''Natyarani'' () is a 1949

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

dance film A dance film (also known as screen dance) is a film in which dance is used to reveal the central themes of the film, whether these themes be connected to narrative or story, states of being, or more experimental and formal concerns. In such films, ...

starring

Vasundhara Devi Vasundhara Devi (1917-1988) was an Indian actress, trained Bharathanatyam dancer and carnatic singer. The Indian actress Vyjayanthimala is her daughter. Filmography *(1941) '' Rishyasringar'' *(1943) '' Mangamma Sapatham'' *(1947) ''Udayanan ...

B. S. Saroja B. S. Saroja (born 18 November 1929) is an Indian actress in Malayalam and Tamil films. She is the daughter of Johnson, who acted in the first Malayalam film, Vigathakumaran. She acted with MGR and Sivaji in their only movie together, Koondukk ...

, K. Thavamani Devi and

T. S. Balaiah Thirunelveli Subramaniyan Balaiah (23 August 1914 – 22 July 1972) was an Indian actor. He is best known for playing supporting roles in Tamil films. Born in Sundankottai, near Udankudi in Thoothukudi, Balaiah was introduced to the cine fiel ...

Plot

A swamy (hermit) teaches fine arts like music and dance from his Ashram in a village to students. A young girl named Shanthala from the villages brings him milk every day. May be due to her seeing students training in music and dance in the ashram, Shanthala had a strange dream in which she becomes very famous. Shanthala tells about her dream to a close friend, Veni who laughs it off. But Shanthala believes in her dream and starts worshipping Lord Shiva in a temple located outside the village. Lord Shiva appears to her and grants her wish. In the meantime, the king of

Hoysala The Hoysala Empire was a Kannada people, Kannadiga power originating from the Indian subcontinent that ruled most of what is now Karnataka, India, Karnataka between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the Hoysalas was initially loca ...

Vishnuvardhana Vishnuvardhana (r. 1108–1152 CE) was a king of the Hoysala Empire in what is today the modern state of Karnataka, India. He ascended the Hoysala throne after the death of his elder brother Veera Ballala I in c.1108. Originally a followe ...

, visits the Swamy. Swamy was writing a treatise on Classical dance called Natya. He sings a song while the king was listening. Shanthala starts dancing to the tune of the song exhibiting the correct ''mudhra''s perfectly. The king becomes fascinated by Shanthala's dance movements. He meets Shanthala privately and marries her by exchanging rings. He tells her that he will take her to the palace on an auspicious day. However, the king did not tell Shanthala that he is already married. After waiting, Shanthala goes to the palace only to find there is already a queen there. The queen, on learning about Shanthala, tries to poison and kill Shanthala. How Shanthala escapes and then joins the king forms the rest of the story.

Cast

as ''Shanthala'' * B. S. Raja Ayyangar as ''Swamy'' *

as ''Shanthala'' *

* M. L. Pathi Krishna Bai as ''Veni'' * K. Rajamani as ''King Vishnuvarhana'' *

B. Jayamma B. Jayamma (15 November 1915 – 20 December 1988) was an Indian actress and singer. She began her career on stage as a 14-year-old when she joined a theatre group owned by Gubbi Veeranna, her future husband. She went on to perform for 45 years ...

as * K. Thavamani Devi * ''Bombay'' Charlie * Navaneetham * Lalitha- Padmini (Dance)

Production

The film was produced by Baskar Pictures. and was directed by B. N. Rao while the story and dialogues were written by Kambadasan. V. Madhavan was in charge of Choreography. A notable feature in the production of this film is that one single character is done by two different artistes. It so happened when production began,

was acting the role of Shanthala. Several scenes and dances had been shot with her. But she left the film in the middle for some unknown reason. Then B. S. Saroja acted in the remaining scenes. However, the director did not want to abandon the shots made with Vasundhara Devi. He and the screenplay writer came upon a brilliant idea to change the person without losing the earlier shots. The story was re-written to say that the original Shathala died in a fire accident but her spirit entered another body and continued to live as Shanthala, though the physical features have changed. It was considered a plausible explanation that people accepted in those days.

Soundtrack

Music was composed 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 ...

who also wrote the lyrics. Some lyrics were penned by S. Rajaram. Playback singers are D. K. Pattammal and

Kothamangalam Seenu ''Kothamangalam Seenu'' (17 February 1910 - 30 August 2001) was a Tamil Stage, Cinema actor and a Carnatic music singer. Early life Kothamangalam Seenu whose birth name is V. S. Srinivasan, was born in Vathirairuppu (anglicised as ‘Watrap'), ...

. K. Thavamani Devi who acted in a minor role, sang a song.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0261855 1949 films 1940s Tamil-language films Indian black-and-white films Films scored by Papanasam Sivan