''Sarada'' () is a 1962 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by K. S. Gopalakrishnan in his directorial debut. The film was produced by A. L. Srinivasan under ALS Productions and stars

S. S. Rajendran Sedapatti Suryanarayana Rajendran, also known by his initials SSR (January 1928 – 24 October 2014), was an Indian actor, film director, film producer and politician who worked in Tamil theatre and cinema. He often referred as Latchiya ...

and C. R. Vijayakumari, while M. R. Radha, S. V. Ranga Rao and S. A. Ashokan play supporting roles. The music was composed by

K. V. Mahadevan Krishnankoil Venkadachalam Mahadevan (14 March 1918 – 21 June 2001) was an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, and musician who won the inaugural National Film Award for Best Music Direction in (1967) for '' Kandan Karunai''. ...

, while the lyrics for the songs were written by

Kannadasan Muthiah Sathappan Chettiar better known as Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was a poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important l ...

. Karnan and R. Devarajan handled cinematography and editing respectively. ''Sarada'' was released on 16 March 1962. Srinivasan had to distribute the film himself after distributors backed out. Despite this, it became successful at the box office established Gopalakrishnan as a popular director. The film won the

National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil The National Film Award for Best Tamil Feature Film is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the National Film Development Corporation of India. It is one of several awards presented for feature films and awarded with Rajat Kama ...

– Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film. It was remade in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

as ''Suhagan'' (1964), in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

as '' Sumangali'' (1965) and in

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

as ''Sothu Geddavalu'' (1971).

Plot

Cast

Production

K. S. Gopalakrishnan—who earlier worked as a screenwriter for films like '' Deivapiravi'' and ''

Padikkadha Medhai ''Padikkadha Medhai'' () is a 1960 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed and co-written by A. Bhimsingh. The film stars Sivaji Ganesan, S. V. Ranga Rao, Kannamba and Sowcar Janaki. It is a remake of the 1953 Bengali film ''Jog Biyog'', ...

''—made his directorial debut with ''Sarada''. He approached A. L. Srinivasan to produce the film based on the concept of the protagonist's sexual potency. Srinivasan liked the script and agreed to produce despite being warned by friends not to produce a film with such a bold concept.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

and lyrics were written by

and

Panchu Arunachalam Panchanathan Arunachalam (22 March 1941 – 9 August 2016) was an Indian writer, director, producer and lyricist who worked in the Tamil cinema. He was mentored by poet Kannadasan who was his uncle. He also worked as a lyricist in the Tami ...

. The songs "Manamagale Marumagale" and "Oruthi Oruvanai" were well received. The former is Arunachalam's first song as a lyricist.

Release

''Sarada'' was released on 16 March 1962. Film distributors expressed their doubts over the film after watching it and sought refund of their advances. Srinivasan returned the advance and released the film on his own and became successful. The film was successful even its second release.

Reception

The film was praised by critics for Gopalakrishnan's writing, the cast performances (particularly Vijayakumari's) and music. ''

Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 was not publishe ...

'' appreciated the film stating that "the film had several interesting elements and innovations.. It is a must watch film and make us all proud that Tamil films are progressing well". Kanthan of ''

Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...

'' wrote that though the film reminded him of ''

Nenjil Or Aalayam ''Nenjil Or Aalayam'' () is a 1962 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film directed, produced and written by C. V. Sridhar. The film stars Kalyan Kumar, Devika and R. Muthuraman while Nagesh, Manorama and Kutty Padmini play supporting ro ...

'' (1962), the innovative screenplay made it worth watching. The film received

– Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film.

Plagiarism allegations

Many reviewers noted ''Sarada'' had similarities to ''Snehidhi'', a novel by

Akilan Akilandam (1922–1988), better known by his pen name Akilan, was an Indian writer and novelist who wrote in Tamil. He was attracted by Gandhian philosophy during his school days and he discontinued his college education at Pudukkottai to join ...

. Subsequently, he filed a lawsuit against Srinivasan, alleging plagiarism. Writer Jayalakshmi also sued Srinivasan, claiming the film plagiarised one of her short stories. However, as historian A. R. Venkatachalapathy noted, "the legal intricacies of copyright, it appears, were beyond both kilans and his lawyer's grasp", leading to Akilan losing the case while Jayalakshmi won. She was compensated by being "awarded more damages than claimed", and the scenes she took offense to were deleted.

Legacy

''Sarada'' established Gopalakrishnan as a popular director and he went on to direct several films with the theme of family drama. It was remade in

as ''Suhagan'' (1964), in

as '' Sumangali'' (1965) and in

as ''Sothu Geddavalu'' (1971).

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{Portal bar, Film, 1960s, India 1960s controversies 1960s Indian films 1960s Tamil-language films 1962 directorial debut films 1962 drama films 1962 films Films based on short fiction Films directed by K. S. Gopalakrishnan Films involved in plagiarism controversies Films scored by K. V. Mahadevan Films with screenplays by K. S. Gopalakrishnan Indian black-and-white films Indian drama films Indian intellectual property law Tamil films remade in other languages Tamil-language Indian films