Bairavi

Bairavi
Poster
Directed by	M. Bhaskar
Produced by	Kalaignanam
Written by	Kalaignanam (Dialogues)
Screenplay by	Madurai Thirumaran
Story by	Kalaignanam
Starring	Rajinikanth Sripriya Geetha Sreekanth
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	K. S. Bhaskar Rao
Edited by	M. Vellaisamy
Production company	Vallivelan Movies
Release dates	8 June 1978
Language	Tamil

Bairavi is a 1978 Tamil-language Indian feature film directed by M Baskar, starring Rajinikanth in lead role. It was Rajinikanth's first movie as a solo hero in Tamil cinema.^[1] He was also given the "Superstar" title through this film.^[2][3] The film stars Sripriya as the female lead and Geetha playing the title role as Rajini's sister. Geetha was introduced in this film. Sreekanth played the role of the main villain. Malayalam actor Sudheer played Bairavi's step brother, while Manorama and Suruli Rajan played other major roles.

Plot

Mookaiyah (Rajinikanth) and his sister Bairavi (Geetha) are the children of a drunkard. They are separated after Bhairavi gets lost in an accident. Following this, Mookaiyah becomes a servant of a local landlord (Sreekanth). Mookaiyah is a loyal servant and does whatever is asked of him. The landlord, Rajalingam (Sreekanth), forces Mookaiyah to abduct a young girl from a neighboring village, Bhagyam (Geetha). Rajalingam rapes her in the absence of Mookaiyah. Maanikam, Bhagyam's adopted brother, finds to know about the incident. When the police investigate Maanikam, Mookaiyah discovers that Bhagyam is his long-lost sister (Bairavi). Then he immediately approaches Rajalingam and forces him to marry Bairavi; he was not ready to accept it at first but after a while he promises to Mookaiyah that he will marry Bairavi. As Mookaiyah was the person who abducted Bairavi, the police suspect that he is the culprit, comes to Rajalingam's house to know about Mookaiyah. Rajalingam also alleges to Police that Mookaiyah only raped Bairavi. The police therefore arrest Mookaiyah, based on the statement of Rajalingam. Meanwhile, Rajalingam plans to kill Bairavi when she was in an unconscious state in hospital. If Bairavi become conscious and gives a statement to the police then he will definitely be prone to punishment, so he kills her. After knowing about his adopted sister's murder, Maanikam vows to take revenge on Mookaiyah, whom he believes to be responsible for Bairavi's death. Meanwhile, Mookaiyah escapes from jail knowing about the incident. He then sets out to kill the landlord in revenge for his sister's death.

Cast

• Rajinikanth as Mookaiyah
• Sripriya as the love interest of Mookaiyah
• Sudheer as Bairavi's step brother
• Geetha as Bairavi
• Sreekanth as Rajalingam
• Suruli Rajan
• Manorama
• Y. Vijaya
• K. Natraj

Production

Kalaignanam who was impressed with Rajini's dedication in Aarupushpangal, went straight ahead casting Rajini in lead role for Bhairavi. Director Oscar Movies M Baskar, having faith in Rajini to pull the crowds as hero. Initially, Devar agreed to give financial support for Bhairavi but when he heard Rajini is the lead actor, he withdrew the support and advised Kalaignanam to stop the movie or change the actor and questioned him for choosing a villain in the lead role and hero as villain (Srikanth was acting as hero those days) and he assured that it will be a huge loss.^[4] Kalaignanam approached Muthuraman to play negative role but he refused to portray a negative character, Srikanth was finally selected for the role.^[4][5] M. Bhaskar, former assistant of C. V. Sridhar was chosen to direct the film.^{[6] [7][4]}

Release

When the film was released, Devar watched the film in Rajakumari theatre. He was quite shocked to see the response for Rajini and during the interval itself the film was declared as Super Hit.^[4][5] Devar withdrew all his words and asked Kalaignanam to book Rajini for their banner.^[6] It was the idea of M. Bhaskar to give Rajinikanth the "Super Star" tag, which is still used by many people to refer to him. A cutout of Rajinikanth with the height of 35 feet was built in Plaza Theatre.^[8][9] The film was dubbed into Telugu and released as Bhairavi.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack and background score was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. Bairavi was the third film for Ilaiyaraaja.All lyrics were penned by Kannadasan.^[10]

• Kattapulle – T. M. Soundararajan & S. Janaki
• Nandooruthu – T. M. Soundararajan
• Oru Padhiyil – S. Janaki
• Yezhukadal Nayakiye – S. Janaki & Chorus

References

External links

• Bairavi at the Internet Movie Database
• Bairavi at Bollywoodhungama