AR Murugadoss. Don’t be fooled by his humble appearance, he is one of the most prolific Tamil directors at the top rung of showbiz. As the director celebrates his birthday, Indiaglitz wishes him many more happy returns of the day!

What we most like about AR Murugadoss is how entwines storytelling to socially driven content. You’re not overwhelmed with the messages- rather you draw out messages from his work involuntarily. Surprisingly, he’s also able to keep us always entertained as well. No matter what the stature of his actors is, he never refuses to stray away from his style.

His debut direction was for Thala Ajith in 'Dheena':

And knowingly or unknowingly, we love it for him. For instance, the first time he got to work with Thalapathy Vijay was a definite positioning phase in his career (even after the ‘Ghajini’ fame). Vijay who was mostly considered as a mass appeal hero got a lot of ‘substance’ added to him merely because of Murugadoss’s ode to army personnel. This motif is later repeated in his ‘Kaththi’ as well. This time, a voice for the cause of farmers. 

Maybe, it is because Murugadoss’s stories are larger than life revelations with highly emotionally charged content. We don’t care about the possibility of such circumstances but willingly fall into it. A prime example is Vijayakanth’s ‘Ramanaa’- which even today many will believe to be Murugadoss’s best in his filmography. 

However, AR Murugadoss has been a tough nut to crack. He also doesn’t give enough leeway to be stereotyped. A major shock was his exploration into the angst of a man afflicted with short-term memory loss in ‘Ghajini’. With many touting that it was a rip-off of Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’ there was no holding back this director. The film also became a turning point in Suriya’s career.  And none other than Bollywood’s perfectionist Aamir Khan collaborated with the director. We don’t need to discuss BO here- but we know AR’s films have always smashed records. 

One other film which AR made in Hindi was the remake of ‘Thupakki’ with Akshay Kumar in the lead(Holiday: A Soldier is never off duty). Again, a next with Sonakshi Sinha for ‘Akira’. Not to mention how all his movies carry the expertise of an efficient screenwriter, non-circuitous and always intriguing. 

His talents don’t end with writing and direction. Murugadoss is also a producer. As with his very own stories, the projects which he chooses to bankroll have always been different and performers in the box office as well. Some examples are ‘Enageyum Eppothum’, ‘Raja Rani’, ‘Akira’ and ‘Rangoon’. 

Did we say that he has also gotten Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film(‘Ramana’ and ‘Ghajini’)? Not to mention Filmfare Award for Best Director (‘Kaththi’).  

Looking forward, we have the director's much-awaited movie 'Sarkar' once again with Thalapthy Vijay which will be releasing coming Diwali.

In short: if someone asked you if there's any director who has been able to combine the commercial with the ‘social’ without boring the audiences: don’t think twice before shouting out the name- ‘AR Murugadoss’.