1944 Haridas

Haridas  is a 1944 Tamil language film directed by Sundar Rao Nadkarni and starring M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. It holds the record of being the first film to run continuously for 110 weeks at a single theatre.

Haridas was directed by Sundar Rao Nadkarni, a Marathi film director and produced by Royal Talkies. It was based on the story of the life of a poet-saint called Haridas. The role of Haridas was played by M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, who was highest paid actor in Tamil film industry then. The film was very short (10,994 Feet) compared to other films from the same period. Featuring a number of melodious songs sung by Bhagavathar, the film was released on Deepavali Day (16 October) 1944. Classical musician N. C. Vasanthakokilam, who was often compared to M. S. Subbulakshmi as a singer, played the role of Haridas' wife. The film also marked the debut of renowned Tamil actress Pandari Bai. The comedic duo of N. S. Krishnan and T. A. Mathuram were also cast in this film. Post production work was done in central labs.

Haridas hit the theatres on Deepavali day (16 October) 1944. It was a huge success and ran for 110 consecutive weeks till Deepavali day (22 November) 1946 at the Sun Theatres in Broadway, Madras. Including different theatres it had an uninterrupted theatrical run of 133 weeks. With the profits earned from the film, the producers established a knitting company in Madurai.

Film studios in Chennai are bound by legislation, such as the Cinematography Film Rules of 1948, the Cinematography Act of 1952, and the Copyright Act of 1957.

Produced by       : Rayal Talkies 

Story Written by  : Ilangovan

Starring          : M.K.Thyagaraja Bahavathar

                    T.R.Rajalaxmi

Music BY          : Pavanasam Sivan
                    G.Ramanathan
Cinematography    : Adi Irani
                    T.Muthusamy
Editing           : Sundar Rao
Language          : Tamil

  

Tamil Cinema

Tamil Cinema

Tamil cinema is a film industry based in Chennai, India, which produces feature films in the Tamil language. Most of the movie studios are located in Kodambakkam.

Moving pictures have been exhibited in Chennai from 1892 on wards  The first silent movie in Tamil, Keechaka Vadham was made by R. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1918.The first talkie was a multi-lingual Kalidas which released on 31 October 1931, barely 7 months after India's first talking picture Alam Ara  By the end of the 1930s, the legislature of the State of Madras passed the Entertainment Tax Act of 1939.

Film studios in Chennai are bound by legislation, such as the Cinematography Film Rules of 1948, the Cinematography Act of 1952, and the Copyright Act of 1957. In Tamil Nadu, cinema ticket prices are regulated by the government. Single screen theaters may charge a maximum of  50, while theaters with more than three screens may charge a maximum of  120 per ticket.

In 1897, a European exhibitor first screened a selection of silent short films at the Victoria Public Hall in Madras. The films all featured non-fictional subjects; they were mostly photographed records of day-to-day events. In Madras (present-day Chennai), the Electric Theatre was established for the screening of silent films. It was a favorite haunt of the British community in Madras. The theatre was shut down after a few years. This building is now part of a post office complex on Anna Salai (Mount Road). The Lyric Theatre was also built in the Mount Road area. This venue boasted a variety of events, including plays in English, Western classical music concerts, and ballroom dances. Silent films were also screened as an additional attraction. Swamikannu Vincent, an employee of the South Indian Railways in Trichy, purchased a film projector and silent films from the Frenchman Du Pont and set up a business as film exhibitor. He erected tents for screening films. His tent cinema became popular and he traveled all over the state with his mobile unit. In later years, he produced talkies and also built a cinema in Coimbatore. To celebrate the event of King George V's visit in 1909, a grand exhibition was organised in Madras. Its major attraction was the screening of short films accompanied by sound. A British company imported a Crone megaphone, made up of a film projector to which a gramophone with a disc containing prerecorded sound was linked, and both were run in unison, producing picture and sound simultaneously. However, there was no synched dialogue. Raghupathy Venkiah Naidu, a successful photographer, took over the equipment after the exhibition and set up a tent cinema near the Madras High Court. R. Venkiah, flush with funds, built in 1912 a permanent cinema in the Mount Road area named Gaiety Theatre. It was the first in Madras to screen films on a full-time basis. The theatre later closed for commercial developments.

Swamikannu Vincent, who had built the first cinema of South India in Coimbatore, introduced the concept of "Tent Cinema" in which a tent was erected on a stretch of open land close to a town or village to screen the films. The first of its kind was established in Madras, called "Edison's Grand Cinema megaphone". This was due to the fact that electric carbons were used for motion picture projectors.