Visu

Visu started his career as a theatre artist, working with Y. G. Parthasarathy's troupe. He was writing scripts for stage dramas before getting into the film industry as an assistant to 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 a character 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 Manal Kayiru (1982). Most of his films including Manal Kayiru, 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 Tamil Nadu 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 worked in over 20 films with Visu, called him 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]

Visu later became known for hosting live debates on television, namely Arattai Arangam on Sun TV and Visuvin Makkal Arangam on Jaya TV.^[10][11]

In most of the films Visu wrote or directed, all the characters were given equal importance. Often, the plot included a huge house where 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. During his last years before death, he wrote the script for Samsaram Adhu Minsaram Part 2 which is yet to see the light of day.^{[13][14][15][16]}

In 2016, 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]