Tamil Movie Review Madha Gaja Raja - Cast & Crew

Indian top model and Telugu and Tamil star Anjali was born in Andhara Pardesh in 1986. Acting was her passion so she started her career from short films. Small projects like short films and modeling assignments lead her to the silver screen. Director Siva Nageswara Rao recognized her talent and offered her the role of “Swapna” in Telugu Thriller “Photo” in 2006. Start of her career was from low budget and low profile Telugu films.

In 2007 a new comer writer and director Ram offered her a lead role in a Tamil movie which proved a blockbuster on Tamil and Telugu screen. Her best performance in the role of “Anandhi” awarded her with “Filmfare award for best female debut” and “South Vijay award for best debut actress”. This was the start of a long list of successful films. She has worked in more than 20 Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films.

She won her first “Filmfare award for best actress” and “Tamil Vijay award for best actress” in 2010 for the movie “Angadi Theru”. But this wasn’t the end. She got one more “Filmfare award of best actress” in 2011 for “Engaeyum Eppothum”. These consecutive awards made her a superstar of South Cinema. Her journey towards fame is continued yet. Many of her films are hitting the screen this year that can bring more success to her career.

Varalaxmi Sarathkumar is the elder daughter of actor cum politician ‘R Sarathkumar’ and ‘Chaya’ (Sarathkumar’s first wife). Varalaxmi Sarathkumar was born in Bengaluru in the year 1985. She has a younger sister called Pooja. Varalaxmi was interested to act in the films, and she was waiting for a good opportunity to enter the film industry. She made her debut to the film industry through the Tamil film ‘Podaa Podi’ opposite ‘Silambarasan’. This movie was released in the year 2012, and Varu got a good appreciation for her performance in that movie. She acted in a slightly negative role that brought her good criticism from the film critics as well as from the audience.

Chinnaponnu was born in Suranam in Sivagangai District in Tamil Nadu, India. As a child of thirteen years old, she actively participated in several temple festivals and churches. After that, she started to sing in the troupe of Artist Kottaisamy as a professional singer. She used to say him as her mentor. Later she was noticed by Gunasekar, who is a member of the Communist party. As he searched for folk songs and folk artists, he helped her explore herself in several parts of the state. By 2004, she made her first entry into the Tamil cinemas as a playback singer for the movie Chandramuki song Valthuren Valthuren.

Sadaf Mohammed Sayed, who is a popular Indian actress, is better known as Sadha. She mostly acts in South Indian movies and in Telugu and Tamil films and some of her more popular works can be named as Jayam, then Anniyan and also Unnale Unnale. Sadha Sayed was born in Maharashtra in Sangli into a middle class family and her family was Muslim. Sadaf Mohammed Sayed’s father is a doctor and her mother is an executive at a bank. She was schooled at the local ‘Sacred Hearts Convent High’ School in Ratnagiri after which she moved on to Mumbai and it was here that she was offered the Telugu film named ‘Jayam’ which was a teenage love story. This film later on became one of the largest blockbusters of the year.

Venkat Raghavan is a Tamil director who has directed the venture Muthina Kathirikai. Before becoming a director, he was the assistant director of several Sundar C’s films. Muthina Kathirikai has Sundar C in the lead role. Poona Bajwa shares screenspace with Sundar C in the film.

Vijay Antony is an actor, composer and even playback singer in Tamil movies. He made his debut with Tamil movie ‘Naan’ that released in 2014 which was a hit. He followed up with another hit movie ‘Salim’ and his third movie ‘India Pakistan’ did only average business. His wife produced the film “India-Pakistan'. After receiving the overwhelming response from audiences for two films ‘Naan and ‘Salim’, the actor has emerged as the reliable actor in Kollywood.

Annamalai is a Lyricist in the Tamil Film Industry. Some of the movies in which he has worked as an actor include Ennul Aayiram, which released on 22^nd April 2016, and it is directed by Krishna Kumar. Some of the movies in which he has worked as a lyricist include Madha Gaja Raja, which released on 22nd October 2020, and it is directed by Sundar C. Kuthoosi, which released on 25^th January 2019, and it is directed by Siva Sakhti. Kalavu Thozhirchalai, which released on 22nd September 2017, and is directed by T Krishnasamy. Saithan, which released on 01^st December 2016, and is directed by Pradeep Krishnamoorthy. Angusam, which released on 09^th May 2014, and is directed by Manu Kannan. Haridass, which released on 22^nd February 2013, and it is directed by Kumaravel.

P Vijay (Pa Vijay) is a Tamil poet and film lyricist, who wrote the award-winning lyrics for the song’’ Ovvoru Pookalume’’ in Cheran's Autograph in Kollywood film industry. This lyricist had an extensive impact on Tamil cinema and was considered to be a gem writer of many songs that had featured in many movies. This poet and lyricist-writer were born in a middle-class family where his mother was a school teacher, and his father worked as a spinning master in a textile mill in Coimbatore. The actor was born in Coimbatore on 20 October 1974 and did his MA Literature in Tamil from Annamalai University. This poet was a discovery of director K Bhagyaraj, who was his family friend. He was associated with K. Bhagyaraj in the magazine ‘Bhagya’ and even got a chance to pen his lyrics for the film Gnanapazham, which had music by K. Bhagyaraj himself. But it was in 2004 when the film ‘Autograph’ was released, his song ’Ovvoru Pookalume"’ became an instant hit. Dr. Karunanidhi had given him the title’ Vithaga Kavignar’ and he came to be known as one of the best poets in Tamil Literature. Even poet Vali felt that Pa Vijay was part of him and claimed that he alone can be his successor in the field of cinema lyrics. Pa Vijay is still humble despite he has contributions to the literary field by writing many books. He considered Kannadasan and Vairamuthu as his role model. He also acted in lead roles in films like ‘Gnabagangal’, ‘Ilaignan ‘and ‘Thagadu Thagadu’.

Santosh Hariharan is an Indian playback singer and has been a contestant of singing reality shows. He was born on 5 September 1987 and is 29 years old presently. He was born and brought up in Chennai, India. His hometown is in Palghat. He started his schooling at Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Hyderabad, and went to St. Joseph Higher Secondary School, Cuddalore, to complete his 10+2 education. Santosh pursued Biotechnology from SRM University of Ramapuram, Chennai. He is an alumnus of Soundtech Media Institute of Audio Technology. He shifted to Mumbai after his musical career started attaining success. The languages spoken by him are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and, English.

Joining the ranks of Malayalaee born actors who have chosen Tamil filmdom was Jamshed Cethirakath. He even changed his name as per the prevailing custom, to ‘Arya’, encouraged his brother Sathya to follow suit, and made him join Tamil cinema too. However, earlier in life when selecting a course of studies he may not have been very clear about the future course of his life, making him choose an engineering course in Computer Science in Chennai, rather than selecting any of the other options in Chennai relating to the performing arts. As he grew up, his family’s links with Chennai grew stronger, and his father currently owns one of the favourite Arabian food joints in the upmarket Anna Nagar locality of Chennai.

Arya’s route to films was however, through a brief stint in modeling, after which he made his debut appearance in the 2005 college romance “Ullam Ketkumae” starring with two other now famous newcomers Asin and Pooja. However, the second film in which Arya had acted,“Arinthum Ariyamalum”, got released earlier in the same year and fortunately for him this film ended up as a super hit, with Arya’s portrayal as the rogue son of a notorious don receiving kudos from all sections. For this portrayal he won the twin Filmfare Awards for Best Debut South, as well as the Best New Male Face. He went on to receive further appreciation and acclaim for his portrayal in the unusual role of an Aghori (person from an ascetic sect) in the 2009 film “Naan Kadavul”. The year 2010 brought him commercial success for the period film “Madrasapattinam” and the romantic comedy film “Boss Engira Bhaskaran” (2010), also establishing his versatility as an actor. That year also was his debut in Telugu films, playing the antagonist in “Varudu” living up to his image as the tough guy.

Arya's first release in the following year was an appearance in the Malayalam film “Urumi”, which was basically a fantasy of sorts, against a historical backdrop. Although his role in the film was not an extended one, he did manage to play two separate characters. In between, Arya had also formed his own production house Show People and his latest release in August 2015 saw him in his own production “Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga” having the same people who made the earlier hit “Boss Engira Bhaskaran” which incidentally was also the first production of Show People.

Today Arya has established himself quite successfully in the top rungs of the current crop of younger South Indian heroes and made a niche for himself through sheer hard work and dedication, even going to the extent of taking a crash course on Aghori Yoga for the film “Naan Kadavul”.

The Cethirakath Family Tree (Infographic Family Tree)

Nithin Sathya was born on the 9th of January in the year 1980. He is a professional Tamil film actor. His birth place is Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He made his debut in a film named ‘Kalatpadai’ in the year 2003. He was also seen portraying an important role in the film ‘Chennai 600028’ in the year 2007. After that we haven’t seen him act as a hero. He was the villain in ‘Satham Padathey’ in the year 2007. In the film ‘Raman Thediya Seethai’, we could see Nithin as a supporting actor.

Prakash Raj, born on 26th of March, 1965, as Prakash Rai, in Bangalore, is an actor, director, and producer. He is also a television presenter and has worked in films of many languages. He is best known for his work in the film industry of South India, and for playing roles of a villain in quite a few Bollywood films. He hails from a Tulu and Kannada-speaking household and is fluent in various other languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. He also has an actor brother named Prasad Raj. He studied at St. Joseph’s Boy’s School, and subsequently, at St. Joseph’s College of Commerce. Both institutions are in Bangalore. Prakash has three children, Meghana, Pooja, and Sidhu, from his earlier marriage to the actress Lalitha Kumari. His son, unfortunately, passed away in the year 2004. He is currently married to the choreographer Pony Verma. In the first few years of his career, he worked in Kannada Doordarshan, doing serials like Guddada Bhootha, and he also acted in supporting roles in Kannada movies like Nishkarsha.

Sonu Sood is a famous Indian Cinema actor, model who is famous for portraying Chhedi Singh in the Salman Khan Starrer Dabbang, for which he received the Apsara Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role and IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. Besides working in Bollywood movies, He has also acted in Tollywood, Kollywood and Kannada language films. Sood was born on July 30th, 1973. Sood’s father is an entrepreneur and his mother was a professor, he grew up in Nagpur and received his degree in Electrical Engineering. He is from Moga, Punjab, who made his debut as an actor in 1999 with the Tamil film Kallazhagar. His first Bollywood debut was in 2002 in the movie Shaheed-E-Azam where he portrayed the role of Bhagat Singh. The Movie could not hit the screens due to a controversy and it was banned. Sood has also participated in the Mr India pageant and appeared in commercials of Apollo tyres and Airtel. Having won critical acclaim for his work in Tollywood movies, he received the Nandi Award for Best Villain and Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor in Telugu for the role of Pashupathy in the movie Arundhati. Sood has worked in well acclaimed movies like Yuva(2004), Ashiq Banaya Apne(2005), Athadu(2005), Jodha Akbar(2008), Dookudu(2011) and Shootout At Wadala(2013). Sood married his wife Sonali on September 25th, 1996 who hails from Andhra Pradesh and holds a degree in MBA. He also has two sons named Ishant and Aryan. He went to fulfil his childhood dream of becoming an actor, by getting a break as a villain in a Tamil movie for which he had to shave his head. His favorite co-stars to work with are Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwariya Rai Bachchan. He is a teetotaler and a fitness freak who loves to exercise regularly.

Born as Vishal Krisna Reddy, he is called upon as Vishal as a stage name. Being the son of a producer, Vishal Reddy has enough experience about the film industry. Before making his debut as an actor, he worked as an assistant director of Arjun. Vishal Reddy’s brother Ajay Krishna alias Vikram Krishna is also an actor, who appeared in Poo Parikka Varugirom alongside Malavika.

S Manivannan Rajagopal is the original name of Tamil film director and actor Manivannan. Manivannan has worked in the film industry for 30 years. Initially, he penned dialogues and stories for ace director Bharathiraja. Later he came out as a prominent director and tested different genres. He has helmed direction for 50 movies and about 34 films in Tamil, which were commercially successful. As an actor, Manivannan played supporting roles as well as negative and comedy roles. Manivannan had written the dialogues and stories for few flicks of Bharathiraja including Tick Tick Tick, Alaigal Oivathillai, Nizhalgal and Kadhal Oviyam. 

Hailing from Sulur (Coimbatore district) Manivannan was born on 31 July 1953. His 50th directorial venture Nagaraja Cholan, MA, MLA was released and Manivannan expired shortly after that. Manivannan also got himself involved in politics. For a long time he was associated with Naam Tamilar Katchi and its principles of Srilankan Tamil Nationalism, was liked by him. He worked in many films with Satyaraj and has the credit of giving twelve back to back directorial hits with the latter, which are not flops. He had also directed films in Malayalam, Hindi and Telugu. People from his supervision proved to be good directors, including Vikraman, Sundar C, R K Selvamani, Seeman etc. Manivannan had worked as a director for his best buddy Satyaraj for around 25 films. Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth, Karthik, Madhavan, Sarathkumar, Vijayakanth, Vijay, Suriya were some of the top actors with whom Manivannan shared screen space. The film Amaidhi Padai was instrumental in making him an actor and he was a very busy actor during 1990-2011. 

Manivannan’s spontaneous delivery of dialogues, sometimes filled with satirist remarks his strength. The films Deva and Vidukathai earned him the Comedian Award from Tamil Nadu State Awards. Manivannan indeed won the hearts of millions of Tamil fans.