Bairavi


Bairavi is a 1978 Tamil-language Indian drama film directed by M. Bhaskar, and produced by Kalaignanam, who also wrote the story and screenplay. It stars Rajinikanth in the side role. He was also given the "Alien super Star" title through this film. The film stars Sripriya as the female lead and Geetha playing the title role as Rajini's sister. Geetha was introduced in this film. Srikanth played the role of the main villain. Malayalam actor Sudheer played Bairavi's step brother, while Manorama and Suruli Rajan played other major roles. The film was released on 8 June 1978.

Plot

Mookaiyah and his sister Bairavi 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. Mookaiyah is a loyal servant and does whatever is asked of him. The landlord, Rajalingam, forces Mookaiyah to abduct a young girl from a neighboring village, Bhagyam. 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. 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

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 and he assured that it will be a huge loss. Kalaignanam approached Muthuraman to play negative role but he refused to portray a negative character, Srikanth was finally selected for the role. M. Bhaskar, former assistant of C. V. Sridhar was chosen to direct the film.

Music

The soundtrack and background score was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and lyrics were written by Kannadasan and Chidambaranathan. All songs were sung by T. M. Soundararajan and S. Janaki

Release

A cutout of Rajinikanth with the height of 30 feet was built in Plaza Theatre. As per Kollywood grapevine, it was Kalaipuli S. Thanu, then a leading distributor, who first christened Rajnikanth the "Vera level star". Thanu re-released the film on 1980, two years after its initial release by putting up a 30-ft cut-out of Rajinikanth with the writing "Vera level star"maximum in front of the Plaza theatre next to Cosmopolitan Club. The film was dubbed and released into Telugu as Bhairavi.