Karnan (1964 film)

Not to be confused with the 1995 film Karnaa.

Karnan
Black and white poster showing Karna (Sivaji), Krishna (NTR), Bhanumati (Savitri), Subhangi (Devika) and Kunti (MV Rajamma) Theatrical release poster
Directed by	B. R. Panthulu
Screenplay by	A. S. Nagarajan
Produced by	B. R. Panthulu
Starring	Sivaji Ganesan N. T. Rama Rao Savitri Devika M. V. Rajamma S. A. Ashokan R. Muthuraman
Cinematography	V. Ramamurthy
Edited by	R. Devarajan
Music by	Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy
Production company	Padmini Pictures
Release date	14 January 1964 (1964-01-14)
Running time	177-180 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Karnan () is a 1964 Indian Tamil-language historical drama film produced and directed by B. R. Panthulu. It features Sivaji Ganesan leading an ensemble cast consisting of N. T. Rama Rao, S. A. Ashokan, R. Muthuraman, Devika, Savitri and M. V. Rajamma. The film is based on the story of Karna, a character from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. He is born to an unmarried mother Kunti who abandons him in the Ganges to avoid embarrassment. The child is discovered and adopted by a charioteer. Karnan does not want to follow his foster father's profession, and instead, becomes a warrior. He then befriends Duryodhana, the Kaurava prince, eventually setting the initial grounds of the Kurukshetra War, where he will join Duryodhana to fight against his own half-brothers, the Pandavas.

Karnan, which was officially launched in 1963, was shot in palaces at Jaipur and the war sequences were filmed in Kurukshetra, which featured several soldiers from the Indian Army. The film's original soundtrack was composed by M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy, while the lyrics were written by Kannadasan. The dialogues were written by Sakthi T. K. Krishnasamy, and the screenplay by A. S. Nagarajan. Karnan was considered a milestone in Tamil cinema as it brought together the then leading actors of South Indian cinema, Ganesan and Rama Rao.

Karnan was released on 14 January 1964, during the festival occasion of Thai Pongal. The film ran for over 100 days in theatres, and later won the Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film at the 11th National Film Awards. A digitised version of Karnan was released in March 2012 to critical and commercial success, eventually establishing a trend of re-releasing digitised versions of old films in Tamil cinema.

Plot

The unmarried princess Kunti is seen taking away a small coffin with a baby boy; she earlier got a boon from Durvasa for her pious service to him. Kunti could invoke a mantra and be blessed with a child from any male god of her choice. When she tested it playfully, she was blessed by the Sun with the baby, which she abandons in the Ganges to avoid embarrassment. The baby is rescued and adopted by royal charioteer Athirathan and is named Karnan. Years later, Karnan realises that Athirathan is only his adoptive father and feels heartbroken. Not wanting to become a charioteer like Athirathan, he instead chooses to become a warrior. He travels to another kingdom and trains there. Four years later, having mastered archery, he returns home. At the same time, the royal exhibition is held to portray the valour of royal princes, who have just completed education from Drona. Once there, Karnan challenges the Pandava prince Arjuna in an archery contest, as everyone there hails Arjuna as the best archer ever. Karnan is insulted and refused a chance because of his lowly birth, but the Kaurava crown prince and cousin of the Pandavas, Duryodhana, saves his pride, and crowns Karnan as the king of Anga. Karnan thus becomes the close friend of Duryodhana and his wife Bhanumati.

One day, Indra, disguised as a Brahmin, approaches Karnan and asks for his armour and earrings in donation to weaken and stop him from overpowering Arjuna. Aware of Indra's intention, Karnan yet donates both the items he was born with and which would make him invincible. Pleased with Karnan's generosity, Indra gives him a powerful weapon, Nagastra, but states that he can use it only once. Disguised as a Brahmin, Karnan becomes the student of Parasurama to acquire the Brahmastra; Parasurama eventually realises that Karnan is a Kshatriya, a tribe he opposes. Enraged, he renders Karnan incapable of using the Brahmastra when most needed, and banishes him.

Karnan later saves princess Subhangi from an uncontrolled chariot; they fall in love and eventually marry. A few years later, Krishna, a supporter of the Pandavas, learns about Karnan's true background. He tells Kunti that Karnan is her first-born son. Karnan also learns about his birth later. Kunti meets Karnan and gets two wishes from him, one that he will not attack any of her sons (the Pandavas) except Arjuna during the impending Kurukshetra War, and that he will attack Arjuna with the Nagastra weapon only once. Karnan refuses to join the Pandavas and remains the friend of their enemy Duryodhana.

Before the war begins, Duryodhana's ministry assembles to appoint the generals of the army. Bhishma is appointed the Commander and he starts nominating generals for different battalions. Karnan is insulted because of his lowly birth and given the command of a low rank infantry. The war begins and in the early days, Bhishma retires and Karnan replaces him. The following day, Karnan goes to war accompanied by his son Vrishasena who fights bravely, but is killed by Arjuna afterwards.

The next day, Karnan uses the Nagastra to try killing Arjuna, but Krishna saves Arjuna by preventing the arrow from hurting him. Since Karnan cannot use the Nagastra more than once, he is unable to kill Arjuna. A wheel of his chariot gets stuck in a hole, and he steps down to relieve it. Under Krishna's direction, Arjuna shoots many arrows at Karnan that severely wound him. Krishna tells Arjuna that the Dharma that Karnan performed during his lifetime was protecting his life. Krishna disguises as a Brahmin, goes to Karnan and asks him his virtues as donation. Out of generosity, Karnan donates all his virtues to the "Brahmin". Arjuna then shoots a few more arrows at Karnan that kill him. The Pandavas, who realise that Karnan was their eldest brother mourn his death. Kunti does the same, while Subhangi dies due to the trauma of her husband's death in the war. Arjuna remorses killing Karnan, until Krishna reveals that the curses by Indra and Parasurama were also responsible for his death. The film ends with Karnan meeting his father — the Sun — in the afterlife.

Cast

Main cast

• Sivaji Ganesan as Karnan
• N. T. Rama Rao as Krishna
• Savithri as Bhanumati
• Devika as Subhangi
• M. V. Rajamma as Kunti
• S. A. Ashokan as Duryodhana
• R. Muthuraman as Arjuna

Supporting cast

• Master Sridhar as Meghanathan
• V. S. Raghavan as Vidhuran
• Shanmugasundaram as Salliya Chakravarthy
• O. A. K. Thevar as Kanagan
• Javar Seetharaman as Bhishma
• T. S. Muthaiah as Sakuni
• K. Natarajan as Athirathan
• M. K. Mustafa as Kripacharya
• R. Balasubramaniam as Parasurama
• A. Veerasamy as Dronacharya
• S. V. Ramadoss as Indra
• S. A. G. Samy as Dhritarashtra
• Kannan as Sanjayan
• Prem Kumar as Dharmar
• Thangaraj as Nagulan
• Chinnaya as Sahadevan
• K. V. Srinivasan as Munivar
• Master Suresh as Vrishasena
  • Master Babu as Young Vrishasena
• Prabhakar Reddy as the Sun god
• Sobhan Babu as the Moon god
• Stunt Somu as Ghatotkatch
• Sandhya as Kanagan's wife
• Kumari Rukmini as Radha
• Jayanthi as Draupadi
• K. V. Saroja as Young Kunti

Production

Development

Karnan was the first film to be shot at the Bangalore Palace.

Karnan is based on the life of the character Karna from the Hindu epic Mahabharata, and was officially launched in 1963 at Vijaya Studios in Chennai. B. R. Panthulu, who directed and produced the film under the banner Padmini Pictures, had collected most of his information from scholars Kripananda Variar and Anantarama Dikshitar.

The film's art director was Ganga, and the cinematographer was V. Ramamurthy. Sakthi T. K. Krishnasamy wrote the dialogues, and A. S. Nagarajan wrote the screenplay. R. Devarajan was the editor.

Casting

Sivaji Ganesan was cast in the title role, Telugu actor N. T. Rama Rao as Krishna, and R. Muthuraman as Arjuna. Actresses Devika and Savitri were cast in the female lead roles, and S. A. Ashokan as Karna's friend Duryodhana.

The role of Karna's mother was portrayed by M. V. Rajamma, and actress Sandhya played Karna's mother-in-law. Other supporting cast members included actor Shanmugasundaram as the charioteer Salliya Chakravarthy, V. S. Raghavan as Vidhuran, actresses Kalpana and Jayanthi, and the then six-year-old Master Sridhar as Meghanathan, an orphan who meets Karnan after being accused of setting fire to a school. Sridhar finished his long scene in one take, and was paid ₹1000 (valued at about US$210 in 1964) for the performance. Actor K. V. Srinivasan played a minor role as the sage who christens the lead character as Karnan. He also dubbed for the voice of Rama Rao, after Ganesan's insistence with Panthulu.

Filming

Karnan was filmed with an estimated budget of ₹4 million (valued at about US$840 000.84 in 1964). The high cost of the film was attributed to the transportation costs incurred to move chariots from Chennai to Kurukshetra, where the war sequences were filmed. Permission from the government was sought, cavalry and infantry from the Indian Army were brought to the locations at Kurukshetra and the first rows of the charging armies on horses and elephants had soldiers from the Indian Army. The battle scenes were shot with troupes of the 61 Cavalry Regiment, using 80 elephants, 400 horses and three cameras. Other scenes were shot at palaces in Jaipur. Shooting for Karnan also took place at the Bangalore Palace in the Cantonment area, making it the first film to be shot there.

In 2012, Panthulu's son Ravishankar revealed that a few shots involving Ganesan and Rama Rao took as many as four days to shoot, because of the large number of personnel involved. After the release of Karnan, all the chariots specially made for the war sequences in Kurukshetra, were donated to the Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur.

Soundtrack

Karnan
Soundtrack album to Karnan by Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Language	Tamil
Label	Saregama
Producer	M. S. Viswanathan T. K. Ramamoorthy

Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy (a duo consisting of M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy) composed the music of Karnan, while the lyrics were written by Kannadasan. The soundtrack was released under the label of Saregama. Notable instruments used for recording the songs include Sarangi, Santoor, Shehnai, Dilruba and other such instruments that were rarely used in Tamil films. "Ullathil Nalla Ullam" and "Aayiram Karangal" were the only songs in the film that were written first and tuned later; for the other songs, Kannadasan came up with lines to fit the tune. He completed all the lyrics for the songs in two days. The entire soundtrack was completed in a span of three days. The songs "En Uyir Thozhi", "Maharajan", "Kangal Engey", "Iravum Nilavum" and "Ullathil Nalla Ullam" are based on the Hamir Kalyani, Kharaharapriya, Suddha Dhanyasi, Hamsanadam and Chakravakam ragas respectively, while "Poi Vaa Magale" is set in the Anandabhairavi raga.

The soundtrack was very successful, with the critic Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu stating that "Musically, Karnan is of a calibre that few have surpassed" and that the "Panthulu-Mellisai Mannar [M. S. Viswanathan] combo resulted in songs that will live on forever". Critic Baradwaj Rangan said, "My interest in Karnan (apart from the critic's mandate that I see everything) was primarily the songs", and noted that Sirkazhi Govindarajan's "liquid diction and brass-throated conviction makes today's male singers sound like tentative little boys in a parent's day recital". Meera Srinivasan, another critic from The Hindu praised the film for the "music score and songs by the inimitable Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy duo with Kannadasan's striking lyrics". Malathi Rangarajan said, "The illustrious composing duo of Viswanathan and Ramamurthy has worked magic with music". M. Suganth of The Times of India stated "The songs are one too many (but what songs they are!)". K. N. Vijayan of The New Straits Times said, "Instead of trooping out, the audience sat through the 14 songs composed by the Viswanathan-Ramamoorty pair. They are that famous and many can sing along to the lyrics as the songs have been heard countless times on the radio". Writing for The Hindu, C. V. Vasudevan wrote that Karnan "stood out for its brilliant orchestration by Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy and Kannadasan’s lyrical beauty."

Track list

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"En Uyir Thozhi"	P. Susheela	3:45
2.	"Iravum Nilavum"	T. M. Sounderarajan, P. Susheela	3:47
3.	"Kangal Engey"	P. Susheela	4:53
4.	"Kannuku Kulam Yedu"	P. Susheela	4:09
5.	"Maharajan"	T. M. Sounderarajan, P. Susheela	3:22
6.	"Mazhai Kodukkum"	Trichy Loganathan	6:56
7.	"Manjal Mugam"	P. Susheela	4:24
8.	"Maranathai Eni"	Seerkazhi Govindarajan	3:04
9.	"Poi Vaa Magale"	Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi	3:44
10.	"Ullathil Nalla Ullam"	Seerkazhi Govindarajan	3:51
11.	"Naanichivandhana"	Thiruchi Loganathan	1:15
12.	"Parithraannaaya"	Seerkazhi Govindarajan	0:42
13.	"Aayiram Karangal Neeti"	T. M. Sounderarajan, Seerkazhi Govindarajan, Thiruchi Loganathan, P. B. Srinivas	1:27
14.	"Ennakoduppan"	P. B. Srinivas	1:31
15.	"Malargal Sutti"	P. Susheela	1:19
16.	"Mannavar Porulkalai"	T. M. Sounderarajan	2:47
17.	"Nilavum Malarum"	T. M. Sounderarajan, P. Susheela	3:43

Release

Karnan, which was released in 38 screens, was the most expected film during the festival occasion of Pongal on 14 January 1964, and Shanti Theatre in Chennai, which released the film, had a 60 feet (18 m) tall banner of a chariot to attract the audience. Ganesan promoted the film by distributing sakkarai pongal (sweetened rice) to those who came to Shanti to attend the first screening. The film was dubbed in Telugu as Karna, and also in Hindi as Dhaan Veer Karna.

Box office

In its theatrical run, Karnan completed 100 days in four theatres, including Madurai Thangam (noted as the second largest theatre in Asia during 1964), and also completed 105 days at Ganesan's family-owned Shanthi theatre. In spite of a successful run after completing 80 days, the film was removed from twelve theatres to allow the release of Pachai Vilakku, another Sivaji Ganesan film. At Madurai Thangam, Karnan earned totally ₹186,805.62 after its 14-week run there. Despite the film running for over 100 days in theatres, critics like Baradwaj Rangan and M. Suganth state that the film was a box office failure during its release.

Critical reception

The critic from The Indian Express wrote on 17 January 1964, "Reproducing the incidents from the Mahabharatha, the film has all the aspects demanded by the subject", adding that Panthulu had not spared any effort to do justice to the theme, and was appreciative of Ganga's art direction and Ramamurthy's cinematography. The critic from Ananda Vikatan wrote that while the film's effort to improve the quality og Tamil cinema quality was praiseworthy, they could not see the dignity of the epic, only the dominance of the extravaganza. In a review dated 8 February 1964, T. M. Ramachandran of Sport and Pastime praised the film's extravaganza but added, "What fundamentally makes a film truly great is its absorbing presentation without a dull moment. This aspect seems to have been lost sight of by the makers." Film historian Firoze Rangoonwalla, in his 1975 book 75 years of Indian cinema, called the film a "spectacular mythological". At the 11th National Film Awards in 1964, the film won the Certificate of Merit for the Third Best Feature Film.

Home media

Karnan was released on DVD by Raj Video Vision. A "5.1 Channel EDS Sound" enhanced version was also released by the same company, featuring English subtitles. Karnan is also included alongside various Sivaji Ganesan-starrers in the compilation DVD 8 Ulaga Adhisayam Sivaji, which was released in May 2012.

Legacy

Karnan was considered a milestone in Tamil cinema as it brought together the then leading actors of South Indian cinema, Sivaji Ganesan and N. T. Rama Rao. Along with Ganesan's later film Thiruvilaiyadal (1965), it was responsible for a resurgence in mythological and devotional cinema, since it was released at a time when Tamil cinema primarily made social films. Actor Y. G. Mahendra said, "Karnan can never be remade. Nobody can replace any of the actors of the 1964 classic, and it would amount to mockery if it is done." Actor Rana Daggubati, in an interview with Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu, said that Ganesan's performances as Kattabomman and Karna served as inspirations for his role in Baahubali: The Beginning (2015).

Re-release

Karnan made a huge impact on me during my childhood. With the help of technology, I wanted to bring the film back to the big screens to give audiences a taste of the movie's grandeur and valuable message ... Most of our films have become so damaged that we will never be able to see them on the big screen. A classic example is Thillana Mohanambal, whose prints have been totally damaged. I'm happy that I was able to save Karnan which I'm sure will last for 100 more years after this restoration.

 — Shanthi Chokkalingam, in an interview with The Times of India

A digitally restored version of Karnan was released on 16 March 2012, to commemorate the birth centenary of Panthulu. It is the first Tamil film to be fully digitally restored, costing ₹4 million (US$48,000) and consuming an effort of three years. The effort was undertaken by film distributor Shanthi Chokkalingam, who stated, "The sound negative was totally gone and the five to six reels from the picture negative were damaged to a great extent". The digital restoration of Karnan took place at Sangeetha Sound Studios in Chennai, after a failed attempt with the Mumbai-based Famous Studios, who earlier restored the 1960 Hindi film Mughal-e-Azam. Visual improvements and audio restoration were excessively worked upon, with Shanthi stating that the "biggest challenge was to restore the background score". DVDs were also used to get the sound and music in its original form. To create awareness about the restoration of Karnan, a teaser trailer was launched on 21 February 2012, which received a positive response.

The restored version of Karnan which utilised DTS 5.1 surround sound, was released in 72 screens across Tamil Nadu, and was released by Shanthi's Divya Films. It was well received upon release, although M. Suganth called the restoration process "far from perfect", and Baradwaj Rangan wrote, "The print occasionally judders, leaving the impression of watching the movie on a screen mounted behind the driver's seat in an auto rickshaw". Taking a big opening, the film collected roughly ₹20 million (US$240,000) in Chennai within the first few weeks, and was later reported to have collected a total of ₹50 million (US$600,000). It had a theatrical run of over 100 days, and having surpassed what it originally managed to collect in its entire 105-day run at Shanthi theatre, the film was officially declared a commercial success. Its success soon established a trend of digitising and re-releasing films in Tamil cinema.

Bibliography

• Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul, eds. (1998) [1994]. Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (PDF). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-563579-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Karnan at IMDb
• Karnan at Rotten Tomatoes