Salem Vishnu

Salem Vishnu is a 1990 Indian Tamil-language action film written, produced and directed by Thiagarajan. The film stars Thiagarajan and Rupini. It was released on 16 February 1990. The film shows the prequel story of the character Salem Vishnu from the Malayalam film New Delhi.

Plot
Vishnu is a clever student, but he cannot tolerate cheating at the school exam, and beats up the professor; he was subsequently excluded from the engineering school. He decides to work as a car mechanic. Vishnu and Shanthi fell in love with each other.

Vishnu's brother Siva is an honest municipal commissioner. Siva and his wife Lakshmi, a jailer, are transferred to the same city where Vishnu lives. They were shocked when Vishnu tells that he is working as a car mechanic.

Kathavarayan, the municipal chairman, and his brother Ashokan are corrupt, influential persons. Siva clashes with them. Meantime, Ashokan kills journalist Raji (Vaishnavi), who sends the details of their illegal works to Siva. Ashokan is later sent to jail. Siva wants also to punish Kathavarayan, but Ashokan kills him. The guiltless Vishnu is sent to jail for killing his own brother. In jail, he meets his sister-in-law Lakshmi and his enemy Ashokan. What transpires later forms the crux of the story.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by Sangeetha Rajan.

Reception
P. S. S. of Kalki praised the performances of Geetha, Goundamani and Vinu Chakravarthy, outdoor locations and camera angles but panned the obscene dance movements and humour track and concluded saying let it be a film made entirely for commercial purposes, for that, should there be such a frenzy that it is useless to rely on formal legal schemes to check irregularities?.