Andha Naal

This article is about the 1954 film. For the 1996 film, see Andha Naal (1996 film).

Andha Naal
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sundaram Balachander
Written by	Javar Seetharaman (screenplay and dialogue)
Story by	Sundaram Balachander
Produced by	A. V. Meiyappan
Starring	Sivaji Ganesan Pandari Bai Javar Seetharaman
Cinematography	Maruthi Rao
Edited by	S. Surya
Music by	Saraswathy Stores Orchestra
Production company	AVM Productions
Release date	13 April 1954 (13 April 1954)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Andha Naal ([That Day] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is a 1954 Indian Tamil-language mystery-thriller film produced by A. V. Meiyappan and directed by Sundaram Balachander. It is the first film noir in Tamil cinema, and the first Tamil film to be made without songs, dance and stunt scenes. The story, which is set in the milieu of World War II, is about the murder of a radio engineer Rajan (Sivaji Ganesan). The suspects are Rajan's wife Usha (Pandari Bai), the neighbour Chinnaiah Pillai (P. D. Sambandam), Rajan's brother Pattabi (T. K. Balachandran), Rajan's sister-in-law Hema (Menaka), and Rajan's mistress Ambujam (Suryakala). Each one's account of the incident points to a new suspect.

Before the casting of Ganesan, S. V. Sahasranamam and N. Viswanathan were chosen for the lead role but were later dismissed because they were unconvincing to the filmmakers. The story and dialogue were written by Javar Seetharaman, who also played a prominent role as an investigation officer in the film. Cinematography was handled by Maruti Rao and the background score was composed by AVM Productions' own music troupe, "Saraswathy Stores Orchestra". The film's length of 12,500 feet (3,800 m) was shorter than most contemporaneous Tamil films.

Andha Naal was released on 13 April 1954. It was critically acclaimed and was awarded the "Best Film Award" by the Madras Filmfans' Association and a Certificate of Merit for Second Best Feature Film in Tamil at the 2nd National Film Awards in 1955. Despite being a commercial failure during its release, the film has acquired a cult status over the years and is regarded as a milestone in Tamil cinema. In 2013, Andha Naal was included in CNN-News18's list of the "100 greatest Indian films of all time".

Plot

On the night of 11 October 1943, the Japanese bomb the Indian city of Madras (now Chennai). The next morning in Triplicane, Rajan, a radio engineer and communications researcher, is found murdered with his own hand gun. His neighbour Chinnaiah Pillai hears the gunshot and makes a complaint to the police. Purushothaman Naidu, a local police inspector, arrives at Rajan's house and starts investigating the murder. In the meantime, Crime Investigation Department (C.I.D.) officer Sivanandam joins Naidu to help the investigation. Naidu suggests that the killer could be a thief who must have killed Rajan for the money found at the crime scene. However, Sivanandam is unconvinced with Naidu's idea because the sum of money present matches the withdrawal entry in the bank passbook found in the same room. Rajan was about leave Madras in anticipation of the bombings.

The two policemen question five people in and around Rajan's house, most of whom are family members or friends of Rajan. The first person to be questioned is Rajan's wife Usha, who is unable to speak due to grief. Sivanandam and Naidu feel embarrassed and are reluctant to question her further. They begin interrogating Pillai, who reported the murder. Pillai proposes that the killer is probably Pattabi, Rajan's younger brother, and recalls a confrontation between Pattabi and Rajan. Pattabi asked for his share of the family property to be apportioned and given to him. Rajan refused to give Pattabi his share, feeling that he and his wife would squander it. Pillai concludes that this may have prompted Pattabi to kill Rajan.

Sivanandam and Naidu decide to interrogate Pattabi, who feels remorse for Rajan's death and states that he did not treat his brother well and failed to understand his good intentions. He recounts an incident in which his wife Hema had fought with Rajan for not apportioning the property. Pattabi states that Hema could have killed Rajan for the money as she loses sanity when overpowered by anger. Sivanandam briefly leaves Naidu to interrogate Hema. She is initially impudent and refuses to give a statement about the crime, but she later yields when threatened that her husband will be arrested. She reveals Rajan's extramarital affair with a dancer named Ambujam, who is pregnant with Rajan's child. As Rajan treated the news with a reckless attitude, Hema proposes that Ambujam could have killed Rajan. When questioned, Ambujam accuses Pillai of the murder, saying that he was her foster father who wanted her to stay away from Rajan, after the three met during a picnic. As their relationship continued, Pillai became infuriated and wanted to end the affair.

Sivanandam inquires Usha, who tells him how she and Rajan fell in love. Sivanandam tricks Usha using a leaky fountain pen to collect her fingerprints. That evening, Sivanandam meets all the suspects along with Naidu at Rajan's house and carries out an exercise in which the suspects—including Usha—must shoot Sivanandam as though he is Rajan using revolvers loaded with fake bullets. All the suspects shoot, but Usha bursts into tears and fails to shoot. Sivanandam then orders an apparent arrest of Pattabi and Hema. Unable to bear the torture, Usha reveals the truth: Rajan was a radio engineer who wanted to sell radios to the poor at an affordable price. Unable to get any support from the government, he went to Japan where his work was appreciated. He became a spy working for Japan, selling India's military secrets to the Japanese. Usha learnt about this and tried to reform him. But, Rajan does not mind betraying India. Usha could not stop Rajan and tries to shoot him. She changes her decision but pulls the trigger accidentally, killing Rajan. After revealing the truth, Usha commits suicide.

Cast

• Sivaji Ganesan as Rajan, a renegade radio engineer
• Pandari Bai as Usha, Rajan's wife
• Javar Seetharaman as C.I.D. Officer Sivanandam
• P. D. Sambandam as Chinniah Pillai
• T. K. Balachandran as Pattabi, Rajan's younger brother
• Menaka as Hema, Rajan's sister-in-law
• Suryakala as Ambujam, Rajan's mistress

Production

Sundaram Balachander, a "multi-faceted" film personality entered films as an actor in 1934 and apprenticed under director Krishna Gopal for the film Idhu Nijama (1948), a supernatural thriller. Following the success of Idhu Nijama, Balachander directed En Kanavar (1948) and Kaithi (1951), both made on similar themes. After acting in a few more films, he decided to make a film based on his own story. Balachander wrote a play in in the narrative style of Akira Kurosawa's Japanese film Rashomon (1950), and showed it to Koothapiran of All India Radio, who rejected it. Balachander then approached AVM Productions founder A. V. Meiyappan and told him the story; the latter agreed to adapt the story into a film. When Balachander told Meiyappan that he wanted no scenes featuring songs or stunts, the latter was opposed; he wanted to include at least one song. However, Balachander responded by saying that even a solitary song in the film would "ruin the tempo". Meiyappan eventually agreed to finance the film because he liked the story. Andha Naal thus became the first Tamil film that did not have any songs, and remained AVM Productions' only film directed by Balachander.

The lead role of Rajan the radio engineer was initially offered to S. V. Sahasranamam, who was removed after some days of shooting because Balachander and Meiyappan were not satisfied with his performance and felt he looked "too old" to play the role. The filmmakers then engaged newcomer N. Viswanathan, a Tamil professor from Calcutta. After some footage featuring him was shot, the makers were again unconvinced with Viswanathan's work; they dismissed him and replaced him with Ganesan. Meiyappan had introduced Ganesan in Parasakthi (1952), and was very keen to have him play the lead role. Balachander was initially hesitant to approach Ganesan because he was unsure whether the latter would accept a negative role. In his autobiography, Ganesan stated that the film was almost completed before he was approached. He agreed to be a part of the film because he found the story interesting and thought portraying a variety of characters would interest the audience. Andha Naal was one of the earliest films in which Ganesan portrays an antihero. The screenplay and dialogue were written by Seetharaman, who also appeared in the film as a C.I.D. officer. Pandari Bai was selected to play Rajan's wife. Malayalam actor T. K. Balachandran, actresses Suryakala and Menaka, and P. D. Sambandam formed the rest of the cast.

Muktha Srinivasan, who would later become one of Tamil cinema's established directors, assisted Balachander with this film. Cinematography was handled by Maruthi Rao, and the editor was S. Surya. The background score was performed by Saraswathy Stores Orchestra, AVM Productions' music troupe. The photography of the film was markedly different from most earlier films in Tamil cinema. Rao used the "painting with light" technique, which captures the shadow of the actors to reflect their "mood and character". The entire film was shot in 17 days. The film's final cut was less than 12,500 feet (3,800 m)—shorter than most contemporaneous Tamil films.

Themes and influences

Regarded as the first film noir in Tamil cinema, Andha Naal is set in the milieu of South-East Asian theatre of World War II where the Japanese bombed the Indian city of Madras in 1943. Residents of the city moved to nearby hill stations to protect themselves from further bombings and invasions. Though various sources, including Ganesan, have stated that the film was inspired by Rashomon, film historian Randor Guy notes that this notion is erroneous, that Andha Naal was actually adapted from the 1950 British film The Woman in Question directed by Anthony Asquith, and that there was only a "thematic resemblance" between Andha Naal and Rashomon. According to Jason P. Vest, in his book Spike Lee: Finding the Story and Forcing the Issue, the three films follow a nonlinear narrative by presenting diverging accounts of the same incident. In his 2015 book Madras Studios, film historian Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai notes that Andha Naal has nothing to do with Rashomon except for its whodunit plot, where the murder is explored in various angles. He also notes that Andha Naal ends with the mystery being solved, unlike Rashomon. According to B. Vijayakumar of The Hindu, Andha Naal is "probably" the first spy film in South India.

The main theme of Andha Naal is patriotism. It tells how unemployment and desolation of youngsters will lead to them becoming traitors. If a country does not appreciate talented young men for their efforts, they could turn against the nation. The character Rajan turns into a traitor by selling military secrets to Japan because his ideas are rejected by the Indian government. Ganesan's role as a traitor who leaks India's military secrets through radio was influenced from T. S. Balaiah's character in the 1946 Tamil film Chitra. Pillai compared Pandari Bai's character in Andha Naal to her character in Parasakthi (1952) because in both films she is ideologically driven, but in the former, "it is the idea of the Indian nation that she pledges her allegiance to." The Times of India compared Andha Naal to Citizen Kane (1941) for its similar lighting and camera angles.

The film uses a Tamil saying "Kolaiyum Seival patthini" (a virtuous wife may even kill her own husband) as a clue to the identity of the culprit. The story of the blind men and an elephant is referenced in the narrative, when Sivanandam notes how each suspects' account of Rajan's death contradicts that of the others. Usha is depicted as a virtuous wife and a patriot who loves her country. When she discovers that her husband has betrayed India, she does not hesitate to kill him. The Directorate of Film Festivals describes Naidu as a conscientious officer, and Sivanandam as a "brilliant, eccentric but not so serious" man.

Release and reception

Andha Naal is for the higher classes of audience and they loved it. But it failed to elicit the interest of the average masses who just go to see a film with all the usual trappings. Yet it was a film that exceeded expectations in all respects.

—Producer Meiyappan, on the film's reception

Andha Naal was released on 13 April 1954 to critical acclaim, but did not succeed commercially because the audience were not impressed with a film without songs. The film was considered "revolutionary" for taking this move. In theatres, the viewers were disappointed after the first scene in which Ganesan is shot dead, and many even walked out. The theatre owners had to persuade them to watch the entire film. Its commercial failure led Meiyappan to avoid making any more films without song sequences. The film was later re-released after the announcement of the 2nd National Film Awards and became a box-office success. Moser Baer and AP International have released the film on home video.

Andha Naal won critical praise, in spite of its poor performance at the box-office. At the 2nd National Film Awards, the film won a Certificate of Merit for the Second Best Feature Film in Tamil, and a "Best Film" Award from the Madras Filmfans' Association in 1955. Contemporary critics lauded Meiyappan and Balachander for the experimental film. Ganesan's role as an antihero won critical acclaim; many critics said that Pandari Bai's role as his patriotic wife "overshadowed" Ganesan's performance. Many contemporary critics expected the film to be a "trendsetter" but it failed to inspire many thematically similar films in Tamil.

In a review dated 1 May 1954, the magazine Kumudam praised Meiyappan's courage in trusting the potential of "young talents like S. Balachandar and Javert Seetharaman who are redefining Tamil cinema". It noted that if AVM had publicised the film as a thriller, "the warning that there are no songs or dances in the film would not have been so terrifying". The magazine gave the verdict, "Success of art; failure of narrative". In the same month, a meeting was organised by the "Film Fans Association" in Madras to congratulate Meiyappan, Balachander, the actors and other crew members of the film. V. C. Gopalaratnam, the president of the association, said that Meiyappan "had displayed his pioneering spirit and zeal in producing a novel type of Tamil picture, without either songs or dances, relying for its success purely on the story and the portrayal of characters". The magazine Gundoosi encouraged fans to see Andha Naal if they "really want Tamil cinema to progress". In June 2008, The Times of India gave the film a rating of four out of five, stating that it had a "timeless feel both in terms of story telling and presentation." The reviewer praised the performances of Ganesan and Pandari Bai, and concluded, "Javar Seetharaman's brilliant screenplay coupled with S Balachander's subtle direction make this one of Tamil cinema's finest offering so far." Writing for Deccan Chronicle, Logesh Balachandran said, "[Pandari Bai's] role as a patriotic woman in Andha Naal... will always be memorable."

Legacy

Andha Naal is considered one of Sundaram Balachander's best works.

Andha Naal has been described by French film historian Yves Thoraval as a revolution in Tamil cinema for the absence of songs and dances. Though largely ignored during its release, it has since attained cult status in Tamil cinema, and in addition to becoming a trendsetter for Tamil films without songs, it set the benchmark in Tamil cinema for its noir-style lighting in some of its dramatic sequences. In 2001, journalist S. Muthiah called Andha Naal the "best film" produced by Meiyappan. He noted that it "proved that a song-and-danceless film could also be a hit." In July 2007, S. R. Ashok Kumar of The Hindu asked eight Tamil film directors to list their all-time favourite Tamil films; three of them—K. Balachander, Mani Ratnam and Ameer—named Andha Naal. Malaysian author Devika Bai, writing for New Straits Times, described Andha Naal as Balachander's magnum opus, and Balachander as "Tamil cinema’s Father of Film Noir".

The film is regarded by many critics as Balachander's best work. Encouraged by the film's critical success, Balachander went on to direct and act in several more films of the same genre—Avana Ivan (1962), Bommai (1964) and Nadu Iravil (1965). Andha Naal inspired several later whodunit films—including Puthiya Paravai (1964), Kalangarai Vilakkam (1965), Sigappu Rojakkal (1978), Moodu Pani (1980) and Pulan Visaranai (1990), and several songless Tamil films such as Unnaipol Oruvan (1965), Kudisai (1979), Veedu (1988) and Uchi Veyil (1990). Researcher and ethnographer Preeti Mudliar compared Ratha Kanneer (1954) to Andha Naal because in both films, "the sin of foreignness is [neutralised] by a chaste Tamil woman, the virtuous wife".

The film was screened in the "Tamil Retrospective Section" of the 14th International Film Festival of India in 1991. In 2008, Randor Guy praised Andha Naal for "being the first Tamil film which had no dance, song or stunt sequence and for Balachandar’s impressive direction and fine performances by Sivaji Ganesan and Pandari Bai". In March 2012, film historian Mohan V. Raman told The Times of India that Andha Naal, being the first film noir in Tamil cinema, was "among the significant black and white films of yore", along with Mayabazar (1957) and Uthama Puthiran (1940). In a 2013 interview with the Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan, Malayalam filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan listed Andha Naal as one of his earliest favourites in Tamil cinema. In April 2013, Andha Naal was included in CNN-News18's list of "100 greatest Indian films of all time". In mid-April 2014, the film was screened at the Russian Cultural Centre, Chennai, to mark its diamond jubilee anniversary.

Film Heritage Foundation announced in March 2015 that they would be restoring Andha Naal along with a few other Indian films from 1931 to 1965 as a part of their restoration projects carried out in India and abroad in accordance to international parameters. The foundation, however, stated that they would not colourise any of the films as they "believe in the original repair as the way the master or the creator had seen it." Filmmaker Shivendra Singh Dungarpur also believes that the film requires restoration on a "priority basis". A 30-minute play adaptation of the film was staged in April 2016 and was directed by Balachander's son Raman.

See also

• Rashomon effect

Bibliography

• Baskaran, Sundararaj Theodre (2013) [1996]. The Eye of the Serpent: An introduction to Tamil cinema (2nd ed.). Westland. ISBN 978-93-83260-74-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bayly, Christopher Alan; Harper, Timothy Norman (2005). Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941–1945. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-0-674-01748-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ganesan, Sivaji; Narayana Swamy, T.S. (2007). Autobiography of an Actor: Sivaji Ganesan, October 1928 – July 2001. Sivaji Prabhu Charities Trust. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Limca Book of Records. Bisleri Beverages Limited. 2006.
• Muthiah, S. (1989). Tales of Old and New Madras: The Dalliance of Miss Mansell and 34 Other Stories of 350 Years. Affiliated East-West Press. ISBN 81-85336-25-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pillai, Swarnavel Eswaran (2015). Madras Studios: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-93-5150-212-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Reddy, K. Krishna (2005). General Studies History 4 Upsc. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 0-07-060447-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sampath, Vikram (2012). Voice of the Veena, S. Balachander: A Biography. Rupa & Co. ISBN 978-81-291-1936-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Saravanan, M. (2013) [2005]. AVM 60 cinema (in Tamil) (3rd ed.). Rajarajan Pathippagam. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Vest, Jason P. (2014). Spike Lee: Finding the Story and Forcing the Issue. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-39226-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Thoraval, Yves (2000). The Cinemas of India. Macmillan India. ISBN 978-0-333-93410-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Andha Naal at IMDb
• Andha Naal at Upperstall.com