Happy Birthday Shobana: 6 films of the veteran actress one must watch

One of the most famous actresses between 1980s and the 1990s, Shobana Chandrakumar Pillai popularity known as Shobana was born on March 21, 1970, in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Coming from an illustrious family that boasted quite a few big names during their contemporary times, Shobana made her debut as a child artist in the Bollywood film Amar Prem (1972).

Notably, she made her debut opposite Balachandra Menon in the 1984 Malayalam film April 18, for which she won accolades. She has shared the screen space with the ace actors of Tollywood right from Nandamuri Balakrishna, Venkatesh, Chiranjeevi, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Mohan Babu, Rajendra Prasad, and many more. Shobana was last seen in Mohan Babu starrer Game, and after that, she never returned to the movies.

On the actress' birthday, here are six films of Shobana one must watch.

The K Balachander film which was starred Shobana alongside Mega Star Chiranjeevi was a socio-musical drama. The film saw Shobana play a classical dancer Lalitha Sivajyothi, who belongs to a lower caste and is denied entry into the temple. She helps and supports Suryam, the son of a great Carnatic musician to change the society through his ideologies. Despite the film's result, the Anjana Productions venture gave much recognition to Shobana.

The Ashok Kumar film paired Shobana with Karthik in the romantic musical drama, where the actor was seen playing a singer and painter, while Shobana essayed his love interest, who aspires to become a classical dancer. After her elder sister's death, she is forced to get married her brother-in-law. She became famous for the beauty of her face and the grace she possessed in the film. The movie proved to be the blockbusters of the year and the soundtrack composed by maestro Ilaiyaraaja became a chartbuster.

The suspense thriller starring Naresh and Shobana with Sarath Babu, Geetha, Siva Krishna, Nassar, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Brahmanandam and Ranganath in the lead roles, saw Shobana essay the role of Kokila, who gets married to a typical young man Siddhartha finds her husband's eyes are transplanted with a strange man. Things become worse day by day and the rest of the movie is about to solve the mystery of the eyes. Shobana's on-screen chemistry with Naresh is most appreciated and liked by the audience.

Starring Shobana opposite Mohan Babu, Chandramohan, Kongara Jaggaiah and Kaikala Satyanarayana, Alludugaru is a comedy-drama about an abandoned girl Kalyani. She hires a thief Vishnu to play her husband in front of his father after she gets cheated by her lover. It was a remake of Malayalam blockbuster Chithram starring Mohanlal and directed by Priyadarshan. Directed by K Raghavendra Rao, Alludugaru went on to become one of the biggest blockbusters of the year and ran for more than 100 days.

Directed by Vamsy, the film starring Rajendra Prasad and Shobana saw the former play the proud liar Divakaram, while Shobana essayed a railway employee who puts forward a deal that she would marry him only if he stays out of cheating, and does not utter a lie in a month. Her typical and matured character will immediately make a place in your heart. Bankrolled by Sravanthi Movies, the film was declared a super hit the box office.

Shobana was once again paired opposite Mohan Babu in Rowdy Gaari Pellam, which was the official remake of the 1989 Tamil hit film Pudhea Paadhai, starring Parthiban. The actress astonished the audiences with her impeccable acting skills in the role of a young woman who marries a street thug to make change his life for the better. Shobana's longing for her thug husband's transformation was simply heart-wrenching. This is a must-watch!.