''Mayor Muthanna'' () is a 1969 Indian

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

-language film directed by Siddalingaiah. The film stars

Dr. Rajkumar Singanalluru Puttaswamaiah Muthuraj (24 April 1929 – 12 April 2006), better known by his stage name Dr. Rajkumar, was an Indian actor and singer who worked in Kannada cinema. Regarded as one of the greatest and versatile actors in the his ...

and Bharathi. The film was Siddalingaiah's debut as a director and actor

Dwarkish Bungle Shama Rao Dwarakanath (19 August 1942 – 16 April 2024), known by his stage name Dwarakish ( ), was an Indian actor, comedian and filmmaker who predominantly worked in Kannada cinema in addition to few Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. ...

's first independent production venture who had earlier co- produced the 1966 movie '' Mamatheya Bandhana'' with 2 other people under Thunga Pictures. The sub-plot of the film regarding the salvaging of the sub-standard grain was inspired by the 1886 novel ''

The Mayor of Casterbridge ''The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character'' is an 1886 novel by the English author Thomas Hardy. One of Thomas Hardy's Wessex, Hardy's Wessex novels, it is set in a fictional rural England with Casterbridge standing ...

'' by

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

. However, apart from this small episode, neither any plot point nor any sequence was borrowed from that novel. The movie was remade in Telugu in 1974 as ''Chairman Chalamayya'' starring Chalam.

Cast

Production and Release

MGR who hardly portrayed roles requiring him to consume alcohol had appeared in one such role in the song ''Javvathu Medai'' from the 1963 Tamil movie '' Panathottam''. Producer Dwarkish wanted Rajkumar to do a similar sequence. Rajkumar, who like MGR, does not appear in roles requiring him to consume alcohol on-screen, refused to do such a song and hence they incorporated a sequence where he only had to act like as though he has consumed alcohol. Another song ''Ayyayyayyo Hallimukha'' was shot at HMT swimming pool even though it was raining since both Dr.Rajkumar and Bharati were supposed to go to Jaipur for the shooting of another movie '' Sri Krishnadevaraya'' from the next day. The movie was made with a budget of Rs. 1.10 lakhs.https://www.prajavani.net/old-columns/belli-tereya-hinde/%E0%B2%A8%E0%B2%A8%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%A8-%E0%B2%AC%E0%B2%A6%E0%B3%81%E0%B2%95%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%A8-%E0%B2%9F%E0%B3%8D%E0%B2%B0%E0%B3%87%E0%B2%B2%E0%B2%B0%E0%B3%8D-2061954 This was the first Kannada movie to be sold to distributors before release. However, the producer had lamented that he did a pre-release business at a very less amount which would give him only a paltry sum of ₹50,000 as profit whereas post release the movie did a business of ₹10 lakhs.

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by the duo

Rajan–Nagendra Rajan–Nagendra was an Indian musical duo who were prominent composers of film music in Kannada and Telugu cinema from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. Rajan, along with his brother Nagendra, created a niche for themselves for nearly four dec ...

, with lyrics written by Chi. Udaya Shankar.

References

External links

* 1969 films 1960s Kannada-language films Films scored by Rajan–Nagendra Films directed by Siddalingaiah 1969 directorial debut films Kannada films remade in other languages {{1960s-Kannada-film-stub