Continuing my humble work of spreading the genius of Ilaiyaraja in film composing. This time the movie that is featured was one of the milestones of the Indian cinema 'Apoorva Sagotharargal' or 'Appu Raja' released in 1989. Some of the highlights of the movie are:
- First time an actor of normal height plays a dwarf for the full length of the movie and is in fact the main character. Played with aplomb by one of the all time acting greats Kamal Haasan. This was done purely using trick shots.
- The secret of how they made this happen is still to be revealed by the makers.
- The advent of real time editing for the first time in Indian cinema, due to the complexity involved with the filming the crew opted simultaneous editing to cut costs, something that was unheard of at that time.
- The film ran for nearly 300 days at many places across India.
- The BGM and songs by Ilaiyaraaja is still popular among the audience now.
One of the highlights of the movie is the scene where the protagonist Appu suffers a heartbreak in love. It is one of the most heartrending performance by Kamal which is equally matched by Ilaiyaraaja's backgroud score. The song the succeeds the scene is another gem. You can watch it below:
