Rajambal (1951 film)
Rajambal is a 1951 Indian, Tamil language film directed by R. M. Krishnaswamy. The film stars R. S. Manohar and P. K. Saraswathi. Plot The story is of a judicial officer who misuses his office to achieve his personal needs. Cast List adapted from the film's song book Male cast Manohar as Gopalan S. Balachander as Natesan K. Sarangapani as Detective Govindan B. R. Panthulu as Saminatha Sastri M. V. Mani as Lawyer Duraisami Iyengar (Friend) Ramasami as Ramanna T. N. Sivathanu as Neelamega Sastri Stunt Somu as Narasimhalu Naidu P. Sundar Rao as Manavala Naidu Kulathu Mani as Judge V. K. Karthikeyan as Murugan T. V. Sethuraman as Muniyan Female cast P. K. Saraswathi as Rajambal Madhuri Devi as Lokasundari C. R. Rajakumari as Balambal T. P. Muthulakshmi as Kanakavalli C. K. Saraswathi as Mangalam K. S. Angamuthu as Pankajam P. S. Gnanam as Pavadai K. S. Adilakshmi as Rukmani Production The film was produced by V. C. Subbaraman and M. Radhakrishnan together with R. M. Krishnaswamy who also directed the film and handled the cinematography. C. V. Raju and Paul G. Yadav did the editing. The screenplay was based on a stage play with the same name written by J. R. Rangaraju. Dialogues were penned by A. T. Krishnaswamy. T. V. Sarma was in charge of art direction while the choreography was done by Kumar. Still photography was done by R. N. Nagaraja Rao. The film was processed at Vijaya laboratory. This film is the debut for R. S. Manohar whose real-life name was R. S. Lakshminarasimhan. He was working in the Postal Department and was acting in stage dramas as an amateur artiste. This is the second version of the stage play. It was filmed earlier in 1935 with the same title, Rajambal directed by A. Narayanan. Trivia Film historian Randor Guy says when the producer went to renew the certificate, the then Regional Censor Officer G. T. Sastri, who was the toughest ever censor officer, not only refused to renew the certificate but also asked to surrender the negatives of the film as the subject of the story "was illegal, immoral and anti-social!" Soundtrack Music for songs was composed by M. S. Gnanamani while background score was by S. Balachander. The lyrics were penned by A. Maruthakasi and Ku. Sa. Krishnamoorthy. Singers are S. Balachander and K. Sarangapani while the playback singers are A. M. Rajah, V. N. Sundaram, Thiruchi Loganathan, M. L. Vasanthakumari, P. Leela and A. G. Rathnamala. Reception The film fared moderately at the box office and is "Remembered for R. S. Manohar’s film debut, ‘Veena’ Balachandar’s performance and background score and for being the first production of RMK." References Indian films based on plays Films scored by M. S. Gnanamani 1950s Tamil-language films