''Kanchana'' is a 1952 Indian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

produced and directed by S. M. Sriramulu Naidu. The story is based on a popular Tamil novel, ''Kanchanayin Kanavu'', authored by

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...

. It was filmed simultaneously in

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 ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

languages.

Plot

Pushpanathan is Zamindar of Mathur and his widowed mother is Ponnammal. He is persuaded by his college mate Manohar to start a

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

. Manohar manages to manipulate and divert Pushpanathan's wealth. He introduces Pushpanathan to a dancer in the city, Bhanumathi. Bhanumathi, though the daughter of a prostitute, leads an honorable life. Bhanumathi is in love with Pushpanathan. Neelamegham Pillai, the former accountant of the Zamindari, now lives in utter poverty. His grandchildren are Kanchana and Sabeshan. Pushpanathan comes to help his family. He becomes enamoured by Kanchana and weds her. He assures Bhanumathi that his marriage will not affect his love for her. Kanchana is ill-treated by her mother-in-law. She is heartbroken when she discovers her husband's relationship with Bhanumathi. The financial crisis caused by the construction of the

and domestic worries disturbs Pushpanathan's peace of mind. Seetha, a young lady doctor comes to Mathur. Pushpanathan is drawn to her. But Seetha is in love with her college mate doctor Sabeshan. Kanchana burns with suspicion and jealousy. Seetha leaves Mathur to avoid Pushpanathan, who vents his anger on his wife. Kanchana leaves home and Pushpanathan does not allow Kanchana to take her son. Ponnammal gradually begins to realize the value of Kanchana. She and Bhanumati ask Pushpanathan to bring Kanchana back home. Bhanumathi dies and transfers all her wealth to Kanchana's son. The story ends with Sabeshan wedding Seetha and Pushpanathan bringing Kanchana back home.

Cast

;Male cast * K. R. Ramasamy as Pushpanathan * T. S. Dorairaj as Kondaiah * M. N. Nambiar as Manohar * V. Ramasharma as Doctor Prasad * K. Duraswami as Ramadasu * N. S. Narayana Pillai as Lawyer * K. S. Kannaiah *

P. A. Thomas P. A. Thomas (22 March 1922 – 19 January 1995) was an Indian film director, producer, script writer, theater artist and actor in Malayalam movies. He has directed more than 15 movies and produced 11 movies during the 1960s and 1970s. He has ...

as Sabeshan ;Female cast * Lalitha as Kanchana * Padmini as Bhanumathi *

Miss Kumari Miss Kumari (1932–1969) was an Indian actress working in the Malayalam film industry between 1949 and 1969. In the 50's and early 60's she was the most prominent female lead in the Malayalam film industry. She briefly worked as a teacher befo ...

as Doctor Seetha * M. Rushyendramani as Parvathi Bai *

M. R. Santhanalakshmi M. R. Santhanalakshmi ( ta, எம். ஆர். சந்தானலட்சுமி; 1905–1957) was a Tamil film actress who played lead roles in movies of the 1930s and 1940s. Filmography References * {{DEFAULTSORT:Santhanal ...

as Gangarathnam * K. N. Kamalam as Bangaramma * Thankam as Rita * Kannamma as Sarasu * Thankamma *

Aranmula Ponnamma Aranmula Ponnamma (8 April 1914 – 21 February 2011) was a National Award winning Indian actress known for her roles as mother of the protagonist in numerous films in a career spanning over five decades. She is widely described as a mother ...

as Ponnamma

Production

''Kanchana'' was the screen version of a popular Tamil novel ''Kanchanayin Kanavu'', authored by Tripurasundari, popularly known by her pen name "Lakshmi". The novel serially published in the Tamil weekly ''

Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History and profile ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 wa ...

'', got widespread acceptance and appreciation from the readers for the morals it conveyed. The popularity of the novel prompted Sreeramulu Naidu to produce the film based on this story. Lakshmi said while her novel was serialised in ''Ananda Vikatan'', readers asked her whether she had actresses Lalitha and Padmini in her mind when writing the novel. Therefore, she said that when Sri Ramulu Naidu bought the rights to make the novel into a film, she requested him to cast Lalitha and Padmini in the roles.

Soundtrack

There are two

kritis ''Kriti'' (Sanskrit: कृति, ''kṛti'') is a format of musical composition typical to Carnatic music. ''Kritis'' form the mental backbone of any typical Carnatic music concert and is the longer format of Carnatic song. "Kriti" also means C ...

composed by

Muthuswami Dikshitar Muthuswami Dikshitar (Mudduswamy Dikshitar)(, 24 March 1776 – 21 October 1835), mononymously Dikshitar, was a South Indian poet, singer and veena player, and a legendary composer of Indian classical music, who is considered one of the musical ...

and sung by

M. L. Vasanthakumari Madras Lalitangi Vasanthakumari (popularly referred to as MLV) (3 July 1928 – 31 October 1990) was a Carnatic musician and playback singer for film songs in many Indian languages. MLV and her contemporaries D. K. Pattammal and M. S. Subbulak ...

included in the film. The raga that is called Tharangini in Muthuswami Dikshitar school, is otherwise known as

Charukesi Charukesi (pronounced chārukēś‌i) is a rāga in Carnatic music (musical scale of South Indian classical music). It is the 26th ''Melakarta'' rāgam in the 72 ''melakarta'' rāgam system of Carnatic music. It is called Tarangini in Muthuswam ...

. Music was composed by

S. M. Subbaiah Naidu Subburayulu Munuswami Subbaiah Naidu (a.k.a. SMS) (15 March 1914 – 26 May 1979) was an Indian composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He was one of the oldest music directors. He worked as an in-house music composer for Central Studios an ...

, while the lyrics were penned by

Papanasam Sivan Paapanaasam Raamayya Sivan (26 September 1890 – 1 October 1973) was an Indian composer of Carnatic music and a singer. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1971. He was also a film score composer in Kannada cinema ...

, V. A. Gopalakrishnan and Namakkal R. Balasubramaniam.

Reception

Although the performances of Ramasami, Lalitha, Padmini and Duraiswami were praised, according to

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 ...

, ''Kanchana'' was not commercially successful in either of its versions.

References

External links

Bibliography

*{{Cite book , last=Dhananjayan , first=G. , title=Pride of Tamil Cinema: 1931–2013 , title-link=Pride of Tamil Cinema , publisher=Blue Ocean Publishers , year=2014 , oclc=898765509 , author-link=G. Dhananjayan 1950s Malayalam-language films 1950s multilingual films 1950s Tamil-language films 1950s Telugu-language films 1952 drama films 1952 films Films based on Indian novels Films directed by S. M. Sriramulu Naidu Indian black-and-white films Indian drama films Films scored by S. M. Subbaiah Naidu Films scored by Muthuswami Dikshitar Indian multilingual films