My Analysis

There are numerous articles on this iconic actor,singer,producer,fitness freak(yes he is.He did Yoga almost all his life and i think he knew better about fitness.He was like John Wayne u know!!!) and above all great human being.So rather than writing it once again, i will write about his best but lesser known movies.It was a trend back in 70's and 80's,the golden age of Kannada Cinema to make movies on Kannada novels and almost 70% of Rajkumar's movies are borrowed from novels.And needless to say most are huge hits and inspired many film makers of that era.His Kasturi Nivasa tempted  legendery Sivaji Ganeshan and acted in the Tamil version,Bhakta Kumbara,a devotional masterpeice was remade into Telugu by Akkineni Nageshwara Rao and couldnt stop praising Rajkumar for his acting.Back then it was called Rajkumar era.
So my top 5 movies out of his 207 movies are

5.Gandhadagudi(Temple of Sandalwood):Only film in which both Dr.Rajkumar and Dr.Vishnuvardhan acted together.Saw this movies way back in 90's in T.V. and i was pretty impressed at that time.It is the story of  a range forest officer and his estranged brother.The film was shot in the amidst of Bandipur and Nagarahole forest.Now movie is known for 2 reasons one is for its song which will be heard in almost every orchestro or every festival even after more than 30 years.And this movie is most famously known for a controversy which almost ruined the life of Vishnuvardhan.He was accused of shooting Rajkumar with loaded gun and media highlighted the incident.It enraged the fans of Rajkumar and thus Vishnuvardhan had to face a lot of humiliation.Anyway it was a cool movie with lots of action and adventure.

4.Jeevana Chaitra:This movie was released in the year 1992 and it marked the re-entry of Rajkumar to the cinema after 3 years.The movie created ripples at that time and many people forcibly shut down liquor shops across the state.Needless to say this movie is a fight of a common man against a liquor baron who is the father in law of his own son.This movie won him a National Award for Best Singer for the song ''Nadamaya''  which is shot in Himalayas and in the song Rajkumar is wearing only a dhoti and skimpy shirt.He is barefooted in the song too.I heard its fimmaker saying he walked barefooted and remained with the same costumes throughout the shooting of the song and didnt complain.I wonder where this Yoga can take a human being!!!!!

3.Kasturi Nivasa:It is refferred as one of the greatest Kannada movie of all time.It is the story of a rich buisnessman who lost his loved ones.It shows the dishonesty of greedy human beings.A simple story but well narrated with great meaningful songs and amazing acting by Rajkumar.

2.Naandi(The begining):I didnt see this movie but its theme fascinated me.I read a article when Hindi movie ''Black'' was released.It was about a movie called Naandi which won National Award way back in 60's and the article said it was almost similar to Blcak movie.The story is how a husband mentors his deaf and dumb wife.Really people used to make nice sensible movies at that time.Kudos to the whole team.

1.Mayura:A hard hitting patritoc periodic movie.Mayura is the founder of Kadamba kingdom and this movie is based on a novel.The story is almost similar to Mel Gibson's Braveheart,one man's fight against a kingdom.Though history says Mayura was a Brahmin scholar who faced humiliation in the court of Pallavas and to avenge his humilation he took sword and rebelled against the kingdom and finally defeated them.But the movie says slightly different story.Anyway for me its one of the best movies of Rajkumar and deserves a remake with lots of action,CG and adventure.It will be a nice periodic commercial pot boiler with lot of patriotic dialouges.

There are other movies which are worth a mention like Bangarada Manushya,Bidugade,Ranadheera Kanteerava,Krishnadevaraya.I like periodic movies because it needs a lot of research before writing the script and later designing the backdrop,armours,weapons,costumes.Wow!!! sounds interesting.Hell lot of a work but still cool!!!I hope someday the trend will come again.