Raja Mukthi () is a 1948 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 starring

M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar Mayavaram Krishnasamy Thiyagaraja Bhagavathar (1 March 1910 – 1 November 1959), also known by his initials as M. K. T., was an Indian actor, producer and Carnatic singer. He is considered to be one of the most successful actors in Tamil cine ...

, V. N. Janaki and

P. Bhanumathi P. Bhanumathi Ramakrishna (7 September 1925 – 24 December 2005) was an Indian actress, singer, film producer, director, music composer, and novelist. She is regarded as the first female super star of Telugu cinema. She is also considered the ...

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 ...

had done a supporting role. The film was released on 9 October 1948.

Plot

King Rajendra Varman and Queen Mrinalini are reigning over the Vyjayanti empire. Mahendra Varman is the rival and the neighbouring King. Kannika is the minister's daughter, who is in love with King Rajendra Varman and aims to attain him at any cost. This convoluted tale of palace intrigue, suspicion, unreciprocated love, seduction, villainy and piety was interspersed with excellent music.

Cast

Production

M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar produced this movie himself under his banner ''Narendra Pictures''. He had done so in order to avoid shooting the movie in Madras city, where he had been imprisoned for more than 2 years. He booked

Prabhat Studios Prabhat Film Company (popularly known as Prabhat Films) was an Indian film production company and film studios founded in 1929 by the noted film director V.Shantaram and his friends. It was formed in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India in 1929, towar ...

Poona Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

and leased a bungalow to accommodate his cast. Most of the technicians are from Prabhat Studios.

Soundtrack

Alathur Subramaniam, one the two

Alathur Brothers Alathur Brothers Srinivasa Iyer (1911–1980) & Sivasubramania Iyer (1916–1965) were Carnatic vocalists. The world of Carnatic music knows them as the star duo of the twentieth century. They learnt under Alathur Venkatesa Iyer, the father ...

'trained' the singers while the background music was composed by

C. R. Subburaman C. R. Subbaraman also known as C. S. Ram (1916–1952) was a famous South Indian film music composer and producer. He was born to Ramasamy at Chintamani village in Thirunelveli, in present-day Tamil Nadu. Music director Shankar of Shankar–Gan ...

. Lyrics 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 ...

Serukalathur Sama Swaminathan Vaidyanathan (26 June 1904—11 January 1963), known by his stage name Serukulathur Sama, was an Indian stage and film actor who was primarily known for playing the role of the Hindu god Krishna in Tamil language Hindu mythological f ...

and

C. T. Rajakantham C. T. Rajakantham (1917–2002) was a Tamil stage and film actress. She was the mother-in-law of playback singer Tiruchi Loganathan and grandmother of playback singers and popular music show judges T. L. Maharajan and Deepan Chakkravarthy ...

are the singers.

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 ...

M. L. Vasanthakumari Madras Lalitangi Vasanthakumari (popularly referred to as MLV) (3 July 1928 – 31 October 1990) was a Carnatic musician and playback singer for film songs in many Indian languages. MLV and her contemporaries D. K. Pattammal and M. S. Subbulak ...

Trivia

*The famous

T. N. Rajarathinam Pillai Thirumarugal Natesapillai Rajarathinam Pillai (27 August 1898 – 12 December 1956) or TNR was an Indian Carnatic musician, nadaswaram ''maestro'', vocalist and film actor. He was popularly known as "Nadaswara Chakravarthi" (literally, the Empero ...

played the nadaswaram for a sequence. *The music records of ''Raja Mukthi'' witnessed record sales even before the movie’s release. *

had introduced a new female singer

to Tamil cinema through ''Raja Mukthi'' in a debut as a playback singer. *''Raja Mukthi'' had an average run. This film was lengthy and it had no comedy scenes. The producer didn't face any loss from this film though the expectation was very high.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0158138 1948 films 1940s Tamil-language films Indian black-and-white films Films scored by C. R. Subbaraman