''President Panchaksharam'' is a 1959 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

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by

A. Bhimsingh A. Bhimsingh or Bhim Singh (1924–1978) was an Indian filmmaker who worked predominantly in Tamil cinema. Apart from Tamil, he made films in other languages that include 18 films in Hindi, 8 films in Telugu, 5 films in Malayalam and 1 film in ...

and written by B. S. Ramiah. It is based on the play of the same name written by Ramiah, itself adapted from the 1836 play ''

The Government Inspector ''The Government Inspector'', also known as ''The Inspector General'' ( rus, links=no, Ревизор, Revizor, literally: "Inspector"), is a satirical play by Russian dramatist and novelist, Nikolai Gogol. Originally published in 1836, the pl ...

'' by Russian Nikolai Gogol. The film stars S. S. Rajendran,

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

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 ...

. It was released on 10 July 1959 and became a commercial success.

Plot

A District Board president has a daughter studying in Madras. While he and his wife have different men as prospective grooms for her in their minds, the girl falls in love with her friend Sigamani. The two aspiring grooms come to the president's town to finalise the marriage. Suddenly, the president receives a letter stating that the government is sending an official to secretly investigate his fraudulent affairs. When Sigamani visits the president and says he loves his daughter, the president mistakenly identifies Sigamani as the official.

Cast

;Male cast * S. S. Rajendran as Sikhamani *

as President Panchaksharam * T. R. Ramachandran * V. R. Rajagopal * D. Balasubramaniam * D. V. Narayanasami * Pakkirisami * Kottapuli Jayaraman ;Female cast *

as Panchaksharam's daughter *

S. N. Lakshmi Sennalkudi Narayana Lakshmi (1927 – 20 February 2012) was an Indian actress, who appeared in supporting roles, often playing roles of a mother or grandmother in films. A recipient of the state government's Kalaimamani and Kalaiselvam awards, ...

* T. V. Kumudhini * N. Chandhini ;Dance * Sayee Subbulakshmi

Production

Playwright B. S. Ramiah adapted Russian dramatist Nikolai Gogol's 1836 play ''

'' into a Tamil play titled ''President Panchaksharam'' with

starring. The play, which was produced by Sahasranamam's own company Seva Stage, and had

Devika Devika Devadoss (born Prameela Devi) (25 April 1943 – 2 May 2002) was an Indian actress who worked in Tamil, Telugu with few Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi film industry. She was a popular lead actress in the 1960s. Devika is the grand daughte ...

in a key role, was critically acclaimed, and it was adapted into a film with the same title. Sahasranamam, who appeared in the play, returned for the film as well. The film adaptation was directed and edited by

, and produced by V. Arunachalam and Chinna Annamalai under Savithri Pictures. Ramiah wrote the screenplay and dialogues. Cinematography was handled by M. Karnan, and the art direction by Chowdhury. The film featured a

musical play Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

based on V. O. Chidambaram Pillai. The final length of the film was .

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film was composed by G. Ramanathan, while the lyrics were written by Subramania Bharati,

Kannadasan Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was an Indian philosopher, poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. Freq ...

K. S. Gopalakrishnan K. S. Gopalakrishnan was an Indian screenwriter, director, producer, and lyricist, who worked in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi films. Since the early 1960s, he directed 70 films. He spent most of his career directing and producing movies with soc ...

and Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam.

Release and reception

''President Panchaksharam'' was released on 10 July 1959. 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 ...

'' positively reviewed the film for being different from formulaic Tamil films released before. The film was commercially successful, and film historian Randor Guy said it would be remembered for "the interesting screenplay and good performances by Sahasranamam, Rajendran and Saroja Devi." Following Rajendran's death in 2014, Prakash Upadhyaya of '' International Business Times'' described it as one of his "best works as actor".

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* {{The Government Inspector 1950s Tamil-language films 1959 comedy films 1959 films Films based on adaptations Films based on The Government Inspector Films directed by A. Bhimsingh Films scored by G. Ramanathan Films set in Chennai Indian black-and-white films Indian comedy films Indian films based on plays