Parasakthi

aka The Goddess 1952 188’ b&w Tamil d Krishnan-Panju pc AVM Prod, National Pics p M.S. Perumal st M.S. Balasundaram sc/dial/co-lyr M. Karunanidhi co-lyr Subramanyam Bharati, Bharatidasan, K.N. Anualthango, K.P. Kamakshisundaram, Udumalai Narayana Kavi c Maruthi Rao m R. Sudarshanam lp Sivaji Ganesan, S.S. Rajendran, S.V. Sahasranamam, Sriranjani Jr, Pandharibai, Kannamma, V.K. Ramaswamy, Kumari Kamala

Ganesan’s debut in a classic DMK Film scripted in line with party policies by the future chief minister of Tamil Nadu. Three brothers, based in Rangoon, go home to Madurai when their youngest sister is to be married. WW2 is declared and the brothers are separated, the eldest, Chandrasekharan (Sahasranamam) becoming a judge, the second, Gnanasekharan (Rajendran), a representative of the beggars’ community. Gunasekharan (Ganesan) arrives home to find their father dead and his newly married sister Kalyani (Sriranjani) widowed and homeless. Concealing his identity, he looks after her like a guardian. In the film’s dramatic as well as political highlight, he wounds a villainous priest who tries to rape Kalyani in the deity Parasakthi’s temple. Significantly, for the DMK’s anti-religious stance, the hero first pretends to be the temple deity and then reveals it to be just a piece of stone. Gunasekharan’s girlfriend Vimala (Pandharibai) represents, with her politically activist brother, the voice of the DMK, esp. that of its chief, Annadurai. When she isn’t lecturing Gunasekharan on Annadurai’s works, she goes boating in the river, thus finding herself well placed to rescue Kalyani’s child thrown into the.

Film