time she spent with him, to no effect, became popular and was parodied many times. The dialogue told by Smitha's character to Cheenu, "You haave a verrry strrong physique, you know", also attained popularity. A. P. Thiruvadi, in his obituary of Balu Mahendra, called him "The Moondram Pirai of Indian cinema". When S. Shiva Kumar of The Hindu suggested to Balu Mahendra that the film's ending lacked logic, Mahendra said, "Believe me there's no logic in life." In March 2005, Sneha, in an interview with Rediff, listed Moondram Pirai among her favourite films. In July 2007, S. R. Ashok Kumar of The Hindu asked eight Tamil film directors to list their all-time favourite Tamil films; two of them – Mani Ratnam and Ameer – named Moondram Pirai. In September 2009, singer Harini, in an interview with The Hindu, said that her favourite song is "Kanne Kalaimane". In February 2010, director R. Balki, in an interview with Forbes India, called Moondram Pirai as his favourite film. In February 2015, Moondram Pirai topped Indumathy Sukanya of The New Indian Express' list of "Top 5 Tamil Romances". Baradwaj Rangan opined that the film was "a superb example of how the presence of a commercially viable plot and the participation of commercially viable actors and technicians can result in art." In July 2011, Janani Iyer said she considered a role like Sridevi's character, Bhagyalakshmi, as "really challenging." In March 2013, S. Shiva Kumar of The Hindu compared the climax of Sethu (1999) to the climax in Moondram Pirai. In November 2013, S. Saraswathi of Rediff included Moondram Pirai in her list of the "10 best Films of Kamal Haasan". In February 2014, Arundhati said she "would love to play a role like Sridevi's in Moondram Pirai". Sridevi's performance in the film was included in The Times of Indias 2015 list, "Sridevi: 5 times the actress bowled us with her performance". Although no print of Moondram Pirai has survived, the film is still available on home video. Balki mentioned in an April 2016 interview with Indo-Asian News Service, that Moondram Pirai "tremendously influenced" him as a filmmaker. Writer V. Vijayendra Prasad stated that he got the idea to write the story of the Telugu film Simhadri (2003) while watching Moondram Pirai. In popular culture Balu Mahendra's Telugu film Nireekshana (1982) was dubbed and released in Tamil as Kanne Kalaimane. In Manadhai Thirudivittai (2001), Valayapathi (Vivek)