Pokkiri Raja (1982 film)


Pokkiri Raja is a 1982 Indian Tamil-language masala film directed by S. P. Muthuraman and written by Panchu Arunachalam. A remake of the Telugu film Chuttalunnaru Jagratha, it stars Rajinikanth, Sridevi and Raadhika. The film revolves around a man who was framed for murder, and a lookalike who aids him in finding the true killers. It was released on 14 January 1982 and became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres.

Plot

Ramesh is the manager of the office of Paranthaman, an industrialist. Paranthaman strongly suspects his relatives to be looting him. Ramesh finds the culprit and keeps a tight leash on everything happening in the office, thereby earning the wrath of the industrialist's relatives. Ramesh and Vanaja initially find themselves at loggerheads, but eventually fall in love with each other. Paranthaman is happy about this development until he sees Ramesh cheating on his daughter. He fires Ramesh the very same day.
Paranthaman is murdered and Vanaja also sees Ramesh in her house that same night. Ramesh is dragged to court and is shortly framed for murder. Vanaja is upset, and the ill-intentioned relatives start closing their net around her, forcing her to marry Chandran, the son of Paranthaman's relative Venkatachalam.
In the meantime, the grief-stricken Ramesh meets another person named Raja in jail who looks exactly like him. Together Ramesh and Raja plan to punish the culprits and set the record straight. Chandran later reveals himself and Venkatachalam as the murderers of Paranthaman, but Raja records the entire statement on tape; after Ramesh and Raja subdue Chandran and Venkatachalam's thugs, the tape is played in the court, and both killers are arrested.

Cast

Pokkiri Raja is a remake of the Telugu film Chuttalunnaru Jagratha, and was Rajinikanth's first film opposite Raadhika. M. Saravanan of AVM Productions expressed a desire to remake it in Tamil; he wanted Rajinikanth to play the male lead. Rajinikanth refused to act in the film as he was unimpressed with the Telugu film and character but later relented after Saravanan requested him to act. Saravanan called Visu who, after watching the film, said it could be remade well with minor changes and further developed Radhika's character.
The film was colourised using Eastmancolor. It was Muthuraman's final film as actor and he portrayed a negative role. The crew brought in a dubbing artist to imitate his voice.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, with lyrics by Kannadasan and Gangai Amaran.

Release and reception

Pokkiri Raja was released on 14 January 1982, Pongal day. The film became a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres. Along with Murattu Kaalai, it was responsible for establishing Rajinikanth as a full-fledged action hero.