Azhagan

Directed by K. Balachander, Azhagan is a 1991 romantic film. It stars Mammootty along with Bhanupriya and Geetha in the leads. The film stars Azhagappan, a charismatic widower with four adult children, who becomes enmeshed in a sticky situation when three of his unlikely suitors develop romantic feelings for him. Sensing his indecision, the kids come to the rescue and hatch a scheme to get him paired up and back in the swing of things.

For Azhagappan, a failed hotelier and loving father of four small children, he carries with him the loss experienced when his wife died, her face never seen, visage representing that loved one who is gone. Even amid all these duties, he becomes the unsuspecting target of salvaar-clad college goer Swapna’s love, though it’s first in the form of a prank war that later turns earnest. Azhagappan, aware of the generation divide and the responsibility he can’t evade, resoundingly rebuffs her gestures. Later, to finish his education, he enrols in a tutorial centre where his tutor, Kanmani, falls in love with him. Still, Azhagappan remains emotionally distant.

Uncomically, he collides with Priya Ranjan, a Kathakali dancer, and they fall in love, only for their nascent romance to be threatened by cultural miscommunication and huge egos. As clutch and revenge tighten their respective screws, Azhagappan’s steadfast chauffeur, Santhanam, discloses a buried secret: The four kids he has been raising as his own are orphans he took under his wing through empathy. This disclosure adds context and layers to everyone from his fellow musicians to his family. Touched by his kindness and moved by his struggles, Swapna begins to view Azhagappan as a father figure instead of a romantic partner. It is she, together with Kanmani and the kids, who engineers a coming together of Azhagappan and Priya. Through a poignant phone call, the two can admit their love for each other, putting aside ego and earlier misconceptions, and appealingly reunite in a satisfying and hopeful end.

Azhagan is a tender and layered romantic drama that confidently takes on love, loss and second chances. Exploring rich emotional territory through beautifully rendered bonds and contrasting personalities, the film transports gorgeous narrative and visual language to explore love’s uncertain power and life’s ungalvanizing energy. Its music, visuals, and genuine, heartwarming moments all lend a cosy, contemplative atmosphere to it. It’s perhaps the most mature and thoughtful of this list’s romantic leads, a graceful demonstration of love, duty, and a late-arriving happiness.