Chandralekha (1948 film)

This article is about the 1948 film. For other uses, see Chandralekha (disambiguation).

Chandralekha
Illustrated poster showing men riding elephants and horses Theatrical poster
Directed by	S. S. Vasan
Written by	Veppathur Kittoo Kothamangalam Subbu K. J. Mahadevan Sangu Naina
Produced by	S. S. Vasan
Starring	T. R. Rajakumari M. K. Radha Ranjan
Cinematography	Kamal Ghosh K. Ramnoth
Edited by	Chandru
Music by	Songs: S. Rajeswara Rao Background music: M. D. Parthasarathy
Distributed by	Gemini Studios
Release date	9 April 1948 (Tamil)
Running time	210 minutes
Country	India
Languages	Tamil Hindi

Chandralekha (also spelled Chandraleka) is a 1948 Indian historical fiction film directed and produced by S. S. Vasan. The film features T. R. Rajakumari in the title role and M. K. Radha as the male lead, with Ranjan as the primary antagonist. A "Ruritanian period extravaganza", the film follows two brothers – Veerasimhan and Sasankan – fighting with each other over the throne of their father’s kingdom, and also for the hand of the village maiden and dancer Chandralekha.

The development of Chandralekha began in 1943 when Vasan, after two successive hits, announced that his next film would be entitled Chandralekha. However, when he launched an advertising campaign for the film, all he had was the name of the heroine from a storyline he had rejected. One of his storyboard artists, Veppathur Kittoo, later developed a story based on a chapter from George W. M. Reynolds' novel Robert Macaire: or, The French bandit in England (1848) which impressed Vasan. The original director of Chandralekha was T. G. Raghavachari, who, after directing more than half the film, left the project due to disagreements with Vasan, who took over the film in his directorial debut.

Originally filmed in Tamil and later in Hindi, Chandralekha was in production for five years from 1943 to 1948. It went through a number of changes to the script, cast and production, and ultimately became the most expensive film made in India at the time; the budget for a single sequence equalled that typical for an entire film of the period. The soundtrack, largely inspired by both Indian and Western classical music, was composed by S. Rajeswara Rao and the background score by M. D. Parthasarathy, with lyrics by Papanasam Sivan and Kothamangalam Subbu.

After a massive publicity campaign, Chandralekha was released on 9 April 1948 to generally positive reviews, and became a huge success. However, because of its expense, it was not profitable. As a result, Vasan released the film in Hindi the same year with several changes, and Chandralekha became India's first nationwide hit, grossing ₹10 million (equivalent to ₹1.1 billion or US$14 million in 2023) domestically and it "opened up the theatres of the North to films made in the South". It was also dubbed in foreign languages like English, Japanese and Danish.

Plot

Veerasimhan (M. K. Radha) and Sasankan (Ranjan) are sons of the king of an unspecified region. While returning to his palace, Veerasimhan meets a village dancer named Chandralekha (T. R. Rajakumari) and they fall in love. At the palace, the king decides to abdicate in favour of Veerasimhan, which enrages the younger brother Sasankan, who leaves the palace and forms a gang of thieves who embark on a crime spree. After they kill Chandralekha's father, she is orphaned and joins a band of travelling musicians, whose caravan is raided by Sasankan's men.

Sasankan orders Chandralekha to dance for him, and she does so only after being whipped. She later manages to escape. Meanwhile, Sasankan mounts a surprise attack on Veerasimhan and takes him prisoner. Chandralekha witnesses Sasankan's men trapping Veerasimhan in a cave and rescues him with the help of a passing circus troupe. Both of them join the circus to hide from Sasankan's men. After returning to the kingdom, imprisoning his parents, and declaring himself king, Sasankan asks his men to find Chandralekha.

At the circus, one of Sasankan's men sees Chandralekha performing and tries to capture her, but she is saved by Veerasimhan, who escapes with her to join a gypsy group. When Veerasimhan leaves to seek assistance, Sasankan's men capture Chandralekha and bring her to the palace. Sasankan orders her to marry him and she refuses, feigning unconsciousness whenever he approaches her. One of her friends from the circus comes to Sasankan disguised as a gypsy healer, claiming that she can heal Chandralekha. Behind locked doors, the two girls hold a quick conference. Sasankan is pleased to find Chandralekha miraculously cured and apparently ready to accept him as a bridegroom. He agrees to her request for a drum dance to celebrate the royal wedding.

Huge drums are arranged in rows in front of the palace. Chandralekha joins the dancers and Sasankan is impressed with her performance. Unknown to him, Veerasimhan's soldiers are hiding inside the drums and as the dance ends, they rush out of the drums and attack Sasankan's men. Veerasimhan confronts Sasankan and they engage in a long sword fight, which ends with Sasankan's defeat and imprisonment. Veerasimhan releases his parents and takes over as the new king, while Chandralekha becomes his queen.

Production

Development

In 1943, S. S. Vasan was contemplating a story for his third film after Mangamma Sabatham (1943) and the Telugu film Balanagamma (1942), which netted a profit of ₹4 million (equivalent to ₹590 million or US$7.1 million in 2023). He wanted a film on a grand scale on which there were no budgetary constraints. He asked Gemini Studios' story department (consisting of K. J. Mahadevan, Kothamangalam Subbu, Sangu, Naina and Veppathur Kittoo) to write a screenplay. They saw Mangamma Sabatham and Balanagamma as "heroine-oriented stories", and proposed a similar story to Vasan. They told a story about Chandralekha, a tough woman who "outwits a vicious bandit, delivers the final insult by slashing off his nose and, as a finishing touch, fills the bloodied gaping hole with hot, red chilli powder". Vasan disliked its gruesomeness and vulgarity, and rejected the story. However, the character's name, Chandralekha, stayed in his mind.

Without waiting for the full story, Vasan announced that his next project would be Chandralekha, publicising it with full-page advertisements. Despite much work by Gemini's writers, the story was not ready even after three months. Vasan became impatient and considered shelving Chandralekha in favour of his other project Avvaiyyar. Kittoo received a week's extension, during which he discovered the English novel Robert Macaire: or, The French bandit in England (1848) by George W. M. Reynolds, and in the first chapter he read:

A dark night in rural England and a mail coach convoy drawn by horses trots its way down a deserted leafy highway when suddenly, Robert Macaire, the fierce bandit and his henchmen emerge from the surrounding darkness and rob the convoy. Hiding under a seat is a young woman fleeing from a harsh, unhappy home.
She is a dancer and when she refuses to dance the bandit whips her into submission.

Vasan was impressed when Kittoo narrated a story based on this episode. Deciding to continue with the film, he named the heroine Chandralekha, although the rest of the story was still incomplete. The rest of Gemini's story department later improvised Kitto's story to give it a final shape.

Casting

Actor		Role
T. R. Rajakumari	...	Chandralekha
M. K. Radha	...	Veerasimhan
Ranjan	...	Sasankan
M. S. Sundari Bai	...	Circus performer
N. S. Krishnan	...	Circus artist
T. A. Madhuram	...	Circus artist
L. Narayana Rao	...	Circus manager
V. N. Janaki	...	Gypsy dancer
T. E. Krishnamachari	...	The king

The script had two major roles, princes of a kingdom, the elder of whom was the protagonist and his brother an amoral person, based on the fictional bandit Robert Macaire. M. K. Radha was originally offered to portray the younger prince, Sasankan. As he was known to play mostly heroic roles then, he was unwilling to play a negative role, and instead agreed to play the older prince Veerasimhan. It was Radha's wife who convinced Vasan to cast Radha as the older prince. Vasan chose K. J. Mahadevan to play Sasankan, and T. G. Raghavachari agreed to direct the film. However, after the first few scenes featuring Mahadevan were shot, his performance was deemed "too soft", and he was dismissed from the role. He continued to serve as one of the film's scriptwriters and an assistant director. Raghavachari wanted Ranjan to play Sasankan. Vasan was reluctant, feeling Ranjan was too effeminate to play a "steel-hard villain", but eventually agreed. Ranjan was then already committed to B. N. Rao's Saalivaahanan (1945), but Kittoo persuaded him to take a screen test for Chandralekha and Rao gave him a few days off. The test was successful, and Ranjan got the part.

T. R. Rajakumari was chosen to play Chandralekha, replacing K. L. V. Vasantha, who was Vasan's first choice. Film historian Randor Guy believes that Vasan chose Rajakumari over Vasantha, because the latter was then moving to Modern Theatres, Salem, permanently. In April 1947, comedian N. S. Krishnan was released from prison, and Vasan recruited him and T. A. Madhuram to portray circus artists who help Veerasimhan to rescue Chandralekha from Sasankan. The script was altered, with new scenes added to showcase the comedy duo. Madurai Sriramulu Naidu and S. N. Lakshmi made their acting debut in this film; the former appears in an uncredited role as a horseman, and the latter as a dancer in the climactic drum-dance scene.

When a minor role — the hero's bodyguard — was yet to be cast, the then struggling stage actor Villupuram Chinniah Pillai Ganeshamurthy (who went on to become Sivaji Ganesan) was interested in the role, and grew his hair long for the part. He contacted Kittoo several times asking for a role in the film. Eventually, Kittoo took Ganeshamurthy to Vasan, who had seen him perform on-stage. However, Vasan rejected Ganeshamurthy, calling him "totally unsuited for films" and told him to choose another profession. This incident caused a permanent schism between Vasan and Ganeshamurthy. The role of the bodyguard was eventually given to N. Seetharaman, who would later be known as Javar Seetharaman.

Kothamangalam Subbu's wife M. S. Sundari Bai plays a circus performer who helps Chandralekha to escape from Sasankan. T. A. Jayalakshmi, in one of her earliest film roles, appears briefly in one scene that lasted for a few minutes, as a dancer. Comedian L. Narayana Rao plays the circus manager. T. E. Krishnamachari plays the king, and V. N. Janaki (the future wife of actor/politician M. G. Ramachandran) plays a gypsy dancer who gives Chandralekha and Veerasimhan shelter in the forest. Additionally, Kittoo appears as the antagonist's spy. Other supporting actors include Seshagiri Bhagavathar, Appanna Iyengar, T. V. Kalyani, Surabhi Kamala, Pottai Krishnamoorthy, Subbiah Pillai, Cocanada Rajarathnam, N. Ramamurthi, Ramakrishna Rao, Sundara Rao, V. S. Susheela, Varalakshmi, Velayutham, and "100 Gemini Boys & 500 Gemini Girls".

Filming

During the making (of Chan­dra­lekha), our studio looked like a small kingdom...horses, elephants, lions, tigers in one corner, palaces here and there, over there a German lady training nearly a hundred dancers on one studio floor, a shapely Sinhalese lady teaching another group of dancers on real marble steps adjoining a palace, a ­studio worker making weapons, another making period furniture using expensive rosewood, set props, headgear, and costumes, Ranjan undergoing fencing practice with our fight composer 'Stunt Somu', our music directors composing and rehearsing songs in a building... there were so many activities going on simultaneously round the clock.

 – Kothamangalam Subbu, on the making of Chandralekha

Chandralekha began shooting in 1943, and Raghavachari directed more than half the film. Due to differences of opinion between him and Vasan over the shooting of some scenes at the Governor's Estate (now Raj Bhavan, Guindy), Raghavachari left the project and Vasan took over, making his directorial debut. Vasan's involvement in the project became so deep, that he did not even bother finding a husband for his daughter Lakshmi Narayani, despite his wife's continuous nagging.

The film initially had no circus scenes. Vasan decided to include them when the film was halfway through production, and the screenplay was altered. Kittoo travelled throughout South India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to see over 50 circuses before choosing the Kamala Circus Company and Parasuram Lion Circus; Vasan employed Kamala for one whole month. The circus scenes were shot by K. Ramnoth, and staff members, their families, and passersby were recruited as spectators. The circus scenes lasted for 20 minutes, according to G. Dhananjayan "the longest footage of scenes outside the main plot that one can see". A scene in which Ranjan whips Rajakumari when she refuses to dance was based on the passage from Robert Macaire: or, The French bandit in England, from which Kittoo developed the storyline with which Vasan was impressed.

After Raghavachari's departure, one sequence he directed remained in the film: the drum-dance scene. This scene involved 400 dancers and six months of rehearsals. It was designed by chief art director A. K. Sekhar, choreographed by Jayashankar and shot with four cameras by Ellapa, C. V. Ramakrishnan, S. Maruthi Rao and mainly Kamal Ghosh. The drum dance alone cost ₹500,000 (about US$105,000.11 in 1948), equal to the complete budget for a typical Indian film of the time. C. E. Biggs worked as the sound engineer.

During post-production, Vasan asked Ramnoth his opinion of the scene in which hundreds of Veerasimhan's warriors storm the palace to rescue Chandralekha from Sasankan. Although everyone else praised the scene's photography, shots and action, Ramnoth remained quiet, finally saying that the suspense could be ruined if the scene was shown uncut, which sparked a discussion. Vasan advised the editor Chandru to edit according to Ramnoth, and was impressed with the result.

Chandralekha was under production for five years (from 1943 to 1948) and underwent a number of changes to its story, cast, and filming. This caused substantial time and cost overruns, and the film ultimately cost ₹ 3 million (about US$600,000 in 1948), the most expensive Indian film at that time. Vasan had mortgaged all his property, received financial assistance from Sreenivasa Iyengar (then the editor of The Hindu) and even sold his jewellery to complete the film. Adjusted for inflation, the film would have cost US$28 million in 2010.

Themes and influences

The basic plot of Chandralekha is based on the first chapter from Robert Macaire: or, The French bandit in England, with the character Sasankan being based on Robert Macaire, while the character Chandralekha is based on the woman dancer in the novel who Macaire forces to dance through whipping. According to film historian B. D. Garga, the film also shows influences from other Western literary and cinematic sources like the novel Blood and Sand (1908), and the films The Mark of Zorro (1920), Robin Hood (1922), Ben-Hur (1925) and The Thief of Baghdad (1924). The climatic sword fight between Veerasimhan and Sasankan has often been compared to that in the 1894 novel The Prisoner of Zenda. American film historian William K. Everson compared the comedians to Laurel and Hardy. Although G. Dhananjayan and Randor Guy consider the film's drum dance sequence as the first of its kind in Indian cinema, French film historian Yves Thoraval conversely states that the film Naam Iruvar (1947) had a drum dance scene with Kumari Kamala as the dancer, which he claims "prefigured the dance that Chandralekha made famous the very next year". According to American film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, the film "belongs to the same childhood continuum as Lang's late India-based movies, The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb".

Music

The film's soundtrack was composed by S. Rajeswara Rao, with lyrics by Papanasam Sivan and Kothamangalam Subbu. R. Vaidyanathan and B. Das Gupta collaborated with M. D. Parthasarathy on the background music. According to film critics V. A. K. Ranga Rao and Shoma A Chatterji, the music is influenced by Carnatic and Hindustani music, Latin and Portuguese folk music, and Johann Strauss I's waltzes. Critic M. K. Raghavendra claims that the film has "snatches from Wagner and Rimsky Korsakov (Scherezade) being used at dramatic moments".

The song "Naattiya Kuthirai", picturised on Sundari Bai's character, was not originally in the script and was only added during the final stages of the film's production. The song and dance, and Sundari Bai's costume were inspired by Coney Island (1943). "Indrae Enathu Kuthukalam" and "Manamohana Saaranae" were sung by Rajakumari. The circus chorus was adapted from "The Donkey Serenade" from Robert Z. Leonard's The Firefly (1937). For the Hindi soundtrack, Vasan offered Uma Devi (who became popularly known as Tun Tun) to sing the majority of songs; she was initially hesitant, feeling that "these were beyond her capabilities", but was backed by Rajeswara Rao who "worked hard on her". The music of Chandralekha helped it become one of the most successful Indian musical films of the 1940s, and the film "created an atmosphere for a number of music directors influenced by Western music" in Tamil cinema.

Tamil tracklisting

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Indrae Enathu Kuthukalam"	T. R. Rajakumari	1:09
2.	"Aathoram Kodikkalam"	M. D. Parthasarathy	2:23
3.	"Padathey Padathey Nee"	M. S. Sundari Bai	3:29
4.	"Naattiya Kuthirai"	M. D. Parthasarathy	4:09
5.	"Namasthey Sutho"	Chorus	4:10
6.	"Group Dance" (Instrumental)	—	1:25
7.	"Aayilo Pakiriyamo"	N. S. Krishnan, T. A. Mathuram	3:10
8.	"Manamohana Saaranae"	T. R. Rajakumari	2:30
9.	"Murasu Aatam (Drum Dance)" (Instrumental)	—	5:59

Hindi tracklisting

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Sajana Re Aaja Re"	Uma Devi	3:04
2.	"Man Bhavan Sawan Aaya"	Uma Devi	3:09
3.	"O Chand Mere"	Uma Devi	3:21
4.	"Maai Re Main To Madhuban Mein"	Uma Devi	2:33
5.	"Sanjh Ki Bela"	Uma Devi, Moti Bai	3:07
6.	"Mera Husn Lootne Aaya Albela"	Zohra Ambala, Moti Bai	2:41

Critical reception

In his 1997 book Starlight, Starbright, Randor Guy said that Partha­sarathy and Rajeswara Rao "created a fine blend of lilting music of many schools". Writing for Screen in April 1998, film historian M. Bhaktavatsala said, "The songs are based on Carnatic, Hindusthani [sic], Bharatnatyam, Latin American and Portuguee folk music, as well as the Struass Waltz [sic], each distinct and standing on its own, with barely any background score attempting to interlink anything, just periods of silence". In his 2005 book Art of Cinema, B. D. Garga said, "There is not much to be said for the music which is a melange of various styles—Carnatic, Hindustani, folk, and western jazz and waltz."

Marketing

Two men crossing swords, with dancing woman in front

Japanese release poster

The first advertisement for Chandralekha appeared on the back cover of the songbook for the film Dasi Aparanji (1944). It featured Vasantha as the heroine (before she was replaced by Rajakumari). With Chandralekha, Gemini became the first Tamil studio to attempt to distribute a film all over India. In 2010, Vishwas Kulkarni of Mumbai Mirror stated that ₹574,500 was spent on newspaper publicity and ₹642,300 on posters, banners and billboards. The 2011 book The Best of Tamil Cinema by G. Dhananjayan contradicts this, saying, "He [Vasan] spent close to Rs. 5,00,000/- on publicity alone, a huge sum that time". Chandralekha's publicity campaign was the highest for an Indian film at that time; the entire publicity of a typical Indian film then was only around ₹25,000. Even in the 1950s, the entire publicity for a "top Indian film" cost no more than ₹100 million, which is less than one tenth of the amount spent on Chandralekha.

No expense was spared for the publicity campaign. A. K. Shekhar designed the campaign, which included posters, booklets and full-page newspaper advertisements. Inspired by American cinema, Gemini also produced a publicity brochure for distribution to exhibitors and the press. It contained a synopsis of the film along with a step pictorial account of the key points of the narrative. It reproduced glowing reviews from the film premières held in various Indian states and provided pre-prepared text for use by local theatres. The booklet also had layouts for women’s pages with a pictorial account of suggested marketing activities such as "How to drape an Indian sari: Theatre demonstrations have a big draw", along with information on the film’s costumes, which were hand-woven garments of silk and gold, and one particular gold embroidered riding jacket, which cost a fortune and is considered "the most expensive piece of outfitting ever used in a motion picture". An abridged English-language version of Chandralekha, titled Chandra, was screened in the United States and Europe during the 1950s; it was the first Indian film to be dubbed and released in English.

Chandralekha was released in Japan in April 1954, where it was distributed by Nippon Cinema Corporation (NCC). It was the first Tamil film to be dubbed in Japanese, and the second Indian film to be released in Japan (the first being the 1952 Hindi film Aan, which was released in Tokyo in January 1954). NCC later collapsed, and no information survives about how the film was brought to Japan. During the 1950s, when India was short of foreign currency, barter was a common means of exchange with overseas business partners, and the Japanese scholar Tamaki Matsuoka believes this to have been the case with Chandralekha. The pamphlet prepared by NCC for Chandralekha, the Japanese title of which was Shakunetsu-no ketto (Fight Under the Red Heat), calls Vasan the "Cecil B. DeMille of the Indian film industry". A Danish version of the film, Indiens hersker (India's ruler), was released on 26 April 1954.

Release

Reception

Chandralekha was released on 9 April 1948. It was released simultaneously in 40 theatres throughout South India, and in another 10 within a week. A typical Tamil film of the period would be released in only about 10 towns, but Chandralekha was released simulataneously in 120 towns. The film was a bellwether for its filming, production cost, and publicity before, during, and after its release. Other producers delayed releasing their films until after Chandralekha's release to avoid competition. The film's entertainment value ensured its commercial success.

Despite the original Tamil version's popularity, Chandralekha was not profitable due to its expense, and Vasan decided to remake it in Hindi. He reshot scenes, added songs, and replaced comedy scenes with Hindi artistes. The Hindi version was released the same year with over 600 prints and set box-office records, opening the market to South Indian producers. Vasan called the film "a pageant for our peasants", meant for "the war-weary public that had been forced to watch insipid war propaganda pictures for years". Chandralekha was selected by the government of India for exhibition at the Fourth International Film Festival in Prague in 1949. The film's success made Madras (now Chennai) a major production centre for Hindi films. Five years later in August 1953, Gemini paid its employees a "bonus", becoming one of the first studios in the world to do so.

Although exact figures are not available on the film's box office earnings, film trade websites provide estimates of its success. Sharmishtha Gooptu states in the book Bengali Cinema: An Other Nation that Chandralekha grossed ₹ 10 million (about US$2,100,000 in 1948) in India alone. It became the first Madras production, as well as the first Indian film to become a hit all over India. Box Office India gives the Hindi version's net gross as ₹ 7 million (about US$1,500,000 in 1948), and states that it was the second-highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1948 (after Shaheed, which earned a net gross of ₹ 7.5 million). IBOS Network estimates the film's adjusted worldwide gross as ₹4,766 million (US$57 million), the 71st highest-grossing Indian film when adjusted for inflation. Film historian B. D. Garga stated in his 2005 book Art Of Cinema, "The two versions—Tamil and Hindi—grossed millions".

Critical response

India

Dancers on large drums

Chandralekha's drum-dance sequence is considered the highlight of the film by critics.

Chandralekha received generally positive reviews from critics in India. On 9 April 1948, The Hindu said, "India has not witnessed a film of this magnitude in terms of making and settings so far". On 10 April, The Indian Express said, "Chandralekha is an entertaining film for everyone with elements like animals, rope dance, circus and comedy". The same day, Dinamani said "Chandralekha is not only a first rate Tamil film but also an international film".

V. A. K. Ranga Rao described the film as "the most complete entertainer ever made". In their 1988 book One Hundred Indian Feature Films: An Annotated Filmography, writers Anil Srivastava and Shampa Banerjee praised nearly every aspect of the film, including its grandeur, battle scenes, and the drum dance, which they called the "raison d'etre" of the film. In a 2010 review of Chandralekha, Randor Guy praised Rajakumari's performance, calling it "her career-best" and saying that she "carried the movie on her shoulders". Guy praised Radha as his "usual impressive self", saying the film would be "remembered for: the excellent onscreen narration, the magnificent sets and the immortal drum dance sequence". In 2003, journalist S. Muthiah called it "an epic extravaganza worthy of Cecil B. de. Mille" that was "larger-than-life". Behindwoods.com praised the film's "mind-boggling artwork and production values". In his 2011 book The Best of Tamil Cinema: 1931 to 1976, G. Dhananjayan called the film "a delight to watch even after 50 years".

Director Dhanapal Padmanabhan said in a 2013 interview with K. Jeshi of The Hindu, "Chandralekha had grandeur that was at par with Hollywood standards". Entertainment website IndiaGlitz praised the film for its "opulent songs and sinister plots". In their 2008 book Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song and Dance, writers Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti said, "Chandralekha is a film that translates the aesthetic of Hollywood Orientalism for an indigenous mass audience", calling its drum-dance sequence "perhaps one of the most spectacular sequences in Indian cinema". In July 2007, director J. Mahendran listed the film as the first in his list of "best ten" films and told S. R. Ashok Kumar of The Hindu, "I choose Chandralekha, a remarkable film because of its grandeur in all departments of filmmaking. There are no graphics or special effects." Director K. Balachander listed it as the second in his list of "best ten" films and told Ashok Kumar, "I have seen it [Chandralekha] 12 times", while praising the film for its "grand sets". In May 2010, Raja Sen of Rediff praised the film's "grandly mounted setpieces", its "memorable drum dance" and the "longest swordfight ever captured on film", calling Chandralekha "just the kind of film, in fact, that would be best appreciated now after digital restoration".

The film also received unfavourable comments. Though Anil Srivastava and Shampa Banerjee praised nearly every aspect of the film, they called the story "unreal". Dhananjayan called Chandralekha "not a great film in terms of script". Film critic M. K. Raghavendra said, "Indian films are rarely constructed in a way that makes undistracted viewing essential to their enjoyment and Chandralekha is arranged as a series of distractions", concluding, "Chandralekha apparently shows us that enjoyment and visual pleasure in the Indian context are not synonymous with edge-of-the-seat excitement but must permit absent-mindedness as a viewing condition".

Overseas

Chandralekha was well received by critics overseas. Reviewing the English version, The New York Times described Rajakumari as a "buxom beauty". Jonathan Rosenbaum said in August 1981, "The prospect of a three-hour Indian film in Temil [sic] with no subtitles is a little off-putting, I would say—wouldn't you?" However, he had "surprisingly little trouble following the plot and action" of the film, concluding, "this made-in-Madras costume drama makes for a pretty action-packed 186 minutes." In June 2009, K. S. Sivakumaran of Daily News Sri Lanka called it "the first colossal Thamil [sic] film I saw". Jonathan Crow, writing for the New York Times, praised the film's "dance scenes that would make Busby Berkeley weep and some extremely catchy musical numbers", and mentioned that Chandralekha "set the standard for the Bollywood spectacular". In 2013, Malaysian author D. Devika Bai praised the film for its "grand settings, palace intrigues, circus acts, splendid dances and dazzling fencing", while mentioning, "at almost 68, I have not tired of watching the movie." When Chandralekha was screened in New York City in 1976, William K. Everson said:

Chandralekha was pure home-grown De Mille, based on both legend and fact, but letting neither stand in the way of showmanship. It's a colorful, naive and zestful film in which the overall ingenuousness quite disarms criticism of plot absurdity or such production shortcomings as the too-obvious studio "exteriors". The only local criticism, however, was of its "excessive sensuality", but don't be alarmed—or excited—since this complaint was based on the then VERY rigid moral standards, now quite forgotten ...

The action has gusto and size, the songs are a joy, and the music guilelessly pillages from cultures all over the world, ranging from unexpurgated Wagner and Spanish flamenco to traditional Indian, with a snatch of the Laurel & Hardy theme thrown in as the comedians appear. Possibly the film's greatest moment occurs at the very beginning when after arriving at the huge palace (a most elaborate set) with his troops, the Prince strides through the palace, upstairs, along corridors, ever followed by a smoothly tracking camera which records the sumptuous splendor of it all, until he reaches his inner sanctum — where he sits down on a very moth-eaten second-hand chair and tugs off his boots! It's almost an unwitting Lubitsch touch ... With its fights, chases, music, elephants and a circus, Chandralekha was a huge popular success, the first Indian movie to be equally successful in both Tamil and then in Hindi versions. Last but far from least, Busby Berkeley would surely have been delighted to see his influence extending to the climactic drum dance.

Differences between versions

Despite similarities to its Tamil version, the Hindi version of Chandralekha differs in several aspects. Pandit Indra and Agha Jani Kashmiri wrote the dialogue for the Hindi version only. Indra was a lyricist for the Hindi version (with Bharat Vyas), and Subbu and Papanasam Sivan were lyricists for the Tamil version. Although Rajeswara Rao composed the soundtrack for both versions, he was assisted by Bal Krishna Kalla in the Hindi version. Parthasarathy and Vaidyanathan composed background music for the Hindi version, without Das Gupta.

There also were differences between the casts. Rajakumari, Radha and Ranjan reprised their roles in the Hindi version, but their characters were renamed (except for Rajakumari's character, Chandralekha). Radha's character Veerasimhan was known as Veer Singh in the Hindi version, and Ranjan's character Sasankan was renamed Shashank. Of the other cast members, N. S. Krishnan, T. A. Mathuram, T. E. Krishnamachariar, Pottai Krishnamoorthy, and N. Seetharaman were in the Tamil version only. Yashodhara Katju and H. K. Chopra were in the Hindi version only. Nearly the entire cast was credited in the Tamil version, but only six people (Rajakumari, Radha, Ranjan, Sundari Bai, Katju and L. Narayana Rao) were credited in the Hindi version. The opening titles of both versions featured a line reading "100 Gemini Boys & 500 Gemini Girls".

Legacy

Sixty years ago the biggest box office hit of Tamil cinema was released. When made by the same studio in Hindi, it was so great a success that it opened up the theatres of the North to films made in the South. This is the story of the making of that film, Chandralekha.

— Randor Guy, on Chandralekha

With the success of Chandralekha, Vasan became known as one of the best directors in Indian cinema. He was also a member of the Rajya Sabha for one term. Randor Guy later dubbed Vasan the "Cecil B. DeMille of Tamil cinema". Vasan also is believed to have inspired producer A. V. Meiyappan, who later became a "master at publicity". Gemini Studios published a book, Campaign, describing the making of Chandralekha. Although the costliest Tamil film at that time, its box-office success opened the market for Tamil films across South India. Chandralekha demonstrated that cost should not be a constraint if a film was made and marketed well. If a film was entertaining, it would be commercially successful. The publicity campaign for Chandralekha created such an impact that film producers in Bombay (now Mumbai) passed a resolution that there should be a limit imposed on advertisements for any film in periodicals.

The film enhanced Rajakumari's and Ranjan's careers; both became popular throughout India after Chandralekha's release. The film's climactic sword-fight scene was well received, and is considered the longest sword fight in cinematic history. The fight scene is often incorrectly believed to have been influenced by Scaramouche (with the longest sword fight in Hollywood history, at seven minutes), as Chandralekha was made before Scaramouche, which was released in 1952. The drum-dance sequence was considered the film's highlight, and later producers tried to emulate it without success. The film was also a major influence on Kamalakara Kameswara Rao's 1953 Telugu film Chandraharam, featuring N. T. Rama Rao. Chandralekha was K. Ramnoth's last film for Gemini Studios. Although he is often credited with shooting the drum-dance sequence, he left Gemini in August 1947, before the sequence was conceived. In a 2011 interview with Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), South Indian-Bollywood actress Vyjayanthimala admitted that, although people consider her to have "paved the way" for other South Indian actresses in Hindi cinema, "the person who really opened the doors was S.S. Vasan". She said, "When it [Chandralekha] released, it took the north by storm because by then they haven't seen that kind of lavish sets, costumes and splendour. So Vasan was the person who opened the door for Hindi films in the south". In April 2012, Rediff included the film in its list "The A to Z of Tamil Cinema" and said, "The film boasted an ensemble cast, great production values and a story that ensured it became a blockbuster all over India, the first of its kind."

In his interview with The Hindu, director J. Mahendran said, "If anybody tries to remake this black and white film, they will make a mockery of it". Director Singeetham Srinivasa Rao told film critic Baradwaj Rangan that he disliked Chandralekha when he first saw it, realising that it was a classic only after 25 years, "a fact that the audiences realised in just two minutes." G. Dhananjayan told The Times of India, "When you talk of black and white films, you cannot resist mentioning the 1948 epic Chandralekha, directed and produced by movie moghul S. S. Vasan". In December 2008, S. Muthiah said, "Given how spectacular it was—and the appreciation lavished on it from 1948 till well into the 1950s, which is when I caught up with it—I'm sure that if re-released, it would do better at the box office then most Tamil films today". Film historian Firoze Rangoonwalla ranked the Hindi version at number 8 in his list of "the top twenty films of Indian cinema". On 26 August 2004, a postage stamp was released featuring Vasan and the drum dance to commemorate the 35th anniversary of his death. Chandralekha was screened at the 10th Chennai International Film Festival in December 2012, celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema. To celebrate the same, it was also screened at the Centenary Film Festival organised jointly by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the National Film Archive of India, in April 2013. In 2014, Chandralekha was one of eight Indian films screened at the 28th edition of the Italian film festival Il Cinema Ritrovato, as a part of "The Golden 50s: India's Endangered Classics", the first Indian cinema retrospective at the festival.

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Banerjee, Shampa; Srivastava, Anil (1988). One Hundred Indian Feature Films: An Annotated Filmography. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-84098-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dhananjayan, G. (2011). The Best of Tamil Cinema, 1931 to 2010: 1931–1976. Galatta Media. ISBN 978-81-921043-0-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Raghavendra, M. K. (2009). 50 Indian Film Classics. HarperCollins Publishers Limited. ISBN 978-81-7223-866-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Baskaran, S. Theodore (1996). The eye of the serpent: an introduction to Tamil cinema. East West Books. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Guy, Randor (1997). Starlight, Starbright: The Early Tamil Cinema. Amra Publishers. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Dwyer, Rachel; Patel, Divia (2002). Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film. Reaktion Books. ISBN 019 566347 0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Garga, B. D. (2005). Art Of Cinema. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-0-670-05853-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vijayakar, Rajiv (2009). The History of Indian Film Music: A Showcase of the Very Best in Hindi Cinema. Bennett, Coleman & Company. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Thoraval, Yves (2000). The cinemas of India. Macmillan India. ISBN 0333 93410 5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (1999). Encyclopaedia of Indian cinema. British Film Institute. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Chandralekha at IMDb
• Chandra (English version) at IMDb
• Chandralekha at Upperstall.com
• Chandralekha at Bollywood Hungama