Naanum Oru Penn

Bhaskar (S.S. Rajendran) and Balu (AVM Rajan) are brothers living with their father, the zamindar of Selvapuram (S.V. Rangarao), who prefers that his sons marry fair-skinned daughters. Things escalate when the illiterate, dark-skinned Kalyani (Vijayakumari) visits Rajendran who falls in love with her. Even as the zamindar begins to warm up to Kalyani, she becomes the victim of a nefarious plot concocted by the brothers' uncle and is cast out of the house.

• S. S. Rajendran as Bhaskar
• C. R. Vijayakumari as Kalyani
• S. V. Ranga Rao as Zamindar of Selvapuram
• M. R. Radha as Sabapathy
• S. V. Subbaiah as Kali
• Nagesh as Chidambaram
• A. V. M. Rajan as Balu
• Pushpalatha as Malathi
• V. Nagaiah as (Guest appearance)
• S. A. Ashokan as (Guest appearance)
• C. K. Saraswathi

Bodhu was a Bengali play. After watching the play, A. V. Meiyappan of AVM Productions was impressed and decided to adapt it into a Tamil film. A. C. Tirulokchandar was selected to direct the film, titled Naanum Oru Penn.[1] It was produced by Meiyappan's sons Murugan, Saravanan and Kumaran under Murugan Brothers, a subsidiary of AVM. Naanum Oru Penn was the second production of Murugan Brothers, and Tirulokchandar also served as screenwriter.[2][3]

Nagesh portrayed the character of brother of two girls in this film. Most people had concerns about whether Nagesh would be accepted by audience in a serious character. However his acting in the film was accepted and he became a good character artiste apart from being a comedian.[4] The crew initially wanted Gemini Ganesan and Savithri to act in this film, however Tirulokchandar was adamant and chosen Rajendran and Vijayakumari as a lead pair.[5] The make-up for Vijayakumari was done by make-up artist Kini.[4] Vijayakumari initially had apprehension of portraying the character since many people warned her not to spoil her career by doing this character, later Sivaji Ganesan encouraged her to act in this film.[6] The song "Yemara Sonnadhu" was shot at Bangalore. It was later reshot at Vijaya Garden in Chennai as the Censor Board objected to the scene where AVM Rajan and Pushpalatha is dancing in NCC costume.[4] The final length of the film's prints were 4,520 m (14,830 ft) long.[7][8]

The soundtrack and musical score for Naanum Oru Penn were composed by R. Sudarsanam, while the lyrics were written by Kannadasan, Panchu Arunachalam, Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam and V. Seetharaman. The soundtrack was released under the label of Saregama.[9] Regarding the development of the song "Kanna Karumai", Saravanan recalled, "another poet gave us a lyric which matched our tune. But I was not happy with it. So we brought Kannadasan in. He said the lyric should precede the music, and also insisted that the pallavi should present the basic theme of the film. Thus was born ‘Kanna karumai nira Kanna,’ which we then set to tune."[10]

Tracklist

All lyrics are written by Kannadasan, Panchu Arunachalam, Ku. Ma. Balasubramaniam and V. Seetharaman.

Naanum Oru Penn was released in early June 1963.[lower-alpha 1] It became a commercial success, completing a theatrical run of 25 weeks, and becoming a silver jubilee film.[11] The film was remade in Telugu as Naadi Aada Janme and in Hindi as Main Bhi Ladki Hoon (1964). Both versions were directed by Tirulokachander and featured Rangarao reprising his role both versions.[12][13] The Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan, in its original review of the film dated 30 June 1963 mentioned that though many had acted well, S. V. Ranga Rao deserved the first prize for acting in the film for making viewers cry in a few places.[14] T. M. Ramachandran, writing for Sport and Pastime, also praised the film.[3]

The song "Kanna Karumai" was considered as one of the memorable songs of P. Susheela. The song was rendered thrice by the contestants of the television contest show, Airtel Super Singer 4, and once each by the contestants of the second and third season of its junior version, Airtel Super Singer Junior.[19]

Rajan who acted in this film came to be known as AVM Rajan.[20] AVM Rajan and Pushpalatha who acted in this film met during the film's production fell in love and got married.[21][22]

• Saravanan, M. (2013) [2005]. AVM 60 cinema (in Tamil) (3rd ed.). Rajarajan Pathippagam.

• Naanum Oru Penn on IMDb