Kudumba Vilakku

Kudumba Vilakku (English: Family Lantern) is a 1956 Indian, Tamil language film directed by F. Nagoor.^[2] The film featured P. V. Narasimha Bharathi and Jamuna in the lead roles.^[3]

Plot

Radha is the wife of Kanagasabai, a Zamindar. The couple have no children. Kanagasabai brings in another woman, Pushpa, as his second wife with Radha's consent. In the meantime, Radha gets pregnant. Pushpa and her uncle Appasami tries to abort the baby. But Radha safely delivers a boy. While Radha is in a delirious state Pushpa and Appasami hands over the baby to a servant, Gopal and orders him to kill it. But Gopal takes it to the next village and dumps the baby in a garbage bin. Kaathaan comes to clear the bin and finds the baby. He and his wife Peychi decides to bring up the baby, name him Marudhan and move on to the Zamindar's village in order to escape from neighbours' prying eyes.

Peychi gets employed as a servant in the zamin bungalow. She use to take the baby with her. Radha becomes fond of the baby.
Pushpa and Appasami poisons zamindar's mind and make him chase Radha out of the house. Kaathaan's hut is also burnt. While going aimlessly on the road in another village, Radha picks up a girl child, Kannamma. Kaathaan and Peychi also comes and settles down in the same village. Years roll by. Marudhan becomes a building contractor.

Radha works as a labourer in a building. One day she slips and fall down. Marudhan takes her to her home and meets Kannamma. As Radha is injured, Kannamma goes to work in the building. Marudhan and Kannamma become lovers. When Kaathaan and Peychi comes to know their love they go to Kannamma's house to arrange marriage. When they met Radha there, they are shocked. But Radha explains that Kannamma is her adopted daughter. Radha tells them her full story. Marudhan gets angry and goes to zamindar's house to settle affairs.
After chasing Radha, Pushpa takes control of the zamin and imprisons Kanagasabai. But he manages to escape. Pushpa sends Appasami to find and bring back Kanagasabai. Appasami finds Kanagasabai and tries to get hold of him. At the nick of time Marudhan comes to the spot and rescues Kanagasabai. He takes him to the zamin bungalow. When Marudhan argues with Pushpa, she suspects that he may know the full story. So he plans to kill him. In the meantime, Kaathaan meets Gopal and takes him to his house. Gopal spills out all what happened. So Radha comes to know that Marudhan is her own son. All of them goes to the zamindar's house. How the problems are solved forms the rest of the story.^[4]

Cast

List adapted from the database of Film News Anandan^[1] and the film's song book.^[4]

Dance

Production

The film was produced and directed by F. Nagoor under his own banner Nagoor Cine Productions. A. K. Velan, C. K. T. Rajan and Kangeyan wrote the screenplay and dialogues. Kumaradevan did the cinematography supervised by Jiten Bannerjee while P. V. Narayanan did the editing. Audiography was done by M. V. Karunakaran supervised by Dhinsha K. Tehrani. Art direction was by N. Kuppusamy and Chinnilal and Sampathkumar handled the choreography. Still photography was done by K. Rathinavelu. The film was shot at Neptune Studios.^[1][4]

The film was also produced in Malayalam with the title Graha Devatha.^[1]

Soundtrack

Music was composed by T. R. Pappa while the lyrics were penned by A. Maruthakasi, N. S. Krishnan, Subbu Arumugam, Kambadasan and Puratchidasan. Singer is N. S. Krishnan Playback singers are A. Andal, P. Leela, P. Susheela, Sirkazhi Govindarajan and Ghantasala.^[5]

References