''Moondru Pillaigal'' () is a 1952 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

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

produced by S. S. Vasan. Based on

Victor Fleming Victor Lonzo Fleming (February 23, 1889 – January 6, 1949) was an American film director, cinematographer, and producer. His most popular films were the historical drama ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'', for which he won an A ...

's 1927 American film ''

The Way of All Flesh ''The Way of All Flesh'' (originally titled ''Ernest Pontifex or the Way of All Flesh'') is a semi-autobiographical novel by Samuel Butler that attacks Victorian-era hypocrisy. Written between 1873 and 1884, it traces four generations of the ...

'', it is about a couple and their three sons. The film was directed by Nagendra Rao and stars himself alongside Kannamba, with M. K. Radha,

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 ...

and Sriram in supporting roles. It was simultaneously produced and released in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

under the title ''Mugguru Kodukulu''. The film failed at the box office, which led to Vasan destroying all copies of it, thus making it a

lost film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...

Plot

Gunavathi and Somasekhar, a couple, have three sons. The youngest one takes responsibility for a theft allegedly committed by them and goes to jail. The dejected Somasekhar commits suicide and Gunavathi is abandoned by the other two sons. Later, when the youngest son is released from jail, he takes care of his mother despite being jobless. However, he receives an offer from a film company to act as the main character in a film produced by them based on the ''

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

''. He succeeds in his job and manages to unite the family.

Cast

Cast from the song book * Kannamba as Gunavathi * Nagendra Rao as Somasekhar * M. K. Radha as Muthu (Adult) * Sriram as Kannan (Adult) *

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 Sekhar (Adult) * Kumari Vanaja as Kamala (Adult) * Sundari Bai as Pankajam * Suryaprabha as Kamini * G. Pattu Iyer as Ramadas * Narayana Rao as Film Proprietor * Chandra Babu as Music Director * Vikatam Krishnamurthi as Film Dealer * S. Krishnamoorthy as Film Production Assistant * Seetharaman as Film Production Assistant * Sethumadhavan as Muthu (Child) * Sudhakar as Kannan (Child) * Sudhindra as Sekhar (Child) * Seetha as Kamala's Friend * K. Ramaswamy as Pedagogue * Venkat as Bar-at-Law * Ramakrishna Rao as Marwari * G. V. Sharma as Amina * V. T. Kalyanam as Race Broker * Saraswathi as Susheela (Adult) * Rathna Papa as Muthu's Girl * Mohan as Muthu's Boy * Premakumari as Kamala (Child) * Vijaya Rao as Doctor * Balan as Sub Inspector * Velayutham as Old Metal Merchant * P. M. Devan as Office Proprietor * Bindu Madhavan as Film Director * Rama Narasu as Production Manager * B. S. P. Rao as Naughty Student * T. S. B. Rao as Jatka Man * Sampath Kumar as Suresh * Muthukrishna Reddy as Milkman

Production

The film was based on the 1927 American

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

'', directed by

. The family drama was successful in India, and was adapted into a film in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

titled '' Khazanchi'' (1941). The Hindi film was highly successful in

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

and ran for more than 25 weeks. Nagendra Rao, an established producer and director in

Kannada cinema Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. Kannada cinema is based in Gandhi Nagar ...

, was impressed by the film and decided to direct the

adaptation. He approached the Tamil film producer S. S. Vasan of

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 ...

who had earlier produced '' Apoorva Sagodharargal'', in which Rao played a role. Although Vasan was initially reluctant he agreed to finance the film. It was simultaneously produced and released in

under the title ''Mugguru Kodukulu''. According to writer

Ashokamitran Ashokamitran (22 September 1931 – 23 March 2017) was the pen name of Jagadisa Thyagarajan, an Indian writer regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-independent Tamil literature. He began his prolific literary career with the p ...

, who was then associated with Gemini, novelist R. K. Narayan wrote a treatment for this film. J. P. Chandrababu, who would later go on to become an established comedian in Tamil cinema, played a small role lasting a single sequence in the film. Savitri, who would later become an established actress in the Telugu and Tamil film industries, was to make her acting debut with this film. Ganesh (later known as

), who played a supporting role as one among the three sons in the film was also as a casting assistant with Gemini, the production company. He recommended her for a small role in the film; however, she was not selected for the role.

Table of ''Moondru Pillaigal'' and ''Mugguru Kodukulu'' Casts

Soundtrack

Music was composed by P. S. Anantharaman and supervised by M. D. Parthasarathy. The song "Antha Rama Sowndharyam" is set in the

Carnatic raga A Carnatic raga refers to ''ragas'' used in Carnatic music. It has several components: a primordial sound (''nāda''), tonal system (''swara''), pitch (''śruti''), scale, ornaments ('' gamaka''), and important tones. Origins and history Carnati ...

known as Kedaragaula.

Reception

''Moondru Pillaigal'' failed at the box-office, which led to Vasan destroying all copies of it, thus making it a

. Ashokamitran said there was nothing "seriously wrong" with the film, but felt that "the audience just couldn't take another film about a family torn asunder in the fourth reel and reunited in the last."

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{Gemini Studios 1950s Indian films 1950s lost films 1950s multilingual films 1950s Tamil-language films 1950s Telugu-language films Films about families Gemini Studios films Indian drama films Indian multilingual films Indian remakes of American films Lost drama films Lost Indian films Tamil-language drama films Tamil-language Indian films