''Yayathi'' is a 1938 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 directed by M. L. Tandon. The film featured P. U. Chinnappa and

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 ...

in the lead roles.

Plot

The story was based on the life of a puranic king

Yayati Yayāti ( sa, ययाति, translit=Yayāti), is a king in Hindu tradition. He is described to be a Chandravamsha king. He is regarded to be the progenitor of the races of the Yadavas and the Pandavas. He is considered in some texts t ...

found in

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

, Adi Parva.

Cast

The list is compiled from the database of

Film News Anandan Film News Anandan (born Mani) was an Indian film historian and photographer based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He was popularly known as the "walking encyclopedia" of Tamil cinema. Early life Anandan was born as Mani. His father P. K. Gnanasagaram ...

and from the review article by Randor Guy ;Male cast *P. U. Chinnappa *P. B. Rangachari *C. S. Shamanna *M. S. Subramania Bhagavathar *M. S. Babu *K. S. Harihara Iyer ;Female cast *M. V. Rajamma *C. S. M. Sulochana *T. S. Krishnaveni *S. C. Gomathi Bai *M. L. Rajambal

Production

The film was produced by Mohan Movietone of

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

, and was directed by the Hollywood-trained filmmaker Manik Lal Tandon. The film was made in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. An info is found in the review article that said, as reportedly said by

, that there were clashes between Chinnappa and Tandon during the shooting of the film and it was rumoured that the actor slapped the film maker.

Soundtrack

Music was composed 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 ...

who also penned the lyrics. There were 25 songs in the film and some are available as 78 rpm records now. The available songs are sung by P. U. Chinnappa.

Reception

Writing in

the Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

review article in 2010, Randor Guy says the film is remembered for "Chinnappa's performance and Tandon's deft direction."

References

{{reflist Hindu mythological films Films based on the Mahabharata Indian black-and-white films Films scored by Papanasam Sivan