Moondram Pirai (1982)
By this time, no one was surprised at the range and dexterity with which Haasan could express himself on screen.
In Moondram Pirai (The Third Crescent), he chose to reprise his role as a romantic hero under the direction of Balu Mahendra, a man known to produce hard-hitting movies dealing with relationships.
In many ways, this was a movie that worked as much for Sridevi, who played a girl who loses her mental faculties after an accident and ends up in a brothel while Haasan, a lonely school teacher takes pity on her and nurses her back to health.
It heralded Haasan as a softie who could pull quite forcefully on your heartstrings; the climax in particular, where he runs heartbroken after a departing Sridevi has since become a classic, copied and parodied many times.
This role fetched him his second National award for best actor.
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