Paradesi (1953 film)

The film begins in a hilly village Seethagiri, where lives a flower vendor Lakshmi (Anjali Devi). Chandram (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) is left in penury after his father's death in an accident. On the double, Chandram's friend Raghu (Janardhan) also dies out of heart attack, but before he entrusts him the responsibility of his wife Susheela (Pandari Bai) & son Anand (Master Mohan). Chandram's health deteriorates as he works overtime to support the dependents. The doctor advises him to take rest at a hill station. Chandram arrives in Seethagiri where he meets Lakshmi and marries her in a local temple. Lakshmi reveals to her father Rangaiah (S.V.Ranga Rao) regarding her marriage with a "Paradesi" (city folk) and she is pregnant. Rangaiah asks her to bring him but when she reaches the hotel Chandram has already left the village. Now she is unable to bear the insults of the villagers because of which Rangaiah commits suicide. Declared an outcast, Lakshmi lives all alone and gives birth to a baby girl Tara. Chandram, who left for the city on an urgent call, returns to take Lakshmi along with him. Unfortunately, he is told that she has died in a fire accident. Years roll by, Anand (Sivaji Ganesan) and Lakshmi's daughter Tara (Vasantha) fall in love when Anand comes to Seethagiri. Lakshmi tries to wean away Tara from the "Paradesi". From there on the story takes a few twists before leading to an intriguing climax.

• Akkineni Nageswara Rao as Chandram
• Anjali Devi as Lakshmi
• S. V. Ranga Rao as Rangadu
• Ganesan as Anand
• Janardhan
• Relangi as Devaiah
• Pandari Bai as Susheela
• Suryakantham as Srugaram
• K. A. Thangavelu (Tamil Charecting Actor)
• Vasantha as Taara
• Anasuya as Bangaram
• Master Mohan as Anand

Telugu

Music composed by P. Adinarayana Rao. Lyrics were written by Malladi Venkata Krishna Sharma. Music released on Audio Company.

Tamil

One song Thayagamey Vaazhka, was written by Bharathidasan and all others were penned by Kambadasan. Playback singers are A. M. Rajah, D. B. Ramachandran, Chellamuthu, V. N. Sundaram, Jikki and A. P. Komala.[3]

After splitting out from Aswini Pictures, Anjali Devi and her husband Adinarayana Rao formed their own production house and named it Anjali Pictures. They decided to remake Raj Rani, a 1950 Hindi film directed by Satish Nigam and bought the rights.[4] They decided to shoot the film in two languages—Tamil and Telugu, and appointed L. V. Prasad as the director. Prasad, however, did not make a direct copy of the Hindi original; he made subtle changes to the screenplay to suit the audience.[4] The producers were looking for a new actor to play the second lead role.[4] P. A. Perumal Chettiar, a leading film distributor suggested Sivaji Ganesan to Anjali Devi and her husband. Ganesan, who was a prominent theatre artist acquired the prefix "Sivaji" after he played Chatrapati Shivaji in a stage play. Ganesan was immediately chosen for the role and had a screen test for the first time. It was during this time that Parasakthi was made.[4] Perumal, the film's producer made a request to Anjali Devi that Parasakthi be released before Paradesi. Anjali and Rao, the producers agreed and hence Parasakthi became Ganesan's first released film.[4]

Sakthi Krishnaswamy wrote the dialogues while Bharathidasan and Kambadasan wrote the lyrics for the Tamil film Poongodhai.[5]

The film released on 14 January 1953. Both the versions did well in the run. The Tamil version Poongodhai received positive response from the critics.[6]

In November 2013, M. L. Narasimham of The Hindu noted that the film would be "remembered as the launch pad for Sivaji Ganesan".[4] Film critic and Telugu film director K. N. T. Sastry in his L.V. Prasad: a monograph described, "Paradesi is about urbanites" and not the conventional village-based subject.[6] He also noted that the screenplay was very fast.[6]

• Paradesi at IMDb