Surya Vamsam (1997 film)

Surya Vamsam is a 1997 Indian Tamil-language drama film written and directed by Vikraman. The film stars R. Sarathkumar and Devayani, with Radhika, Manivannan, Priya Raman, Nizhalgal Ravi, Tharini, Ajay Ratnam, Jai Ganesh, Shiva and Anandaraj in supporting roles. It revolves around a traditional father and his illiterate son, following their tense relationship and shows how the strict patriarchy causes a drift between them.

Surya Vamsam was released on 27 June 1997 and emerged one of the most successful Tamil films of the year. The film won six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director (Vikraman) and Best Actress (Devayani), while Sarathkumar won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil. It was remade into Telugu as Suryavamsam (1998), in Hindi as Sooryavansham (1999), and in Kannada as Suryavamsha (1999).

Plot
Sakthivel Gounder is a rich, influential and one of the most educated men in his village near Pollachi. He has a wife Latha, three sons, and a daughter. Sakthivel hates his youngest son Chinnarasu. Sakthivel's daughter's wedding is fixed, and Nandini is the groom's sister. She meets Chinnarasu during her brother's wedding and wonders why Sakthivel dislikes him. Chinnarasu's sidekick Rasappa tells a flashback to Nandini.

Chinnarasu was weak in studies from childhood. He was in love with his relative Gowri, and elders decide to get them married. However, Gowri is educated, and she attempts suicide, thinking that Chinnarasu is not a perfect match for her as he is uneducated and illiterate. Chinnarasu saves Gowri and cancels the marriage proposal, but blames himself and does not reveal the truth. This angers Sakthivel, thinking that Chinnarasu did not respect his words and stopped talking to him.

Nandini gets impressed understanding Chinnarasu's kind heart and develops an affection towards him. Nandini proposes to Chinnarasu, for which he does not agree. Later, he too understands her true love and accepts. Both get their marriage registered, but Sakthivel gets angry knowing about this and asks the couple to vacate the home. Chinnarasu and Nandini move to a small home on the outskirts, and he secures a job in a bus transport company. With the help of Nandini's uncle, Chinnarasu purchases a bus and starts a transport company. Over the time, he develops his business and becomes a rich man. Also, Nandini clears civil services and gets posted as the Coimbatore district collector.

Sakthivel gets surprised seeing his son and daughter-in-law's growth in life. Gowri's husband suffers losses in his business which is later closed down, and she comes to meet Chinnarasu, requesting him to provide the job of Marketing Manager in his sugar factory, for which he accepts. Sakthivel meets Chinnarasu's son Sakthivel Jr. at school and develops a bonding towards him. Chinnarasu gets to know this and feels happy. Sakthivel realises his mistake of not understanding his son. Meanwhile, Dharmalingam Gounder has a rivalry against Sakthivel and plans to kill him and blame Chinnarasu. Dharmalingam adds poison to the sweet given to Sakthivel by Chinnarasu, but Sakthivel is saved, and Dharmalingam gets beaten up by the people. In the end, everyone gets united and lives as a joint family.

Production
The story of Surya Vamsam was written by director Vikraman in 1988 planning to cast actor Vijayakumar and Karthik in lead roles, but after 10 years the film got its venture. In 1996, following the success of Poove Unakkaga, producer R. B. Choudary asked Vikraman to direct once again under his Super Good Films banner. This time Vikraman came with a relationship between elder brother and younger brother which later became Vaanathaippola (2000). After writing the story, he immediately narrated the story to Choudary. He was so inspired by story and he decided to produce the film, but he had put one demand to Vikraman to direct this story with Sarathkumar and give dual role for the character of Vellaichamy and Muthu like twin brothers but Vikraman did not accept to make this character with Sarathkumar because he thought of Janagaraj for Vellaichamy character and Vijay for Muthu character. After many arguments, Vikraman decided to make the film with Sarathkumar with a different story and Choudary did not accept this at first but later he was convinced with half heart to accept Surya Vamsam which Vikraman had scripted.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack is composed by S. A. Rajkumar.

Release and reception
Surya Vamsam was released on 27 June 1997. Ji of Kalki called it a truly decent, well-structured story with unprompted dialogues while praising the performances of Sarathkumar in dual roles, Devayani and Priyaraman but called the climax as logical loophole and concluded if only the tempo in the second half had been sufficient, there would have been no objection to call it a super good film. K. N. Vijiyan of New Straits Times wrote, "The story seems common enough and not that interesting. But under Vikraman's direction, it has been turned into an entertaining movie". BizHat.com wrote, "The film, neither boasts of a revolutionary story nor classy acting... But it has an appeal that is difficult to describe". The critic added, "This kind of a movie doesn't require any great cinematography and S. Saravanan does not disappoint your expectations".

Remakes
Surya Vamsam was remade into Telugu as Suryavamsam (1998), in Hindi as Sooryavansham (1999), and in Kannada as Suryavamsha (1999).

Sequel
In 2022, Sarathkumar announced a sequel to the project, titled Surya Vamsam 2. In 2023, he reiterated that the project was still in development.