''Koteeswaran'' () is a 1955 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

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

co-written, co-produced, edited and directed by

Sundar Rao Nadkarni Sundar Rao Nadkarni was an Indian film actor, editor, cinematographer, producer and director. He was the director of the first hit film for AVM productions Bhookailas in Telugu in the year 1940, and later the record-creating Tamil film '' Harida ...

. The film stars

Sivaji Ganesan Villupuram. Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001), better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian actor and film producer. He was mainly active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th centur ...

, Padmini, S. Balachander and

Ragini Ragini may refer to: *Rāgini, the feminine counterpart of a raga, a melodic mode in Indian classical music *Ragini, an Indian feminine given name from the above People *Ragini (actress) (1937–1976), Indian film actress, one of the Travancore si ...

. Based on B. V. Warerkar's

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

play ''Haach Mulacha Baap'', it revolves around two friends setting out to fight against the

dowry system The dowry system in India refers to the durable goods, cash, and real or movable property that the bride's family gives to the groom, his parents and his relatives as a condition of the marriage. Dowry is called "दहेज" in Hindi and as ' ...

in their village. The film was released on 13 November 1955.

Plot

Chandar and Kannan are friends. They return to their village after completing their studies, but are shocked by the prevalence of the

. They both set out to fight against it.

Cast

;Male cast *

as Doctor Chandar * S. Balachander as Pasupathy * Sriram as Kannan * K. A. Thangavelu as

Rao Bahadur Rai Bahadur (in North India) and Rao Bahadur (in South India), R.B., was a title of honour bestowed during British Raj, British rule in India to individuals for outstanding service or acts of public welfare to the British Empire, Empire. From ...

Ramasami * Sirukalathur Sama as Jakamba * Sattam Pillai Venkatraman as Rangu Pillai * A. Ganesh Singh as Servant Karuppan ;Female cast * Padmini as Neela *

as Kamala *

Rushyendramani Rushyendramani (1 January 1917 – 17 August 2002) was an Indian film actress, playback singer, and dancer from Andhra Pradesh. She had more than 150 films in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi films from 1935 to 1986. Her notable films ...

as Parvathi * Baby Saraswathi as Usha * Baby Rajakumari as Rani ;Male support cast * M. A. Ganapathi Bhat, S. V. Shanmugam, Vijaymani.

Production

''Koteeswaran'' is based on ''Haach Mulacha Baap'', a

play written by B. V. Warerkar. It was directed by

who also produced the film with B. Radhakrishna under Sri Ganesh Movietone, and wrote the screenplay alongside Kangeyan. The dialogues were written by Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass and Kangeyan. Cinematography was handled by G. K. Ramu, the art direction by D. S. Kotkavngar and the editing by Nadkarni. The final length of the film was .

Soundtrack

The music was composed by S. V. Venkatraman.

Release and reception

''Koteeswaran'' was released on 13 November 1955,

Diwali Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual v ...

day. ''

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 ...

'' wrote, "Crisp and spicy dialogue is the highlight" of the film.

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes 1950s Indian films 1950s Tamil-language films 1955 comedy films 1955 films Films scored by S. V. Venkatraman Indian comedy films Indian films based on plays Tamil-language comedy films Tamil-language Indian films