Veteran director J Mahendran, who gave Tamil cinema several brilliant films, including Aadu Puli Attam and Mullum Malarum, died on April 2, 2019. His legacy lives on. He enjoyed a good rapport with the late politician and actor MG Ramachandran. An interesting incident from Mahendran’s college life is testimony to this fact. In one of his college events, Mahendran said that people frowned at the idea of women and men loving. Still, Nenjathai Killadhe’s director further said, they enjoy Ramachandran’s romantic films.
Saying this, Mahendran started naming Ramachandran’s romantic movies. Ramachandran was present at the event and was quite impressed with these words by the Uthiripookkal director. When the event ended, Ramachandran wrote a letter praising Mahendran.
After this incident, their bond deepened. Mahendran was roped in as an associate director for the film Kanchi Thalaivan. Kanchi Thalaivan deals with the topic of rivalry between Pallavas and the Chalukyas. Kanchi Thalaivan boasted of a stellar star cast comprising M.G.R, Bhanumathi Ramakrishna, S.A Ashokan and others.
Late politician and writer M Karunanidhi penned the dialogues, lyrics, script and screenplay. Despite this, Kanchi Thalaivan could not perform well at the box office.
Kanchi Thalaivan’s failure couldn’t stop Mahendran from succeeding as an artist. He made a total of 12 films in his lifetime. Among those 12 films, he considered Uthiripookkal as his best work. According to him, Uthiripookkal had minimum flaws and qualifies to be called his best work. His other noted works are Metti, Nandu, Sasanam and others. Metti was applauded for the fact that it lets women realistically express their emotions. Nandu also revolved around a similar theme of women’s empowerment. Both films were appreciated by the audience and critics alike. Sasanam revolved around the topic of extramarital affairs and was criticized by the audience.
Besides direction, Mahendran was also a good actor. His last film as an actor was Pon Manickavel. Pon Manickavel was a box office failure.
