''School Master'' is a 1958 Indian

Kannada language 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 sp ...

film, produced and directed by

B. R. Panthulu Budaguru Ramakrishnaiah Panthulu (26 July 1910 – 8 October 1974) was an Indian film director, producer and actor. He is best known for directing films in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. His most popular films are '' Karnan'', ''Veerapandiya ...

. The film starred B.R. Panthulu himself in the lead role along with

Dikki Madhava Rao Dikki Madhava Rao (born Murali Madhava Rao; 15 January 1919 – 14 July 1985) was an Indian actor and singer known for his work as a character actor in Kannada-language films. He spent much of his early years as a stage actor in the 1920s and 193 ...

M. V. Rajamma M. V. Rajamma (10 March 1918 – 23 April 1999) was an Indian actress, producer and playback singer of films mostly in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu languages from the 1930s through 1970s. She has the distinction of having acted as both heroine an ...

Udaykumar Bommasandra Srinivasaiah Suryanarayana Murthy (16 March 1933 – 26 December 1985), known by his screen name Udaykumar, was an Indian actor and producer in Kannada cinema. He, along with Kalyan Kumar and Rajkumar, were called the ''Kumarathr ...

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 ...

Gemini Ganesan Ramasamy Ganesan (17 November 1920 – 22 March 2005), better known by his stage name Gemini Ganesan, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was referred to as the ''Kaadhal Mannan'' (King of Romance) for his romantic roles ...

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 important roles. It was the first Kannada film to complete a Silver Jubilee Celebration. This film had its children's dance drama in

Gevacolor Gevacolor is a color motion picture process. It was introduced in 1947 by Gevaert in Belgium, and an affiliate of Agfacolor. The process and company flourished in the 1950s as it was suitable for on location shooting. Both the companies merged in ...

, taken by cinematographer W. R. Subba Rao. It was later remade in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

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 ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

in spite of it being dubbed in Tamil and Telugu as ''Engal Kudumbam Perisu'' and ''Badi Pantulu'', respectively. In 1959, ALS Productions remade it in Hindi as '' School Master'' which was also directed by Panthulu. The film was remade in Malayalam in 1964 as '' School Master'' by

Puttanna Kanagal Shubraveshti Ramaswamiah Seetharama Sharma (1 December 1933 – 5 June 1985), known popularly as S. R. Puttanna Kanagal, was an Indian filmmaker known for his work in Kannada cinema. He is often considered one of Kannada cinema's most influent ...

, in Telugu in 1972 as ''

Badi Panthulu ''Badi Panthulu'' () is a 1972 Indian Telugu language, Telugu-language Drama (film and television), drama film, produced by P. Perraju under the Triveni Productions banner and directed by P. Chandrasekhara Reddy. It stars N. T. Rama Rao and Anja ...

'' and in Tamil in 1973 as '' School Master''. It was the first Kannada movie to be remade in four languages and also the first Kannada movie to be remade in three other South Indian languages. The movie is based on 1937 English movie ''

Make Way for Tomorrow ''Make Way for Tomorrow'' is a 1937 American drama film directed by Leo McCarey. The plot concerns an elderly couple (played by Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi) who are forced to separate when they lose their house and none of their five children w ...

'' which has been adapted multiple times including in Japanese as ''

Tokyo Story is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Yasujirō Ozu and starring Chishū Ryū and Chieko Higashiyama about an aging couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children. Upon release, it did not immediately gain international recogniti ...

'' (1953), in Marathi as ''Oon Paus'' (1954), in Tamil as '' Varavu Nalla Uravu'' (1990), in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

i as ''Samaj'' (1972) and twice in Hindi as '' Zindagi'' (1976) and ''

Baghban The Bagban are a Muslim community found in North as well as the Decca areas of West India.People of India Uttar Pradesh Volume XLII Part One edited by A Hasan & J C Das pages 108 to 111 In the Deccan region they are known as Bagwan. The Bagwan ...

'' (2003).

Plot

The story revolves mostly around the producer/director B. R. Panthulu who plays the role of school master, and his wife. Uncommonly for Balkrishna, he plays a positive role in the film. Bustling actor Narasimharaju is also present. A humble school teacher with his two sons and a daughter arrives at a new place. He finds that the school building is in bad shape and his staff are not motivated to teach. He is a strict disciplinarian, which is shown in a humorous way. His elder son gets into fight with a ruffian student, Vaasu. Vaasu is punished, but his innate goodness wins over his teacher. He is given special care, to become a good student. The teacher has to fight against village politics, when he wishes to build a new building to the school. Undeterred, he motivates his students and villages to amass enough funds to build it. However, henchmen in the village burn down his house. His pet student Vaasu gathers all his friends and builds a small house for his teacher. Years pass and Vaasu tops his matriculation exams. The teacher's sons get married, much against the wishes of their parents, but the teacher takes it in his stride. Their beautiful daughter is married to a simpleton business man. When the teacher retires, his sons are averse to take their parents. With no savings of his own, the teacher has to rely on his sons to lead a retired life. The elder son takes his father, while the younger one takes his mother. The teacher is thus separated from his wife. Things take such a bad turn, that teacher cannot even read his wife's letter, because his sons will not provide him with spectacles. In the climax, the teacher's erstwhile house, which was painfully constructed by his students, has to be auctioned off. Vaasu (

Sivaji Ganeshan 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 Gan ...

), now the Superintendent of Police, happens to pass by in the car and notices the auction. Distraught with pain, he confides to his wife, this is the very house, he built with his fellow students for the teacher, who led him to the garden path. He is overcome by emotions, on seeing the auction. Vaasu's wife immediately removes all her jewellery and urges Vaasu to use them to stop the auction and pay the bank. Vaasu is filled with joy and does so. The teacher is filled with happiness on seeing his once ruffian student becoming a role model. His journey of being a teacher has met a satisfactory end.

Soundtrack

The film's score was composed by

T. G. Lingappa Thiruchirappalli Govindarajulu Lingappa (22 August 1927 – 5 February 2000) was an Indian music director who worked predominantly in Kannada language films. He also worked in Tamil and Telugu movies. He was the son of G. Govindarajulu Naidu w ...

Kannada version

''School Master''

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 ...

s are

A. M. Rajah Aemala Manmadharaju Rajah, popularly known as A. M. Rajah, was an Indian playback singer and music director. Early life A. M. Rajah was born on 1 July 1929 in Cchamanchipuram, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh. His father died when he was thr ...

Pithapuram Nageswara Rao Pithapuram Nageswara Rao (5 May 1930 – 5 March 1996) was an Indian playback singer who worked in the early period of Telugu cinema. He sang thousands of songs, mostly of a comedic nature, in the 1950s and 1960s along with Madhavapeddi Satyam a ...

Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi Soolamangalam Jayalakshmi ( ta, சூலமங்கலம் ஜெயலட்சுமி) and Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi ( ta, சூலமங்கலம் ராஜலட்சுமி), popularly known as Soolamangalam Sisters ( ta, � ...

P. Susheela Pulapaka Susheela (born 13 November 1935), popularly known as P. Susheela, is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema primarily from Andhra Pradesh for over six decades. She is one of the greatest and best-known playba ...

A. P. Komala Arkadu Parthasarathy Komala (born 28 August 1934), commonly known as A. P. Komala, is an Indian playback singer. She has sung songs in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada languages. Career life She was a much sought after playback singer from t ...

, K. Rani and

K. Jamuna Rani K. Jamuna Rani (born 17 May 1938 in Andhra Pradesh, India) is an Indian playback singer who has sung over 6,000 songs in Sinhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam lnguages. Life and career Rani was born to K. Varadarajulu and violinist ...

Tamil version

The Tamil version is titled ''Engal Kudumbam Perisu''. Lyrics were by K. D. Santhanam, Ku. Sa. Krishnamoorthy and Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam.

s were

T. M. Soundararajan Thoguluva Meenatchi Iyengar Soundararajan (24 March 1923 – 25 May 2013), popularly known as TMS, was an Indian Carnatic musician and a playback singer in Tamil cinema for over six and a half decades. He sang over 10,138 songs from 3,162 fi ...

, S. C. Krishnan,

P. Suseela Pulapaka Susheela (born 13 November 1935), popularly known as P. Susheela, is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema primarily from Andhra Pradesh for over six decades. She is one of the greatest and best-known playba ...

, K. Rani and

Telugu version

The Telugu version is titled '' Badi Pantulu''.

s were

P. B. Sreenivas Prathivadhi Bhayankara Sreenivas (22 September 1930 – 14 April 2013) widely known as P. B. Sreenivas was an Indian playback singer, composer, harmonium player, lyricist, littérateur, and poet known for his works in South cinema, and Bollyw ...

, K. Rani and

Awards

;

National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

– All India Certificate of Merit for Third Best Feature film * 1959 –

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 several ...

References

External links

* {{National Film Award Best Feature Film Kannada 1950s Kannada-language films 1958 films Best Kannada Feature Film National Film Award winners Films directed by B. R. Panthulu Films scored by T. G. Lingappa Kannada films remade in other languages Third Best Feature Film National Film Award winners