''Kaliyuga Kannan'' () is a 1974 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

comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...

film directed by

Krishnan–Panju R. Krishnan (1909–1997) and S. Panju (1915–1984), collectively referred to as Krishnan–Panju, were Indian film directors. The duo directed more than 50 films in South Indian languages and in Hindi. Early life R. Krishnan was born on 18 ...

. It is based on the play ''Sri Krishna Vijayam'' written by Vaali. The film stars

Sowcar Janaki Sankaramanchi Janaki (born T. Janaki; 12 December 1931), popularly known as Sowcar Janaki (Tamil) or Shavukaru Janaki (Telugu) or Sahukar Janaki (Kannada), is an Indian actress who has appeared in over 300, films, predominantly in Tamil, Telug ...

Jaishankar Jaishankar (12 July 1938 – 3 June 2000) was an Indian actor known for his work in Tamil cinema. He was a very popular lead actor in the 1960s and 70s. He was credited onscreen with title of ''Makkal Kalaingnar'' (people's artiste) or '' ...

Jayachitra Jayachitra is an Indian actress films who works mostly in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films. Early life Jayachitra was born in 1957. Her father Mahendra was a veterinary doctor, who had earlier worked as a lawyer. Her mother Ammaji (a.k.a. Ja ...

and

Thengai Srinivasan Thengai Srinivasan (21 October 1937 – 9 November 1987) was an Indian actor who appeared in Tamil language, Tamil-language films and plays from the 1960s to the 1980s. He was given the prefix ''Thengai'' (coconut) after his role as a coco ...

. It was released on 13 November 1974 and emerged a commercial success. The film 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 ...

as '' Devudu Digivaste'' (1975), in

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 ...

as ''

Devara Duddu ''Devara Duddu'' is a 1977 Indian Kannada-language film, directed by K. S. L. Swamy and produced by N. Rani. The film stars Rajesh, Srinath, Jayanthi, Hema Choudhary and Chandrashekar. The film has musical score by Rajan–Nagendra. The film w ...

'' (1977), and in

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 ...

as ''

Yehi Hai Zindagi ''Yehi Hai Zindagi'' () is a 1977 Hindi-language film. Produced by B. Nagi Reddy, it is directed by K. S. Sethumadhavan. The film stars Sanjeev Kumar, Seema Deo, Utpal Dutt, Lucky Ali, Ramesh Deo and Neeta Mehta. The film's music was composed by ...

'' (1977).

Plot

''Kaliyuga Kannan'' is a drama of faith and disbelief in God of a middle-aged couple. While Sambu Iyer's wife's character played by Janaki is a devotee of Krishna, Sambu Iyer questions God's partiality and judgement. He happens to spend the money his wife had kept aside for God as a offering and on a competition which he wins and uses to become rich. When the lord himself appears and asks for that money, he keeps putting off the return of the money taking credit for his success while blaming the lord for his failures. In the end, he concedes and acknowledges that God is fair, money is root of all evil and reconciles with God at the time of his death.

Cast

as Sambu Iyer's wife *

as Sambu's son *

as Radha * V. K. Ramasamy as Radha's father * Neelakantan as Krishnan *

as Sambu Iyer

Production

''Kaliyuga Kannan'' is the inaugural production of Ajantha Enterprises, and is an adaptation of ''Sri Krishna Vijayam'', a play written by Vaali that featured

as the protagonist. The play, which was written for actor V. Gopalakrishnan's Gopi Theatres, intended to convey the message that "money could not buy peace of mind". When adapting the play as a film, the makers wanted

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 ...

to star. But Ganesan suggested Srinivasan, after being impressed with his performance in the play. Vaali wrote the dialogue for the film adaptation, which was produced by N. Elango. Cinematography was handled by

S. Maruti Rao Shelkey Maruti Rao (25 April 1921–2000) was an Indian cinematographer who worked mainly in Tamil cinema, Tamil films. Career Cinematography Rao was born in Thanjavur on 25 April 1921. He became interested in photography as a student. He ...

. Besides directing, Panju co-edited the film (alongside Narasimhan) under the pseudonym "Panjabi". The final cut of the film measured .

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

V. Kumar V. Kumar ( ta, வரதராஜுலு குமார், ) (28 July 1934 – 7 January 1996) was a yesteryear Tamil cinema music director, born in Chennai, Tamilnadu on 28 July 1934 to Varadharajulu and Dhanabhakiyam couple, in July 1969 ...

, while the lyrics were written by Vaali. The playback singers 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. P. Balasubrahmanyam Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (4 June 1946 – 25 September 2020), also referred to as SPB or SP Balu or Balu, was an Indian playback singer, television presenter, actor, music composer, dubbing artist, and film producer. He is wi ...

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 ...

and Renuka. The songs featured were "Kannaiah", "Kadhal Ponnedu", "Jaichutte" and "Seven O'Clock".

Release and reception

''Kaliyuga Kannan'' was released on 13 November 1974. 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 ...

'' appreciated the film for Janaki's performance and Vaali's writing, calling it a good entertainer. The film emerged a commercial success.

Legacy

''Kaliyuga Kannan'' propelled Srinivasan to stardom. CV Aravind of ''

The News Minute ''The News Minute'' is an Indian digital news platform based in Bangalore, Karnataka. It was founded by Dhanya Rajendran, Chitra Subramaniam and Vignesh Vellore in 2014. Apart from Karnataka, it also has bureaus in the states of Telangana, And ...

'' praised it for the "riveting script by Vaali". Playwright and comedian

Crazy Mohan Mohan Rangachari (16 October 1952 – 10 June 2019) known professionally as Crazy Mohan, was an Indian actor, comedian, screenwriter and playwright. An engineer by profession, Mohan started writing plays and established his own drama troupe calle ...

developed a desire to write a play with "God as the fulcrum" after watching the play ''Krishnaya Thubhyam Namaha'', and ''Kaliyuga Kannan'' encouraged him to solidify his plans, resulting in the play ''Chocolate Krishna''.

References

External links

* {{Krishnan–Panju 1970s Tamil-language films 1974 comedy-drama films 1974 films Films directed by Krishnan–Panju Films scored by V. Kumar Hindu devotional films Indian comedy-drama films Indian films based on plays Tamil films remade in other languages