Missiamma

Plot

The Zamindar runs a school in the village Aandipettai. He wants to replace the existing teacher with someone with higher qualification. He decides to appoint a husband and wife couple as head master and wife. When he advertised in the papers, a Hindu young man who is looking for a job wants to apply for it. But he is not married. By circumstances he meets an unmarried young girl who is looking for a way to earn some money to set off a loan taken by her father. But she is a Christian. However, the young man and young woman come to an understanding and present themselves as husband and wife to the Zamindar. He appoints them as headmaster and teacher. The young woman also teaches music to the Zamindar's daughter.

Zamindar and his wife lost their elder daughter 15 years ago in a temple festival. In fact, he named the school after the lost child, Mahalakshmi. Now the young woman teacher reminds them of their elder daughter and they shower love on her.

A nephew of the Zamindar who is a self-styled detective, takes it upon himself to search and find the missing child.

After some confusion and much banter, it comes to light that the young woman teacher is actually the lost child of the Zamindar. The family re-unites. The young man and the young woman who came pretending as husband and wife marries each other and become real couple at the end.

Development

B. Nagi Reddy and Aluri Chakrapani signed L. V. Prasad to direct a bilingual film for Vijaya Vauhini Studios. The film's script, by Chakrapani, was based on Rabindranath Maitra's Manmoyee Girls School and Sharadindu Bandhopadhyay's Detective. Chakrapani thought the plot of Manmoyee Girls School, about two unemployed young people who pretend to be married to gain employment and fall in love, was too limited for a full-length film. He added the basic storyline of Detective, in which an enthusiastic detective finds a missing woman and marries her. Prasad's relationship with Khan, a Muslim tailor near Kohinoor Studios in Bombay (now Mumbai), was the basis of the film's friendship between two men of different religions. The film was titled Missamma in Telugu and Missiamma in Tamil.

Thanjai N. Ramaiah Dass wrote the dialogue for Missiamma. Marcus Bartley was signed as director of photography, and C. P. Jambulingam and G. Kalyanasundaram edited the film. Madhavapeddi Gokhale and Kaladhar were its art directors. The film was processed at Vijaya Laboratory and recorded by Western Electric. M. S. Chalapathi Rao and Jagannadham were its executive producers.

Casting

Although Pathala Bhairavi (1951) and Pelli Chesi Choodu (1952) were the first bilingual films shot in Telugu and Tamil, the same actors were used in both versions. Missiamma was the first bilingual film from Vijaya Vauhini Studios with different male actors. Bhanumathi Ramakrishna was cast as the female lead, and Gemini Ganesan (then known as R. Ganesh) was cast as the male lead in Missiamma, while N. T. Rama Rao played the same role in Missamma. S. V. Ranga Rao and Rushyendramani and Doraswamy and Meenakshi were cast as the title character's biological and foster parents, respectively, in both versions. Although all the actors in both versions used the same range of costumes, Ranga Rao wore a veshti for the Tamil version in accordance with Tamil custom.

Prasad had completed four reels of film with Bhanumathi. She wrote to the producers, informing them that she would shoot only in the afternoon because Varalakshmi Vratam was being held at her home. The letter went astray and Chakrapani, a strict disciplinarian, chastised her for arriving late on set. When Bhanumathi refused to apologise, Chakrapani burnt the four reels in front of her and she quit the film. Although Nagi Reddy learned about the letter and tried to mediate, Chakrapani and Bhanumathi refused to reconcile. Chakrapani ordered Prasad to replace Bhanumathi with Savitri, who was initially cast as Sita. Jamuna was signed later for Sita's role, upon Savitri's recommendation.

Savitri benefited the Tamil version by improving the on-screen chemistry with Ganesan; they had secretly married in 1952, before filming began. K. A. Thangavelu and K. Sarangkapani reprise the roles that Akkineni Nageswara Rao and Relangi Venkata Ramaiah played in Telugu. M. N. Nambiar was cast as the antagonist.

Filming

Principal photography began in early 1954, with both versions (with different casts) filmed simultaneously. Photographs of Nagi Reddy's younger brother and cinematographer B. N. Konda Reddy's daughter (the latter as Gopalam's missing daughter) were used in the film. The scene where Ganesan's character persuades Savitri's character to pose as his wife was filmed at My Lady's Garden in Madras. For one sequence in his character jumps from a balcony, Ganesan refused a stunt double and performed the scene himself. He repeated this in Missamma, serving as Rama Rao's double. Filming was delayed because of Bhanumathi's exit and the difficulty of managing two casts simultaneously. Lasting for a year, it wrapped by the end of December 1954. After they saw the final edited version, Nagi Reddy and Chakrapani gave Dodge automobiles to the film's principal cast.

Themes

In her 2002 book Cinema of Interruptions: Action Genres in Contemporary Indian Cinema, Lalitha Gopalan wrote that male protagonists in Indian films use the piano to express desire and cited Gemini Ganesan in Missiamma as an example. Pa Dheenadhayalan of Dinamani described Mary as the antithesis of Savitri's role in Devadasu (1953).

Soundtrack

Music was composed by Saluri Rajeswara Rao. Singer is K. Sarangkapani. Playback singers are A. M. Rajah, P. Leela & P. Suseela.

"Ariya Paruvamada" was P. Susheela's first song for Rajeswara Rao. Songs like "Vaarayo Vennilaave", "Brindavanamum Nandakumaranum", "Ennai Aalum Mary Maatha" and "Pazhaga Theriyavenum" became popular with the Tamil diaspora.

The songs "Saami Dharmam Thalaikakkum" and "Sitaram Jai Sitaram" were performed by K. Sarangkapani onscreen; however, neither feature on the soundtrack.

Release and reception

Missiamma was released on 14 January 1955, during Thai Pongal, and two days after Missamma's release. It was a commercially success, completing a 100-day theatrical run. According to Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai's 2015 book Madras Studios, speculation about Savitri's real-life romance with Ganesan played a key role in the success of the film. A postage stamp commemorating Ganesan was introduced in Chennai in February 2006 by Dayanidhi Maran (the-then Minister of Communications and Information Technology) and Missiamma was shown for the occasion.

The February 1955 issue of Kumudam called Missiamma "an interesting film with quality humor": "In the beginning one is uneasy as to how the love affair of a Christian heroine and a Hindu hero is going to be retooled for a comedy", but Prasad "has used every difficult situation as an opportunity for boundless humor". It praised the "moonlit sequence" and Bartley's cinematography, and the magazine Gundoosi described Savitiri's acting as "the best so far". In L.V. Prasad : a monograph (1993), film historian K. N. T. Sastry wrote: "lf cinema was to be considered a tool to forget our worries — here indeed was entertainment: Missiamma answered that definition."

In March 2005, film historian S. Theodore Baskaran commented on Ganesan's career best performances and found the one in Missiamma a "delightful" one; he added that the film was a "charming" one which provided breakthrough to Ganesan and Savitri in Tamil cinema. In an article written after Nageswara Rao's death in January 2014, Gautaman Bhaskaran of Hindustan Times called Missiamma a "powerful social document that spoke about the importance of religious tolerance" with the help of its lead actors.

Remake

Gemini Ganesan reprised his role in the Hindi remake Miss Mary, which marked his Bollywood debut.

Legacy

According to film historian Film News Anandan, Missiamma's success inspired filmmakers to cast different actors for different versions of their films. On 23 January 1955, a 19-year-old woman gave birth to a baby in the Roxy Theatre in Madras while watching Missiamma. Mother and daughter were rushed to Egmore Maternity Hospital, where the baby was named Missiamma. Missiamma's success made Ganesan adopt the screen name Gemini Ganesan to avoid confusion with Sivaji Ganesan, another popular actor in Tamil cinema. According to film historian Randor Guy, the success of Missiamma and other such romantic films earned Ganesan the tag "Kadhal Mannan" (King of Love). The film was a breakthrough in the careers of Savitri and Jamuna. The Tamil film, Mercury Pookkal (2006), was advertised as a film "like Missiamma". Scenes from Missiamma were later featured in Kaadhal Mannan, a documentary on the life of Gemini Ganesan.