Ambikapathy (1937 film)

Ambikapathy also spelled as Ambikapathi is a 1937 Tamil film directed by American film director Ellis R. Dungan. It starred M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, M. R. Santhanalakshmi, Serugulathur Sama, T. S. Balaiya, N. S. Krishnan, T. A. Madhuram and P. G. Venkatesan. Ambikapathy is regarded as one of the greatest hits of preindependence Tamil cinema. Ambikapathy, along with Chintamani were the greatest hits of 1937 and made critics regard him as the first superstar of Tamil cinema. This was the first Tamil film to name a music director in its credits.

The film is based on a story set in the Chola Empire in year 1083 AD. The titular character in the story is Ambikapathy M K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar, the son of the Tamil poet Kambar Serugulathur Sama who is in love with the Chola princess and daughter of Kulothunga Chola, Amaravati played by M. R. Santhanalakshmi. The king objects to their love and insists on testing Ambikapathys literary mettle before judging his worth. The test given to Ambikapathi is that he should write and sing a hundred poems in the field of Puram dealing with war and politics. The poems should not have any reference to the field of Aram dealing of love and romance. Ambikapathi begins the test in the Kings court with a Kadavul Vaazhthuinvocation to God. Amaravathi who is keeping the count, mistakes the invocation as a poem and counts it as poem number one. When he has sung only ninety nine Puram poems, she thinks he has completed the task and signals him that hundred poems have been sung. Declaring victory, Ambikapathy sings of his love for her and thus fails the test. He is executed by the king.The film was released onDecember 1937 and was a big box office success. It ran for 52 weeks. Dungans love scenes, Bhagavathars singing and Elangovans dialogue made the film a talked after success. After Chintamani, this was the second hit film for Bhagavathar in 1937 and made him the first superstar of Tamil cinema. ........

Source: Wikipedia