''Sengottai Singam'' () is a 1958 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, nati ...

-language film directed by

V. N. Reddy Venkata Narasimha Reddy, professionally known as V. N. Reddy (20 November 1914 – 29 December 1991), was an Indian cinematographer and director who predominantly worked in Hindi and Telugu films for over thirty years starting from 1943. One of th ...

and produced by

Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Thevar "''Eugen Sandow, Sandow''" Marudur Marudachalamurthy Ayyavoo Chinnappa Thevar (28 June 1915 – 8 September 1978) was a producer of Tamil cinema, Tamil films in the mid-1950s through the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for his films featuring a ...

. The film stars

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 ...

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 ac ...

, with

Pandari Bai Pandari Bai (1930 – 29 January 2003) was an Indian actress who worked in South Indian cinema, mostly in Kannada cinema during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She is considered Kannada cinema's first successful heroine. She has acted as both heroi ...

S. V. Sahasranamam Singanallur Venkataramana Iyer Sahasranamam (29 November 1913 – 19 February 1988), also known as S. V. S., was an Indian actor and director. Primarily a theatre actor, he also worked in over 200 films, mainly in Tamil cinema. Early lif ...

and E. R. Sahadevan in supporting roles. It was released on 11 July 1958.

Plot

The wealthy owner of the Sengottai estate orders for Lakshmi, a factory worker and her infant son to be killed because they came in the way of his car. Unknown to him, Lakshmi is his son Dharmalingam's lover and the mother of his son. His henchman secretly allows Lakshmi and her son to escape. Circumstances lead to the separation of the two, and the boy is raised by Malayandi, a tribal leader. Dharmalingam is grief-stricken that he has lost his lover and child, and refuses to marry the woman of his father’s choice. Meanwhile, Lakshmi's son is named Singam and grows up a fierce warrior who fights with animals and enemies. Singam later falls in love with a young woman. The rest of the film deals with how the family reunites.

Cast

as Singam *

as Singam's lover *

as Lakshmi *

as Dharmalingam *

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 Malayandi *

C. L. Anandan Anandan (15 June 1933 – 25 March 1989), born as C. L. Anandan, was an Indian actor and producer who was active in Tamil cinema as well in Malayalam cinema during the second half of the 20th century. He was well known for his hero, supportin ...

Mynavathi Mynavathi (26 July 1935 – 10 November 2012) was an Indian actress. She made her first screen appearance as an actor in the 1955 Kannada film ''Santa Sakhu'' and acted in over 100 Kannada films. She was the younger sister of another popular Ka ...

Pushpalatha Pushpalatha is an Indian actress, who has worked predominantly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam language films. She has acted as heroine and character roles in more than 100 films. Her debut film was '' Sengottai Singam'', released in 1958. When ...

Production

''Sengottai Singam'' was the third production of

's company Devar Films. It featured

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 ...

actors

and

as the male and female leads respectively. The story was written by Rajagopal, and the screenplay by Puratchidasan.

, a filmmaker based in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, directed the film and also worked as cinematographer, while being assisted by N. S. Varma, an already established South Indian cinematographer. M. G. Balu Rao and M. A. Mariappan jointly edited the film. Shooting took place at

Vijaya Vauhini Studios Vijaya Vauhini Studios was one of the premier motion picture movie studios in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is the combination of Vijaya Productions and Vauhini Studios. B. Nagi Reddy (Bommireddy Nagi Reddy) was the founder of Vijaya Produc ...

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by

K. V. Mahadevan Krishnankoil Venkadachalam Mahadevan (14 March 1918 – 21 June 2001) was an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, and musician known for his works in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Telugu cinema, Telugu, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam, and Kann ...

, while the lyrics were written by

A. Maruthakasi A. Maruthakasi (13 February 1920 – 29 November 1989) was an Indian poet and film lyricist who wrote mainly in the Tamil language. He penned more than 4000 lyrics in more than 250 Tamil films. Early life Born in Melakudikadu in Tiruchirappal ...

, Velsamy Kavi and Puratchidasan. The song "Nadada Raja", written by Maruthakasi and picturised on Udaykumar's character riding an elephant, gained popularity.

Release and reception

''Sengottai Singam'' was released on 11 July 1958. 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 ...

'' said the film would disappoint those who had already seen ''

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...

'' films. According to 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 ...

, the film was not a major commercial success, but it gained much attention due to its music and onscreen animals, especially two horses named Iqbal and Dilip.

References

External links

* {{Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Thevar Films about animals Films scored by K. V. Mahadevan Films set in jungles Indian adventure films 1950s Tamil-language films 1950s adventure films