''Pudhumai Pithan'' is a 1957 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, nativ ...

-language film directed by

T. R. Ramanna Thanjavur Radhakrishnan Ramachandran (T.R.Ramanna) (1923–1997) was an Indian film director and producer. Film career Ramanna started his life as a sound recordist in a city studio and then made his way to film direction. He started the prod ...

and written by M. Karunanidhi, starring

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

, T. R. Rajakumari and

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, Koondukki ...

. The film was released on 2 August 1957.

Plot

A king is imprisoned by his ambitious brother, who creates the impression that the king had died during an animal hunt. The crown prince was on a sea journey and returns to attend the king's fake funeral. During the funeral, the crown prince discovers the truth, via a secret message conveyed to him by the daughter of the palace physician. As expected, she falls in love with the prince. The sibling of king also plots to kill the prince by poisoning him with a drug, concocted by the palace physician. The drug was supposed to make the crown prince mad, who acts like a madman poisoned by the drug to fool everyone. Prince is also helped by a woman drama troupe leader, who also had affection to the crown prince. Eventually, she sacrifices her life, leaving the prince to unite with the daughter of palace physician. The plotting villains were avenged by the prince and his comedian sidekick.

Cast

''Cast according to the opening credits'' ;Male cast *

as Jeevagan *

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 ...

as Prathapan * J. P. Chandrababu as Arivumani *

E. R. Sahadevan E. R. Sahadevan was a Tamil veteran villain actor. He acted as the villain along with M. G. Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, S. S. Rajendran in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. He made his debut film Rajasekaran Emantha Sonagiri, rele ...

as Parakraman * R. Balasubramaniam as Dhunmuki * C. S. Pandian as Chitraguptan * P. S. Venkatachalam as Veeraiah * C. V. V. Panthulu as Emperor * C.R.Parthibhan as Nallannan (Brother of Inbavalli) ;Female cast * T. R. Rajakumari as Inbavalli *

as Velvizhi *

E. V. Saroja E. V. Saroja (1935 - 2006) was an Indian actress and dancer. She was born on 3 November 1935 as Engan V. Saroja. She belonged to Engan village of Thiruvarur district, Tamil Nadu. Her debut film was '' En Thangai'' in 1952 starring M. G. Ramacha ...

as Aprajitha * K. S. Angamuthu as Poonkodi ;Supporting cast * Shantha, Rita, Jayanthi, Kamala, Vitto Bai, Shanthi, Chandra, Bala, Thara, Mohana, Janaki, Saroja, Rajeswari, Rukkumani, Leela, Ranganayaki, Saraswathi and Prema.

Production

The film was directed by Ramanna and it was produced by K. Muniratnam under the banner Sivakami Pictures. The film's script was written by M. Karunanidhi and the cinematography was handled by G. Ramu. According to historian M. L. Narasimham, it was partly inspired by

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

''.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by G. Ramanathan. All lyrics were by Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass..

Release

Kanthan of ''

Kalki Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exist ...

'' wrote . Historian

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 ...

wrote that the film failed because of the "predictable storyline".

References

External links

* {{T. R. Ramanna 1950s Tamil-language films 1957 films Films about royalty Films directed by T. R. Ramanna Films scored by G. Ramanathan