Ambikapathy (1937 Film) - Production

Production

The film highlighted the Romeo-Juliet type romance between Bhagavathar and Santhanalakshmi. Dungan who did not know Tamil, used Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as an inspiration and incorporated some of its scenes in the script. The writer for the film was the Tamil scholar Thanigachalam working under the pen name Elangovan. He translated the scenes Dungan had marked out from Shakespeare into Tamil. One of them was the balcony scene. The lines describing Romeo taking leave of Juliet - "Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast", were translated by Elangovan as Thookkam Un Kangalai Thazhuvattum! Amaithi Un Nenjil Nilavattum. Dungan also introduced some daring (for that time period) intimate scenes like Ambikapathi carrying Amaravathi to the bed and Ambikapathi winking at her. The poet Kambar was played by Serugalathur Sama whose appearance was based on that of Rabindranath Tagore. T. S. Balaiya was cast as the villain Rudrasenan. The comic relief was provided by the husband and wife comedy team of N. S. Krishnan - T. A. Madhuram. The film was shot in East India Studio in Calcutta. Background score was composed by K. C. Dey, while Papanasam Sivan composed music and wrote lyrics for the Songs. The completed film was 19,000 fet in length (runtime : 210 minutes). Initially, the producer M. S. Thottana Chettiar, wanted Y. V. Rao to direct the film, but buoyed by the success ofChintamani, Rao demanded a huge amount of money as payment which the producers could not afford. Instead they hired the up-and-coming American film director Eungan. Ellis R. Dungan, on hearing the story, immediately agreed to direct the film. Adevadasi had earlier been chosen to form the lead pair with M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar in the movie. But she refused when she discovered that M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar was not a Brahmin and she had to be teamed up with another Brahmin actor in a minor role. M. R. Santhanalakshmi, a popular stage actress was cast as Amaravathi.