''Avan Amaran'' () is a 1958 Indian

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 ...

political drama A political drama can describe a Theatre, play, film or TV program that has a politics, political component, whether reflecting the author's political opinion, or describing a politician or series of political events. Dramatists who have written p ...

film produced and written by Nagercoil S. Nagarajan, and directed by S. Balachander. The film stars

K. R. Ramasamy K. R. Ramasamy (or Ramaswamy; ) may refer to: * K. R. Ramasamy (politician), Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Indian National Congress (INC) Party * K. R. Ramasamy (actor), Indian actor and founding member of DMK Party * K. R. Ramaswamy, ...

, P. Kannamba,

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 ...

and T. S. Balaiah. It was released on 23 May 1958 and failed at the box office.

Plot

Cast

Production

''Avan Amaran'' was produced and written by Nagercoil S. Nagarajan under People's Films, and directed by S. Balachander shot at the Newtone, Paramount, and Revathi studios in Chennai. The scene where labourers protest on a bridge was shot at a bridge near

Fort St. George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress at the coastal city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1639, it was the first English (later British) fortress in India. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further ...

, Madras (now Chennai). Cinematography was handled by Nemai Ghosh.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by T. M. Ibrahim. The song "Kaalanaa Minjaadhaiyaa" is based on "Ramayya Vastavayya" from the

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 ...

film ''

Shree 420 ''Shree 420'' (also spelled as ''Shri 420''; ) is a 1955 Indian Hindi comedy-drama film directed and produced by Raj Kapoor from a story written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas whose use of Shree with the negative connotations of 420 caused controversy. ...

'' (1955), and "Vaanmadhi Nee Arivaai" is based on "Jaye To Jaye Kahaan" from another Hindi film, ''

Taxi Driver ''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American neo-noir psychological drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. Set in a morally decaying New York City following the Vietnam War, it stars Robert De Niro as veteran Marine and ...

'' (1954).

Release

''Avan Amaran'' was released on 23 May 1958, delayed from 14 February. As it was a

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

-oriented film there were more than 72 cuts ordered by the

censor board The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provisio ...

and on appeal it was reduced to 52 and after screening it to the then prime minister

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

. Finally 35 cuts were approved and censor board certification was given. In this dragging background the film's release was delayed by more than six months. When released there was a severe power cut at Tamil Nadu, then Madras state, and theaters were allowed to run only one show. This toppled the film's success and so it become a failure at the box office.

Critical reception

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{S. Balachander 1950s Indian films 1950s political drama films 1950s Tamil-language films 1958 films Censored films Film censorship in India Films directed by S. Balachander Films scored by T. M. Ibrahim Indian political drama films Political controversies in film Political controversies in India Tamil-language Indian films Works subject to expurgation