''Arasilankumari'' () is a 1961 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

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by

A. S. A. Sami Arul Soosai Anthony Samy (1915–1998) was an Indian director and screenwriter who worked in Tamil films. Early life Born in 1915, A. S. A. Samy was from a devout Catholic family. His father had a business enterprise in Ceylon (now Sri Lan ...

and A. Kasilingam, and produced by M. Somasundaram under

Jupiter Pictures Jupiter Pictures () was an Indian feature film production company founded in Coimbatore in 1934 by M. Somasundaram (popularly known as "Jupiter Somu") and S.K. Mohideen. Jupiter Pictures was a major production house with 46 releases with 36 fil ...

. An adaptation of the 1952 film ''Scaramouche'', itself based on a 1921 novel of the same name, it stars

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 – 24 December 1987), popularly known by his initialism M.G.R. and as Makkal Thilagam/Puratchi Thalaivar, was an Indian actor, politician, and philanthropist who served as the chief minister of ...

, Padmini and

Rajasulochana Chittajallu Rajeevalochana (15 August 1935 – 5 March 2013), better known as Rajasulochana, was an Indian classical dancer and actress. She has acted in more than 300 Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi language films. Early life Sh ...

. The film was originally directed by Sami, and completed by Kasilingam. It was released on 1 January 1961, and failed commercially.

Plot

Arivazhagan has a sister Anbukarasi. Anbukarasi falls in love with Vetrivelan, who is commander-in-chief of the royal army, but he tells Anbukarasi and Arivazhagan that he is just an ordinary citizen of the kingdom and marries Anbukarasi. Arivazhagan leaves on a mission after his sister's marriage. After some time, Vetrivelan deserts his wife and child and returns to the palace. He starts plotting against the royal family. How his plans are set at naught by the hero and how his wife fights for him against her own brother form the rest of the film.

Cast

as Arivazhagan * Padmini as Anbukarasi *

as Azhagurani * R. Muthuraman as Pulikesi *

M. N. Nambiar Manjeri Narayanan Nambiar (7 March 1919 – 19 November 2008) was an Indian actor who predominantly worked in Tamil cinema, renowned for his portrayals of villainous characters. With a career spanning over eight decades, he became a notable fig ...

as Vetrivelan * K. A. Thangavelu as Kalaimani *

Sandow M. M. A. Chinnappa Thevar Sandow Marudur Marudachalamurthy Ayyavoo Chinnappa Thevar (28 June 1915 – 8 September 1978) was a film producer of Tamil cinema in the mid-1950s through the 1960s and 1970s. He is best known for his films featuring animals, and has produced nu ...

(guest appearance) * R. Nagendra Rao * S. A. Ashokan as Manimara Bhoopathi * T. A. Mathuram * M. Saroja as Annam

Production

''Arasilankumari'' was adapted from the 1952 film version of the

Rafael Sabatini Rafael Sabatini (29 April 1875 – 13 February 1950) was an Italian people, Italian-born British writer of novels, writer of romance novel, romance and adventure novel, adventure novels. He is best known for his worldwide bestsellers: ''The Sea ...

novel ''Scaramouche''. It took as long as five years to complete. The film was originally directed by A. S. A. Sami, who had differences with the cast and crew; he was replaced by A. Kasilingam who completed the film. This was the final film produced by

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

G. Ramanathan Gopalan Ramanathan was an Indian music composer for Tamil movies. He is also known as ''Isai Methai'' (Genius of Music) or ''Sangeetha Chakravarthy'' (Emperor of Music) and is considered to be one of the influential Tamil music composers to ...

. The song "Chinna Payale" was later adapted into "Thiruttu Payale" by Bharadwaj for the 2006 film of the same name, with additional lyrics by

Vairamuthu Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he firs ...

Release and reception

''Arasilankumari'' was released on 1 January 1961. 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 ...

'' appreciated Nambiar's two contrasting performances of the same character. The film was not commercially successful, with historian

Randor Guy Madabhushi Rangadorai (; 8 November 1937 – 23 April 2023), better known by his pen name Randor Guy (), was an Indian lawyer, columnist and film and legal historian associated with the English language newspaper ''The Hindu''. He was also the of ...

attributing it to the prolonged production schedule.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0268940 1960s historical adventure films 1960s Indian films 1960s Tamil-language films 1961 films Films based on British novels Films directed by A. S. A. Sami Films scored by G. Ramanathan Indian historical adventure films Jupiter Pictures films Tamil-language Indian films