Visu

He started his career as a theatre artist, working with Y. G. Parthasarathy's drama troupe. He was writing scripts for stage dramas before getting into the film industry as an assistant to legendary director K. Balachander. During his time with Balachander, he wrote screenplays for numerous films including Pattina Pravesam (1977), Avan Aval Adhu (1980), Thillu Mullu (1981) and Netrikkan (1981). Thillu Mullu and Netrikkan, which were both released in 1981, became box office hits for actor Rajinikanth.Visu made his debut as an actor in the film Kudumbam Oru Kadambam (1981), for which he also wrote the screenplay. The film was directed by S. P. Muthuraman.

His first film as a director was Kanmani Poonga (1982). Most of his films including Manal Kayiru (1982), Dowry Kalyanam (1983), Samsaram Adhu Minsaram (1986), Thirumathi Oru Vegumathi (1987), Penmani Aval Kanmani (1988), Vedikkai En Vadikkai (1990) and Pattukottai Periyappa (1994) spoke about the issues of urban middle-class families. These films, which were released in the mid-80s, turned out to be crowd pullers, particularly with regard to the female audience.^[4] His other super hit was Chidambara Rahasiyam (1985), which is considered a cult-classic.^[5]

While he has directed a rage of actors on screen, he and his brother Kishmu used to star in many of his films. His film Neenga Nalla Irukkanum won the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues in 1992. Based on prohibition, the film was the last onscreen appearance of then chief minister, J. Jayalalithaa.^[6]

He has also shared the screen with Rajinikanth in Nallavanukku Nallavan (1984), Mr. Bharath (1986), Mannan (1992), Uzhaippali (1993) and Arunachalam (1997).

During the ending phase of his career, he made movies which did not leave a lasting mark on the audience as Vaa Magale Vaa (1994), Meendum Savithri (1996) and Sigamani Ramamani (2001).^[7]

Actor and stage artiste S. Ve. Shekher, who has worked in over 20 films with Visu, said that he was an extremely disciplined and committed.^[8]

As an actor, he was last seen in Manal Kayiru 2 (2016), the sequel to one of his earliest directorial successes, Manal Kayiru.

He is known to have starred in over 60 films and directed around 25 films.^[9]

In most of the films Visu directed, all the characters were given equal importance. Often, there was huge house wherein a joint family would reside and the character of Visu would solve their problems. Many of Visu's film titles contain rhyming words, such as Kudumbam Oru Kadambam, Samsaram Adhu Minsaram, Thirumathi Oru Vegumathi, Kavalan Avan Kovalan, Penmani Aval Kanmani, Varavu Nalla Uravu and Vedikkai En Vadikkai. His films focused on many family issues like dowry, need of remarriage for women, mother in law-daughter in law disputes and so on which were occurring that time. In most of his films there is a character named Uma, named after a school teacher who predicted his rise to fame after reading one of his scripts when he was a travel agent.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Visu became known for hosting live debates on television, namely Arattai Arangam on Sun TV and Visuvin Makkal Arangam on Jaya TV.^[15][16] He joined and campaigned for BJP.^[17]

On 22 March 2020 at Chennai, Visu died of kidney failure at the age of 74.^{[18][19][20][21]}

As director/writer

This is a list of films that he directed and/or wrote. He also acted in many of his own directed films.

Year	Title	Credited as			Role	Notes
		Director	Writer	Actor
1977	Pattina Pravesam	N	Y	N
1978	Sadhurangam	N	Y	N		also dialogue
1980	Avan Aval Adhu	N	Y	N
1980	Mazhalai Pattalam	N	Y	N
1981	Thillu Mullu	N	Y	Y	As a film crew	Voice-Over Actor (Dubbing)
1981	Netrikkan	N	Y	N
1981	Keezh Vaanam Sivakkum	N	Y	N
1981	Kudumbam Oru Kadambam	N	Y	Y	Srinivasa Raghavan
1982	Kanmani Poonga	Y	Y	Y	Cricketer Ramkumar
1982	Simla Special	N	Y	N
1982	Manal Kayiru	Y	Y	Y	Uthramerur Narathar Naidu
1982	Pudhukavithai	N	Y	N
1983	Dowry Kalyanam	Y	Y	Y	Ganesh
1984	Nallavanukku Nallavan	N	Y	Y	Owner Gangadharan
1984	Puyal Kadantha Boomi	Y	Y	Y	Nammaalu allies Namachivaayan
1984	Rajathanthiram	Y	Y	Y	Bairavan
1984	Vaai Sollil Veeranadi	Y	Y	Y	Vengapuli Varadhachari
1984	Nanayam Illatha Nanayam	Y	Y	Y	Veerapandi
1985	Pudhiya Sagaptham	Y	Y	Y	Ramadasaradan
1985	Aval Sumangalithan	Y	Y	Y	Watchman Aarumugam
1985	Ketti Melam	Y	Y	Y
1985	Chidambara Rahasiyam	Y	Y	Y	Beemarao
1986	Mr. Bharath	N	Y	Y	Kumaresa Gounder
1986	Dharma Pathini	N	Y	Y	Lawyer "Vicks" Vardarajan
1986	Samsaram Adhu Minsaram	Y	Y	Y	Ammaiyappa Mudaliyar	National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment
1987	Thirumathi Oru Vegumathi	Y	Y	Y	Naagarkoil Naadhamuni
1987	Kavalan Avan Kovalan	Y	Y	Y	Prabhu's Father-in-law
1987	Srimathi Oka Bahumathi	Y	Y	Y		Telugu film; remake of Thirumathi Oru Vegumathi
1988	Veedu Manaivi Makkal	N	N	Y	Subbaiah Pillai
1988	Penmani Aval Kanmani	Y	Y	Y	Radio Mama
1988	Aadade Aadharam	Y	Y	Y		Nandi Award for Second Best Story Writer[22] Telugu film; remake of Penmani Aval Kanmani
1988	Illu Illalu Pillalu	Y	Y	Y		Telugu film; remake of Veedu Manaivi Makkal
1989	Sakalakala Sammandhi	Y	Y	Y	Mayavaram Malayappan
1990	Varavu Nalla Uravu	Y	Y	Y	Appa Ambalavanar	Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Story Writer
1990	Vedikkai En Vadikkai	Y	Y	Y	Kaavisattai Kandasamy
1992	Urimai Oonjaladugiradhu	Y	Y	Y	Kasturi's Father
1992	Neenga Nalla Irukkanum	Y	Y	Y		National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues
1994	Pattukottai Periyappa	Y	Y	Y	Pattukottai Periyappa
1994	Vaa Magale Vaa	Y	Y	Y	Viswanathan
1996	Meendum Savithri	Y	Y	Y	Narayana Moorthy
1996	Neti Savithri	Y	Y	Y	Narayana Moorthy	Telugu film
2001	Sigamani Ramamani	Y	Y	Y	Sundaramoorthy
2016	Manal Kayiru 2	N	Y	Y	Uthramerur Narathar Naidu

Actor

This is a list of films that Visu worked only as an actor.

Television

• Arattai Arangam - Sun TV
• Makkal Arangam - Jaya TV
• Naalavathu Mudichu - Jaya TV^[23]

• Visu at IMDb