''Galatta Kalyanam'' () is a 1968 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by C. V. Rajendran and written by Gopu. The film stars

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001) was an Indian actor and producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. Sivaji Ga ...

and

Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

. It is based on Gopu and Sridhar's play of the same name. The film, released on 12 April 1968, was later remade in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

as '' Snehikkan Samayamilla'' and in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

as ''Aliya Devaru''.

Plot

Madan and Lalitha are in love with each other. Lalitha is the second daughter of a businessman, Dharmalingam. While seeking her hand in marriage, Dharmalingam lays down a condition that all his daughters' weddings are to be held simultaneously, thereby entrusting Madan with the unenviable task of finding suitable grooms for his other daughters. Madan seeks the help of his friend, Chandran in his mission. Madan, however, soon realises that he has a Herculean task ahead of him – the eldest daughter Rathna is averse to marriage. The others have their own tastes and preferences. After encountering a lot of difficulties, they manage to find grooms for all of them. However, on the wedding eve, one of the grooms goes missing. After tracing the gang, Madan fights them to rescue the groom and finally all pairs get married.

Cast

;Actors *

as Madhan * A. V. M. Rajan as Mohan *

Nagesh Nagesh (born Cheyur Krishnarao Nageshwaran; (27 September 1933 – 31 January 2009) was an Indian actor, mostly remembered for his roles as a comedian in Tamil films during the 1960s. Nagesh was born in Dharapuram. He acted in over 1,000 fil ...

as Chandran * Cho as Vittal * K. A. Thangavelu as Dharmalingam *

V. S. Raghavan V S Raghavan (18 February 1925 – 24 January 2015) was an Indian actor, who has acted both in Tamil films as well as television. He started his career as a dramatist and stage actor and went on to act as a character actor in films, starting ...

as Masilamani *Mali as Gangster * V. Gopalakrishnan as Gopi (a) Gopalakrishnan * Senthamarai as Jambu ;Actresses *

as Lalitha *

Jyothi Lakshmi Jyothi Lakshmi (2 November 1948 – 9 August 2016) was an Indian actress who appeared in more than 130 movies. In the early 1970s, she was well noted for her leading roles and songs in movies. She also acted in female-oriented movies and was a ...

as Kanchana * Manorama as Rathna * Kumari Sachu as Kantha * Rajeswari as Sarasa * Sundari Bai as Devi * Seethalakshmi as Lakshmi * Deva Manohari as Jaya

Production

''Galatta Kalyanam'' was the adaptation of a play written by Gopu, which was staged in a star night organised for donations during the

Sino-Indian War The Sino-Indian War took place between China and India from October to November 1962, as a major flare-up of the Sino-Indian border dispute. There had been a series of violent border skirmishes between the two countries after the 1959 Tibet ...

of 1962. Gopu completed the script within two days. After seeing the positive response the play received, Ganesan expressed interest in adapting the play into a feature film. This was the first film which had Gopu working outside the banner of Chitralaya and the film was directed by Sridhar's cousin C. V. Rajendran. It is the first film produced by Ramkumar Films. The song sequence "Engal Kalyanam" was shot at

Anna Nagar Tower Park Anna Nagar Tower Park, officially known as Dr Visvesvaraya Tower Park, is an urban park in the suburb of Anna Nagar, Chennai. It is the tallest park tower in Chennai. The tower has been closed for the public. However, the park is still open. H ...

. Rajendran required that all the lead actors appear in the song, but was unable to bring them all together except for "half a day of shoot" due to their other commitments; as a result, he had to rely on "used cuts, zooms and whizz-pans to circumvent the challenge". To portray Ganesan as "stylish and youthful", he created a shot of him walking from the manager's room to his seat, hoping it would create a huge response among the audience.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by M. S. Viswanathan, and the lyrics were written by Vaali. The song "Nalla Idam" contains the lines "Nalla Idam, Nee Vandha Idam" (Good place, the place you have come), which writer R. Kannan interpreted as meaning Jayalalithaa had moved to Sivaji Ganesan from acting exclusively with

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

Release and reception

''Galatta Kalyanam'' was released on 12 April 1968. ''

Kalki Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exist ...

'' appreciated the film for its comical dialogues and non-confusing direction.

Legacy

In 2003, Malathi Rangarajan of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' wrote, "Together with Nagesh, Sivaji Ganesan made watching ''Galatta Kalyanam'' a memorable experience". In 2013, Anupama Subramanian of ''

Deccan Chronicle ''Deccan Chronicle'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded by Rajagopal Mudaliar in the 1930s & currently owned by Samagrah Commercial Pvt Limited. It is published in Hyderabad, Telangana, by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited ...

'' praised Jayalalitha's performance, stating that "It was ''Galatta Kalyanam'' .which brought out her flair for comedy". The title of the Tamil-dubbed version of 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 ...

film '' Atrangi Re'' (2021) was taken from this film.

References

External links

* {{C. V. Rajendran 1960s Tamil-language films 1968 films 1968 romantic comedy films Films about Indian weddings Films directed by C. V. Rajendran Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films set in Chennai Films shot in Chennai Films with screenplays by Chitralaya Gopu Indian films based on plays Indian romantic comedy films Tamil films remade in other languages