''Mahakavi Kalidasa'' is 1955 Indian

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 ...

-language film directed by

K. R. Seetharama Sastry K. R. Seetharama Sastry ( kn, ಕು. ರಾ. ಸೀತಾರಾಮ ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರಿ) popularly known as Ku. Ra. Seetharama Sastry or simply Ku. Ra. Si was an Indian actor, writer, lyricist and director in Kannada cinema, Kannada film i ...

, in his debut direction. The movie is based on the legends of the poet

Kālidāsa Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and t ...

. It stars Honnappa Bhagavatar as

, a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

poet who lived during the 4th and 5th Century CE. It tells the story of how he, an aristocratic young man cursed by his guru with ignorance, goes on to become a great poet. B. Raghavendra Rao, Narasimharaju and

B. Saroja Devi Bangalore Saroja Devi (born 7 January 1938) is an Indian actress who has acted in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. She acted in around 200 films in over six decades. She is known by the epithets "''Abhinaya Saraswathi''" (Saraswathi of ...

(in her film debut) features supporting roles. It was remade in Telugu in 1960 as ''

Mahakavi Kalidasu ''Mahakavi Kalidasu'' is a 1960 Indian Telugu-language biographical film directed by Kamalakara Kameswara Rao and written by Pingali. It stars Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Sriranjani Jr., with music composed by Pendyala. It was produced by K. Na ...

'' starring

Akkineni Nageswara Rao Akkineni Nageswara Rao (20 September 1923 – 22 January 2014), widely known as ANR, was an Indian actor and producer, known for his works majorly in Telugu cinema. He starred in many landmark films in his seventy five-year career, and became on ...

in Tamil in 1966 as ''

Mahakavi Kalidas ''Mahakavi Kalidas'' is a Bollywood film directed by Niren Lahiri. It was released in 1942. Plot After falling in love with a woman from a lower caste, a naive Sanskrit poet who was ostracized now encounters obstacles when he participates in a ...

'' starring

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 ...

. This Kannada film was dubbed into Tamil and released in 1956 as Mahakavi Kalidas. At the 3rd National Film Awards, the film won the award for Best Feature Film in Kannada. The film is seen as a landmark in

Kannada cinema Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. The 1934 film ''Sati Sulochana'' directed ...

Cast

* Honnappa Bhagavatar * B. Raghavendra Rao * Narasimharaju *

Rajasulochana Chittajallu Rajeevalochana (15 August 1935 – 5 March 2013), better known as Rajasulochana, was an Indian classical dancer and actress. She has acted in more than 300 Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi language films. Early life She w ...

* B. K. Eshwarappa

Awards

; 3rd National Film Awards *

National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of severa ...

- Certificate of Merit

References

1950s Kannada-language films Films about Kalidasa 1955 films 1955 musical films Kannada films remade in other languages 1955 directorial debut films Films directed by K. R. Seetharama Sastry Indian black-and-white films Indian musical films {{1950s-Kannada-film-stub