''Devakanya'' is a 1943 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 ...

Hindu mythological film This is a list of genres of Literary genre, literature and entertainment (Film genre, film, television, Music genre, music, and Video game genre, video games), excluding :Visual arts genres, genres in the visual arts. ''Genre'' is the term for ...

directed by R. Padmanaban. The film stars C. Honnappa Bhagavathar and

U. R. Jeevarathnam Unjalur Ramayamma Jeevaratnam was an Indian actress, singer, producer and playback singer. Most of her works are in Telugu and Tamil languages. Early life Born in Unjalur, Erode, Madras Presidency in British India to Subramaniam and Kunjammaal. ...

Plot

The daughter of a king wants to learn some fine arts. The king arranges a young man who is the son of a palace courtier, to teach music to her. The young man and the princess fall in love and elope. They go to a forest and live there. One day an angel from heaven descends to earth and offers a magical fruit to the young man. Then she makes him also an angel and creates a heavenly place for him. The young man goes away with that angel. The abandoned princess goes in search of her husband and joins a group of street gymnasts. But she dies in an accident. Her body is abandoned. The young man sees the body and remembers his wife. With the help of the magic fruit, he brings her back to life. The angel blesses them.

Cast

The list is adapted from the song bookSong Book
/ref> ;Male cast * C. Honnappa Bhagavathar as Umapathi *

T. R. Ramachandran Thirukampuliyur Ranga Ramachandran (9 January 1917 – 30 November 1990) was an Indian actor and comedian who acted mainly in Tamil films. He was cast mostly in lead or supportive roles, especially in comical parts, from the 1940s to the 1960s. Kn ...

as Rangan * M. R. Saminathan as Gymnast * M. S. Murugesan as Yaman * T. V. Sethuraman as Chitraguptan *

E. R. Sahadevan E. R. Sahadevan was a Tamil veteran villain actor. He acted as the villain along with M. G. Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, S. S. Rajendran in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He made his debut film Rajasekaran Emantha Sonagiri, rele ...

as Suravarman * Joker Ramudu as Wizard * V. B. S. Mani as Neethivarman * M. A. Ganapathi Bhat as Maha Vishnu * K. P. Jayaraman as Kottapuli * S. A. Padmanabhan as Paramasivan * P. B. Srinivasan as Gopu * Chakrapani Iyengar as Nimithakar ;Female cast * U. R. Jeevathnam as Rathnamala * V. N. Janaki as Chitraleka * T. S. Jaya as Sundari * Kalyani as Gurupathni * K. S. Angamuthu as Gymnast ;Support cast * Loose Arumugam, Vaidyanatha Sharma, Raja Bala, Kantha, Sulochana, Rajam, Shantha, Padma.

Production

The film was produced and directed by R. Padmanaban under the banner Padma Pictures and was filmed at Pragjyothi Studios, located in Adyar. (This studio was closed soon after the second world war.) The story and dialogues were written also by R. Padmanaban and was assisted by Sundara Bhagavathar. Cinematography was done by T. Marconi who was an Italian by birth and was employed by Padmanaban in all his films. Actor ''Kottapuli'' Jayaraman earned that nickname after this film only, as the name of the character he featured in was ''Kottapuli''.

Trivia

The cinematographer T. Marconi, being a man from Italy, was detained by the British colonial government during the second world war as ''an undesirable alien'' for merely being an Italian citizen!

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 ...

says he was very fond of the South Indian dish "Morekuzhambu". As such, his friends called him "Morekuzhambu" Marconi!

Soundtrack

Music was composed by Palavangudi V. Shama Iyer and the lyrics were penned by S. G. Chellappa Iyer, a brother of S. G. Kittappa. C. Honnappa Bhagavathar,

, T. S. Jaya, V. N. Janaki, and M. S. Murugesan are singers.

Reception

Film Historian

said the film is "Remembered for the interesting story line well-narrated on screen by Padmanabhan and the good performances of Honnappa Bhagavathar, Janaki, Jeevarathnam and Ramachandran."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0248758 Indian black-and-white films