''Sudharshan'' is a 1951 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 A. S. A. Sami and Sundar Rao Nadkarni. The film stars

P. U. Chinnappa Pudukottai Ulaganathan Chinnaswamy Pillai (5 May 1916 – 23 September 1951), popularly known as P. U. Chinnappa, was an Indian actor and playback singer during the 30s era from Pudukottai, India. He is also credited as one of the first major ...

and P. Kannamba. The story is based on a popular folk myth about a Panduranga devotee Gora who was a potter by trade. The same story was filmed simultaneously by Gemini Studios. The Gemini version ''

Chakra Dhari ''Chakra Dhari'' () is a 1948 Indian Tamil-language film produced by Gemini Studios. V. Nagayya and Pushpavalli star, while Gemini Ganesan who was a budding actor then, appeared in a minor role. A year after its initial release, the film was re- ...

'' was released early and due to an unknown reason ''Sudharshan'' was delayed. It was released on 28 November 1951.

Plot

Cast

Cast according to the opening credits of the film ;Male Cast *

as Gorakumbhar * T. S. Balaiah as Namadhevar * D. Balasubramaniam as Sevaji * P. B. Rangachari as Pandurangan *

Radhakrishnan Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (; 5 September 188817 April 1975; natively Radhakrishna) was an Indian academician, philosopher and statesman who served as the President of India from 1962 to 1967. He previously served as the vice president of ...

as Venkaji * K. Sayeeram as Penda * C. P. Kittan as Goldsmith ;Female Cast * P. Kannamba as Thulasi Bai * Lalitha as Rukmani *(Yoga) Mangalam as Shantha Bai * C. K. Saraswathi as Sona

Production

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 ...

and Jupiter Pictures started producing the same story under different titles almost simultaneously. However, Gemini's version titled ''Chakradhari'' was released in 1948 and was successful at the box-office. Sudharsan was delayed for reasons unknown and was released almost 3 years later in 1951. Popular Carnatic musician and playback singer M. L. Vasanthakumari was cast initially to do the character of the second wife of Gora (PUC). She left the film for undisclosed reasons after a few reels were shot. She was replaced by Mangalam of the famous Yogam-Mangalam dance duo. Likewise, A. S. A. Sami who was directing the film, was replaced by Sundar Rao Nadkarni.

who played the male lead role, died at a young age, before the film was released.

Soundtrack

Music was composed by G. Ramanathan and the lyrics were penned by

Papanasam Sivan Paapanaasam Raamayya Sivan (26 September 1890 – 1 October 1973) was an Indian composer of Carnatic music and a singer. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 1971. He was also a film score composer in Kannada cinema a ...

and K. D. Santhanam. The singing star,

sang many songs one of which, ''Anna sedan papa…'' was a hit.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title 1950s Indian films 1950s Tamil-language films 1951 films Films directed by A. S. A. Sami Films scored by G. Ramanathan Hindu devotional films Tamil-language Indian films