''Avan Amaran'' () is a 1958 Indian

Tamil language Tamil (; ' , ) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. Tamil is an official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the sovereign nations of Sri Lanka and Singapore, and the Indian territory of Pudu ...

film produced and written by Nagercoil S. Nagarajan, and directed by

S. Balachander Sundaram Balachander (18 January 1927 – 13 April 1990) was an Indian veena player and filmmaker. He directed, produced, and also composed music for a few of his films. Balachander was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1982. He died of a hear ...

. The film stars K. R. Ramasamy,

P. Kannamba Pasupuleti Kannamba (''Pasupulēţi Kannāṃba'') (5 October 1911 – 7 May 1968) was an Indian actress, playback singer and film producer of Telugu language, Telugu cinema, of Andhra Pradesh, India. She acted in more than 170 films and produce ...

Rajasulochana Chittajallu Rajeevalochana (15 August 1935 – 5 March 2013), better known as Rajasulochana, was an Indian classical dancer and actress. She has acted in more than 300 Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi language films. Early life She w ...

and

T. S. Balaiah Thirunelveli Subramaniyan Balaiah (23 August 1914 – 22 July 1972) was an Indian actor. He is best known for playing supporting roles in Tamil films. Born in Sundankottai, near Udankudi in Thoothukudi, Balaiah was introduced to the cine fiel ...

. It was released on 23 May 1958.

Plot

Cast

The cast is listed below: * K. R. Ramasamy as Arul *

as Arul's mother *

as Lily *

as Lily's father

Production

''Avan Amaran'' was produced and written by Nagercoil S. Nagarajan under People's Films, and directed by

shot at the Newtone, Paramount, and Revathi studios in Chennai. The scene where labourers protest on a bridge was shot at a bridge near

Fort St. George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress in the coastal city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1639, it was the first English (later British) fortress in India. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further ...

, Madras (now Chennai). Cinematography was handled by Nemai Ghosh.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by T. M. Ibrahim. The lyrics were by

A. Maruthakasi A. Maruthakasi (13 February 1920 – 29 November 1989) was an Indian poet and film lyricist who wrote mainly in the Tamil language. He penned more than 4000 lyrics in more than 250 Tamil films. Early life Born in Melakudikadu in Tiruchirappal ...

, Ku. Sa. Krishnamurthi,

Kambadasan Kambadasan (1916–1973) was an Indian writer, poet and film lyricist who worked mainly in Tamil-language films. Early life Kambadasan was born as Appaavu a.k.a. Rajappa at Ulagapuram, a village near Tindivanam in the then South Arcot District ( ...

, Surabhi,

Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam Kurichchi Marimuthu Balasubramaniam better known as Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam (1920-1994) was an Indian writer and poet who wrote mainly in the Tamil language. Early life Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam born on 13 May 1920 at Velukkudi near Mannargudi in ...

and Kuyilan. The song "Kaalanaa Minjaadhaiyaa" is based on "Ramayya Vastavayya" from the

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

film ''

Shree 420 ''Shree 420'' (also spelled as ''Shri 420''; ) is a 1955 Indian Hindi comedy-drama film directed and produced by Raj Kapoor from a story written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas whose use of Shree with the negative connotations of 420 caused controversy. ...

'' (1955), and "Vaanmadhi Nee Arivaai" is based on "Jaye To Jaye Kahaan" from another Hindi film, ''

Taxi Driver ''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Paul Schrader, and starring Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris, and Albert Brooks. Set in a decaying and ...

'' (1954).

Release and reception

''Avan Amaran'' was released on 23 May 1958. Film historian

Randor Guy Madabhushi Rangadorai (born 8 November 1937), better known by his pen name Randor Guy, is an Indian lawyer, columnist and film and legal historian associated with the English language newspaper ''The Hindu''. He is also the official editor of the ...

wrote that the film would be "Remembered for the leftist message-oriented story, screenplay and dialogue, the performances by Ramasami, Kannamba, Balaiah and Rajasulochana, and Balachandar's deft direction." According to him the film did not succeed commercially. At that time as it was left oriented theme there was more than 72 cuts at the Censor board and on appeal it was reduced to 52 and after screening it to the then Prime minister Mr.Jawaharlal Nehru finally 35 cuts were approved and censor board certification was given. In this daragging background the film' s release was delayed by more than 6 months. When released there was a severe power cut at Tamilnadu, then Madras state, and theaters were allowed to run only one show. This toppled the films success even though it was highly spent movie (₹650,000 production cost) and so it had to become a failure in box office. Vennai Balachander' s first debut as film Director.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{S. Balachander 1950s Tamil-language films 1958 drama films 1958 films Films directed by S. Balachander Films scored by T. M. Ibrahim Indian drama films