Guru Sishyan (1988 film)

Guru Sishyan
Directed by	SP. Muthuraman
Produced by	Meena Panju Arunachalam
Screenplay by	Panju Arunchalam
Story by	M. D. Sundar
Starring	Rajinikanth Prabhu Ravichandran Gouthami Seetha Radha Ravi Cho Ramaswamy Pandiyan Vinu Chakravarthy Manorama Neethu
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	T. S. Vinayagam
Edited by	R. Vittal C. Lancy
Production company	P. A. Art Productions
Distributed by	P. A. Art Productions
Release dates	13 April 1988
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Box office	3.25 crores

Guru Sishyan (Tamil: குரு சிஷ்யன்; English: Teacher, Student) is a 1988 Indian Tamil comedy film directed by SP. Muthuraman, featuring Rajinikanth and Prabhu in the lead roles, with Gouthami and Seetha playing the lead female roles. This was the first Tamil movie for Gouthami, playing the love interest of Rajini, who later went on to become of the leading heroines of the Tamil film industry. It was a blockbuster and completed a 175-day run at the box office. The film was a remake of Hindi film Insaf Ki Pukar.^[1] The film was dubbed in Hindi as Zulm Ka Badsha.

Synopsis

Guru (Rajinikanth) and Babu (Prabhu) are two friends and petty criminals. They end up in jail and come across an innocent man Manohar ('Mannvaasanai' Paandiyan) who tells them that his sister was raped by Muthuraaj (Radha Ravi) and who had killed a taxi driver (witness) with the help of foolish corrupt police officer Nallasivam (Vinu Chakravarthy) and pinned the murder on Manohar. Manohar is sentenced to death row for the killing by the court. Guru and Babu believe in Manohar's story and decide to find the truth and prove his innocence once they get out of jail. Guru fractures Manohar's hand so that his death sentence would be delayed, until it heals, under law. Guru and Babu get released from prison and set in motion an elaborate plan to find out the real killers. Along the way, Guru, who believed that his parents were murdered, finds out that they are in fact being held captive by Muthuraj's brother Rajamanickam(Ravichandran) who is trying to find the map to a treasure. The location of the map is know only to Guru's father who is suffering from memory loss and is tortured to make him remember it. Babu finds out that his parents were murdered by Rajamanickam (Ravichandran). Guru and Babu help them find the treasure to free Guru's parents and Guru finds out that Manohar is his own brother. The ensuing fight at the treasure location, ends up with Muthuraj and his brother arrested by the police after Guru and Babu beat them up and the treasure cave collapses after Guru, Babu and Guru's family escape from it. Babu marries Muthuraj's niece Chitra(Seetha) while Guru marries Nallasivam's daughter Gouthami and they live happily ever after for.

Cast

• Rajinikanth as Raja aka Guru
• Prabhu as Babu aka Sishya
• Gauthami as Geetha Nallasivam
• Seetha as Chithra
• Ravichandran as Rajamanickam
• Cho Ramaswamy as Rajamanickam's Partner
• Radha Ravi as Muthuraaj
• Senthamarai as Kandhasamy
• Vinu Chakravarthy as Nallasivam
• Manorama as Kalyani Nallasivam
• Pandiyan as Manoharan
• Sudha as Sumathi (Pandiyan's Sister)
• LIC Narasimhan as DGP Sriram and Babu's Father

Production

Guru Sishyan was S. P. Muthuraman's 20th collaboration with Rajinikanth. This was the first film where Rajini and Prabhu appeared and together they went on to collaborate in Dharmathin Thalaivan (1988), Mannan (1992) and Chandramukhi (2005).^[2][3] The film marked the debut of Gauthami in Tamil films. Gauthami revealed that she "felt very nervous as I had to act with stars such as Rajinikanth, Prabhu, Manorama, Vinu Chakravarthi, Cho and others. But the film did very well and boosted my confidence. It was a good break".^[4][5] Panchu Arunachalam's son Subbu Panchu worked as an assistant production manager for the film.^[6]

Muthuraman said that he did this film to exploit Rajnikanth's comedy timing and revealed that the filming was completed in 28 days.^[7][8]

Soundtrack

The music composed by Ilaiyaraaja.^[9] The song "Kandupudichen" is based on Subhapantuvarali Raga.^[10]

Release

Guru Sishyan was released when political turmoil was happening in Tamil Nadu after MGR's death. Guru Sishyan became a huge blockbuster along with Mani Ratnam's Agni Natchathiram.^[8]

Legacy

The film made Gauthami as one of the most sought actresses in Tamil cinema.^[5] Radharavi who acted in the film listed as one of the favourite comedy films which he had acted.^[11]

Sakthi Chidambaram directed the film of same name starring Sundar C. and Sathyaraj. The film has different storyline from its yesteryear namesake. Sakthi Chidambaram said: "the story demanded such a title, we short-listed 50 titles, finally decided we could use the old one".^[12] The film was released in 2010 to negative reviews and became a failure.^[13]

References

External links

• Guru Sishyan at the Internet Movie Database

Bibliography

• Ramachandran, Naman (2014). Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-81-8475-796-5.