Ambikapathy

1957 187’ b&w/col Tamil d/dial P. Neelakantan pc A.L.S. Prod. p V. Arunachalam sc Sakthi Krishnaswamy, Chinna Annamalai, M. Lakshmanan lyr Thanjai Ramaiyadas, Kannadasan, K.D. Santhanam, K.M. Balasubramanyam, Pattukotai Kalyanasundaram, Adimoolam Gopalakrishnan, K.S. Krishnamurthy c V. Ramamurthy m G. Ramanathan lp P. Bhanumathi, Sivaji Ganesan, M.K. Radha, M.N. Nambiar, Rajasulochana, N.S. Krishnan, T.A. Mathuram, Chittor V. Nagaiah, K.A. Thangavelu, A. Karunanidhi, Santhanam, Kannan, Natarajan

Legendary tale about the 11th C. court poet Kambar, a plot used earlier by Duncan (1937). The love story between the lower-caste poet Ambikapathy (Ganesan) and Princess Amaravati (Bhanumathi) is mapped on to a disagreement between Kambar, who is translating the Ramayana into Tamil, and his son and ‘modern’ disciple, Ambikapathy, who critiques the translation for its acceptance of caste divisions. The spectacular end has the king challenging Ambikapathy to improvise 108 songs in praise of chaste love. The poet miscalculates and his last song is a passionate love song addressed to the princess, for which he is sentenced to death.

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