''Lavanya'' is a 1951 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 directed by G. R. Lakshmanan. The film stars T. E. Varadan and Suryaprabha.

Plot

Two poor girls make their living by street dancing. Some heavenly maidens descend to Earth and wants to make fun. They make one of the girls to get lost while bathing and make the other girl into a handsome young man. Now the young man falls in love with a princess. They marry. A divine person presents the young man with a ring and says the ring will give whatever he wants but there is one condition. The young man should not consummate his marriage. So, the young man gets all he wants and strictly guarded himself from making love to his wife. The wife does all sorts of things to seduce him. At last, one day he relents to her charms and make love to her. But, Lo and behold! He lost everything he had. How he fights back to get back all the things and also the lost girl, forms the rest of the story.

Cast

List adapted from the database of

Film News Anandan Film News Anandan (born Mani) was an Indian film historian and photographer based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He was popularly known as the "walking encyclopedia" of Tamil cinema. Early life Anandan was born as Mani. His father P. K. Gnanasagaram ...

and from

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 ...

review article. *T. E. Varadan as the Young Man *Suryaprabha as Lavanya *Vanaja as a poor girl, who become the Young Man *

Kumari Kamala Kumari Kamala (born 16 June 1934) is an Indian dancer and actress (also known as Kamala Lakshman). Initially featured as a child dancer, Kamala appeared in almost 100 Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films throughout her career. In the 1970s, she ...

as poor girl who gets lost while bathing *''Pulimoottai'' Ramaswami * T. S. Jaya *C. R. Rajakumari

Production

The film was produced and directed by G. R. Lakshmanan who also wrote the story and dialogues. Cinematography was handled by Marcus Bartley and Adi Irani while the editing was done by Jambu and A. S. Thangavelu. K. Nageswara Rao was in-charge of Art direction.

K. N. Dandayudhapani Pillai Karaikal Natesa Dhandayudhapani Pillai (born 14 July 1921, Karaikal - 1974) was an Indian classical dancer and choreographer, considered by many as one of the leading exponents of the classical dance form of Bharatanatyam. He was also a teacher ...

Vazhuvoor B. Ramaiyah Pillai Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai (1910–1991) was an Indian Bharatanatyam dance teacher and choreographer. Early life Vazhuvoor Bagyathammal Ramaiah Pillai was born in 1910 to Parthiban and Bagyathammal in Vazhuvoor. He learned the arts of Nattuva ...

and Hiralal did the choreography. The film was shot at

Vauhini studios Vauhini Studios was an Indian film production company and studio facility in Madras. It was founded by Moola Narayana Swamy and B. N. Reddy (Bommireddy Narasimha Reddy). In later years, Nagi Reddi, owner of Vijaya Productions, acquired Vauhini stu ...

Soundtrack

Music was composed by S. V. Venkatraman 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 ...

Playback singer A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not app ...

s are D. K. Pattammal,

P. A. Periyanayaki P. A. Periyanayaki (14 April 1927 – 1990) was an Indian playback singer and actress who worked mainly in Tamil-language films. She also performed stage concerts as a Carnatic singer. Early life She hails from Thiruvadhigai near Panruti. ...

and

Jikki Pillavalu Gajapathy Krishnaveni (3 November 1935 – 16 August 2004), more famously known as Jikki, was an Indian playback singer from Andhra Pradesh. She sang around 10,000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, and Sinhalese languag ...

Reception

The film did not fare well at the box office. However, the film is remembered for the dance sequences and brilliant cinematography.

References

{{reflist Indian romantic fantasy films Films scored by S. V. Venkatraman 1950s romantic fantasy films 1950s Tamil-language films