Monday, November 26, 2007

Ellis R. Dungan's Manthirikumari

True to his name, it was a perfect hollywood type of movie. He was the one who introduced Puratchi Thalaivar in Sathi Leelavathi in 1936. Manthirikumari was not only a box-office hit but also created Tamil film history. It was based on the Tamil classic Kundalakesi. MGR, M. N. Nambiar, Madhuri Devi, G. Sakunthala and S. A. Natarajan were in the prime roles. The dialogues were written by Karunanidhi. S.A. Natarajan, a tamil theatre import by then, stole the show with his scintillating performance as the king’s guru’s son and a bandit by night. Music was a huge plus. “Vaaraai…..nee…Vaaraai”, sung by Tiruchi Loganathan and Jikki became an immortal number. G. Ramanathan was the composer. Yercaud Hills was the spot for the latter half. It might be a huge tourist destination now. But those times of 1949-1950, it was all mountain, jungle, rocks and shrubs. So trekking was done and immense risks were undertaken. Ellis R. Dungan, the director, used three cameras (rare in those days) to shoot this song. But all his hard work helped him reap rich dividends, when the movie and the song became super hit. When the film was in the post-production stage, problems arose in Dungan’s personal life, which forced him to leave India to the United States. T. R. Sundaram, the then Modern Theaters' boss took over the film and completed it. But there is another story to this film i read somewhere. Don't know which is true. Dungan wanted, “Vaaraai…..nee…Vaaraai” in the film, which T.R. Sundaram initially refused, saying it would not be accepted by the masses. After some argument, Dungan threw a challenge. He proposed to screen in Madras alone and see the reaction of the public. Should there be good response, the song would be retained permanently in every other copy. Should there be bad response, the particular song scene would be cut off completely from all the copies. The challenge was taken up by T.R. Sundaram. As agreed the song scene was screened in Madras, and the cinema goers gave tremendous support not only to the melody, but also to the hidden meaning in the lyrics and the way Natarajan acted. Dungan won and am not sure when Duncan went to the United States. Anyways, even after 60 years, the interest in the film hasn't gone down one bit. Truly a cult classic.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I heard that Mr. Dungan went back to the U.S. around 1950.

Wedgeone said...

After some years in Hollywood and television Ellis returned to Wheeling, WV, USA and started his own company producing documentaries and industrial films. I had the honor of working for him in the early 1980's as a camera assistant and editor. Ellis died in 2001.