Navajeevanam (1949)

Nationalist film contemporaneous with the DMK political film idiom and deploying many Gandhian symbols. It contrasts the benevolent Gandhian playwright Mahadevan (Nagaiah) with his arrogant younger brother Prabhakar (Sriram). When Prabhakar marries the rich Kamala (Kamala) and is entrusted with the estate of his industrialist father-in-law, he becomes an oppressive employer and rejects his brother when Mahadevan argues on the workers’ behalf. Kamala surrounds herself with upper-class social engagements, throwing her husband together with his old flame Vanaja. Eventually Kamala and Prabhakar have a change of heart and restore the joint family’s feudal collective identity.