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Rangoon Radha

1956 192’ b&w Tamil d A. Kasilingam pc Mekala Pics st C.N. Annadurai sc/dial/co-lyr M. Karunanidhi co-lyr Athmanathan, Pattukotai Kalyanasundaram, Subramanya Bharati c G. Durai m T.R. Papa lp Sivaji Ganesan, S.S. Rajendran, P. Bhanumathi, M.N. Rajam, Rajasulochana, N.S. Krishnan

Complicated adventure and murder mystery attacking feudal superstition. A flashback reveals the evil designs of Dharmalinga Mudaliar (Ganesan): though married to Rangam (Bhanumathi), he now wants to marry her sister Thangam (Rajam) as well in order to get their ancestral property. Mudaliar’s wife, locked in a room and declared insane, gives birth to a son before she escapes in disguise. She witnesses her husband murdering a tantric conman who promised to reinvigorate Mudaliar’s sex drive. In Rangoon, she is protected by Naidu (Krishnan) and gives birth to a daughter named Radha (Rajasulochana). When the film moves to the present, Nagasundaram (Rajendran), the man who falls in love with the grown-up Radha, is revealed to be the son of Mudaliar. Eventually the two unmask the villain and avenge their mother. Apparently inspired by Gaslight (1940), the film offers a rare example of Tamil star Ganesan in a negative role.

Film