Today is the 46th birthday of the maverick filmmaker Venkat Prabhu who is a creator of substance behind the youthful happy go lucky person he comes across in real life.

There is no dispute to the claim that VP is one of the pioneers of the new age cinema that has evolved in the past decade and a half. For more than seventy years Tamil directors were caught in the trap of cramping all elements into the same movie. Though these films entertained the audiences, very few of them were memorable.

In 2007, Venkat Prabhu made his breakthrough film 'Chennai 600028' that focussed on a single theme of street cricket and characters and plots evolved from it. The films success inspired many others who followed to come up with highly entertaining niche films.

VP never got into the trap of type casting his films and strived for different genres within the parameters of commercial cinema. If in 'Saroja' the events occurred on a single night, in 'Mankatha' it revolved around a heist. In Goa he dealt with alternate sexuality explicitly for the first time in Tamil cinema without degrading it. His 'Goa' , a village to big bad city tale, contained all the fun elements relating to that while his 'Biryani' was darker in its comedy.

Even the cruelly underrated 'Mass Engira Masilamani' gave an engrossing emotional twist to the horror genre which has never been done in any other film of this kind.

Venkat Prabhu continues his mission of giving his audiences something new and unexpected with his upcoming biggie 'Maanaadu'. The film deals with the scifi concept of time loop and after the riveting trailer it is easily one of the most anticipated films of the year.

Indiaglitz wishes the ever innovative filmmaker Venkat Prabhu the happiest birthday and many many more entertaining years ahead.