''Mudhal Thethi'' in

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 ...

, ''Modala Thedi'' in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

is an Indian bilingual film, directed by P. Neelakantan and produced by B. R. Panthulu. This was the first film produced by Panthulu under Padmini Pictures banner. The Tamil version starred

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

Anjali Devi Anjali Devi (; 24 August 1927 – 13 January 2014) was an Indian actress, model and producer in Telugu and Tamil films. She was well known for her role as the Devi Sita in '' Lava Kusa'' as well as for the titular roles in movies like Chen ...

, N. S. Krishnan and T. A. Madhuram in lead roles. The film had musical score by

T. G. Lingappa Thiruchirappalli Govindarajulu Lingappa (22 August 1927 – 5 February 2000) was an Indian music director who worked predominantly in Kannada language films. He also worked in Tamil and Telugu movies. He was the son of G. Govindarajulu Naidu wh ...

scoring for his first feature film. The film was a remake of Hindi film ''Paheli Tarikh'' (1954). The film was simultaneously shot in Kannada retaining the same crew members with a slight change in the main star cast. The Kannada version titled ''Modala Thedi'' starred Panthulu, M. V. Rajamma, Dikki Madhava Rao and Chi. Sadashivaiah. The movie follows the narrative theme of the 1946 movie ''

It's a Wonderful Life ''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet '' The Greatest Gift'', which Philip Van Doren Stern self-published in 1943 and is in turn loo ...

''.

Plot

Sivagnanam works as a bank clerk. Though his pay is meagre, he deals with a lot of cash at the bank. His family consists of wife Lakshmi, a daughter whose marriage is being negotiated and two school going children. The bank where he works crashes. Sivagnanam is unable to find another job. Dejected, he tries to kill himself so that his insurance money would be made available to the family. His soul reaches the court of Yama, the god of death. Angered by what he deals an irresponsible act, Yama sends him back to earth to see the result of his death. He is able to observe the goings on but is unable to participate. He watches his son being picked up by the police for stealing food, his daughter is molested and his wife drowns herself in a well after murdering the rapist. He realizes his mistake. Thankfully the whole series of events has been a dream.

Cast

Tamil version

as Sivagnanam *

as Lakshmi * N. S. Krishnan as Sathanandam * T. A. Madhuram as Saanthamma *

K. D. Santhanam K. D. Santhanam was an Indian actor, writer and lyricist who worked mainly in Tamil films. Career He was a teacher at Madurai Sri Mangala Bala Gana Sabha training young boys in dramatics. He was known as a strict disciplinarian. He punished ...

* Srirangam Rangamani *P. Susheela *Rajagopal *'Baby' Uma as Sushila

Kannada version

* B. R. Panthulu * M. V. Rajamma * Dikki Madhava Rao * Chi. Sadashivaiah * Master Hirannaiah *

(guest appearance)

Production

''Muthal Thethi'' was produced by B. R. Panthulu, as the maiden venture of his production company Padmini Pictures. The film is based on a story by Dada Mirasee and the screenplay and dialogue are by P. Neelakantan, who directed the Tamil version. The film was based on a Hindi film, ''Paheli Tarikh''. The music was composed by T. G. Lingappa and the lyrics were penned by K. D. Santhanam and Udumalai Narayana Kavi. V. Ramamurthi was the cinematographer, with audiography by V. S. Raghavan. Art direction was by the veteran A. K. Sekhar, and make-up and costumes were by Hari Babu and M. G. Naidu respectively. The film was edited by Devarajan. The film was shot at Revathi Studios, and was backed by the veteran A. L. Srinivasan, under his banner, Madras Pictures.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by

. Lyrics were by

and

Udumalai Narayana Kavi [https://idhatri.com/udumalai-narayana-kavi/ Udumalai Narayana KavUdumalai Narayana Kavi Udumalai Narayana Kavi (25 September 1899 – 23 May 1981) was an Indian poet and lyricist known for his work in Tamil films. Early life Udumalai Narayana w ...

. Singers are N. S. Krishnan & T. A. Madhuram. Playback singers are M. M. Dandapani Desikar, T. V. Rathnam, K. Rani (singer), K. Rani and A. P. Komala. Tamil Track listing Kannada Track listing

References

External links

*
History 31 – 1955 : The Year Of Star Debuts
{{P. Neelakantan 1950s multilingual films 1950s Tamil-language films 1955 films Films directed by P. Neelakantan Films scored by T. G. Lingappa Hindu mythology in popular culture Indian multilingual films Kannada remakes of Hindi films 1950s Kannada-language films Tamil remakes of Hindi films Indian black-and-white films