Miss Malini

Miss Malini (1947)

Miss Malini created at least one immortal character ‘Sampath’. Life is a constant struggle for Malini, a poor young woman with an ailing father.She reluctantly accepts stage actor-friend Sundari’s suggestion to go on stage, and joins her theatre group, Kala Mandhiram.Success smiles on her and she soon becomes an idol of the masses. Sampath, a suave swindler, befriends Malini and takes control of her life. He persuades her to start her own theatre company. A puppet in his hands, Malini severs ties with those who have helped her in the past such as Sundari.Soon she is in debt and back at the bottom of the ladder. Sampath abandons her. Sundari and others come to her rescue and Malini goes back to Kala Mandhiram and begins her life anew, sadder but certainly wiser!

Date of release
1947-09-26
Genres
Drama
Director
Kothamangalam Subbu

Casting

Interesting facts

Miss Malini is a 1947 Indian Tamil-language satirical comedy drama film written and directed by Kothamangalam Subbu and produced by K. Ramnoth, from a story by R. K. Narayan. Subbu also starred in the film alongside Pushpavalli, Sundari Bai and Subbiah Pillai. Javar Seetharaman and Gemini Ganesan made their acting debuts in the film appearing in minor roles. The film focuses on Malini (Pushpavalli), an impoverished woman who joins her actress friend Sundari's theatre company and becomes a success. Matters worsen when she befriends Sampath (Subbu), a charlatan.

Production

Miss Malini was an original story written by the novelist R. K. Narayan for the screen, not based on any of his past works. It was also his only work that came ended up being made into a film. Soon after the story developed, Narayan's friend, Gemini Studios' owner S. S. Vasan launched it as a film. K. Ramnoth, then the controller of productions at Gemini, produced the film under the studio's banner. M. Natarajan worked as the cinematographer, N.

The film featured Pushpavalli in the title role, and M. S. Sundari Bai as her friend Sundari. It was the former's second appearance in a Tamil film, after Gemini's Dasi Aparanji (1944). N. Seetharaman, who later became known as Javar Seetharaman, made his acting debut in a minor role with this film, portraying the director of Kala Mandhiram. The film also marked the cinematic debut of Ramaswamy Ganesan, who later became known as Gemini Ganesan.

V. Gopalakrishnan, in one of his earliest film roles, appeared as Sampath's office boy. L. Narayana Rao was cast as a sari merchant who Sampath tells in English, "In this age of publicity, be wise and advertise!" and when the impressed merchant asks in Tamil who said it, Sampath simply replies "Shakespeare", duping the merchant in the process. According to the 1996 book R.K. Narayan: The Early Years by N.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended