Another History

''Maro Charitra'' () is a 1978 Indian Telugu-language romantic tragedy film written and directed by K. Balachander. It stars Kamal Haasan 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 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 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'' (2005), in Odia 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 as Balu
* Saritha as Swapna
* Madhavi as Sandhya
* J. V. Ramana Murthi
*Kakinada Syamala
* P. L. Narayana as K. Venkateswara Rao
* Jaya Vijaya as Kanakam
* S. K. Misro 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 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 in Andhra Pradesh. Contrary to most of the films that released during the period, ''Maro Charitra'' was shot in black and white. The final length of the film was .

Soundtrack

The music and background score was composed by M. S. Viswanathan and lyrics were penned by Aatreya. Randor Guy 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'' 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 girl would be more suitable to the Hindi audience. In 2005, the film was remade in Kannada as ''Love Story'' (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

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{{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