Sakthi Tamil Movie Songs

[Donat Ruel]

CentralStudios initially planned on creating a film based on the Parasakthi play and T. S. Natarajan's play En Thangai; however, the idea was dropped after Natarajan objected. The film rights of Parasakthi were later bought by P. A. Perumal of National Pictures, with the patronage of A. V. Meiyappan. The soundtrack was composed by R. Sudarsanam, cinematography was handled by S. Maruti Rao, and Panju edited the film under the alias "Panjabi". Filming began in mid-1950, but took over two years to complete.

Parasakthi was released on 17 October 1952, during the festive occasion of Diwali, and faced controversies because of its portrayal of Brahmins and Hindu customs and practices in a negative light. The elitarian society including the then ruling State government even demanded that the film be banned. Despite these protests, the film was praised for its dialogues and the actors' performances, and became a commercial success with a theatrical run of over 175 days. Parasakthi acquired cult status in Tamil cinema and became a trendsetter for dialogues and acting for later Tamil films.

Chandrasekaran, Gnanasekaran and Gunasekaran are three Indian immigrant brothers living in Rangoon, Burma with Chandrasekaran's wife Saraswati. Their younger sister Kalyani was raised in their home town Madurai, Tamil Nadu by their father Manickampillai. In 1942, during World War II, the three brothers and Saraswati plan to visit Madurai to attend the impending wedding of Kalyani to a writer named Thangappan. Due to war conditions and bombardment of Burmese ports by Japan, the shipping company offers only one ticket; Gunasekaran, the youngest brother, takes it and leaves for Tamil Nadu. The ship fails to reach on time due to the dangers of the war, and Kalyani's marriage takes place without any of her brothers present.

Kalyani becomes pregnant. But on the day she delivers her child, Thangappan dies in an accident and Manickampillai dies of shock, leaving Kalyani and her child destitute. Her house gets auctioned off, and she makes her living by selling food on the streets. Gunasekaran, after being stranded at sea for several months, finally arrives in Tamil Nadu at Madras. However, while watching a dance performance, he is robbed of all his belongings after being intoxicated. Impoverished, he becomes enraged at the status of the once glorious Tamil Nadu, and fakes insanity by indulging in numerous tricks to make a living. Gunasekaran finally comes across his destitute sister at Madurai, having learned of their father's death and her poverty. He continues to play insane and does not reveal his true identity to her due to his poverty, but hovers around her. Kalyani is irritated by the stranger's behaviour, unaware that he is her brother.

Kalyani is nearly molested by a vagabond named Venu, but is saved by Gunasekaran. She later leaves Madurai and arrives at Tiruchi, where she obtains work as a maid of blackmarketeer Narayana Pillai, who also tries to molest her. She is saved by his wife, and leaves the job. While searching for his sister, Gunasekaran reaches Tiruchi and comes across Vimala, a wealthy woman, to whom he explains the miserable status of him and his sister in the society. After resting in her house for a while, he silently leaves to continue searching for Kalyani.

As Japanese shelling intensifies in Burma, Chandrasekaran and Gnanasekaran decide to return to India. Chandrasekaran, accompanied by Saraswati, reaches Tiruchi safely and becomes a judge, but Gnanasekaran is lost in the journey and loses a leg in the shelling before arriving in India. He begs for a living, forms an association for beggars and tries to reform them. Kalyani reaches Chandrasekaran's palatial house seeking food, but Chandrasekaran throws her out without recognising her. She later arrives at a temple seeking help, but the pujari also tries to molest her. Frustrated with life and unable to feed her child, Kalyani throws it into a river and attempts suicide, but is soon arrested for killing the child and brought for trial.

At the court, Kalyani defends her act of infanticide with the judge being Chandrasekaran, who after hearing her story realises she is his sister, and faints. Gunasekaran is also brought to the court for having attacked the pujari who tried to molest his sister. During his trial, Gunasekaran explains the misfortunes which have befallen him and his family, and justifies his actions. Gunasekaran's valiant defence in the court awakens everyone on the ills of the society. As the trial proceeds, Vimala arrives and produces Kalyani's child, which was revealed to have safely fallen in her boat instead of the river. Kalyani and Gunasekaran are pardoned and acquitted by the court, and reunite with Chandrasekaran. Gnanasekaran, while collecting donations for his association of beggars, also joins them unexpectedly. With Vimala and Gunasekaran deciding to get married, the family subsequently inaugurates a welfare home for orphans.

Parasakthi was a popular 1950s Tamil play written by Pavalar Balasundaram, a Tamil scholar.[4][5] Around the same time, En Thangai (My Sister), written by T. S. Natarajan, became popular. Sivaji Ganesan, at that time a struggling stage actor, acted in En Thangai as "a brother sacrificing his love for the sake of his sightless kid sister."[4] The pre-production crew at Central Studios, Coimbatore, initially planned to merge these two plays to make a film. However, Natarajan disagreed with the idea, and sold the rights of the play to another producer.[4][6] En Thangai was made into a film with the same name.[6]

Ganesan, the stage actor of En Thangai was chosen to play the male lead, making his cinematic acting debut.[4] Perumal cast Ganesan after being impressed with his performance as Nur Jahan in the Sakthi Nadaga Sabha play of the same name.[11] It was he who, in 1950, gave Ganesan a flight ticket to Madras for the screen test for Parasakthi.[12] Ganesan had simultaneously shot for the Telugu-Tamil bilingual film Paradesi / Poongothai, which was supposed to be his actual film to release first,[13][14] but released much later after Perumal requested its co-producer Anjali Devi to let Parasakthi release first.[15] Ganesan had earlier dubbed for actor Mukkamala in the 1951 Tamil film Niraparadhi.[16][17]

Rajasulochana was initially cast as the female lead, but opted out due to her pregnancy, and was eventually replaced by Sriranjani Jr.[23] Pandari Bai was added to the film, after Meiyappan was impressed with her performance in Raja Vikrama (1950).[24] Poet Kannadasan declined to work as one of the film's lyricists, and instead acted in a minor role as a judge, as he was "determined to take part in the Parasakthi movie".[3] A portrait of lawyer P. Theagaraya Chetty was used to portray the father-in-law of S. V. Sahasranamam's character Chandrasekaran.[25] The film's climax song "Ellorum Vazha Vendum" featured stock footage of the politicians C. Rajagopalachari, E. V. Ramasamy, M. Bhaktavatsalam, Annadurai, and Karunanidhi.[26] Although Ganesan began working on the film in mid-1950, it took over two years to complete.[27]

Panju stated that Parasakthi was designed to "create havoc. Of course, it did. We were challenging the social law itself, the basic Constitution itself".[29] The title song of the film was composed by Bharathidasan, keeping with the demand of the DMK party seeking a sovereign Dravidian nation. The poem glorifies the utopian nature of the Dravidian nation and ends with a long monologue that grieves the present India's reality. When the female lead Kalyani becomes pregnant, she and her husband Thangappan decide to name the child "Pannirselvam" if it is a boy, and "Nagammai" if it is a girl. The names are references to A. T. Pannirselvam, a prominent and respected leader of the Justice Party and Nagammai, a leading activist in the Self-Respect Movement and the wife of E. V. Ramasamy.[30] According to film historian Selvaraj Velayutham, Parasakthi was basically oriented to social reform.[31] United News of India (UNI),[32] Malini Nair of The Times of India[33] and K. S. Sivakumaran of the Sri Lankan newspaper Daily News[34] have referred to the film as a satire, with UNI describing it as a "sociological satire".[32]

The film deploys Kalyani's vulnerability as a widow in a hostile society, with consequent threats to her chastity, especially during the court trial scenes. The name Kalyani was chosen by the screenwriter to emphasise the contradiction between the meaning of her name indicating auspiciousness and her contrasting penury. The theme is expressed through Gunasekaran's arguments in the court : "[My] sister's name is Kalyani. An auspicious name [indeed]. But there is no 'mangalyam' around [her] neck". Also, Vimala, who becomes Gunasekaran's bride, compares herself to Kannagi, a popular symbol of chastity in Tamil culture. Ganesan, who enacted the role of Gunasekaran in Parasakthi, was a DMK activist in real life in 1952 and helped in propagating the theme of Dravida Nadu. The film attempted to bring to light the alleged fraud in the name of religion and presented agnostic views, displaying a powerful critique of the Congress rule in the Madras Presidency.[35] Film historian Mohan Raman compared Parasakthi to Velaikari (1949), as both films featured a "court scene where the hero rids society of irrational beliefs and practices".[36]

Parasakthi received critical acclaim.[63] P. Balasubramania Mudaliar of Sunday Observer wrote, "The story is simple but it has been made powerful by Mr. Karunanidhi by his beautiful dialogues. Mr. Shivaji Ganesan, who plays the main role dominates from the beginning to the end" and concluded, "If an Academy award were to be given to any picture, I have little doubt that this picture would be entitled on its merits to such an award."[64] Dinamani Kadhir, a Tamil weekly owned by Indian Express Limited (then known as The Indian Express Group), carried an unusually long review of Parasakthi running into three closely printed pages. The review was given a cynical title, "Kandarva Mandalam" ("The Abode of Kandarvas") and it began with a small box-item which read, "Parasakthi: This goddess is abused in a Tamil film with her name". The reviewer opined, "The main aim of the film is to attach gods. Along with that, the government and society are overtly and covertly attacked. The embittered and agitated reviewer further claimed, "He [the hero of the film], acting as a mad man, threatens and beats the people on the street and grabs whatever they have and eats it. Then he goes to give repeatedly all those economics lectures, rationalist lectures and anti-god lectures. When we see the hero doing all that, it seems as if he is portraying the lives of those who are trying to force such ideas in the ...film." For the reviewer, thus, the DMK men were living on others' sweat and preaching unacceptable subversive ideas.[65] The magazine Sivaji praised the dialogues by Karunanidhi, and the performances of Ganesan and Sahasranamam.[66]

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