''Ashok Kumar'' is a 1941 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 drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

film directed by Raja Chandrasekhar. Based on a legend involving the

Mauryan The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in South Asia with its power base in Magadha. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya around c. 320 BCE, it existed in loose-knit fashion until 185 BCE. The primary sourc ...

emperor

Ashoka The Great Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

, his son

Kunala Kunala (IAST: ) (263 BC – ?) was the Crown Prince and second son of 3rd Mauryan Emperor Ashoka and Queen Padmavati and the presumptive heir to Ashoka, thus the heir to the Mauryan Empire which once ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinen ...

and Ashoka's second wife Thishyarakshai, it stars

M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar Mayavaram Krishnasamy Thiyagaraja Bhagavathar (1 March 1910 – 1 November 1959), also known by his initials as M. K. T. was an Indian actor and carnatic singer. Critics and film historians acknowledge Bhagavathar as the "First superstar of Ta ...

, Chittoor V. Nagayya and

P. Kannamba Pasupuleti Kannamba (''Pasupulēţi Kannāṃba'') (5 October 1911 – 7 May 1968) was an Indian actress, playback singer and film producer of Telugu cinema, of Andhra Pradesh, India. She acted in more than 170 films and produced about 25 films ...

. The film was released on 17 September 1941.

Plot

The

emperor

Ashoka Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

r's son

n is courted by Ashokar's second wife

Tishyaraksha Tishyarakshita (Pali: ''Tissarakkhā'', Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South As ...

i. When he rejects her advances, he is falsely accused by the queen of trying to seduce her, and is thrown into prison and blinded. The story, however, comes to a happy end with his eyesight being restored by

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...

and the king acquits him of all the charges.

Cast

;Male cast ;Female cast

Production

''Ashok Kumar'' is based on a legend involving the

emperor

, his son Kunalan and Ashoka's younger queen Thishyarakshai. It was the first Tamil film based on the legend, which was previously filmed in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

as ''Veer Kunal'' (1925). Telugu actress

played the role of Thishyarakshai. This was her second Tamil film and since she did not know the language, she was provided with a script in which Tamil words had been transliterated into Telugu. ''Ashok Kumar'' marked the debut of Ranjan (credited as R. Ramani), who portrayed

. The song and dance sequence, "Unnai Kandu Mayangaatha" was shot in a single night at Newtone Studio.

Soundtrack

The songs were composed by Alathur V. Subramanyam and the lyrics were written by

Papanasam Sivan Paapanaasam Raamayya Sivan (26 September 1890 – 1 October 1973) was an Indian composer of Carnatic music and a singer. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1971. He was also a film score composer in Kannada cinema a ...

. Playback singers are Rama Rao and Mani of the Renuka Orchestra.

Music Credits

;Sharma Brothers Orchestra * R. N. Thambi – Veena * V. Govindasami – Fiddle * N. L. Ramalingam – Harmonium * R. V. Parikshithu – Mridangam

Release and reception

''Ashok Kumar'' was released on 17 September 1941. Kay Yess Enn of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' praised the film for Kannamba's performance.

In other media

Portions of "Bhoomiyil Maanida" were used in "Theepidikka", a song in ''

Arinthum Ariyamalum ''Arinthum Ariyamalum'' () is a 2005 Indian Tamil-language crime action film written and directed by Vishnuvardhan. It stars Navdeep, Arya, Prakash Raj, and Sameksha, while Adithya, Sangili Murugan, Krishna, and Yog Japee play pivotal roles. ...

'' (2005).

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{IMDb title, 0157332 1940s Tamil-language films 1940s Indian films 1941 films Films set in ancient India Indian black-and-white films Indian historical drama films Memorials to Ashoka Works about Ashoka Films scored by Alathur V. Subramanyam Cultural depictions of Ashoka Cultural depictions of Gautama Buddha Films set in the Maurya Empire