''Maalaiyitta Mangai'' () is a 1958 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, nati ...

-language film directed by G. R. Nathan and produced by Kannadasan under his own production company Kannadasan Films. The film's soundtrack was composed by

Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy were an Indian music composing duo composed of M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy. They worked together on over 100 films, from 1952's '' Panam'' to 1965's '' Aayirathil Oruvan''. After their split, Ramamoorthy wo ...

. The film stars T. R. Mahalingam, Pandari Bai and Mynavathi, with Manorama (in her acting debut),

Kaka Radhakrishnan T. V. Radhakrishnan, better known as Kaka Radhakrishnan ( – 14 June 2012) was an Indian actor who acted in Tamil language films from the year 1940. He is also notable for having introduced his childhood friend, Sivaji Ganesan, into films. Car ...

and

C. Lakshmi Rajyam C. Lakshmi Rajyam or shortly Lakshmirajyam (1922–1987) was a South Indian film and drama actress and film producer in 1930s to 1970s.Nata Ratnalu, Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy, Second edition, 2002, pp: 594–96 She is a native of Owk. She ...

in supporting roles. It is based on

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, alternatively spelt as Sarat Chandra Chatterjee ( bn, শরৎচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়; 15 September 1876 or ৩১ শে ভাদ্র ১২৮৩ বঙ্গাব্দ � ...

's novel ''Chandra Nath''. The film was released on 27 June 1958 and became a success.

Plot

Chandru studies in London and returns to Trichy. He lives with his aunt, Alankari and uncle and their daughter Kamalam. Kamalam is in love with Chandru but Chandru doesn't reciprocate it. Chandru goes to Madras to meet his friends family. There, he meets Sarasu and they fall in love. Sarasu is from a poor family. They both get married and he brings her to Trichy. Kamalam hates Sarasu in the beginning but when Sarasu is ready to give up her husband for Kamalam, she realises Sarasu's generous and gentle nature and they both become close. Sarasu gets pregnant and during the bangle ceremony, Alankari gets a picture of Sarasu's mother, Chellam and tells everyone that Chellam became pregnant after her husband went to jail and she is characterless. Chandru's mind changes and he makes Sarasu leave the house to uphold his family values. Sarasu comes to Madras and finds that her mother is dead and her father is in jail again. She finds a letter written by her mother which says she got pregnant by her father who used to escape from jail and meet her at night and that they both run away to Madras. This letter proves her mother's character. Sarasu delivers a boy and Kamalam's marriage arrangements are made with Chandru. Kamalam chastises Chandru for throwing the pregnant Sarasu out and says he will be a man only if he brings her back. Chandru realises his mistake and goes to apologise to Sarasu. He meets with an accident and Sarasu donates her blood and nurses him back to health. Sarasu becomes weak and on her death bed unites Chandru and Kamalam and dies.

Cast

* T. R. Mahalingam as Chandru * Pandari Bai as Sarasu * Mynavathi as Kamalam * Manorama as Anjalai *

as Sudalai *

* Padmini Priyadarshini *

C. K. Saraswathi C. K. Saraswathi (died 1998) was an Indian actress who featured mainly in Tamil films. She was active in the field from 1945 till 1998. During the early days she featured in character roles and in comedy tracks. Later she became famous for her a ...

as Alankari

Production

''Maalaiyitta Mangai'' is an adaptation of the novel ''Chandra Nath'' by

. The film marked the acting debut of Manorama. In an interview, she recalled that it was Kannadasan who insisted her to perform the comical role for the film as portraying such characters would cement her status in the industry.

Soundtrack

Music was composed by

and all lyrics were written by Kannadasan. According to ''

Scroll.in ''Scroll.in'', simply referred to as ''Scroll'', is an Indian digital news publication owned by the Scroll Media Incorporation. It publishes content in both Hindi and English languages. Founded in 2014, the website and its journalists have won ...

'' writer Sruthisagar Yamunan, the song "Engal Dravida Ponnade" was a "direct challenge to the

Congress party The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

's version of nationalism". Kannadasan wrote the song with Mahalingam singing, as a challenge in response to actor/politician M. G. Ramachandran's prediction that the film would fail because of his belief that Mahalingam would not be accepted as a lead actor by party cadres.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0319799 1950s musical drama films 1950s Tamil-language films 1958 films 1958 romantic drama films Films based on works by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Films scored by Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Indian black-and-white films Indian musical drama films Indian romantic musical films