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Pallavan

2003 Tamil film directed by Padmamagan

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ12931360
Source-derived summary

Pallavan is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language film written and directed by Padmamagan. The film stars Manoj Bharathiraja, Rathi, Shankar, Mukesh and Shara. The film was released on 28 February 2003.

Cast

Production

Directed by Padmamagan, making his first film, several new actors were cast alongside the lead duo of Manoj Bharathiraja and Rathi. Munna, a nephew of actress Jayabharathi, made his first acting appearance and was credited as Shankar, alongside Mukesh and Bangalore-based actress Shara. Padmamagan signed up for the film after having previously written dialogues in the Raghava Lawrence-starrer Style and associated with producer Rufus Parker. The title of the film Padmamagan, was inspired by the name by which Chennai's state-owned city buses were known earlier and Padmamagan hoped to evoke nostalgia amongst the audience. Several scenes and songs for the film were also shot on board in the city's buses.

Soundtrack

Soundtrack was composed by Vidyasagar, while lyrics written by Palani Bharathi.

"Mercury Poove" — Devan, Pop Shalini

"Oho Nu Sollu" — Tippu, Timmy

"Saidudu Saidudu" — Karthik, Timmy

"Emmaithal" — S. P. Balasubrahmanyam

"Ma Venuma" — Anuradha Sriram

Release and reception

The film was released on 28 February 2003.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pallavan” is 2003 Tamil film directed by Padmamagan. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pallavan, Tamil and film, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2003—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—2003, 2003-02-28—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Pallavan, Tamil and film is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “2003 Tamil film directed by Padmamagan” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12931360. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Pallavan”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Pallavan primary sources, Pallavan archive and Pallavan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Pallavan”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Pallavan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.