Chandralekha (1948)

Chandralekha (also spelt Chandraleka) is a 1948 Indian Tamil historical fiction film directed and produced by S. S. Vasan. Starring T. R. Rajakumari, M. K. Radha and Ranjan in the lead roles, the film follows two brothers named Veerasimhan and Sasankan, who fight with each other over ruling their father's kingdom and for marrying the village dancer Chandralekha.

The development of Chandralekha began in the early 1940s when, after two successive box office hits, Vasan announced that his next film would be titled Chandralekha. However, when he launched an advertising campaign for the film, he had only the name of the heroine from a storyline by Gemini Studios' story department he had rejected. Veppathur Kittoo, one of his storyboard artists, eventually developed a story based on a chapter of George W. M. Reynolds' novel Robert Macaire: or, The French bandit in England (1848), which impressed Vasan. The original director T. G. Raghavachari directed more than half of the film, then left the project because of disagreements with Vasan, who took over the film in his directorial debut.

Originally made in Tamil and later in Hindi, Chandralekha was in production for five years from 1943 to 1948.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. Vasan mortgaged all of his property and even sold his jewellery to complete the film. Cinematography was by Kamal Ghosh and K. Ramnoth. The music was largely inspired by both Indian and Western classical music; it was composed by S. Rajeswara Rao and 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, but was unable to recover its production costs. As a result, Vasan released the film in Hindi with some changes later the same year, and Chandralekha soon became a major box office success. South Indian cinema gained prominence throughout the country with the film's release. The film inspired South Indian film producers to market their Hindi films in North India. It was dubbed in English, Japanese, Danish and other foreign languages and was screened at Indian and international film festivals.

Synopsis

Veerasimhan (M. K. Radha) and Sasankan (Ranjan) are the sons of a king. While passing through a village on his horse, 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. This enrages the younger brother Sasankan; he forms a gang of thieves who embark on a crime spree. Chandralekha's father is injured in the ensuing chaos and dies soon after. Chandralekha, now orphaned, joins a band of travelling musicians, whose caravan is raided by Sasankan's men.

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