Veteran director Sridhar passed away

Veteran film maker CV Sridhar (80) passed away today at 10 am in Chennai Malar Hospital. Sridhar had suffered from a stroke few years back. Last week he was admitted in hospital when he was became seriously ill.

Sridhar had brought a fresh air to Tamil cinema industry experienced through dialogue oriented drama based films in the sixties. His Nenjil Oru Aalayam an evergreen classic in Tamil cinema was remade into Hindi as Dil Ek Mandir and became a super hit.

Sridhar was the man who introduced Jayalalitha into the film industry through his super hit film Vennira Aadai. Sridhar started as a dialogue writer when his play Radha Pasam was adapted as a film. He made his debut as a director with super hit film Kalyanaparisu starred Gemini Ganesan and Saroja Devi. He started his own production company Chitralaya in 1961 and made a series of commercially successful films.

Kadhalikka Neramillai was one of the blockbuster classics in Tamil film history made by Sridhar and later the same was remade in Hindi with musical legend Kishore Kumar.

Sridhar handled all kinds of actors in his style, but at the same time he never forgot to give a perfect treatment as per the image of the superstars like MGR and Rajini. Who can forget the soft romantic Rajini – Kamal starrer Ilamai Oonchaladugirathu in late Seventies?

His combination with Makkal Thilagam MGR, Urimai Kural and Meenava Nanban were big hits for the legend in his later days.

No doubt, the demise of Sridhar is a great loss to Tamil Cinema!