''Vana Mohini'' is a 1941 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

Bhagwan Bhagavan ( sa, भगवान्, Bhagavān; pi, Bhagavā, italics=yes), also spelt Bhagwan (sometimes translated in English as "Lord"), is an epithet within Indian religions used to denote figures of religious worship. In Hinduism it is u ...

. The film stars Srilankan actress K. Thavamani Devi and

M. K. Radha Madras Kandaswami Radhakrishnan (20 November 1910 – 29 August 1985), professionally known as M. K. Radha, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was born in Chennai and took up acting in Tamil stage at the age of 7. He was ...

. Additionally, an elephant played an important role in the film.

Plot

The story is about a tribal girl, played by K. Thavamani Devi, who lives in a forest with an elephant. A prince (

) comes to the forest in search of his uncle. The prince and the tribal girl meet and ultimately fall in love. Things are going well when they are caught by the villain. In the end, the prince kills the villain with the help of the elephant (Thavamani's companion), finds his uncle and eventually marries the girl.

Cast

* Chandru (Elephant) * K. Thavamani as the tribal girl *

as the prince * S. S. Kokko (Real name: Pasupuleti Srinivasulu Naidu) * Kolathu Mani * ‘Comedian' Ambi T.V. Krishnaswami * Kamala Bai * K. T. Sakku Bai * Krishna Bai * S. Basha * S. R. K. Iyengar * N. Appu * Baby Rukmini

Influences and remakes

The film was based on a

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

jungle film featuring

Dorothy Lamour Dorothy Lamour (born Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American actress and singer. She is best remembered for having appeared in the '' Road to...'' movies, a series of successful comedies starring Bing ...

. Thavamani also wore a revealing sarong, as Lamour had in the original film. It was the first time such an outfit was worn in a Tamil film and played a major role in the film's success. The film was also remade in Sinhala as ''Wana Mohini'' (1957) by

T. R. Sundaram Tiruchengodu Ramalingam Sundaram Mudaliar (16 July 1907 – 30 August 1963) was an Indian actor, director, and producer. He was the founder of the Salem-based film production company Modern Theatres. Early life Sundaram was born in 1907 fro ...

and

A. B. Raj Antony Basker Raj (25 June 1930 – 23 August 2020), also known as A. Bhaskar Raj, was an Indian director of Malayalam movies. Career From 1951 to 1960, he directed ten Singalese (Sinhala) movies followed by directing 65 Malayalam movies fro ...

Production

Noted Hindi film actor

wrote the script and directed the film. Besides K. Thavamani Devi and M. K. Radha, the film featured an elephant named "Chandru", which played a major role. It was perhaps the first and only instance where an elephant received top billing in the credits of a film. The film also featured Baby Rukmini as a child artist (the mother of actress

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, power, beauty, fertility and prosperity, and associated with ''Maya'' ("Illusion"). Alo ...

). The film's music was composed by

C. Ramchandra Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar (12 January 1918 – 5 January 1982), also known as C. Ramchandra or Chitalkar or Anna Sahib, was an Indian music director and playback singer.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0156163, title=Vana Mohini 1941 films 1940s Tamil-language films Tamil films remade in other languages Indian black-and-white films