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''Maro Charitra'' () is a 1978 Indian
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 ...
-language
romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
tragedy film written and directed by K. Balachander. It stars
Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...
and Saritha in the lead with Madhavi appearing in prominent roles. The film deals with cross-cultural romance between a Tamil boy and a
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 ...
girl. Upon release, it was commercially successful and remains a cult classic. Owing to its success in Andhra Pradesh, the film was released in the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka without being dubbed into the respective languages. It held the record of being the longest-running Telugu film at theatres in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Across theatres it had an uninterrupted theatrical run of two and half years in Bangalore. The song ''Ye Theega Poovuno'' became popular. Balachander won a Best Director at the Southern Filmfare Awards in 1979. Later in 1981, Balachander remade the film in Hindi as '' Ek Duuje Ke Liye'' with Kamal Haasan reprising his role. Saritha, the female lead, was, however, replaced by
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
actress Rati Agnihotri. The Hindi remake became a success as well. Both the films were listed among CNN-IBN's 100 greatest Indian films of all time in 2013. This film was also remade in Kannada as ''
Love Story Love Story or A Love Story may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres * Romance (love) ** Romance film ** Romance novel Films * ''Love Story'' (1925 film), German silent film * ''Love Story'' (1942 film), Italian drama film * ''Love ...
'' (2005), in
Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...
as ''Tu Mori Paeen'' (2009) and remade into a 2010 Telugu film with the same title. Maro Charitra was dubbed in Malayalam as ''Thirakal Ezhuthiya Kavitha'' (1980).


Plot

The story revolves around a Telugu girl and Tamil boy who fall in love. Their families interfere and ask them to stay away from each other for a whole year which results in a tragic end.


Cast

*
Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...
as Balu * Saritha as Swapna * Madhavi as Sandhya *
J. V. Ramana Murthi Jonnalagadda Venkata Ramana Murthi ( te, జె. వి. రమణమూర్తి; 20 May 1933 – 22 June 2016) was an Indian actor known for his works in Telugu cinema, and Telugu drama. Murthi made his film debut with K. B. Tilak's sociopo ...
*Kakinada Syamala * P. L. Narayana as K. Venkateswara Rao * Jaya Vijaya as Kanakam *
S. K. Misro S. K. Misro (born January 1945), popularly known as Misro, is an Indian actor known for his works exclusively Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Television. He is one of the pioneers of modern Telugu social theatre, and has received six state Na ...
as Pattabhi


Production


Development

''Maro Charitra'' was directed by K. Balachander. Rama Arangannal, who produced Balachander's previous films agreed to produce the film. Balachander approached his favourite screenwriter
Ganesh Patro Behara Ganesh Patro (22 June 1945 – 5 January 2015) was an Indian playwright and screenwriter known for his works in Telugu cinema. He started his career in 1965, and wrote dialogues, songs, and stories for Telugu films from the 1970s up to th ...
to write the dialogues; Patro was credited for giving a native appeal to Balachander's successful Telugu films.


Casting

Balachander decided to launch Kamal as a lead actor in Telugu cinema upon the latter's request. Kamal had entered Telugu cinema through the director's '' Anthuleni Katha'' (1976), albeit playing a supporting role. That was followed by a dubbed version of the Tamil film '' Manmadha Leelai'' released during the same period. As both the films had a 100-day run at the theatres, Kamal was approached by many Telugu film producers. The actor had to refuse all the offers citing that he wanted to be launched as a lead actor through a film directed by Balachander, his mentor. As Kamal is a Tamil, Balachander characterised his role as a Tamil man who falls in love with a Telugu girl and developed the screenplay. Most of Kamal's dialogues were in Tamil. The film was made by Balachander with the sole intention of introducing Kamal Haasan as a lead actor in Telugu cinema. Having chosen the male lead, Balachander was on a lookout for a female counterpart. As the film deals with cross-cultural romance, he decided to cast a new actor to play the female lead. To choose the character, he auditioned a number of girls and finally ended up choosing a "dark-skinned girl with big eyes" named Abhilasha, who was in tenth grade. Though the members of the production unit were unsatisfied with her dark complexion and fat physique, Balachander went ahead in finalising her for the role as he felt she had a homely look and was of the right age to fit in the role. Later, she was rechristened Saritha by Balachander himself. In a 2005 interview with ''The Hindu'', she said that she was the 162nd girl to be auditioned for the film, while also noting that she did not even look good in the photographs that was sent to Balachander. Besides the lead actors, Madhavi who made an impact with '' Thoorpu Padamara'' was signed up to play an important role in the film. The film was shot mostly in Visakhapatnam and
Bheemunipatnam Bheemunipatnam (also known as Bheemili), is a suburb of Visakhapatnam, India. The town was named after Bhima, a character in the Hindu epic Mahabharata. It formerly administered under the Bheemunipatnam municipality, but merged into GVMC in 2017. ...
in Andhra Pradesh. Contrary to most of the films that released during the period, ''Maro Charitra'' was shot in
black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
. The final length of the film was .


Soundtrack

The music and background score was composed by
M. S. Viswanathan Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan (24 June 1928 – 14 July 2015), also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. He was popularly known as ''Mellisai Mannar''. He compose ...
and lyrics were penned by Aatreya.
Randor Guy Madabhushi Rangadorai (born 8 November 1937), better known by his pen name Randor Guy, is an Indian lawyer, columnist and film and legal historian associated with the English language newspaper ''The Hindu''. He is also the official editor of the ...
wrote the English portions of a duet picturised on Kamal and Saritha. The 2015 film '' Bhale Bhale Magadivoy'' was named after the song from ''Maro Charitra''.


Release and reception

The film was released on 19 May 1978.


Critical response

The performances of both the lead actors along with the director won critical acclaim. In 2010, '' South Scope'' noted "''Maro Charitra'' once again saw Kamal transform himself, but this time into an out and out urban male ... Kamal let none of them get left out of his wardrobe in the film." In 2013, while Indian cinema was celebrating its 100th anniversary, CNN-IBN listed out "100 greatest Indian films of all time" where both ''Maro Charitra'' and its Hindi remake '' Ek Duuje Ke Liye'' were mentioned. In November 2015, Kamal noted, "Visual appeal has always gone hand-in-hand with content, since the days of ''
Chandralekha Chandralekha may refer to: Films * ''Chandralekha'' (1948 film), an Indian Tamil film directed and produced by S. S. Vasan starring M. K. Radha * ''Chandralekha'' (1995 film), an Indian Tamil film directed by Nambirajan starring Vijay * ''Chandra ...
'' and 'Mayabazar''">Mayabazar.html" ;"title="'Mayabazar">'Mayabazar'' not just after ''Baahubali: The Beginning">Baahubali''. ''Maro Charitra'' had beautiful visuals in black and white."


Box office

During the first week of release the film performed poorly at the box-office. The film's distributors cited that choosing a dark-skinned girl to play the female lead to be the reason. However, after the second week, the film had a highly successful run in the theatres; it ultimately ended as a box-office success as it ran for 450 days in Andhra Pradesh. Owing to its success in its native state, the producers released the film in the neighbouring territories of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka without dubbing in Tamil and Kannada. Across theatres it had an uninterrupted theatrical run of two and half years in Bangalore. It ran for 596 days at Safire Theatre in Chennai, 450-day run in Coimbatore">Safire Theatre complex">Safire Theatre in Chennai, 450-day run in Coimbatore at Royal theatre, while had a 693-day run in Bangalore at Kalpana theatre and 350-day run in Mysore at Kayathri theatre. The film was dubbed in Malayalam as ''Thirakal Ezhuthiya Kavitha'' and released in 1980.


Remakes

Balachander considered remaking ''Maro Charitra'' in Tamil, but Kamal felt it was pointless to do so since the film already had many Tamil dialogues and was so successful in Madras. The film was remade into Hindi as '' Ek Duuje Ke Liye'' by Balachander himself in 1981. The film like its original became a box-office success and attained cult status. It also marked the Bollywood debut of many South Indian artists including Kamal Haasan, Madhavi and playback singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam. In the 1981 film, Balachander chose Rati Agnihotri over Saritha as he conceived that a
Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...
girl would be more suitable to the Hindi audience. In 2005, the film was remade in Kannada as ''
Love Story Love Story or A Love Story may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres * Romance (love) ** Romance film ** Romance novel Films * ''Love Story'' (1925 film), German silent film * ''Love Story'' (1942 film), Italian drama film * ''Love ...
'' (dubbed in Tamil as ''Uyirullavarai''), with a Hindi man and a Kannada woman as the romantic leads. Despite being labelled as a " frame-to-frame remake" of the original, the film was described as "no match to the original film in any aspect of its making" by K. N. Venkatasubba Rao of ''The Hindu''. Five years later, Ravi Yadav remade the story with the same name in Telugu with Varun Sandesh, Anita Galler and Shraddha Das. Unlike the original, the film was a failure and received negative reviews. A review from Rediff.com noted, "the new-age ''Maro Charitra'' is no patch on the original".


Accolades


References


Bibliography

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External links

* {{Romeo and Juliet film adaptations 1970s Telugu-language films 1978 films 1978 romantic drama films Films directed by K. Balachander Films scored by M. S. Viswanathan Films shot in Visakhapatnam Films with screenplays by K. Balachander Indian black-and-white films Indian romantic drama films Telugu films remade in other languages