''Dhaasippen,'' also ''Dhaasippenn'' () is a 1943 Tamil-language film directed by

Ellis R. Dungan Ellis Roderick Dungan (May 11, 1909 – December 1, 2001) was an American film director, who was well known for working in Indian films, predominantly in Tamil cinema, from 1936 to 1950. He was an alumnus of the University of Southern Californi ...

and produced by Bhuvaneswai Pictures. The lead actors are T. R. Mahalingam and

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

. The film was scored by Lalitha Venkatraman and

S. Rajeswara Rao Saluri Rajeswara Rao (11 October 1922 – 25 October 1999) was an Indian composer, multi instrumentalist, conductor, singer, and music producer known for his works predominantly in South Indian cinema.M. L. Narasimham"Trend-setter in Light Music ...

. The film has had three other titles: ''Jyothi Malar'', ''Dasi Penn and Thumbai Mahatmyam'', and ''Jothi Malar'' (). The film is based on a folk tale about a girl becoming a

devadasi In India, a devadasi was a female artist who was dedicated to the worship and service of a deity or a temple for the rest of her life. The dedication took place in a ceremony that was somewhat similar to a marriage ceremony. In addition to taki ...

and dedicating her life to worshipping

Lord Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hind ...

and refusing to follow the traditional path of marrying a man. ''Dhaasippen'' performed well and became a box office hit. But no print of the film is known to survive, making it a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy ...

Plot

A young devadasi (R. Balasaraswathi) is forced by her family to yield to lustful

zamindar A zamindar (Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

(V. K. Dass). The devadasi refuses to do this because she is devoted to

(

) and she wishes to marry her lover ( T. R. Mahalingam). She encounters many hurdles on her journey. The zamindar attempts to kidnap her to make her his mistress. However, his attempts fail thanks to the intervention of Shiva and his consort, Parvathi (M. R. Santhanalakshmi). There is a parallel story in the film about her married sister ( T. A. Madhuram) who carries on an affair with a travelling sari salesman ( N. S. Krishnan). Her sister's illicit romance is always thwarted by the appearance of a fierce looking giant (Pulimooti Ramasamy). Eventually the devadasi grows tired of her life. Answering her prayers, Shiva transforms her into the thumbhai plant—the flowers of which are offered to Lord Shiva during worship. Hence, the film also had the title ''Thumbhai Mahatmayam''.

Production

''Dhaasippen'' was based on a play of the same name written by

Pammal Sambandha Mudaliar Pammal Vijayarangam Sambandham Mudaliar (1873–1964), who has been described as "the founding father of modern Tamil theatre", was a playwright, director, producer and actor of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth centuries. He was a recipi ...

. He drew inspiration from Shakespeare, The Hindu 18 April 2008
/ref> It was produced by Buvaneshwari Pictures and directed by Ellis R. Dungan. T. R. Mahalingam played the lead role and M. G. Ramachandran (later Chief Minister of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

) was cast in a supporting role. Comic relief was provided by the husband-and-wife comedy duo of N. S. Krishnan and T. A. Madhuram. Due to the shortage of film negatives during World War II, this film was short (13,623 feet) when compared to the Tamil films of the 1930s. It was released on 3 March 1943 in tandem with another film – '' Kizhattu Mappilai'' (). Dhaasippen was shot at Minerva Movietone in Bombay and Newtone Studios in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Tamil Nadu, the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and territories of India, Indian state. The largest city ...

(now Chennai) edited by R. S. Mani. Mani began his career as an editor and worked with Dungan on ''

Kalamegam ''Kalamegam'' is a 1940 Tamil-language film directed by Ellis R. Dungan and starring nadaswaram player T. N. Rajarathnam Pillai. This was the second film as script writer for the Tamil rationalist poet Bharathidasan. This was the only film in ...

''. He became a successful filmmaker with hits such as ''Kannagi'', ''Kubera Kuchela'', and ''Krishna Bakthi'', and ''Maaman Magal''. Later, he became religious and left the filmmaking industry. Dungan made several cultural films based mostly on

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

folk tales without knowing

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

. Dnugan directed other classic films such as '' Sathi Leelavathi'', '' Sakuntalai'', ''

Meera Meera, better known as Mirabai and venerated as Sant Meerabai, was a 16th-century Hindu mystic poet and devotee of Krishna. She is a celebrated Bhakti saint, particularly in the North Indian Hindu tradition. Mirabai was born into a Ratho ...

'', ''

'', and ''

Manthiri Kumari ''Manthiri Kumari'' () is a 1950 Indian Tamil-language historical fiction film directed by Ellis R. Dungan and starring M. G. Ramachandran, M. N. Nambiar. Plot The King of Mullai Nadu is dominated by his Raja guru (head priest) (M. N. Namb ...

'' (in which he shared credit with its producer T. R. Sundaram).

Cast

* T. R. Mahalingam *

* R. Balasaraswathi * M. R. Santhanalakshmi * N. S. Krishnan * T. A. Madhuram *Krishnamurthy * M. R. Santhanalakshmi *V. K. Das *"Pulimoottai" Ramasamy

Soundtrack

The music in the film was composed by Lalitha Venkatraman and

. There were nearly 30 songs including duets. Lalitha Venkatraman, a noted singer of the day, also played Veena in the movie. She had previously made history by being the first female in

Tamil Cinema Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywo ...

to sing off screen in the AVM film, '' Nandakumar'' (1938).

References

External links

* {{Ellis R. Dungan 1943 films 1940s Tamil-language films Indian black-and-white films Indian biographical films Hindu mythological films Lost Indian films Films directed by Ellis R. Dungan 1940s biographical films