''Mathru Bhoomi'' is a 1939 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 directed by

H. M. Reddy Hanumappa Muniappa Reddy (12 June 1892 – 14 January 1960), known as H. M. Reddy, was an Indian film director and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema. He directed the first Indian multilingual sound film '' Kalidas'' (1931), shot in ...

. It was an adaptation of the Bengali stage play ''Chandragupta'' by

Dwijendralal Ray Dwijendralal Ray (19 July 1863 – 17 May 1913), also known as D. L. Ray, was a Bengali poet, playwright, and musician. He was known for his Hindu mythological and nationalist historical plays and songs known as '' Dwijendrageeti'' or the ''Songs ...

Plot

The film was based on

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

's invasion of India, an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

to the British conquest and occupation of India.

Cast

* P. U. Chinnappa * T. S. Santhanam * T. V. Kumudhini * A. K. Rajalakshmi * Kali N. Rathnam * T. R. B. Rao * P. Saradambal

Production

''Mathru Bhoomi'' is an adaptation of the Bengali stage play '' Chandragupta''. The film was mounted on a record budget of 2 lakh {worth 34 crore in 2021 prices) and took 1 year to complete. P. S. Ramakrishna Rao, who went on to become a popular director in Telugu cinema, joined the film as an assistant director. In 1937, the Indian nationalist party the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

defeated the pro-British Justice Party for the first time in the elections to the Madras Legislative Assembly and Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari was sworn in as the Chief Minister. As an immediate consequence of this change of guard, censorship was relaxed on Tamil films. Encouraged by the new government's policies, a few films were made glorifying the Indian independence movement and Indian national leaders of which ''Mathrubhoomi'' was one.

References

External links

* {{H. M. Reddy 1930s Indian films 1930s Tamil-language films 1939 films Films directed by H. M. Reddy Films scored by Papanasam Sivan Films set in ancient India Indian black-and-white films Indian films based on plays Tamil-language Indian films