''Chakra Dhari'' () is a 1948 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 film produced by

Gemini Studios Gemini Studios was an Indian film studio based in Madras, Tamil Nadu. It was launched when S. S. Vasan, a businessman of many ventures (including the ownership of Ananda Vikatan) bought Motion Picture Producers' Combines from Krishnaswamy Su ...

V. Nagayya Vuppaladadiyam Nagayya Sarma (28 March 1904 – 30 December 1973), popularly known as Chittoor Nagayya, was an Indian actor, singer, music composer, and director known for his works in Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, and Telugu theatre. Nagayya wa ...

and

Pushpavalli Kandala Venkata Pushpavalli Tayaramma (3 January 1926 – 28 April 1991), known mononymously as Pushpavalli, was an Indian actress who predominantly worked in Telugu and Tamil films. She entered the film industry as a child actress with a sma ...

star, while

Gemini Ganesan Ramasamy Ganesan (17 November 1920 – 22 March 2005), better known by his stage name Gemini Ganesan, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was referred as Kaadhal Mannan (King of Romance) for his romantic roles in films. G ...

who was a budding actor then, appeared in a minor role. A year after its initial release, the film was re-released with a new partly coloured copy.

Plot

Gora is a potter who lives in a village near

Pandharpur Pandharpur City (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, əɳɖʱəɾpuːɾ is a popular pilgrimage town, on the banks of Chandrabhaga River, Chandrabhagā River, near Solapur, Solapur city in Solapur district, Solapur District, Maharashtra, Ind ...

in Maharashtra. He is a strong devotee of Lord Panduranga. He is not interested in earning money which worries his wife Thulasi. Venkat is Gora's elder brother and an affluent man. His wife Sona does not like Gora and his family. One day while Gora was mixing clay, his child Hari comes there, playing. Gora was in a devotional ecstasy and did not notice his child. The child is killed trampled under the mud. Thulasi threatens to destroy the idol of Panduranga but Gora tries to kill her with an axe. She tells Gora that he should not touch her in future and he also vows that he will not touch her. However, Thulasi gets her sister Shantha to marry her husband Gora so that they can beget a child, however, Gora refuses to touch Shantha too. The sisters seduce Gora one night. Gora is shocked and cuts off his hands for breaking the vows. Lord Panduranga and his consort Rukmini come in disguise and help Gora. Due to their divine powers, happiness is restored in the family. Gora gets back his hands and Hari is brought back to life. The whole family becomes devotees of Lord Panduranga.

Cast

;Adapted from the film credits. (See External links) * Nagayya as Gorakumbar *

as Thulasi Bai *Suryaprabha as Shantha Bai *Nagarcoil Mahadevan as Namadhevar *L. Narayana Rao as Venkaji *K. N. Kamalam as Sona *

Ganesh Ganesha or Ganesh (, , ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped Deva (Hinduism), deities in the Hindu deities, Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in the Ganapatya sect. His depictions ...

as Pandurangan * Varalakshmi as Rukmani *S. Krishnamoorthy as Penda *Subbaiah Pillai as Sevaji *T. V. Kalyani as Parvathi Bai *Nandi Velayutham as Guard *G. V. Sharma as Goldsmith *Baba Narayanan as Mali *N. Thyagarajan as Astrologer *M. Ramamoorthi, V. P. S. Mani,
N. Narasimhan, Raja Rao,
K. T. K. S. Mani as Thieves *Balaraman, K. Sampathkumar as Officers *Panduranga Das, T. S. B. Rao,
Vijaya Rao as Bhandari Devotees *Chopra and A. Chandra as Dancers *S. R. Lakshmi as Betel Seller *Kumari V. Thulasi as Flower Seller *B. Ramakrishna Rao as Bangle Seller *Pudukottai Seenu as Areca Nut Seller *Balan as Beggar

Production

This tale has been filmed many times in many languages such as Marathi, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and twice in Tamil.

Soundtrack

Music was composed by M. D. Parthasarathy with P. S. Anantharaman as assistant. Parthasarathy also sang one or two songs. Lyrics were penned 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 ...

Kothamangalam Subbu Kothamangalam Subbu (born S. M. Subramanian, 10 November 1910 – 15 February 1974) was an Indian poet, lyricist, author, actor and film director based in Tamil Nadu. He wrote the cult classic Tamil novel ''Thillana Mohanambal'' and was awarded ...

and Sangu Subramaniam. Singers are

and Nagarcoil Mahadevan. Playback singers are S. S. Mani (S. Subramanian), T. V. Rathnam, Balasaraswathi and M. Kalpagam. The song ''Kadhali Radhaiyai kalangavittan'' is set in the raga

Kharaharapriya Kharaharapriya is a rāga in Carnatic music. It is the 22nd ''melakarta'' rāga (parent scale) in the 72 ''melakarta'' rāga system. It is possible that the name of the ragam was originally ''Harapriya'' but it was changed to conform to the Kat ...

Reception

The film was a success at the box-office. Film 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 ...

wrote in 2008 that the film is "Remembered for its soul-filling music, fine photography and Nagayya’s performance."

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Gemini Studios 1948 films 1940s Tamil-language films 1940s Indian films Indian black-and-white films Gemini Studios films