இப்படியும் ஒரு பெண் - பானுமதி நினைவலைகள்

Saravanan Natarajan writes :

“இவள் ஒரு கலைச்செல்வி .... பல கலைகளைப்  பயின்றவள்.... இசைக்கலையில் சிறந்தவள்.... இவளின் குரலினிமை வேறு யாருக்கும் கிடையாது’’

- Thinna (Nambiar) introducing Vani (Bhanumati) to his King (dialogue written by Ravinder for the movie ‘Kalai Arasi’)

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December 24 marks the anniversary of the demise of MGR. And in the accompanying hullaballo, it always goes unnoticed that the date also marks the demise of another icon - Bhanumati. Let us remember the legend and the doyenne by revising a unfairly forgotten movie in which they played the leading roles and listening to some of the songs from the album. Interestingly both of them had double roles in the movie.

Posting here today the chapter from my series on Bhanumati that I wrote way back in 2006- 2008.

Kalai Arasi (19.4.1963/Sarodi Brothers)

When the Hritik Roshan starrer ‘Koi Mil Gayaa’ was released in 2003, the media went overboard portraying the movie the first ever effort at science fiction in the history of Indian cinema. And as usual they failed to look beyond the Vindhyas when they made this outrageous claim- for Tamil cinema had explored this genre much earlier. Even if you discount the 1953 Indo-American venture ‘The Jungle/ Kaadu’ (Lippert Pictures & The Modern Theaters) as a mere forest frolic with just the climax verging on science- fiction, Tamil cinema had a first class science-fiction entertainer in ‘Kalai Arasi’ released 40 years before ‘Koii Mil Gayaa’.

‘The earth is the cradle of mankind - one cannot remain in the cradle forever’ declared Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Perhaps T.E. Gnanamoorthi M.A., B.O.L. was inspired by these words, for he wrote a story that was an engrossing blend of adventure and romance, with space travel as the amazing backdrop.

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The story goes like this. Mohan is a poor, but honest and hard-working farmer. Vani is the daughter of the rich landlord who lives in the city while their lands are under the supervision of her cousin and suitor, the wily Kannan. On a visit to the village with her friends, Vani meets Mohan; Mohan and Vani find themselves falling in love with each other gradually. Meanwhile a spacecraft is moving rapidly towards the earth. Inside are two alien creatures who resemble earthly humans. From their conversation we understand that they are traveling to the earth on a strange mission. Apparently their planet has made far-reaching strides in science, but is woefully backward in performing arts. Hence they are coming to the earth to identify and take back a talented artiste who could teach their denizens music and dance. As they near the earth, one of the aliens, Thinna, who is the commander-in-chief of their planet, switches on a monitor, and the screen shows music and dance performances in various parts of the earth. He seems to be dissatisfied with them all, until he comes across Vani singing. He is mesmerized with her performance and decides that she would best suit their purpose.

Returning home after a clandestine moonlight rendezvous with Mohan, Vani falls into the clutches of the aliens. Thinna drags her inside the spacecraft, while the other alien Malla elects to stay on in the earth for a while. Vani is shocked when she finds herself far away from the earth. The king of the alien planet assures her that she will return safely after she had taught them dance and music. Vani is defiant and furious. However, princess Rajini treats her kindly and Vani agrees to teach her. Meanwhile back in the earth Vani’s father blames Kannan for Vani’s disappearance. Kannan goes in search of Vani and comes across a mentally deranged girl called Valli who bears a startling resemblance to Vani. Assuming that she is Vani, he gets her kidnapped and brings her home. Saddened to see his daughter a lunatic, Vani’s father agrees for Kannan to get married to her, and thus Kannan marries the poor Valli, under the assumption that he is marrying the rich heiress Vani.

Mohan spies the alien Malla one night as Malla is getting ready to return to his planet. They have a brief skirmish and Malla dies. Thinna lands in his spacecraft just then to take Malla home. He sees Malla’s corpse and places it in an ante-chamber inside the craft. Watching all this, Mohan enters the craft quickly, and dragging Malla’s corpse out, he jumps into the ante-chamber. Thinna does not notice this and takes off from the earth. When he nearing his planet, he ejects what he assumes to be Malla’s corpse from his spacecraft, but it is actually Mohan who falls into the alien planet. By happenstance Mohan comes across a kind-hearted jester from another planet who is on the way to the palace. This jester takes Mohan to his house and feeds him. As they step outside, the jester is struck dead by a passing meteor. As luck would have it, the jester had resembled Mohan in facial features, and so Mohan takes his place and goes to the palace. There he meets Vani and manages to make her realize his true identity. They outwit the cunning Thinna and return to the earth. Meanwhile Kannan is caught strangling Valli and is arrested by the police. Mohan and Vani reach home. All is well that ends well.

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MGR played the double roles of Mohan and the jester, while Bhanumati essayed the roles of Vani and Valli. Rajashri acted as Princess Rajini who falls in love with the jester. P.S. Veerappa as Kannan and M.N. Nambiar as Thinna were well cast in their roles. Sachu, C.T. Rajakantham, S.R. Janaki, S.M. Thirupathisami and G. Sakuntala enacted the supporting roles. Ravinder wrote the dialogues for Gnanmoorthi’s story. Editing was by S. Natarajan, who also worked as assistant director. Art direction was by A.K. Ponnuswami. The special effects and cinematography were handled by J.G. Vijayam. The movie was directed by veteran A. Kasilingam.

Ponnuswami and Vijayam deserve special mention for the stunning visuals. The scenes depicting the spacecraft traveling through the Milky Way and the exteriors of the alien planet are truly spectacular. The interiors of the spacecraft are crafted with care, and show gadgets and blinking lights that seem exactly similar to the ones that we see in the Star Wars series, the first of which was released 14 years after ‘Kalai Arasi’! When we consider the limited technology available at the time, we can perceive how much research, imagination and painstaking work would have gone into crafting these sequences. Again, the extraterrestrials are shown with a peculiar gait, as they are not used to gravity. At the same time, the earthling MGR is shown floating on the alien planet in the absence of gravity. And in the end, when Bhanumati’s father expresses naïve incredulity on hearing MGR’s account of their space travel, MGR remarks, ‘ippO naanga pOyittu vandhadhu kaRpanaiyaa irukkalaam. oru kaalathil nadakkathaan pOgiRathu!’

If the visuals are spectacular, K.V. Mahadevan’s background score is no less noteworthy. The eerie soundtrack bolstered further by a harmony of chorus voices when the spaceship is shown hurling across the skies, adds sheen to the amazing visuals. KVM has given the movie a great set of songs as well. Working with Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram, Kannadasan, Alangudi Somu and Muthukoothan, KVM comes out with a stellar album. The movie opens with the endearing TMS solo ‘neelavaana pandhalin keezhE nilamadandhai madiyin mElE’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBxITIhbSzs

Seergazhi Govindarajan sings ‘adhisayam paarthEn maNNilE’. The song is in praise of the earth and in intelligent lines the prodigious Pattukkottai ponders on life in the alien planet thus, ‘ingE thangida nizhalumillai, pongida kadalumillai, satRu nEram kooda veyyil maRaivadhillai, nammai thazhuvida thendRal yEdhum varuvadhumillai!’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_AeOc1fhH8

The album boasts of a catchy Seergazhi Govindararajan- P. Suseela duet as well- ‘nee iruppadhu ingE, un ninaiviruppadhu engE’ for MGR and Rajashri.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1f2UDfrIqg

Then we have the lilting duet ‘kalaiyE un ezhil mEni’ written by Kannadasan and sung by Seergazhi Govindarajan & Bhanumati.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdgclvlKWGs

The last is the soulful ‘ninaikkum pOthu nenjum kaNNum’ written by Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram. Vani is flooded with memories of the happy moments that she had spent with Mohan. Now held captive in a planet far away from the earth, she sings of the ache of love… aNaiyai meeRum aasai veLLam aRivai meeRuthE, adhaiyum meeRi paruva kaalam thuNaiyai thEdudhE…. Bhanumati’s moving delineation captures the essence of this exquisite angst.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPrKzY-ghqs

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‘Kalai Arasi’ was unfortunately many years in the making. This is evident by the fact that Pattukkottai Kalyanasundaram was among the lyricists, and he had passed away way back in 1959. The surmise that the movie was commenced much earlier gains further credence when we observe that singers such as P.Leela, Jikki and Ratnamala, who had slipped into oblivion by the advent of the 60s, find place in the album. Also, by the early 60s, TMS was well-established as the singer for MGR and this album had Seergazhi Govindarajan rendering most of the songs. I recall Ravindar mentioning in an interview that Sarojadevi was booked initially for the role of Rajini and even a song sequence was filmed on her. However, when the project was resumed after many months, Sarojadevi had become a bysy artiste with no dates to spare and Rajashri stepped in. The making of the movie must have commenced in the late 50s. The reasons for the inordinate delay in proceeding with making the movie are not known. Legend has it that towards the end, MGR had become so busy with his schedules that the producers of ‘Kalaiarasi’ had to resort to a hunger strike at the gate of MGR’s office to persuade him to spare some dates to complete the movie.

Playing the title role, Bhanumati doles out a remarkable performance as usual. Be it the romantic sequences with MGR, where she has to hide herself in a heap of hay to escape from her prying friends, or when pretending to fall into a faint to make Veerappa believe that she is sick, the hilarious sequences wherein she appears as the deranged Valli, her bold and insolent repartees to the king and commander of the alien planet, her hushed and dignified portrayal of the pangs of separation from MGR, the gripping climax where she operates the spacecraft with cool nonchalance even as MGR and Nambiar are engaged in a deadly skirmish (other heroines would have been shown wringing their hands in despair in similar sequences!)… Bhanumati strides the frames like a colossus... and through this movie released in April 1963, she portrayed space travel even before the first woman astronaut Valentina Tereshkova actually did so a few months later in June 1963!

True, ‘Kalaiarasi’ was not a commercial success; it was perhaps doomed to fail, considering that the crux of the story, i.e. space travel was something that an average Tamil viewer could accept at the time. The movie and its songs are all but forgotten today. Nonetheless, it is really amazing that a story concerning human spaceflight was conceived and adapted for the screen in the late 50s, when only an unmanned Sputnik had been launched in 1957. Yuri Gargarin, the first human to travel into space, did so only in 1961! How eerily prescient of the little known Gnanamoorthi sitting in some corner of Madras to write a taut thriller involving space travel, and how intelligent of him to coat the concept with entertaining elements of romance, treachery, valour and sacrifice!

It is time Tamil cinema takes pride in the fact that it has in its annals a little-known flash of clairvoyant brilliance called ‘Kalai Arasi’.

Discussion :
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