Posters are an integral part of any film’s promotion. The South Indian Film posters always stood out for its unique and interesting designs. Here is an article that was published in today’s Metro plus, a supplement of The Hindu (Poster boys – The Hindu). The article talks about the men who work all night pasting these posters in our city walls.
While we are talking about posters here are images of posters from two famous tamil films taken from our archives.
Keeping in line with our focus on the regional cinemas of Southern India, we at TCRC bring to you a piece published by The Hindu in 2004, where historian Randor Guy writes about the first ever Kannada talkie film, “Sathi Sulochana.” It was released in 1934 and featured Rattihalli Nagendra Rao and MV Subbiah, who were popular theatre artists at that time. The film was directed by Yaragudipati Varada Rao, who cast himself in an important role in the movie. YV Rao was also the director of “Chintamani,” the record-breaking Tamil film that was released in 1937. YV Rao’s “Chintamani” was the first Tamil film to run continuously for a year and is said to have played an important role in catapulting actor-singer MK Thyagaraja Bhagavathar to stardom.
In his piece on “Sathi Sulochana“, Randor Guy offers some very interesting trivia about the production of the movie:
Sathi Sulochana” took two months to be completed. Shooting was done in natural sun light and by using man-made reflectors. Shooting with artificial lighting in that town was difficult. Mirrors were carried by camera-assistants on their shoulders to reflect sunlight onto the set to provide back-lighting and the men had to keep moving, shifting the mirrors to be in alignment with the moving sun! The sets had no ceiling and were covered by a white cloth.”
MV Subbiah Naidu in “Sathi Sulochana” (1934), the first Kannada talkie
We at TCRC are proud to feature such gems from our illustrious history of cinema. Please feel free to write to tcrcindia[at]gmail[dot]com with your feedback and suggestions.
“Thiruvarutselvar” | LP Record – Front | Tamil | 1967
“Thiruvarutselvar” | LP Record – Back | Tamil | 1967
In our archives here at TCRC, we have the original LP records of numerous Indian films, right from the 50s to the 80s. Today, we share with you the photos of the LP record of “Thiruvarutselvar”, a Tamil film starring Sivaji Ganesan, Savitri, Muthuraman, KR Vijaya and others. It was released in 1967 and was directed by AP Nagarajan, the veteran filmmaker whose other hits include “Thiruvilayadal,” “Saraswathi Sabatham,” and “Thillana Mohanambal.” The music for “Thiruvarutselvar” was scored by KV Mahadevan and the lyrics were written by Kannadasan. Even today, one remembers P Susheela’s mellifluous rendition of “Mannavan Vanthanadi,” one of the most popular songs of the album.
In an interview with Mohan V Raman for The Hindu in April 2012, CN Paramasivan, the son of director AP Nagarajan had said that the overwhelming response to the re-release of “Karnan” was encouraging him to look into the restoration of some of his father’s films (click here to read that story). We at TCRC hope to see that happen.
Also, it must be mentioned here that the same team, i.e., actor Sivaji Ganesan, director AP Nagarajan and music director KV Mahadevan, came together for “Kandan Karunai,” which won KV Mahadevan the National Award for Best Music Direction in 1967, the same year in which “Thiruvarutselvar” was released. This was the first time that a National Award was constituted for the category of Music Direction. Since then, the most number of National Awards for Best Music Direction have been won by Ilaiyaraja and AR Rahman, i.e., 4 each.
NT Rama Rao with Malathi in “Pathalabhairavi” (Telugu, 1951)
For last week’s ‘Blast From the Past’ column in The Hindu, ML Narasimham wrote a lovely piece on the 1951 Telugu film “Pathalabhairavi” starring NT Rama Rao, SV Ranga Rao, Malathi and others. We particularly loved the anecdote featuring the then-Union Home Minister, C Rajagopalachari (click on the image to read the full story).
We at TCRC have, in our archives, various memorabilia from Telugu films that have been made over the years. We are currently in the process of digitizing those artifacts. So, do follow our blog for updates.
“Thirumazhisai Aazhvaar” | Tamil | 1948
The Hindu here in Chennai runs a column called ‘Blast From The Past’, where historian Randor Guy writes about one old Tamil film, every week.
This week, he wrote about “Thirumazhisai Aazhvaar”, a movie released in 1948 starring Carnatic musician Dhandapani Desikar (click on the picture to read the full story).
At TCRC, we have the song books of numerous films from the same era. Song books used to be released by film producers then, along with the records bearing the songs of the movie. These books are treasure troves for film aficionados and in some cases where the original film print has been destroyed, they serve as the only source of information about the film’s production process and the crew which worked on it. They typically contain lyrics of all the songs featured in the movie.
The Cinema Resource Centre (TCRC) 