Goundamani turns 75 today

Legendary comedy acter Goundamani celebrates his 75th birthday today. Born as Subramani, the actor got into films with his strong theatrical background. His ability to give counter to his co-actors got him the screen name ‘Counter’ Mani which eventually turned as Goundamani.

Goundamani made his silver screen debut with 16 Vayadhiniley, which is Barathiraja’s debut film as a director. From minor roles in many other Barathiraja films he slowly improved with powerful supporting roles laced with comedy until mid 1980′s.

His sense of humor and unique dialogue delivery elevated him as a lead comedian and separate comedy tracks were written for him, the prominent ones in the early stages being Vaidehi Kathirundhal, Idhaya Kovil , Pagal Nilavu etc. Another comedy actor Senthil started appearing with him in the comedy track in most of these films.

The comedy track in the film Karagattakaran that released 1989, made the Goundamani-Sendhil duo the most sought after comedy pair in Tamil films. The historic ‘Banana’ comedy in the film is still remembered as one of the evergreen comedy scenes in Tamil cinema history.

In 1990′s Goundamani continued his wisecracks with Senthil in many films. He also appeared as a solo comedian as the hero’s friend in many super hit films of that decade. His pairing up with Superstar Rajnikanth, Ulaganayagan Kamalahassan. Sarathkumar, Sathyaraj, Prabhu and Karthik proved to be successful in many films.

In this period, Goundamni’s popularity was so much that he acted as the lead hero in quite a few films but most of them proved unsuccessful at the box office. But until he took a break from acting in the last years of the previous decade, the actor reigned as the top comedian in Tamil film industry.

Now after a gap of three years, Goundamani is acting as the lead comedian in the film Vaaimai and he also acts as the lead actor in the film 49O that reportedly speaks about the plight of farmers.

Tamil cinema fans are expecting the release of both the films and we can be pretty sure that the name Goundamani is enough for make the audience throng the screens when these films get released.

TamilWire wishes a very happy birthday and a long healthy life for this septuagenarian star.