Moondru Pillaigal

A couple has three sons. The youngest one takes responsibility for a theft allegedly committed by their father and goes to jail. The dejected father commits suicide and the mother is abandoned by the other two sons. Later, when the youngest son is released from jail, he takes care of his mother despite being jobless. However, he receives an offer from a film company to act as the main character in a film produced by them based on the Ramayana. He succeeds in his job and manages to unite the family.[2]

Cast from the song book[3]

The film was based on the 1927 American silent film The Way of All Flesh, directed by Victor Fleming. The family drama was successful in India, and was adapted into a film in Hindi titled Khazanchi (1941). The Hindi film was highly successful in Madras and ran for more than 25 weeks. R. Nagendra Rao, an established producer and director in Kannada cinema, was impressed by the film and decided to direct the Tamil adaptation. He approached the Tamil film producer S. S. Vasan who had earlier produced Apoorva Sagodharargal, in which Rao played a role. Although Vasan was initially reluctant he agreed to finance the film. It was simultaneously produced and released in Telugu under the title Mugguru Kodukulu.[4] According to writer Ashokamitran, who was then associated with Gemini, novelist R. K. Narayan wrote a treatment for this film.[5][6]

J. P. Chandrababu, who would later go on to become an established comedian in Tamil cinema, played a small role lasting a single sequence in the film.[4][7] Savitri, who would later become an established actress in the Telugu and Tamil film industries, was to make her acting debut with this film. Gemini Ganesan, who played a supporting role as one among the three sons in the film was also as a casting assistant with Gemini Studios, the production company. He recommended her for a small role in the film; however, she was not selected for the role.[8]

Moondru Pillaigal failed at the box-office,[10] which led to Vasan destroying all copies of it, thus making it a lost film.[2] Ashokamitran said there was nothing "seriously wrong" with the film, but felt that "the audience just couldn't take another film about a family torn asunder in the fourth reel and reunited in the last."[11]

Music was composed by P. S. Anantharaman and supervised by M. D. Parthasarathy[3] while the lyrics were penned by Kothamangalam Subbu and V. Seetharaman. Playback singers are A. M. Rajah, T. A. Mothi, M. L. Vasanthakumari, P. Leela, N. L. Ganasaraswathi, (Radha) Jayalakshmi, Jikki, A. P. Komala and M. S. Anuradha.[12][13] The song "Antha Rama Sowndharyam" is set in the carnatic raga known as Kedaragaula.[14]

• List of Tamil films of 1952

• Ashokamitran (2016). Fourteen Years with Boss. India: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-342329-4.

• Moondru Pillaigal at IMDb