Ocimum tenuiflorum

Ocimum tenuiflorum, also known as Ocimum sanctum, holy basil, or tulasi (also spelled thulasi), is an aromatic plant in the family Lamiaceae which is native to the Indian subcontinent and widespread as a cultivated plant throughout the Southeast Asian tropics. It is an erect, many branched subshrub, 30–60 cm (12–24 in) tall with hairy stems and simple phyllotaxic green or purple leaves that are strongly scented.

Leaves have petioles and are ovate, up to 5 cm (2.0 in) long, usually slightly toothed. The flowers are purplish in elongate racemes in close whorls. The two main morphotypes cultivated in India and Nepal are green-leaved (Sri or Lakshmi tulasi) and purple-leaved (Krishna tulasi).

Tulasi is cultivated for religious and medicinal purposes, and for its essential oil. It is widely known across the Indian subcontinent as a medicinal plant and an herbal tea, commonly used in Ayurveda, and has an important role within the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism, in which devotees perform worship involving holy basil plants or leaves. This plant is revered as an elixir of life.

Tulasi (actress)

Tulasi (or Tulasi Shivamani) is an Indian actress. She started her career as a child actress, then became a lead actress and later did supporting roles in mother characters. She has acted in over 300 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi languages.

Career

Tulasi made her debut in the Telugu film Bharya when she was three months old in 1967. For a song in the film, a baby was needed and Tulasi was placed in the cradle after actress Savitri had requested Tulasi's mother, who was a friend of her. She was then featured in one song when she was one-and-half year old in Jeevanatarangalu and said that she became a full-fledged actor when she was three. She had never been to school.

She got married at age 28 to Kannada director Sivamani. She stated that "I met him in the morning and by evening we tied the knot". She has one son Sai Tarun with him. Tulasi decided to quit acting after getting married, working only occasionally as a voice actor in Telugu films, including ones by Mani Ratnam. When her son was around six years old, she received several mother character roles. She initially declined them all, but finally signed on one Kannada film, Excuse Me, in which she played mother to Divya Spandana and which became a big hit. After that she was doing three films a year in Kannada.

Tulasi (film)

Tulasi is a 2007 Telugu film produced by D.Suresh Babu on Suresh Productions banner, directed by Boyapati Srinu. Starring Venkatesh, Nayantara in lead roles and music is scored by Devi Sri Prasad. It was later dubbed into Malayalam with the same title. The film recorded as super hit at box-office. The film was also dubbed into Hindi as The Real Man Hero.

Plot

Parvataneni Tulasi Ram aka Tulasi (Venkatesh) is a native of Palnadu region. As his region is well known for factional feuds, his father Dasaradha Ramayya (Vijaykumar) keeps him away in Hyderabad and get him educated and makes him an architect. Once he goes to an abroad trip, where he comes across Vasundhara aka Vasu (Nayantara) and loses his heart. He marries her and they continue to lead a happy life. When Vasu turns pregnant, Tulasi takes her to their native place to share the happy moments with the entire family.

He turns violent when a rival faction pushes his father and teaches all of them a big lesson with a lot of bloodsheds. Even as he was silent, the factional feuds continue to haunt him and Vasu couldn't digest the violence and deserts him with their son Harsha (Atulith), when her brother (Sivaji) dies in the attack by factionists. Later, Tulasi comes to know that Harsha has a blood clot in his brain and it may cause hemorrhage. With the help of Dr Surekha (Ramya Krishnan), he summons specialists from abroad to get him operated. When everything is ready for the surgery, a gangster (Ashish Vidyarthi) takes away the boy, as both of his sons were killed by Tulasi. In the climax, again Tulasi turns violent and kills everyone to save his son's life. Learning that violence would not only take the lives but also saves lives, Vasu reunites with Tulasi and the film ends on a happy note.