Sri Raghavendrar is a 1985 Tamil-language Hindu devotional film directed by S. P. Muthuraman and was produced by Kavithalaya Productions. The film stars Rajinikanth, portraying the title character, in the lead. Lakshmi, Vishnuvardhan, Delhi Ganesh and Nizhalgal Ravi play prominent roles. The film is based on the life of Hindu saintRaghavendra Swami. The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and lyrics were written by Vaali. The dialogues for the film were written by A. L. Narayanan. The cinematography was handled by T. S. Vinayagam while the editing was handled by the duo R. Vittal and S. B. Mohan. The film was later dubbed in Telugu as Sri Mantralaya Raghavendra Swamy Mahatyam. The film was released on 1 September 1985 to mixed reception with Rajinikanth's performance as a saint was widely praised. But the film failed at box office.
Plot
This film is the life of Sri Raghavendra. From Birth till his Mahasamadhi has been portrayed by Rajinikanth. The film highlights some of the miracles Sri Raghavendra performed. The film has Lakshmi as his wife and guest appearances by Vishnuvardhan, Mohan and Sathyaraj.
Cast
Rajinikanth as Raghavendra Swami
Lakshmi as Saraswati Bai, Sri Raghavendra's wife
Vishnuvardhan as Devotee and successor of Sri Raghavendra, as Sri Yogindra
Mohan as As one of his disciples, Mukuntha who went to get married at the Swami's blessings and was assisted by Him to eliminate the demon that came to Srikant's house
Poornam Viswanathan as Devotee whose son accidentally dies but revived by Sri Raghavendra
V.S. Raghavan as Srinivasacharya Devotee who mistreats G.Seenivasan's character Malapa as he is "Lower caste", but is later spiritually enlightened by Sri Raghavendra
Nizhalgal Ravi as Venkanna, Diwan of Adoni who is initially portrayed as slow in learning and intelligence but with Sri Raghavendra's blessing becomes the smart minister in the Nawab's cabinet
Sri Raghavendra was Rajinikanth's 100th film. The film featured Rajinikanth in the role of saint Sri Raghavendra Swami, different from the larger than life characters which he is known for and portrayed. Rajini who is a fan of Kannada actor Rajkumar, had seen his film called Mantralaya Mahime where Rajkumar portrayed Sri Raghavendra. Rajini approached SP Muthuraman to direct the film. Muthuraman was initially reluctant to direct a devotional film. Balachander encouraged and convinced him to take up the film thus in order to prepare himself to direct the film, Muthuraman watched various devotional films of A. P. Nagarajan who was known for such films. Prior to the start of the film, the team took the script first to the Swami's abode in Mantralayam, and got it blessed. They did the same thing with the first copy, post-completion. Muthuraman told that during the 90-day schedule all the cast and crew of the film undergone the ritual of fasting on Thursday in reverence to lord's presence considering it was the mythological film.
Soundtrack
Soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja and lyrics for all songs were written by Vaali. The song "Parthale Theriyadha" is based on Anandabhairavi raga. The song "Aadal Kalaiye" is based on Charukesi raga. The song "Azhaikiran Madhavan" is based on Subhapantuvarali raga. The song "Ramanamam" is based on Mayamalavagowla raga. The song "Mazhaikkoru" is based on Amruthavarshini raga.
Rajinikanth won Cinema Express Award for Best Actor - Tamil. Daliya Ghose of Bollywood Mantra ranked the film fourth on her list of "Top 10 movies of Rajinikanth" in December 2013, saying: "This film brought out the human side of the actor". In May 2007, K. Balamurugan of Rediff ranked Sri Raghavendrar seventh on his list of "Rajni's Tamil Top 10" films. Behindwoods listed Rajinikanth's Raghavendra as one of his "Top 12 acting performances". In December 2013, The Times of India ranked the film eighth on its list of "Top 12 Rajinikanth movies". Rediff described the film in August 2015 as one of Rajinikanth's best.
Legacy
G. Dhananjayan wrote that it is one of five films the actor considers "close to his heart"; the other four are Bhuvana Oru Kelvi Kuri, Mullum Malarum, Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai and Enkeyo Ketta Kural.
