Tamil Movie Review Touring Talkies - Cast & Crew

Comedy is the forte of Manobala (Manobala Mahadevan), who is also a director. He was born on 4th June 1953 and acts in supporting roles too. His primary region of interest is Tamil. He has over 40 movies and 16 television serials to his credit. Having worked in 3 telefilms too, he has over 200 movies to his credit. He has worked under director Bharathiraja. 

Hailing from Sulur, Manobala forayed into the Tamil industry with the 1994 flick Thaaimaaman. Doing trivial roles initially, he switched to comedy later. He was appreciated for his comedy, and his skinny appearance added to the laughter of the audience. His rapport with Kamal Haasan, though commendable in the initial stages, was not good after some problems with the Directors Union. But later Manobala confessed that, he doesn’t hold any grudges with Kamal Haasan. The Sun TV program Asathapovathu Yaaru has Manobala’s presence frequently. He had a brief stint with production through the film Sathuranga Vettai. 

Oor Kavalan, Aagaya Gangai, Sirai Paravai, Moodu Manthiram, Pillai Nila, Moondrezhuthil En Moochirukkum, Karuppu Vellai and Nandini are a few flicks of his direction. As an actor his works are Natpukkaga, Taj Mahal, Annai, Minsara Kanna, Perazhagan, Priyasakhi, Samudhiram, Ghajini, Varalaaru, Thambi, Azhagiya Thamizh Magan, Santhosh Subramaniam, Polladhavan, Dindigul Sarathy, Abhiyum Naanum etc. Manobala is active in the industry from 1982 to till date. Manobala is credited to have done projects with three generations. He is a simple person and doesn’t like publicity. 

On his personal front Manobala is wedded to Usha. 

Manobala stated that people asked him to direct films like Pillai Nila. KS Ravikumar tapped his comical streak and his life changed a lot due to him. Manobala is grateful to K S Ravikumar for that. He feels that directing 40 films is indeed a commendable one.  

On 3rd May 2023, Manobala died in Chennai. He was suffering from illness related to pancreas. His sudden death saddened the film industry and fans.

Ashwin Kumar is a young boy who belongs to a non-filmy family. He did his education from a college in Coimbatore, a place where he got his MBA degree from. He doesn’t have anyone from the film industry due to which he had to face a lot of rejections and struggle before he stumbled into a small role in a romantic film O Kadhal Kanmani, which was in Tamil.

Directed by Mani Ratnam, this film was released on 17th of April 2015 in which he played a very insignificant role of Dulquer’s friend. He has no one that can guide him into a correct direction which is why he was clueless about his next step in his career. It was only after days of struggle that he got the main lead in a serial that is aired on the channel Star Vijay named Rettai Vaal Kuruvi in which he plays the role of Bala. He is paired opposite Pavani Reddy and the director of this TV serial is Jerold. It first aired on 1st of June 2015.

According to Ashwin, this serial isn’t anywhere close to a usual love story that we see almost everywhere. He plays the role of a divorcee in the show who is left dumbstruck when his newly appointed boss turns out to be his ex-wife. Ashwin claims that he gained a lot of experience and confidence after he started doing the serial. He shall miss the show because it gave him a bundle of unforgettable memories which is soon reaching its end says the actor. The biggest addiction that is hard for him to overcome is the addiction of his PlayStation. He confesses his adoration for Shah Rukh Khan, Madhavan and Deepika Padukone who are his favorite actors and an all-time sport that he loves is football.

S.A. Chandrasekhar is an Indian film maker, writer and director. He was born in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu. He is married to an eminent Carnatic singer, Shoba. His son is the popular Kollywood actor Vijay. He has directed over 75 movies in Tamil and his hits include Mutham, Vetri, Manithan and Naan Sigappu. He also showed his directorial mettle in the Telugu industry through Chiranjeevi starrer Chattaniki Kallu Levu. He was also seen as a supporting actor in Naan Sivappu Manithan. He has worked as an assistant director with M Rajesh in Touring Talkies. Pandhayam is a Tamil film directed by Chandrashekar, which starred Sindhu Tolani, Nithin Sathya and Vijay (guest role). The plot was based on the story of a criminal and thug. Masanam (essayed by Prakash Raj) becomes the minister, and Shaktivel falls in love with the minister’s sister (essayed by Sindhu Tolani). The series of events leads to a dramatic climax. Chandrashekhar had earlier announced to the media that Touring Talkies will be his last film, and it was to be released in 2015. He had informed that it was the right time for him to step down from the Tamil Cinema and take time out for his family. In Touring Talkies, Chandrashekar himself had acted alongside a Bengali actress, Papri Gosh. Its music was composed by Ilayaraja. Nenjierukkum Varai is another film directed by Chandrashekar, which stars Deepa, Narain, Nassar, Thalaivasal Vijay and Livingston.

Ilaiyaraaja is a renowned film composer, known around the world for his finest works. With more than 5000 songs, he is known to be one of the best composers India has yet to produce. Ilaiyaraaja is also widely acknowledged as a songwriter, conductor, singer, and instrumentalist. Ilaiyaraaja’s works stand out particularly due to his talent for fusing traditional Indian instrumentation with symphonic orchestration.

Abhi Saravanan is a budding actor in Tamil cinema, who hailed from the Temple city, Madurai. Abhi Saravanan’s original name is Saravana Kumar. He changed his name to Abhi Saravanan, which became his stage name. Furthermore, the first half of his name, “Abhi”, denotes “Abhishek”, who is his friend that played a major role in helping him enter the film industry.