ரகுவரன் passes away!!

I was shocked to hear this news this morning. Such a versatile actor, a brilliant villian died at the age of 49. Though he had his share of health and other problems, he recovered well in the 1990s and even had a meaningful married life with actress Rohini for a while. He got really spiritual in the later part of life and was a strong follower of Sai Baba.

He almost featured in all of Rajini's movies in the last 2 decades. Along with Satyaraj, he probably brought a new dimension in villianism in Tamil cinema. There is this scene in பூவிழி வாசலிலே where Satyaraj will try to escape in the climax from villian Raghuvaran. The other villians in such a situation would have given a weird laugh and uttered something big, instead Raghuvaran will show extreme cool in that scene and deliver an even more logical and cool dialogue "என்ன ஜீவா, விளையாடறியா, என் கையில குழந்தை, பக்கத்துல நெருப்பு..." Simply amazing!!

How about "I Know.. I Know.. I Know..."?

Who can forget his role in முதல்வன் where he totally did justice to Sujatha's dialogues.. "அகலாது அணுகாது..." , "நல்லா டப்பிங் பண்ணிருகீங்க.." to name a few in that classic interview and in the climax "என்ன சமாளிக்க முடியல இல்ல" with a smile.. Oh..my... we will miss him.

May his soul rest in peace.

Update: 3/20/2008 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raghuvaran was showing Raghuvaran's DOB as 1948 as of 3/19/2008, which was my source for his age, looks like they have updated his DOB today. How we wish if we have capability to change his death date.