''Vaa Raja Vaa'' () is a 1969 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

children's film A children's film, or family film, is a film genre that contains children or relates to them in the context of home and family. Children's films are made specifically for children and not necessarily for a general audience, while family films are ...

written, directed and produced by

A. P. Nagarajan Akkamappettai Paramasivan Nagarajan (24 February 1928 – 5 April 1977) was an Indian film director, producer, actor and writer who set a trend in film making in Tamil cinema from 1965 to 1977. Film career Nagarajan started his own drama c ...

for CNV Productions. The film features an ensemble cast including

Master Prabhakar Master Prabhakar, (born Prabhakar vaishyan) is an Indian actor, who primarily worked in Tamil cinema, and few Telugu films and acted in about 60 programmes for Doordarshan, between 1977 and 1987 and as a technician he has worked for few Bolly ...

Baby Sumathi Sumathi (born 18 August 1964) is an Indian actress from Madurai, Tamil Nadu. She started her career at the age of two. She starred in many Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi language films. Personal life Sumathi was born in Madura ...

Sirkazhi Govindarajan Sirkazhi Govindarajan (19 January 1933 – 24 March 1988) was an Indian Tamil Carnatic vocalist and a leading playback singer of Indian cinema. Early life Govindarajan, was born on 19 January 1933 at Sirkazhi (a small town in present day May ...

V. S. Raghavan V S Raghavan (18 February 1925 – 24 January 2015) was an Indian actor, who has acted both in Tamil films as well as television. He started his career as a dramatist and stage actor and went on to act as a character actor in films, starting ...

, K. D. Santhanam and

Suruli Rajan Suruli Rajan was a Tamil film comedian/character artiste. He was a recipient of Tamil Nadu State Government's Best Comedian Award for the year 1981–82. Biography Suruli Rajan was born in 1938 in Periyakulam, near Theni. His father ''Ponnai ...

. It was released on 6 December 1969 and became a commercial success. The film was 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 ''

Balaraju Katha ''Balaraju Katha'' () is a 1970 Indian Telugu-language drama film written by Mullapudi Venkata Ramana and directed by Bapu. It is a remake of the 1969 Tamil film ''Vaa Raja Vaa'', and has won the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film (bronze). P ...

'' (1970), with Prabhakar reprising his role.

Plot

Raja is a 10-year-old tourist guide in

Mahabalipuram Mamallapuram, also known as Mahabalipuram, is a town in Chengalpattu district in the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, best known for the UNESCO World Heritage Site of 7th- and 8th-century Hindu Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram. It is o ...

. An elder sculptor has a small rock sculpture tablet on which are engraved adages. Raja enters a discussion with him, wondering if those pearls of wisdom still hold relevance. The sculptor tells him that those sayings are eternal and immortal. Unconvinced, Raja sets out to find the truth for himself. Ultimately, he realises that all those sayings are still valid.

Cast

as Raja *

as Raja's sister *

as a police officer disguised as a sage *

* K. D. Santhanam as the elder sculptor *

as a friendly police officer

Production

In addition to writing and directing,

also produced ''Vaa Raja Vaa'' under his company CNV Productions. W. R. Subba Rao was the cinematographer, while T. R. Nagarajan was the editor. Since it was previously believed in the

Tamil film industry Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood ...

that A. P. Nagarajan's films were successful only because of their star cast and "mammoth" scales, rather than his directorial skills, he directed this film, which featured mostly newcomers, to silence his critics. It was also one of his rare films to have a contemporary setting, since he was then known primarily for directing films based on

Hindu mythology Hindu mythology is the body of myths and literature attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Hindu texts such as the Vedic literature, epics like ''Mahabharata'' and ''Ramayana'', the Puranas, and reg ...

. The film was shot entirely on location in

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan (2 March 1935 – 8 September 2008) was an Indian classical music violinist and music composer. Early life Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan was born on 2 March 1935 and was trained by his father, Ramaswamy Sastry. He was the brother ...

, marking his cinematic debut. The lyrics were written by Arulmani, Poovai Senguttuvan, Ulundurpettai Shanmugham and Azha Valliappa.

Release and reception

''Vaa Raja Vaa'' was released on 6 December 1969. The film was a commercial success, running for over 100 days in theatres. In a review dated 21 December 1969, the Tamil magazine ''

Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History and profile ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 wa ...

'' praised the performances of the cast. The film was remade in

as ''

'' (1970), with Prabhakar reprising his role.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

* {{A. P. Nagarajan 1960s children's films 1960s road movies 1960s Tamil-language films 1969 films Films directed by A. P. Nagarajan Films scored by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan Indian children's films Indian road movies Tamil films remade in other languages