''Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum'' () is a 1979 Indian

fantasy film Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually Magic (paranormal), magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The Film genre, genre is considered a form of speculative fic ...

directed by I. V. Sasi, based on

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

's story from ''

One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...

''. The film stars

Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...

, Rajinikanth,

Jayabharathi Jayabharathi (born 28 June 1954 as Lekshmi Bharathi) is an Indian actress and two-time recipient of the Kerala State Film Award, Kerala State Film Award for Best Actress and National Film Award – Special Mention (feature film), Nationa ...

and

Sripriya Sripriya is an Indian former actress, film director and politician from Tamil Nadu. She has acted in over 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi languages. She has also directed films in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu languages, ...

, with

Gemini Ganesan Ramasamy Ganesan (17 November 1920 – 22 March 2005), better known by his stage name Gemini Ganesan, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was referred as Kaadhal Mannan (King of Romance) for his romantic roles in films. G ...

, Savitri and S. A. Ashokan in supporting roles. It was simultaneously filmed in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

and

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

s, the latter as ''Allaudinaum Arputha Vilakkum'' () which was released on 8 June 1979, two months after the Malayalam version which came on 14 April 1979. It marks Rajinikanth's debut in Malayalam cinema.

Plot

Kamaruddin, the commander of the armed forces of

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, has a desire for princess Roshni, the heiress to the kingdom, as her husband will rule the land after the

Caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

's death. Roshni, however, loves street urchin Alavuddin, and he reciprocates. Alavuddin's childhood friend Jameela loves him, but it is a one-sided affair. Alavuddin and Kamaruddin fight a duel for winning over Roshni. Alavuddin triumphs, but his joy is short-lived as the courtier Mir Qasim, who wants Roshni for himself, kidnaps her and spirits her away. Alavuddin and Kamaruddin join forces and with help from a

genie GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...

, rescue Roshni. On the way back, Kamaruddin is trapped in quicksand, but is rescued by Jameela and they unite.

Cast

Production

''Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum'', directed by I. V. Sasi, was based on the story of

from ''

'', and had

playing the title character, named Alavuddin here. Rajinikanth was cast as Kamaruddin, a character not present in the original story but created for the film.Gemini ganeshan and savithri both are acted together with a last movie with separate characters. It was his first film in the Malayalam language and the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

genre. The film was simultaneously shot in Tamil as ''Allaudinaum Arputha Vilakkum'', marking Sasi's directorial debut in Tamil cinema. This version was the second Tamil adaptation of the story of Aladdin, after a 1957 film with the same name.

Ramachandra Babu K. Ramachandra Babu (15 December 1947 – 21 December 2019) was an Indian cinematographer of over 125 films, out of which most are Malayalam films. He also worked for films in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Arabic and English languages. He served as ...

worked as cinematographer, and the film was made in

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic format, anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its cr ...

. According to him, Rajinikanth would often turn violent on the sets: " ewas always under the influence of liquor and could turn violent any moment. Even Kamal was wary of doing fight sequences with im. The film was to have been the first CinemaScope film in Malayalam, but production delays led to '' Thacholi Ambu'' (1978) becoming so.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of both versions was composed by G. Devarajan. The lyrics for the Malayalam version were written by Yusufali Kechery, while the lyrics for the Tamil version were written by Vaali and Kannadasan. The movie was dubbed into Telugu as Allauddin Adbutha Deepam

Release and reception

''Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum'' was released on 14 April 1979, and ''Allaudinaum Arputha Vilakkum'' on 8 June 1979. The film performed well at the box office for the first two weeks, but slumped in the third. Reviewing the Tamil version for ''

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 ...

'', Kausikan panned the film for completely ruining the story of Aladdin and also panned the poor casting choices and clownish portrayal of the genie. He added that Gemini Ganesan was underutilised and felt Rajinikanth's character was added just for fights while calling the story and dialogues as poor.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{I. V. Sasi 1979 fantasy films 1970s Indian films 1970s Malayalam-language films 1970s Tamil-language films 1979 films 1979 multilingual films Films about wish fulfillment Films based on Aladdin Films directed by I. V. Sasi Films with screenplays by Vietnam Veedu Sundaram Genies in film Indian fantasy films Indian multilingual films Tamil-language Indian films