Kanjan (1947)

A Tamil chauvinist/revivalist contribution to social reform and the Independence struggle. The womanising widower Kandasamy (Subbaiah) is the miserly zamindar of Amaravathipudur with his crock of gold buried in the house. He covets the actress Maragatham (Kamaladevi), who is his son Kumarasamy’s girlfriend, as a 2nd wife and plans to sell his daughter Amaravarthi to a rich old man. The sale of women, miserliness and black marketeering having been duly criticised, the film has a happy ending. The playwright Ayyamuthu (his Inbasagaram had been staged by the Nawab Rajamanikkam Co) was a pro- Congress nationalist associated with the controversial chief minister C.Rajagopalachari. He wrote the film’s popular Tamil hit Tamilar natile tamilar atchiye (‘Of all the people on this earth, the Tamils are the best’), released as a record and broadcast only by Tiruchi, Madras and Colombo radio stations. All the songs are based on classical Hindustani or Carnatic music. The film’s release in the year of India’s independence was accompanied by a two- reeler showing Gandhi visiting Palani and the Independence Day celebrations in Coimbatore.