''Vaazhkai'' () is a 1949 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

social guidance film Social guidance films constitute a genre of educational films attempting to guide children and adults to behave in certain ways. Originally produced by the U.S. government as "attitude-building films" during World War II, the genre grew to be a co ...

produced and directed by A. V. Meiyappan through

AVM Productions AVM Productions is an Indian film production studio founded by A. V. Meiyappan. It is the final oldest survived studio in India. The filming studios are located in Vadapalani, Chennai. It has produced over 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, M ...

. It stars

Vyjayanthimala Vyjayanthimala (born 13 August 1936) is a former Indian actress, dancer and parliamentarian. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two BFJA Awards and five Filmfare Awards. She made her screen debut at the age of thirteen with ...

in her screen debut with M. S. Draupadi, T. R. Ramachandran and S. V. Sahasranamam forms an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

along with many actors appearing in other significant roles. Upon its release, the film was well received and it won the Best Tamil Film Award at the 1st Film Fans' Association Awards. Vyjayanthimala and M. S. Draupadi received the Second Best Tamil Actress and Third Best Tamil Actress Awards respectively. It also broke some box office records in South India. A year later, the film was re-released in a new copy with selected song sequences in hand-tinted colour. The film was simultaneously released 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 ''

Jeevitham ''Jeevitham'' ( en, Life) is a 1950 Indian Telugu-language social guidance film produced by A. V. Meiyappan with his company AVM Productions and directed by M. V. Raman. The film stars Vyjayanthimala in her Telugu cinema debut with S. Vara ...

'' (1950)''.'' The film was later remade 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 '' Bahar'' (1951). Vyjayanthimala played the lead role in all these versions with Meiyappan as the producer.

Plot

Murthi (S. V. Sahasranamam) comes to a village and spend time with Meenakshi (M.S. Draupadi) and leaves for his home town. After returning there he wants to marry Mohana (Vyjayanthimala) while Mohana loves Nathan (T. R, Ramachandran). Meenakshi discovers she is pregnant and goes to Murthi, who claims ignorance. She jumps into the sea in a suicide attempt. A passerby saves her and she has the baby. She leaves the baby with Nathan, in his car. He takes care of the baby and faces many problems. Learning about the baby, Mohana gets suspicious. Finally the actions of Murthi are exposed and he accepts Meenakshi as his wife while Mohana and Nathan reunites.

Cast

;Male cast * T. R. Ramachandran as Nathan *

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 ...

as Moorthi *

K. Sarangapani Kumbakonam Sarangapani (1904-1984) was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based ou ...

as Sivasankaralingam * P. A. Subbaiah Pillai as Velayutham Pillai * K. Ramasami as Veerasami * K. N. Kulathu Mani as Bank Secretary * M. S. Karuppaiah as Vinayakam Pillai * V. M. Ezhumalai as Asambavidham *

P. D. Sambandam P. D. Sambandam was a comic actor who has performed many supporting and minor roles in Tamil films. Filmography References

Male actors in Tamil cinema Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Li ...

as Seeni * Venkataraman as Journalist * T. V. Sethuraman as Bandyman * Seetharaman as Doctor ;Male supporting cast * Lakshminarayanan * Kalyanasundaram * Kashinathan * Rajarathnam * Seenu * Baby Narayanan ;Female supporting cast * Kalyani * Soundaram * Subbulakshmi * Baby Meena ;Female cast *

as Mohana * M. S. Draupadi as Meenakshi * S. R. Janaki as Ambujam * K. N. Kamalam as Shivabhagyam * G. K. Saroja as Lakshmi ;Dance * Lalitha- Padmini

Production

''Vaazhkai'' was the first film to be shot at the new AVM's new studio at

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

. For the lead female role A. V. Meiyappan wanted to launch a new face. M. V. Raman, the story writer of ''Vaazhkai'', spotted

performing

Bharatanatyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of S ...

in Chennai Gokhale Hall. Impressed by her talent he later recommended her to Meiyappan. Vyjayanthimala, the daughter of the actress

Vasundhara Devi Vasundhara Devi (1917-1988) was an Indian actress, trained Bharathanatyam dancer and carnatic singer. The Indian actress Vyjayanthimala is her daughter. Filmography *(1941) '' Rishyasringar'' *(1943) '' Mangamma Sapatham'' *(1947) ''Udayanan ...

was just 13 years old when Meiyappan approach her for the film. Despite Meiyappan's initial reservations to have her as the lead actress, she was chosen after he was convinced by watching her dance performance.

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 ...

was initially cast in the other female role, but was removed because Meiyappan was not satisfied with her Tamil diction; she was replaced by M. S. Draupadi. However, Pandari Bai later played that role in the Hindi remake '' Bahar'' (1951) under the screen name Padmini. The final length of the film measured 14629 feet.

Soundtrack

The music is composed by R. Sudarsanam, lyrics are by Mahakavi Bharathiyar and K. P. Kamatchi Sundharam.

Release and reception

''Vaazhkai'' was released on 23 December 1949. ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'' wrote, "The appeal of fresh youthful stars is truly enhanced by original treatment of situations that are not unrelated to Life. T. R. Ramachandran and Sahasranamam score easily in major roles and Sarangapany adds to the real gaiety of the film that is too long without boring". It became a major box office success, and completed 25 weeks of its theatrical run. Subsequently, the film was awarded a trophy in which Meiyappan's son M. Saravanan described as the tallest trophy of the company by the distributors in

Karaikudi Karaikudi is a Greater municipality in Sivaganga district, Sivagangai district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 21st largest urban agglomeration of Tamil Nadu based on 2011 census data. It is part of t ...

for its 25 weeks of theatrical run.

Accolades

The film was awarded with Best Tamil Film Award at the first Film Fans Association Award, where it secured 2,512 votes. At the same event, Vyjayanthimala and Draupadi were awarded with the Best Tamil Actress Award, Second Prize and Third Prize respectively. The former secured 1,676 votes, while the latter got 1,386 votes.

References

External links

* {{AVM Productions 1940s romantic comedy-drama films 1940s Tamil-language films Films scored by R. Sudarsanam 1949 comedy-drama films 1949 films AVM Productions films Films about poverty in India Films about rape in India Films about women in India Films set in 1949 Indian black-and-white films Indian dance films Indian feminist films Indian musical drama films Indian romantic comedy-drama films Indian satirical films Tamil films remade in other languages