl but is forced to marry Vimala because of his father. Director duo Krishnan–Panju’s Midas touch made this remake of the 1966 Bengali film “Uttar Purush” a tremendous success in Tamil. Often considered as one of Sivaji Ganesan’s all-time greats, this drama is poignant account of the tragedies that befall a young heir following an act of atrocity.

Date of release
1968-11-29
TMDB
8.3 / 10 (3)
Runtime
2h 48m
Genres
Drama
Director
R. Krishnan, S. Panju

Casting

Interesting facts

Uyarndha Manithan is a 1968 Indian Tamil-language drama film written by Javar Seetharaman and directed by Krishnan–Panju. The film was produced by A. V. Meiyappan, M. Saravanan, M. Kumaran and M. Murugan under AVM Productions. It stars Sivaji Ganesan and Sowcar Janaki, while S. A. Ashokan, Major Sundarrajan, Vanisri and Sivakumar play pivotal roles. The film's soundtrack and background score were composed by M. S. Viswanathan, while the lyrics for the songs were written by Vaali.

Production

V. A. P. Iyer, a Kolkata-based friend of AVM Productions founder A. V. Meiyappan, told Meiyappan that a Bengali film named Uttar Purush (1966) was running well. After watching the film, Meiyappan was impressed and decided to remake it into what would become Uyarndha Manithan. Javar Seetharaman was hired as screenwriter, and made a few alterations to the screenplay, while the duo Krishnan–Panju (R. Krishnan and S. Panju) were signed to direct. P.

When the script was ready, Meiyappan's sons and the film's co-producers M. Saravanan, M. Kumaran and M. Murugan narrated it to Sivaji Ganesan at his residence, Annai Illam. Ganesan initially refused to play the main character, Raju, as he felt the supporting character Gopal had more impact than Raju, and offered to act as Gopal. However, on Saravanan's insistence, Ganesan played the role of Raju, and the role of Gopal went to S. A. Ashokan.

Principal photography began in Kodaikanal. The first song sequence shot was "Velli Kinnamthan", depicting Raju and Parvathi (Vanisri) in a boat. The song "En Kelvikkenna Badhil", depicting Sathyamoorthy (Sivakumar) and Gowri (Bharathi), was shot at Kodaikanal and My Lady Garden, Madras (now Chennai).

It was speculated that a production company bought the remake rights of The Parent Trap (1961) in Hindi and titled it as Vapas. AVM had already acquired the rights to the film, which they were making under the title Do Kaliyan (1968). To avoid a clash with that film, AVM stalled production on Uyarndha Manithan for eight months to focus on Do Kaliyan.

For the scene where Raju beats and throws Sathyamurthy out of his house, multiple canes were kept as backup in case the cane with which Ganesan beats Sivakumar broke. Sivakumar was eventually left with his right arm dislocated after being kicked by Ganesan and falling over the sofa, and was hospitalised. The climax, where Raju rushes to the burning mill to save Sathyamurthy, took four to six days to film.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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