Historical/ Fantasy Films to celebrate with 'Baahubali 2'

If ‘Baahubali’ took the world by storm from what the pre-release tracking suggests, ‘Baahubali 2’ could well become the biggest grossing film ever in Indian cinema. On the eve of the release of S.S. Rajamouli’s magnum opus we take a look at some of the films in Tamil cinema, which enthralled us in the past in the historical/fantasy genre.

Chandralekha

S.S. Vasan’s ‘Chandralekha’ is still considered the mother of all fantasy films and the drum dance by T.R. Rajakumari is still a milestone to be reached. The storyline carries a similarity with ‘Baahubali’ about two brothers fighting over each other for their father’s kingdom and the hand of a village dancer

Nadodi Mannan

MGR directed this fantasy film and played the dual roles of a royal prince and revolutionary leader and needless to say that people gave him much to cheer at the box office and old timers continue to do so in its re-runs after six decades.

Karnan

That the Nadigar Thilagam gave the face to the epic philanthropist Karna is no exaggeration and the film even in its last run a couple of years back ran to packed houses for 150 days

Allavudinum Arputha Vilakkum

I.V. Sasi took liberties to the Alladin tale and brought together Kamal Haasan as Alladin and Rajinikanth as a rival turned friend with Gemini Ganesan and P.S. Veerappa playing the villains. It was however S.A. Ashokan who stole the show as the genial genie.

Imsai Arasan 23 aam Pulikesi

Historicals went out of vogue for many decades due to the huge production costs involved and it was director Shankar, who took the risk and made this film with Vadivelu as hero and Chimbu Devan making his directorial debut. It paid rich dividends and the film is now a cult classic.

Dasavatharam

Kamal Haasan donned ten different roles in this super hit based on the chaos theory. The opening episodes took us to the 12th Century Chidambaram and the Ulaganayagan rocked as Rangarajan.

Aayirathil Oruvan

Selvaraghavan's intriguing story of a secret Tamil community living in a far off land waiting for centuries to be taken back to their motherland by a messenger is one fantasy film to cherish in the modern era.

Maveeran (Maghadheera)

Who else but S.S. Rajamouli can make this social fantasy film about rebirth keeping the audiences enthralled for the full running time. The climax in which Ram Charan Tej kills a 100 soldiers is epic and only the director himself bettered it years later with ‘Baahubali’.

Baahubali

S.S. Rajamouli took South Indian cinema to the world stage and made his film the talking point all over the globe and has paved way for many others to follow.

Puli

It is commendable that a mega star like Vijay tried this experiment in the children fantasy genre and though the commercial prospects were not flattering the effort is still worth the while.

Kashmora

This film broke many stereotypes like doing away with the love track and concentrating on delivering an entertainer that banked on its stars Karthi and Nayanthara’s star power and acting prowess. Gokul indeed was rewarded for his hard work within the budgetary constraints.

After Baahubali 2

Sundar C is directing Jayam Ravi, Arya and Shruti Haasan in his ambitious historical fantasy adventure ‘Sangamithra’. Mohan Lal and M.T. Vasudevan Nair are beginning their 1000 Crore take on the Mahabharatha titled ‘Randamoozham’ and many other bilinguals and trilinguals are in the pipeline thanks to the ‘Baahubali’ magic.

If 'Baahubali' took the world by storm from what the pre-release tracking suggests, 'Baahubali 2' could well become the biggest grossing film ever in Indian cinema.